ICSI after IVF

[JenRoy]

In 2018, at the age of 39yrs, I had a successful 1st round of IVF, unbelievably lucky & grateful! We didn’t manage any frozen embies despite x5 5d blastocysts.

This August I underwent a 2nd round. We only had a 28% fertilisation rate unlike 70% last time. We’re unexplained infertility. There’s never been a mention of sperm issues. We had both embies transferred on day 3 but it wasn’t meant to be. BFN 😢.

We had our post cycle consultation with our consultant last week. He’s advised we go for ICSI as we got 7 mature eggs last time and it’s not clear that there’s an egg issue.

Has anyone gone for ICSI after previous IVF cycles?! Success??

I’m now 41. AMH low but not super low. All else is “normal”.

Thanks

[IvfStruggler]

Not a success story in terms of a BFP but we definitely had much better fertilisation using ICSI after having a terrible round of IVF. In our first round (9 eggs) we had 60% fertilisation but in our second (10 eggs) only 10%. Then the third round we had only 5 eggs but with ICSI we had 100% fertilisation and all made it to blastocysts. This was all with the same donor sperm. Fresh transfer failed so no happy ending but we still have 4 embryos in the freezer. We were going to do 50/50 in terms of ICSI and IVF together but because we had so little eggs we were advised to ICSI them all. Not sure if it was the ICSI that made the difference though. We had exactly the same medication for all rounds except that I insisted on a double trigger of Gonasi for the last round. The consultants said it wouldn't make a difference but the research I did seemed to suggest otherwise.

I really hope your next round will be successful! X

[JenRoy in reply to IvfStruggler]

Thank you! Sounds similar to us. We got 11 eggs first round, 8 fertilised and 5 made it to day 5. This round we got 7 eggs, 2 fertilised and then it wasn’t worth pushing them to day 5 so we had a day 3 transfer if both.

If we could get any frozen then that would be amazing 🤞🤞

[IvfStruggler in reply to JenRoy]

During our second round the only fertilised egg didn't make it to blastocyst so we had nothing to transfer. It was so depressing. Then my round was cancelled due to COVID and when I only got 5 eggs I also ended up in hospital after my collection in excruciating pain. I felt so unlucky. I was completely devastated. So when all 5 fertilised and made it I was so confused. My luck didn't continue but for me it shows why people say it is a numbers game and to just keep trying (of course changing protocol where possible). Fingers crossed that your next round gives you also something to freeze xxx

[Loma1]

Hey JenRoy

Just before I turned 40, we had a total fertilisation failure from IVF... 8 eggs good, sperm good - just did not want to mix. A month or so later we tried ICSI and 3 out of 5 mature eggs fertilised.

(PGTA meant these were reduced to 1 which awaits ... but going to go through another egg collection and ERA first.)

Why not give ICSI a try?

Best of luck to you! X

[JenRoy in reply to Loma1]

Thank you ☺️ . Definitely seems like we have nothing to lose x

[Jen999999 in reply to JenRoy]

If you're doing icsi, I would also do Zymot. It's an obstacle course for sperm that means only the best ones will be available to the technician for ICIS. Also it means the semen isn't spun in a centrifuge which can cause dna damage to sperm

[JenRoy in reply to Jen999999]

Never heard of that! Good tip. Thanks 😊

[HopeOfYou]

Success story

I'm 41 now (I was 38 during my first cycle), all came back normal for me. My partner: low morphology (but a good number)

First round IVF: 11 eggs, 4 fertilised (1 stopped growing), 2 transferred on day5, 1 discarded for poor quality --> BFN

Second round IVF: 5 eggs, 1 fertilised and transferred on day2, BFP but ectopic

Third round ICSI: 8 eggs, 7 fertilised, 2 transferred on day 2 (but BFN), 1 frozen on day5, transferred 3 months later, 1 healthy baby girl <3

Good luck!

[Nicoma22]

I have! First round was IVF only, second was ICSI but I had egg maturity issues so resulted in BFN 😔. Third ICSI worked and I’m currently 12 weeks pregnant and waiting for my scan! It can work! Xx