Hi everyone,
I failed ivf with NHS a few months ago. I had 11eggs but only 1 embryo to transferred and nothing to freeze.
I'm about to go private as only allow 1 cycle with NHS. I am wondering if anyone come across having several eggs but only 1 or 2 embryos like myself and will I have the same result on second round?
Is anyway to improve egg quality?
Hi, did they tell you how many eggs were immature in the 11 retrieved? Maybe it’s because your protocol lead to only a few eggs maturing quickly while the rest was left behind
Hi Lilly12255
They might have told me but I can't remember. What I remembered there were 7 fertilised then 5 embryos were make it on day 3 then 3 on day 5 so but nothing make it after day 6. Just 1 transferred.
I am wondering if anything to do with my egg quality or they give me too high does of medication(300unit menopur).
Private clinic will give me 225 unit to start and said they will never start medication that high (300).
Hope I will have a good few embryos this time.
Hard to say but clinics tend to say that normally only half of embryos make it to day 5. Sk that would be 3 in your case. So you were inline with general stats.
Have you heard of the supplement Ubiquinol? Google it and it’s uses in egg quality. I had two failed pregnancies and a fertility doctor suggested this supplement every day 200-400mgs a day. It takes 3 months as that’s how long an egg takes to mature and I was pregnant and now 22 weeks along. I swear by it. Xx can buy it on amazon xX
Re improving egg quality, read my post on low ovarian reserve, you will find some info there shared by a number of members of the network
Hi!
My nhs round i only got 8 eggs (despite having polycystic ovaries) 6 were mature, 3 fertilised. They transferred one on day 2 and left the other 2 until day 5. Neither were good enough to freeze. I was devestated. The round wasnt successful. I thought that i had rubbish eggs and was so nervous about the same thing happening again.
Fast-forward 4 months to my private round. I got 19 eggs, 12 were mature, 9 fertilised and of those I got 6 top quality blastocysts. I’m currently 16 weeks pregnant with a fresh transfer from this round with 5 in the freezer.
They say first rounds are your ‘trial go’. As devastating as it feels for it to be unsuccessful (i completely know) dont think this is the end of your road. Your doctors will learn from what went well first time round and what didnt go so well and will tailor your protocol to you.
Dont give up hope 😃 xx
Hi Sunshine,
Firstly big congrats to you. How excited!
Good to know that someone have successful ivf after similar scenario.
Due to covid 19 I didn't have result from NHS to find out why it didn't work.
Therefore can private clinic workout how to improve my protocal without have a result from NHS?
Thank you. I havent felt excited yet but i think thats infertility for you.
I had a follow up consultation with NHS clinic who say they werent sure why it didnt work, but they would increase my stim dose to try & get more eggs again, but wouldnt offer me any extra progesterone (ive always worried my progesterone is low but they wouldnt investigate it.)
I requested a copy of my NHS clinic notes ant gave them to private clinic. The consultant was able to look at what doses of meds i was on, how my follicles were looking at the scans, the quality of my eggs, the quality of hubbys sperm, & what the embryos did etc and suggested we try a higher stim dose, waiting until day 5 to transfer an embryo and giving extra progesterone after transfer. I only ended up stimming for 7 days before egg collection second time, so higher dose worked better for me but i know other women who’ve had their stim dose lowered to get less eggs but better quality. Every woman responds differently.
I generally just felt better looked after & more listened to at the private clinic x
I had 16 eggs, 10 mature, 8 fertilised and one embryo to day 5 that is currently frozen. This was my 3rd IVF cycle. I have good AMH but we are not producing many embryos that are making to day 5 🤷♀️, I was talking thyroxine as well to have TSH below 2.
The previous 2 cycles been pretty much the same. 1st cycle 1 embryo to day 3 and 2nd cycle 2 embryos to day 3- both cycle ended in biochemical.
If you are changing the protocol using deferent drugs you might have a completely different result.
Worth to change the clinic and to try again.
Good luck 🤗🤞
I've done one round (privately, as I was 40 we couldn't get NHS funding in my area) - I had 12 eggs, 8 were mature but only 3 fertilised after ICSI and 1 embryo made it to day 5, the other two stopped developing after day 3. Our issue is sperm quality and we are getting my husband checked out by a urologist before we try again - my consultant doesn't think there is any issue with my eggs.
