Just found myself sometime to register here and get to know people who have faced a similar situation as mine and could offer me some advice on the best way forward.
Late last year me and my wife decided that it was time to consider IVF after a long period of trying for a natural conception.
We managed to find a doctor through a friend who recommended and it all seemed very good the clinic the doctors experience and achievements etc. (Although we were advised that the success rate at the clinic was 40 % for couples under the age of 35)
The treatment began earlier this year and my wife really underwent some serious troubles in getting through with the treatment.
Unfortunately the treatment wasn’t successful and we just received the news.
I really wanted some suggestions on whether it is advisable to change the doctor at this point of time when we might consider a second attempt and look out for a different doc with a better success rate.
As I do understand from the blogs which I have read which mention that it’s always advisable to stick with the current doc despite a failed attempt.
I would be really thankful if some of you’ll could guide me through this quandary that we find ourselves in.
Thank you for the love and care !
Best Wishes,
Pluto14 ♥️♥️
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Pluto14
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It's so difficult to know what to do next, isn't it? Unfortunately the truth is that the majority of IVF cycles are not successful, but when it happens it can feel like an awful shock.
I think a good place to start is to arrange a debrief with your doctor, discuss the results of the cycle and how it went - were there any surprises? Did they learn anything about how your wife's body reacted to treatment? Would they do anything differently in a future cycle? What do they recommend for the next steps?
It could be you look around, have a consultation at another clinic and see if you prefer somewhere else. But if you liked the doctor, the clinic was convenient and supportive, etc, you might chose to stay there for a second round. Some people say the first round is good for learning how the body reacts, then things can be adjusted and hopefully get a better result next time.
Two things worth observing are that failed cycles are hugely sad and disappointing. You need to leave yourselves a little time to feel, reflect, get some distance, and do something nice for yourselves - that is how I always felt after a failed cycle anyway. After a little break, it is easier to think clearly and start to plan again.
The other thing you could look into before your next cycle is maximising nutrition and relaxation to support fertility. There are many books and articles and advice on this forum to help you feel you do everything you can to have a better second round.
Don't despair, many people have a failed cycle and go on for success. Best of luck x
Magda has put it beautifully; I echo everything she says.
I also just wanted to offer my support - our first cycle failed as well with nothing to transfer or freeze, quite unexpectedly as we had 15 eggs fertilise. We were devastated, but felt so supported by the medical team at our clinic. They took over an hour to debrief us, to spell out the knowns and unknowns, and to recommend an action plan for next time. For this reason, we’re giving it another go with them.
Wishing you the best of luck for next time. You’re not alone ❤️
First of all I’m sorry you had to go through that and I hope you both feel better soon. It’s not easy at all.
Last year in January we had a failed cycle as well after 3 weeks of injections at the end we had nothing to transfer, I felt awful after EC and the recovery wasn’t easy at all.
Sometimes the first round is kind of a way to get to know the body of the patient and how the body will respond to the drugs. With our 2nd round all worked out better and we managed to get 3 beautiful embryos on day 5.
The decision is yours. Do you feel supported by the staff in the clinic? Do you trust them? Do you think they took enough care of you and they took their time to guide you within the whole process? It’s very important how the clinical staff makes you feel.
You can always go for an open evening in another clinic or two and just see how the people there will make you feel.
In the meantime take very good care of yourselves and be there for each other! Sending much love to you both! 💕💕💕💕
We have had 4 attempts and 3 of them were with the same clinic. i regret not changing the clinic after the 2nd failure because they never bothered to change the treatment they were using on me. i think a failure means the Dr needs to investigate further and see how the next cycle could be improved, including types of meds, dosages and more blood investigations, egg and sperm as well as embryo investigations.
my first clinic never did that and i feel like they cheated on us.
we just got our BFP from a different clinic who used our past failures to change the approach (there is no stone they left unturned)
Discuss with your Dr and hear how he intends to change things for the next cycle.
Stacia what did your new clinic to differently? Did they do additional testing before or through stimming, did they change your protocol, or did they use or change other medications?
They changed the stimms, and before that we did a whole lot of tests i tell you. They wanted to know why i get embryos but can`t get pregnant. So we tested for natural killer cells, whether my husband`s blood group was right to mate with mine (weird), we did a lot of thorough blood checks other than the basics. we did PGS on the embryos, and to help implantation, we did an endo scratch, intralipid therapy, embryo glue, assisted laser hatching, hcg shot and went for blastocysts. Our Dr pushed for the best in every stage. i still take progesterone shots and pessaries after getting an HCG of 8989 at 4 weeks pregnant.
the scare is not over but i think our Dr did her best
That is a lot of investigations! Glad that you had success! Do you mind me asking - did they say much else regarding the ‘compatibility with your partner’ blood test by any chance? I have not heard of this before. I am rhesus negative and do wonder whether this makes us incompatible in some way (we have had repeated BFN’s and multiple chemical pregnancies/miscarriages) so always interested in anything that could help explain this xx
I'm so sorry you didn't have success first time. Unfortunately, that is the average success rate nationally for under 35's. It's so tough going through ivf when it's more likely to fail than succeed.
Sorry to hear you had a failed cycle, it is difficult. If your wife / you have specific issues I wold have the debrief with the doctor and see if there are any changes that could be made to drug protocol. Google what the doctor says, ask on this forum, just make sure you are happy with their advice, if not then move on.
If you are a 'standard' case (I know you won't feel that way - no one does but some couples have a huge variety of issues to overcome) then it's probably just a case of being unlucky. If that's the case, try again with this clinic. Most people don't get pregnant on the first IVF attempt, sorry to say. Good luck
Just wanted to say that we are in the same situation, its so hard knowing what to do for the best because you are trusting these people with something so important and theres never a gurentee with any of it.
Hi, I am sorry your IVF failed. If I were in your position, I would stay with your current doc. IVF is not easy procedure that fails even in the best IVF clinics. The most important issue is to find out as much as possible about the reasons why IVF failed to correct further treatment or combine with additional procedures such as acupuncture, PGS NGS, or similar. Good luck x
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