Advice on AOA.

[Star26]

Hey everyone,

Just wondered if anyone had any info or advice on AOA? My clinic rang me this afternoon to say that they can do AOA on my EC for my ICSI round. Potential EC could be on Fri morning depending on how my tracking scan goes tomorrow morning. This is my second round. My first round of ICSI resulted in just 2 eggs being collected, to which both failed to fertilise. I also have low AMH.

My partner has low morphology/motility so will AOA help with this too or do they need to do something separate for him? The focus has only been on me and my eggs so far and nothing really mentioned about him. 😕😕 Feeling confused. Xx

[Picalilli99]

Hi Star. We are also due for egg collection Friday and are doing ICSI and AOA this cycle for the first time too. I believe AOA has helped to improve fertilisation rates for many (and in comparison to other ‘extra’ procedures it is relatively cheap) although I think it’s quite a new thing so the research is quite limited. I believe ICSI might help with the sperm issues as it involves them looking closely and selecting a particular sperm and injecting it into the egg (therefore potentially addressing the motility issue). But I am no expert as it’s our first time using these extra procedures too so see what others say. Wishing you lots of luck for Friday lovely xxx

[Italy300618 in reply to Picalilli99]

Hope you are doing ok Picallili in this dreaded wait!! I spotted this feed when looking for AOA, weve just got back from a mini consultation with a potential new private clinic, and from our history with poor fertilisation he mentioned AOA, but he didnt say how much and it's not on their price list. I'm trying to do a budget on what it all might cost, do you mind me asking what you paid for it, so I know a ball park? Xx

[Picalilli99 in reply to Italy300618]

Thank you. Hoping to have something to transfer tomorrow 🤞🤞. We paid £145 (so not too bad in comparison to some of the other ‘added extras’). But you can only do it if doing ICSI. I’ve seen a few studies that have shown some really positive results in improving fertilisation rates. Definitely seems worth a go. Best of luck xxx

[Italy300618 in reply to Picalilli99]

Thanks so much for replying, that's not bad at all is it in comparison. It would be with icsi, weve had 2 failed icsi cycles with poor fertilisation and embryo quality.

Oh that's wonderful, best of luck for your transfer tomorrow! Xx 🤞🤞

[Picalilli99]

P.s I believe the AOA part involves adding artificial calcium which they believe gives the sperm an extra “energy boost” which can support better fertilisation rates and potentially better embryo development xx

[Star26 in reply to Picalilli99]

Thank you for your info. Wishing u the best for Friday too. Xxx

[Duardo19]

Good morning Star,

In my first round of ICSI, we had 6 mature eggs collected and only one fertilised, we didn't use AOA. In our second round (at a different clinic) we decided to do AOA on half of the eggs collected, whatever that number would be. We had 14 mature eggs and this time 10 fertilised. We were so shocked, we never thought we would see a number like that. Of the 10, 7 were AOA embryos. 3 made it to day 5 and I am now almost 14 weeks pregnant.

We are so happy we went with AOA, it made all the difference to us.

Wishing you all the luck for Friday xxx

[Italy300618 in reply to Duardo19]

This is fantastic! Congratulations to you!!

We have just returned from a mini consultation at a private clinic and from our history, he said AOA maybe beneficial as we struggle with fertilisation, but he didnt mention cost and it's not on their price list. Would you mind me asking how much it was? Xx

[Duardo19 in reply to Italy300618]

Hey Italy,

Thank you so much!

Our clinic charged £140 for the AOA (in London), which we were pleasantly surprised by, considering some of the outrageous costs charged throughout the process.

Wishing you all the luck for what's to come xx

[Italy300618 in reply to Duardo19]

Thank you! That's really reasonable ☺ xx

[Ash2016]

Hi lovely, I’ve just had my fourth round of ivf with icsi and aoa. My understanding is that initially aoa has seen improvements in fertilisation rates where there is a male factor but that whilst being used for that purpose it was also seen to have helped with egg quality and embryo development. Unfortunately it didn’t work for us and we didn’t see any improvement on embryo quality but I think it is worth a try if you have these issues. Good luck x

[Lowamh]

We had AOA on our successful round. The embryologist said not to bother with embryo glue and do AOA instead and it worked for us. Good luck x

[Lowamh in reply to Lowamh]

P.s We didn’t see any improved embryo quality but the 2 transferred are now my 6 week old twins x