So... yet another failed attempt. The last two times, my medication was changed. The first time, we got 6 eggs and 4 fertilised. By day 5 all of them were gone. The next time was last Tuesday. We got 4 eggs and 3 fertilised. Day 2, two of them were abnormal and the last one on day 4 stopped dividing.
My fertility doctor told me that it’s just my eggs and I should consider a donor. That kind of hurt as it feels now it was my fault. Maybe it was something else?
I suppose I’m just wanting to know if anyone could help me on ways to improve my egg quality? I’m thinking of giving it one last go but I want to do everything possible. Am I being silly?
Should I just go with a donor? My husband isn’t too happy about that and I’ve yet to convince him. He said he wants our baby to be ours, which I suppose is nice but I don’t want to regret not having a baby.
Did anyone change their diet completely and add in supplements etc? I’m taking quite a few already and I actually went to the health store today and bought more. Please if anyone has a success story that could help me, I’d really appreciate it. Also, are there tests I could do to check if it is me that’s the problem?
Thanks 😔
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Jrss1
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I'm quite similar to you. I'm on my third cycle. First two I didn't have embryos last past day 3. Second cycle was abysmal, only two eggs and one embryo.
We talked about donor, and agreed I wanted to do one more cycle to draw a line (cause the second cycle was just so bad I felt like the protocol was just wrong).
I did a few things between 2 and 3:
- upped my CoQ10 to 400 daily
- took 75 mg DHEA for 3 months before next cycle
- switched clinics and got a second opinion
I went back to short protocol, and tweaked a few things. Doing ICSI this time.
Everyone is different but average success is three cycles so before going to DE which I am okay with, I wanted to try one more time after a more concentrated effort to improve my egg quality and increase the odds of fertilisation so I have more embryos to play with.
Don't know if it will have any impact as I'm just about to have EC on Thursday but I will say that I'm responding better to stims on this cycle so it just reinforces that every cycle is different.
Not sure if that helps but just thought I'd share 💕
Thank you so much for your reply. You have given me hope. Your egg collection is tomorrow then? I wish you the best of luck. Please let me know how you get on.
I’m going to try the Dhea. I had a blood test with my own doctor today to make sure I can start it. I got ubiquinol yesterday. I was on coq10 but I was told ubiquinol is easier absorbed into the body. It says I can take two capsules a day which is 200mg - is that enough I wonder?
Anyway, thinking of you & sending you hugs for tomorrow xx
Hi my first cycle I had zero blastocysts. I took ubiquinol (a purer form of CoQ10 and more expensive) and changed from long to short protocol. I had much better quality eggs after these changes. I believe the ubiquinol had an impact. Best of luck xx
Sure! I took 200mg a day for about three months before starting treatment. There are so many changes you can make it’s sometimes a bit overwhelming choosing which ones to implement (especially with all the costs!) xx
Thanks for that. Do they recommend 3 months before you notice a difference? Should I wait to try until after that? I was thinking maybe to try again in April? Is that too soon? xx
I’ve heard a lot of people say three months is optimum but perhaps even a shorter period can be helpful. Might be worth asking your doctor for clarification. You won’t notice a difference in your body from ubiquinol, but hopefully it will be reflected in your egg quality xx
Do you have a natural fertility coach near you? If you decide to give it one last go, it might be worth seeing them as they can put together a diet and supplement plan and really support you emotionally too.
The book 'It starts with the egg' might also be worth a read. It agreed with what I'd been told from my coach about Vit D, Ubiquinol, gluten and caffeine free diet, etc.
I wish you lots of luck with whatever you decide. Hopefully your clinic can also help guide you and provide counselling to help you both. Xx
Thank you for your reply. That’s a really good idea about the fertility coach. I’ll look into that tomorrow. I will also have a look for that book. Can I ask how much vit D and ubiquinol you took? And how long do you need to take them before I try again? xx
Hi, I take 200mg of Pharma Nord Bio-Ubiquinol and 1000 IU. of Vit D. I did have my vitamin D levels tested as well as other things like blood sugar, thyroid, etc just to check everything. And as the other lady said my hubby also took a multivitamin and Ubiquinol and we both changed our diets including drinking smoothies with Maca, Flaxseed and chia seeds in etc!
I take so many supplements I must rattle!! But hopefully it will all be worthwhile and as I'm 41, willing to do most things...
I would ask your nutritionalist/ fertility coach but I think most say to change your diet and take supplements for at least 3 months.
