First ivf round with promising start turning to zero blasts to freeze. Advice or shared stories for similar experiences please ☺️

[KTgirl]

Hello! First time IVF after 3 yrs TTC with 3 mc (2 natural and 1 IUI) 39yrs old.

Just completed 1st cycle - pleased with 8 of 9 eggs fertilised via ICSI.

However, totally blind sided with Day 3 updates showing either poor grade (3) or reduced cells.

None made to Day 5 freeze. One early blast but apparently too poor to freeze.

We have another 2 cycles - is there hope for better outcomes? Can’t believe the result was 0 this time.

Thank you 😅

[fay2399]

There’s always some hope... I hope there is 🥺🤗

[KTgirl in reply to fay2399]

Thank you - I’m a big fan of hope and positive mindset so trying to remember to apply it right now!

[Sammy246]

Hi ktgirl, I've been told that first 3 days of embryos development is egg related and last 2 days is sperm quality. Also every cycle is different. Speak to your consultant and maybe change protocol. A lot can be learned from your first cycle and ofcourse life style changes and supplements can help too. Goodluck luck with your second cycle xxx

[Hidden]

Sorry your first cycle didn’t work, I know it’s really crushing as you have so much hope and optimism that it will be ‘the fix’

I agree with Sammy, the first round is often a learning round, you will have a review appointment where your consultant will discuss step by step what happened and I am sure will have ideas / things to change before you try again xx

[Nat246]

Hi I had the same experience on my first round- zero blastocysts! It’s so crushing. But that does not mean that will always happen. I changed protocol and drugs on my second round and got 5 good blastocysts. Best of luck to you for your next round xx

[Queerty80]

Hi,

We’ve just done our second cycle of ivf and we got better results than our first. My advice is to stay hopeful as you never know what’s going to happen on the next two.

Our 1st cycle we got 19 eggs, 9 fertilised, 7 still going on day 3 but on day 5 we got a shock as there was only 1 left which they transferred but bfn. I know that crushing feeling. I knew ivf would be hard but felt like our chances were pretty low at that point.

I had been taking some supplements advised by the book ‘it starts with the egg’ about 2 months prior to ivf 1. For the 2nd we thought there might be some sperm quality issues also so my partner was taking proxeed and gave up caffeine. Also my eggs seemed to grow more evenly and meant that (I think) there was more mature eggs this cycle. I kept taking the supplements from it starts with the egg. They ended up being able to freeze 10 embryos and said 7 of the them were excellent quality.

I still can’t believe how different the cycles were. I agree with Daisy above. The doctors learn from the first and all the supplements and the sacrifices play their part too.

[KTgirl]

Thanks everyone for your replies - I really do appreciate it!!

Doctor review this morning - she will take all our notes to the embryologist team and come back next week with a suggested plan.

She didn’t want to commit to any one reason but said it could be an issue with egg or sperm....

Next cycle on probably won’t be until January now.

😅😅😅😅

[Maui2020]

Hi there, I wanted to mention that I’ve had vastly different outcomes from 3 cycles now. 2 of the ones that gave me the most extremes in results had only a minor tweak in protocol- 7eggs vs 30eggs!!!

What I’ve learnt from all of this is, those decisions of drug choice, dosages, trigger day, trigger drug can make a world of difference to your outcome.

I did do mine at 3 different clinics. They used previous blood results as a learning tool to improve. Personally I found that having a new Dr each time, they were able to scrutinise the results in a more objective way. As my last Dr was drawing blanks as to why my “good” embryos weren’t even surviving thaw, when I changed to the new clinic, the new Dr identified a viable reason within minutes, related to the drug I was stimulated with. It was really encouraging that I didn’t have to keep putting my results down to bad genetics each time, and we are doing something proactive to help.

I Hope that helps you to stay positive xx

[KTgirl in reply to Maui2020]

Thank you Maui2020! Very interesting and helpful to hear 👍🏼