Delaying transfer to day 6 - losing hope

[Kat_15]

Hi fellow IVF warriors

Our transfer was booked for 1pm today but at 8am we received the dreaded call from the clinic to say one of our precious embies had stopped developing and the other was still growing and compacting but wasn’t yet a blastocyst. They said they would like to leave it another day and it is a 50:50 chance whether our transfer goes ahead tomorrow. Exactly the same thing happened on our previous cycle and we transferred a morula which sadly resulted in a BFN.

Feels like history repeating itself and I am so worried this time we won’t even get to transfer. This process is so brutal isn’t it? Just feel so sad about it. 💔

Has this happened to anyone else? How did you cope?

Did you transfer a day 6 morula and it resulted in a BFP?

I’m going to start looking for puppies today as I said to my hubby that if this cycle doesn’t work then we will get a fur baby! I wanted one for ages but we have put it off as we wanted to focus on our IVF.

xxx

[Nat246]

So sorry to hear things aren’t going smoothly. I’ve had a similar thing happen where I got zero blastocysts and it really is crushing. Did they change your protocol at all? I went on to find a significant change to protocol and drugs gave me a completely different result. Wishing you all the best for tomorrow, hopefully they’ve grown into great blastocysts! X

[Kat_15 in reply to Nat246]

Hi Nat, thanks for your kind message. 💛So sorry you have experienced this previously too. It’s so hard isn’t it?

Yes we moved to a different clinic this time as our NHS funding ran out and I did a Gonal F long protocol compared to a short Fostimon and Meriofert protocol last time. My response was slow at first this time as I don’t think I was on a higher enough dose of Gonal F so we did consider abandoning the cycle this time but decided to carry on and got five eggs in the end which is similar to our previous cycles (we had two egg batching cycles on the NHS as this was what they recommended).

My hubby has worked on his DNA fragmentation since last year and it has really improved and we used IMSI this time instead of just ICSI last time.

What protocol where you on if you don’t mind me asking?

Thank you for your support and positive vibes. xxx

[Nat246 in reply to Kat_15]

That’s good you’ve tried something different. Unfortunately IVF seems to be a bit of trial and error to find out what it best for you individually! I had a terrible response on a long protocol and then much better on a short protocol doing mild IVF. I also took ubiquinol (as did hubby) so perhaps that had something to do with it but can never say for sure with these things. Sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can so make sure what ever happens you remember how amazing you’ve been and give yourself credit for that xx

[Kat_15 in reply to Nat246]

Awww thanks Nat, very kind of you to say that. Thanks for sharing your experience of doing mild IVF, I will ask about that if this cycle doesn’t go as we hope. Thanks again for your support. xx

[hifer]

Oh hun. Stressful doesn’t even cover it. I really hope you get to transfer. No words of wisdom re morulas sadly. We just transferred on day 5 and it was a BFN. I know people have transferred a morula and it has worked. X

[Kat_15 in reply to hifer]

Hello, thank you for your kind message and so sorry about your recent BFN. Sending you virtual hugs, this process is so bloody tough!

Fingers crossed we get some good news tomorrow, I keep googling to get answers but it’s not helping! Xx

[Suzannah1985]

Hi Kat,

Good luck for tomorrow, fingers crossed your embryo is transferred and is the one.

I’ve had cycles with a poor response and one with noting to transfer, it was devastating at the time and we actually got a puppy afterwards who helped us heal and also gave us a focus as we went through subsequent rounds of treatment.

I only ever had long protocol, but what we found was that Menopur alone didn’t work for me, Gonal F alone was even worse (both were high doses too 😕) but a combination of the two worked so much better for me. I also took ubiquinol and various supplements.

Unfortunately there is a lot of trial and error with IVF, but there is hope. We now have a 7 month old little boy, and he is such an easy going, wonderful little man that the battle to get him was worth it.

Very best of luck, and maybe get the puppy whatever the outcome 😉 xx

[Kat_15 in reply to Suzannah1985]

Hi Suzannah, thanks so much for your thoughtful message. It gave me hope when I was feeling really quite down today.

So good to hear you have a lovely little boy. So sorry you had to go through so much though, this process is so tough!

Thanks for sharing what protocol you were on. If I end up planning another cycle I will ask about that.

Thanks again for reaching out. Puppy research is in full swing now! 😊🐶xx

[Ivfgotadream]

Personally I would refuse to transfer on day 6. Embryos which don’t make blastocyst until day 6 have a MUCH better success rate if they are frozen and put back on day 5 as part of a FET.

My clinic doesn’t do day 6 transfers for that reason as the uterus could be out of sync - they said the embryo will wait for the lining ie you can put it in early but the lining won’t wait for the embryo ie you shouldn’t put it back too late

[KiboXX in reply to Ivfgotadream]

Was just going to write a similar thing! If it’s good enough quality to freeze, I would definitely push for that and a frozen transfer a month or two later. Day 6 frozen embryos have a similar success rate to day 5 but fresh they are a lot lower as ivfgotadream said because it’s out of sync with your uterus xx

[Kat_15 in reply to KiboXX]

Thanks Kibo, I wasn’t aware of this so thank you for sharing this. Do you know if this still applies if it’s a hatching morula? xx

[KiboXX in reply to Kat_15]

If it’s hatching it must be a blastocyst I think? I’d definitely ask to talk to the embryologist before you make any decisions as honestly they should be able to advise you this and are far more knowledgeable than the doctors are xx

[Kat_15 in reply to KiboXX]

Thanks Kiko, will do. Will definitely ask about this so thanks for making me aware of it. We had a morula transferred last time on day 6 so I’m anticipating if our embie has developed it might be at this stage but we will have to wait and see. xx

[Kat_15 in reply to Ivfgotadream]

Thanks so much for letting me know this, I wasn’t aware of this and will ask. Does that still apply if it‘s a hatching morula?

[Ivfgotadream in reply to Kat_15]

A morula can’t hatch......

It’s either a morula or it’s a blastocyst which is hatching