I have no idea if it has helped my egg quality as was taking before my first round of IVF but I do know for sure my Thyroid levels have vastly improved as I had another test recently! Xx
I just wanted to say I feel your pain, I’m in the same position almost exactly. In both rounds we got 11 eggs, first round 7 fertilised and had one lowest quality blast. Second round 8 fertilised and had none left at day 5 - even day 3 they were dividing abnormally. I was also given the option of donor but I’m not ready to give up on my own eggs yet, especially as I have been pregnant in the past (MMC). We know we want children either way so we would go for it one day but not yet.
I’m doing one more round in current clinic, I’m taking COQ10 ubiquinol (300mg upped from 200), Myo-Inositol, Cytoplan prenatal incl folate and vit D, Vit E (200iu), Vit C (500mg), R-Alpha Lipoic Acid (500mg), and ordered DHEA. A bit hesitant about the DHEA as I have PCOS but I’m willing to try anything and not going to take high dose. Things added from last time is higher dose coq10, R-L acid, Vit E and Vit C (and DHEA when it arrives). I think I’m going to try melatonin during stims too.
If this round doesn’t work I’m going to seek a second opinion, perhaps abroad - see what stands out for us. In the meantime I’m going to put my name down on the donor list on NHS as I’d have one more round left (Scotland). And also try a few rounds of letrozole as last time I got pregnant I was on clomid.
That’s my plan but I’m 33 and panicking about the future! I just wanted to say I feel your pain. If anyone has any advice on additional supplements I’d be interested to hear it.
Thanks so much for your detailed reply. I’m so sorry you had to go through pretty much the same as me. It’s just really upsetting isn’t it. In the health store they also told me Maca is good for fertility. I’m
Taking; vit d, vit B, vit E, ubiquinol, vitC, and a probiotic.
I hope everything works out for you, please let me know how you get on. I’ll be thinking of you xx
It’s awful. I feel I’m mourning again. The pregnancy that I lost and biological child I could have had. It’s so hard to know what to do for the best because I feel like the NHS are very ‘computer says no’ when it comes to fertility and reproductive health. I hope everything works out for you too xx
The others have given great advice but I also think it's beneficial for your husband to take vitamins too. As healthy sperm will also lead to healthier embryos.
Mine takes impryl multi vitamin - pricey but recommended by our clinic. Though hubby’s sperm are always way above average and fertilisation has been consistently good. Clinic also said because of the time they’re dropping out it suggests an egg issue x
Hi! I hope this message brings you some hope. I have an egg quality issue despite my age and having a high AMH and good ovarian reserve. For my first round of IVF (then 34 years old) I had 27 eggs retrieved and 17 fertilized and 12 made it to blast. My clinic only froze 10 because I they said that two were C quality. Anyways, I did 5 FETs and used up 7 embryos which were all high quality ie 4ABs. None of them took. I then started seeing a naturopath who told me that I had Hashimotos. I talked to my family doctor who put me on synthroid immediately to get my TSH levels down. I also realized that my clinic really didn’t know what they were doing and were completely incompetent. I decided I was going to leave the three embryos frozen and do another retrieval. I obtained two other opinions. One of the REs immediately noticed I had an egg quality issue from my first round and suggested donor eggs. This was very hard to hear. I was only 35 and there is so much you can do naturally to help improve egg quality as well as through stims. I decided not to go with him. The clinic I did go with for my second round put my on steroids (testerone gel) to help with my egg egg quality issue. For my second round I had 31 follicles and 29 eggs retrieved with 10 making it to blast and this time I did PGT testing which revealed that only 2 were genetically normal. It was confirmed that I had an egg quality issue but I was able to still to get two chromosally normal embryos. To help with egg quality I was inositol, NAC, vitamin D, vaginal probiotic, selenium, ubiquinol, omegas etc. I did castor packing and advocated for my new RE to run every test on me to rule things out ie PCOS, endo biopsy, immune panel testing. I read it starts with the egg and implemented all her suggestions that were relevant to my scenario. Perhaps it may be a good idea to seek out a second opinion. Also, seek out a lab that has state of the art technology - it makes a huge difference. If I stayed with my old clinic who didn’t tell me I had Hashimotos and also said that I great eggs I would probably still or be pregnant. My moving to my new clinic I was able to get pregnant on my first FET with them (6th in total). I am now 20 weeks pregnant despite being told that my eggs resembled a women who was 40-43 not a 35 year old’s eggs. I hope this story helps and wish you lots of luck in journey!
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