I was 33 when I started treatment, have very mild endo and a thyroid problem. My AMH was low (9.7). We only got 4 eggs, only 1 fertilised normally and made it to day 5. I was GUTTED we didn't get any frosties. But it's definitely quality over quantity and I'm sure all on this group will agree. Good luck on your private cycle xxx
Hi! I am in a similar situation...my first round I had 23 eggs collected, 15 fertilized normally and nothing made it past day 3. Total disaster. We’re unexplained infertility; all our testing has been normal. To echo what someone said before, the first cycle is often a “trial run”. I was a much better responder than they thought I’d be and their best guess is that my stim dosage was too high (I’m 33 so they said it would be very unusual - though I guess not impossible - if every single one of my eggs was poor quality at my age). Next time we’re going for a different medication at a lower dosage...trying for quality over quantity. The doctor seems optimistic and say that more often than not, the second cycle is better when something like this happens. I was meant to have my second cycle in late March but COVID had other plans...now hoping to restart this summer. Sorry you’re going through this; I’ll be thinking of you ❤️
Dear cggregory
That's a wonderful number of eggs, wow. That's so sad they didn't make it past day 3...something else is going on.... I hope this sparks your sleuthing, as your story sounds similar to mine.
My first IVF I had 22 eggs, 19 fertilised, 6 to Blastocyst, 2 implanted, 2 frozen, 2 discarded. Nothing apparently wrong with sperm or eggs- good quality but I didn't do PGT. My 1st clinic said they'd change nothing 2nd round. With a great number of eggs and fab fertilisation, this didn't add up. I decided to investigate as something else must've been going on. I asked for a genetic test. I found I couldn't process the synthetic folic acid into methylfolate...and 40% of European adults can't apparently. We need L-methylfolate so our babies don't get spinal bifida (among other things). Many good supplements now have "folic acid" as methylfolate (Methylation reactions are crucial for processes such as cell division and DNA and RNA synthesis). ...so we nees this from our food and/or supplements to help our eggs divide the chromosomes properly to provide us with a normal egg!
And when I realised my clinic had only one way of doing things and would not try anything else to help me, I changed clinics.
I chose a clinic who does immune blood testing for my 2nd round.
See Dr Alan Beer's book "Is your body baby friendly" and found I had exceptionally high inflammatory markers which were triggering my killer cells. When the embryo implants, it sees it as a mini organ transplant so one needs to supress the immune system to allow the implantation. You will be recommended immune supressants - steroids and if your immunes are very high like mine, something stronger like a rheumatoid arthritis drug e.g. Humira. You will need to have a latent TB test first. If positive you have to treat the TB before taking an immune supressant, as they don't want to trigger full blown TB. This happened to me....I was 46 and my doctor said age isn't on my side and I felt like it was now or never - they'll give me IVIG or intralipids. I did this....but my body wasn't ready - I had a chemical pregnancy, but that was a stronger result than previously.
So, I decided before my 3rd and final round, I'd treat my latent TB and sort out my mind and body.
During the taking of the TB antibiotics I thought, this is crazy - I have created my inflammation, so I can cure it, and went on another journey. After 3.5 months I'd brought my sky high inflammatory markers down to normal with diet and supplements - antioxidants, supporting the mitochondria in my cells ...I also started taking DHEA. My doctor couldn't believe it. I doubles checked with another doctor if it was the TB antibiotics which could have helped, and he saud no - he'd had loads of patients with high inflammation and latent TB and after Tb treatment, their markers hadn't changed...so he said to keep progressing with my regime, as it was working.
ANYTHING we do for overall health will help your egg and sperm health. There are many great posts on here about egg and sperm health, which will be revealed with a search. I've given up alcohol, coffee and anything with processed sugar, no cow's milk, reduce meat intake, no veg oil (omega-6) ...
I've also done Hypnotherapy, acupuncture, reflexology and meditation and Tai Chi....stress is the biggest factor in inflammation.... we become de-sensitised to cortisol. Dr Gabor Mate in his book " When the body says no" has a lot of insight on this. Dr Christiane Northrup has an amazing book "Women's bodies, women's wisdom" and "The Mind-body fertility connection' by James Schwartz is excellent. Zita West has books on diet and Rebecca Fett's book "It starts with the egg" is good.
I've now chosen a clinic that has a holistic approach to IVF - nutrition, medical, and mind....and I am so glad I have taken the time to learn and delve into "unexplained fertility" and see if I can find the root causes to mine! Also check your exposure to EMF - turning off your router at night, not charging your mobile phone next to your bed, getting good sleep. and all the above applies to the sperm health too. 50%/50% partnership.
