Anyone had rescue ICSI?

[anz07]

Hi all, I'm after some advice as I have reached the end of the road with my clinic. I'm due to have my fourth transfer next week and they were meant to call me with the transfer date today but haven't called (even though I've called to chase them). Am feeling so fed up as we've self-funded all our treatment and are nearing the £30k stage, yet the service we receive is consistently substandard.

We have now compiled a rather long list of criticisms about our clinic but the most pressing question we have is why rescue ICSI was not used in our first round. We used donor sperm and had a low fertilisation rate (12 mature eggs, only 3 fertilised and we were lucky to be left with one embryo which ended in a chemical).

At the time, we didn't know rescue ICSI was a 'thing' but have since read stories of women being called and asked if they would like to pay extra for emergency ICSI as things weren't moving in the right direction fertilisation-wise. We're not sure why our clinic never offered this. In fact we only found out that the low fertilisation rate was because of a 'sperm binding issue' many weeks after our transfer at our follow-up appointment. Surely they could have intervened and, with our permission, given ICSI a shot? If they'd have been able to create even one more embryo it would have been more than worth it.

If anyone has any advice/insight on this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

[FluffyPink]

Hi there,I’m so sorry to hear of your difficult experience with your clinic. We had an FET three weeks ago and we were asked to pay up front for ICSI in advance but were told that we would be refunded if they didn’t need to do it. It sounds unusual to me that you wouldn’t have been given the option. xx

[Rain415]

Hi anz07. Bit different situation but we were told due to husbands sperm analysis the clinic were going to do ICSI then on the day his analysis was normal so they wanted to do ivf I had reservations about this so they did half ICSI half IVF as I had 11 eggs they were happy to do this. I'm not sure about emergency ICSI but I think you should definitely quiz them on their decisions as it seems like they are taking a bit of a back seat with somethings as you said about not getting back to you etc. X

[Beanybeanz in reply to Rain415]

Hi Rain145, out of interest how did the half and half go?

They offered me half and half back in august initially but then I only got 7 eggs so they said go for all one or the other. I asked what they thought was best and they said well the sperm sample was actually fine that day and so ivf would be fine but because they’d already sort of said ICSI to me they wanted me to choose.

I asked why anyone would choose ivf over ICSI (especially as this was our nhs round and we weren’t paying!) and she said some people like to see if it can work more ‘naturally’. I then asked why anyone would do ICSI rather than ivf and she said “to be on the safe side” so once she’d said that I said ICSI for all!

We were very lucky that our first round worked (one transferred and one in freezer) so am now 34 weeks. I have always wondered about the half and half thing tho!!

[Rain415 in reply to Beanybeanz]

We had 2 out of 5 fertilise with ivf and 4 out of 6 with ICSI and overall 4 5 day blastocyst out of 6 fertilised eggs. Honestly if we did all ICSI l think we would have had more eggs fertilised and maybe more blastocyst but obviously I'm very happy with our 4. I'm glad I pushed for some ICSI.

I kinda get the natural thing but also don't haha I'm happy that we found out his sperm can bind to the eggs and we only knew that cause of the IVF. But i would have chose all ICSI most prob but im glad they decided to split cause they really wanted to do just ivf I don't know why if I'm honest. Congrats on your pregancy! X

[Beanybeanz in reply to Rain415]

That’s interesting - thanks 😊 I think if we need it again to get a second child we’ll go straight to paying for ICSI regardless of sperm quality to be honest x

[Hidden in reply to Beanybeanz]

I was offered half and half too when I had over 10 eggs, it was my second round and I think because our first round was a bit of a disaster we didn’t really know if we needed icsi or not - interestingly equal numbers fertilised and all made it to day three but only 3 ICSI embryos made it to day 5 and no IVF

Subsequent rounds they made the decision based on sperm quality x

[Hidden]

If its any consolation I have been around the block a few times with IVF and never heard of emergency ICSI. we have had rounds that we have had 11 eggs but only 2 fertilised and that was just how it was - just bad luck. Most clinics use round 1 as a learning curve. intrigued to hear more about emergency ICSI as I can't see how they would want to try and fertilise an egg that has already failed to fertilise? Feels like it would compromise quality and by the time they know it hasn't fertilised the egg and sperm are 24 hours old?

Hope you get the answers x

[Hidden]

Are you based in the UK? Rescue icsi is not available here but it is in the UK. I also asked about this but they told me it was something to do with ethics.

[Hidden]

I meant its available in the US