Did my OHSS cause my Fresh Transfer failure?

[Suzyanne-Faye]

After A Monday egg collection I was ok until the next day when I couldn’t stand up for anything other than to go to the loo and that was it! I was out of breath and in an immense amount of pain. I called the clinic and they said they would do the scan and decide then but to let them know if it got worse. It very gradually got better and I hobbled in on the Saturday for a fresh transfer, which they went ahead with. The nurse said my ovaries were indeed swollen but she had seen worse and so I stopped worrying, I was so desperate for it to go ahead!!

Now I’m wondering if we should have frozen our embryo because the OHSS caused it to fail! I can’t find any data on this, can anyone offer insight??

[Chel91]

Honestly, the data doesn't really show this. It seems that for most people OHSS doesn't affect implantation or live birth rates, but the risk of severe OHSS is usually why they recommend a freeze all in those cases xx

[Suzyanne-Faye in reply to Chel91]

Thank you. I just can’t come to terms with why it failed 😢😢

[Chel91 in reply to Suzyanne-Faye]

Totally understandable lovely! It's really hard. Sometimes one isn't genetically sound, but the next one will be. I've had 3 good embryos fail to implant, but I'm hoping my next cycle will be much better. Will you being doing a FET with your remaining? Wishing you all the luck in the world 🤞💗 xxx

[Suzyanne-Faye in reply to Chel91]

I really hope your next one works! I’ve only been through it once and I’m not handling it well at all! Yes we will be doing a FET. We have a phone meeting on Tuesday to discuss when that starts which I’m hoping will be soon. Wishing you all the luck too hun thank you xxx

[Sunshine92]

Hi lovely,

I’m so sorry to hear this. Sounds like your clinic could have been more caring and supportive!

During my second round before egg collection i had no clinical symptoms of ohss (i felt absolutely fine!) but my bloods were through the roof and ovaries were overlapping they were so huge so clinic rushed through my egg collection, and prescribed me Carbogaberline to minimise effects of OHSS.

5 days later on transfer day i felt bloated but otherwise fine. My clinic were super thorough in scanning me & talking to me about the risks of fresh transfer and late onset ohss vs going for a freeze all. The consultant was very clear that going ahead with a fresh transfer would not cause any harm to the embryo if i had / get OHSS but would be horrendous for me. Ultimately because clinically i was well they agreed to go ahead. Fortunately it was successful, but i did end up with late onset OHSS and in hospital which was (as they said) awful for me but thankfully didnt seem to impact the embryo.

That being said, fertility is such a delicate balance, and everyone is different. Conditions have to be ‘just right’ to enable your embaby to thrive. There are so many reasons it could have been unsuccessful, but how your ohss was poorly handled by your clinic is understandably raising questions for you. I’m so sorry you’re having to go through this write down all if your thoughts and questions to put to your consultant. Things need to be different for next time if you’re able to go again xx

[Suzyanne-Faye in reply to Sunshine92]

Thank you! You don’t really realise how poorly something is handled until you hear another experience. Are you pregnant now? Congratulations on your success xx

[Sunshine92 in reply to Suzyanne-Faye]

Yes i’m almost 35 weeks pregnant from the same transfer where I got late onset OHSS.

I remember the pain of a failed cycle well, and i dont feel like i will ever get over the trauma of infertility and ivf. Hang on in there xx