At this time of Covid-19 clinics aren't giving immuno suppressants for obvious reasons. If your are able to before you start, and wish to check your immune system and see if that's got anything to do with it, it gave me a good insight into what I had to do. If you then need immuno suppressants, you can get your immune system right without drugs, if this is the path you choose to take. If your immune system is normal, then delve some more. I wish I hadn't felt so rushed and trusted my instincts on getting to the root cause. A clear intention, faith and focusing on manifesting what we want, is so important. Unexplained fertility just means the cause hasn't yet been found and it may well be a combination of things.
I wish you all the best of luck on your journey - we are complex beings. Don't give up. Keep us posted!
Has your oh had a dna fragmentation test? May be worth having as they say the sperm kicks in from day 3 and that’s why embryos don’t make it past day three. This is our issue and we have had two rounds of ivf.
Our embryos started deteriorating from day 2 and into day 3, so the clinic’s best guess is that it’s an egg issue. But if it happens again we’ll explore all possibilities. We already had a Karyotype test which came back normal. What are your options for improving DNA fragmentation?
Hi Goyjaa, I had 19 eggs and only 5 had fertilised and 2 had reached to 5 day blastocyst. I had transferred both as a FET but miscarried at around 9 weeks. The consultant has suggested icsi and lower medication for my next cycle as they hadn't expected me to have that many eggs. As I only had around 5 follicles in each ovary. My OH sperm quality is not the best and I do wonder If my egg quality has an issue too.
Good luck 🤞x
I don't have by other advice 're improving quality of eggs- but maybe some words of encouragement. Try not to be despondent. The attrition rate for the eggs is high. I had 25 eggs, 15 mature and injected by ICSI. 8 fertilised, all made it to day 3 but I had to have a freeze all due to risk ohss. Only 2 made to day 5 to be frozen. I was upset at that 25 to 2!
Then my first FET didn't take. I was sure that was it, entered into my last FET with no hope.
But after 10years of longing when I thought right that's it over for me, I need to accept it, that last little surviving blast made the thaw and transfer and is now a big fat 3month old girl.
Don't give up, it can totally happen, and when it does all the pain of getting there is forgotten.
Hang in and hold on xx
Hi Goyjaa,
I’ve had two rounds now and they weren’t the best but this is our experience. We have male factor infertility so used ICSI both times
Round 1: 9 eggs retrieved, total fertilisation failure so no embryos
Round 2: exact same protocol followed as round 1 but I was stimulated for two extra days as I didn’t respond quite as quickly, no obvious reason why as pre-treatment bloods exactly the same and medication the same also.
10 eggs retrieved, 8 of which were mature, 3 fertilised and 2 made it to day 5 blastocyst. One was top quality so that was put back and the other unfortunately not good enough to freeze and our clinic wouldn’t transfer both. Positive pregnancy test but at my 8 week scan it showed a gestational sac with a yolk sac but no embryo so missed miscarriage, had a miscarriage a week later.
Was told I’d need to wait until I’d had three normal periods after the miscarriage before having treatment again which would be this month, however we are going to use donor sperm for our next cycle as we’ve been told odds of achieving any fertilisation are about 25% then significantly higher miscarriage risk and after 5 years of trying we don’t really have the strength to gamble against those odds again. We are going to have to wait a bit longer to have treatment as we want to go to Poland for our next cycles due to lower cost, higher success rates and they use anonymous donors so far more to choose from. Wishing you all the best on your next cycle
Hi Goyjaa
Yes, I also had this experience. Last year on our first NHS round I was put on short protocol as I have polycystic ovaries, so high AMH and high AFC for my age (39 at the time) so was expected to overstimulate and was also expected to be a freeze all cycle because of this. Was put on low dose of Menopur - 150 and didn't respond as expected. Around 20 follicles initially, by end of stims was down to 5 mature. 5 collected, 3 made it to day 3, by day 5 only 1 good enough so they transferred. Was also told quality was not great and the eggs looked a little dark and grainy.
Next round planned for this summer but will be private/self-funded. Consultant has already said that they will increase stim dose to 300, and will give me additional progesterone post transfer as I bled before on the day test last cycle and those with PCOS/PCO are more susceptible to low progesterone.
The new consultant also seemed to think that it is possible to improve egg quality with supplements, so he advised me to take INOFOLIC (inositol) which is for women with PCOS, it helps improve any symptoms, restore hormone balance and they believe this can help egg quality too. So have been taking this for a few months in preparation for the next cycle.
I have also purchased the book 'It Starts with the Egg' (ISWTE) which you have probably heard of, and am now following their PCOS plan to improve egg quality so I am taking 300mg of Ubiquinol/Co-Q10 and Alpha Lipoic Acid as well as the Inofolic (which has folic acid/folate) and Vitamin D.
Who knows if these will work, but I have heard so many positive things, and there have been quite a few scientific studies, particularly with Ubiquinol, that suggest it does work.
I would suggest the ISWTE book if you are looking at ways of improving egg health. It is not for everyone as there are a number of lifestyle changes that you have to make, but for me at 40, I am happy to do what it takes to improve my chances and my overall health at the same time.
Best of luck for your next cycle! xxx
Hi Goyjaa
I am sorry you have to go through this. It’s cruel. I am going through the same thing myself.
I had a failed first round with the NHS( privately funded). I had 8 eggs collected, 5 fertilised and only 1 made it to day five. We was told it was top quality. We have no idea why it didn’t work. Always wondering why?
Could it be sperm quality as it was surgically retrieved and frozen?
Could it be the quality of my eggs?
Could It be dosage I was on 150iu?
Don’t judge me but sometimes I do think may be they didn’t put it on the uterus.
Anyway we haven’t had any explanation From the doctors on why it didn’t work although it Has been almost 4 months.
We are thinking of going to a private clinic for our 2 round. But I don’t know if that is possible as the sperm is stored in the NHS clinic.
I think the biggest help we need at this time is encouragement .
I hope you have a supporting And understanding environment to help you get through this.
Best luck
Hi there.
Your story sounds exactly like mine. Had 11 follicles, which resulted in 6 eggs. After 5 days I only had 1 egg that was viable to transfer, with 2 not worth freezing. Resulted in a negative outcome.
My next round will be private as only get 1 NHS funded round.
I've asked all the questions about what I could've done differently but no concrete answers - it's just one of those things. This time I'm working more on positively managing my stress levels, got acupuncture in place and talking therapy which hopefully will all have a positive impact.
I think you have had some great advice here already. the one thing I would say is definitely mention this to your new clinic - some clinics insist on taking things to blastocyst... my clinic look at how many fertilise and how many look good, but I have had transfers on day 2, day 3 and once on day 5.. maybe your new clinic will be less inclined to try and push all to day 5 and instead do an earlier transfer.
Whilst some clinics say 'if they don't make it to blasto they wouldn't have survived anyway' but actually my clinic argue that, and say the best place they can be is inside the womb not in a petridish xx
Hi! I can’t speak to increasing egg quality, but that has been my issue most likely due to my egg. I did 3 Ivf rounds and would retrieve 18-22 eggs per round... out of all that only 1 embryo made it. But I just want to give you some hope because that 1 embryo led to me being 16 weeks pregnant today.
Hi Goyjaa,I have a similar issue but having IVF privately and have been told to use Co-enzyme Q10 ubiquionol 300mg daily. Also avoid trans fats and eat plenty of fruit and veg... Fingers crossed lol bear in mind it takes 3 months for eggs to grow so you need time to allow these to work... Good luck xx
Yes! Have a read of my bio. I have twins from poorer quality embryos 🤞
My first two ivs were with high dosages and got bad quality eggs thr hurd round we did were with Femara i got 3 eggs and one was of perfect quality which led to a pregnancy . So now that we Re trying for baby number 2 we did one round of femara wasn’t successful and second round high dosage which gave us 10 eggs 7 mature 3 fertilized but wasn’t successful my clinic said it was poor quality eggs. Next round we will change medication as my doctor said each round is different And u Can get different qualities each roubd. I v been on ubiquinol getting ready for my next cycle. I hope urs will be successful If not dont give up and hang in there once u get a positive ull forgot about all of this journey
Hello, sorry but to hear things didn’t work out. I had a round where nothing fertilised then a second round with 12 eggs, 5 embryos but only 1 transfer and nothing frozen. You me doctors will learn a lot from every round you do so it is worth keeping all the info you have from this round for when you go private. You never know, the next round might be much better. If you haven’t already read the book It Starts With an Egg, it talks about how to improve your egg quality.
12 eggs from ivf but only 1 fertilised 
1 embryo
update.1 embryo left
1 embryo made it to day 5!
11 days post embryo transfer.
