Poor response to stimming

[Rol81]

Lining / follicle scan, not responding

Today I went for my scan , been stimming for 6 days now.

Unfortunately I’m not responding well.

Only 3 follicles on my right side which are also very very small , nothing at all on my left ovary . I’m going to continue till Friday and then make a decision.

Most probably have to cancel this cycle again.

Feel so helpless, is it just luck which meds you respond well to? Really fed up. I seem to be doing worse each cycle , “lovely lining “ though 🙄🙈

I’m trying not to lose hope.

[Sunshine809]

Oh no! I'm so gutted for you 😔 Hopefully another couple of days will turn it around for you. Have they increased your stims dosage? Mine were slow on 300 Menopur so they upped it to 450 and that made a difference xxx

Ha they said that to me last time - it's not looking good on your follicles.....but your lining is looking very good! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

[Rol81 in reply to Sunshine809]

Thank you xxx I’m actually on Buserelin 0.5 and 450 fostimon so I’m already on the highest.xxx

[Marisa32]

What's your AMH? If you have low AMH, high doses of stims aren't going to work.

[Rol81 in reply to Marisa32]

I’m not sure tbh, it was 6? But that was 2years ago. If it wouldn’t work , why do the clinic put me on a high does? Thanks x

[Marisa32]

Not sure if 6 is too low or not, depends on age too. Mine was 0.16 but perhaps measured in different units. Clinics do all kinds of things depending on how good they are. Some appear to be more like factories prescribing "one size fits all" treatments without individual attention and proper testing. If your AMH is in line with your age, then they probably will need to switch up the protocol to achieve better results. I also believe they should have rechecked the AMH if the result is 2 years old. In some women this number can come down a lot in 2 years.

[Rol81 in reply to Marisa32]

Thanks Marisa, I will mention checking my amh again in my next appointment x

[Sandyels]

Oh that is so frustrating! I had my cycle officially cancelled yesterday as well due to poor response after stimming. I had three follicles (19, 18, 13) after 8 days of menopur and fyremadel. The doctor didn’t really know why I hadn’t responded as I have good AMH (29, I’m 37 years) so that made me worried about what is going on.

However, the doctor also said sometimes you just don’t respond before you’re at certain threshold and some might have a smaller window of tolerance and then quickly go on to overstimulate (especially with higher AMH). So I imagine they have to tweak your protocol a little. There’s still plenty of things that they could do differently! But it’s very frustrating and stressful with the long waits and the uncertainty. I imagine it would be easier if we had a crystal ball and could see there will be a child eventually.

[Rol81 in reply to Sandyels]

I’m sorry about your cycle been cancelled. It really is frustrating. I know some people still go ahead with 3 follicles but I think I’d rather try again and give myself the best possible chance. You’re right, if we knew for certain it would work eventually it would help with the stress and worry . Tbh I never really asked a lot of questions at the beginning, just went along with everything they said to do. But been my 3rd attempt now , I’m defo getting more vocal.

When do you think you’ll try again? X

[Sandyels in reply to Rol81]

We’ve decided to go ahead with collection if we get only 3 follicles next time as well as quality is better than quantity (but one of the follicles was big already at first scan so I worried it might be from previous cycle and didn’t want to risk it with just 2). This time we thought we will follow the doctor’s advice as they had expected a much better response. We’ll try again as soon as we can get booked in again and in the meantime I’m still hoping it would happen naturally!

I have a PhD in biology so I’ve been reading through many research papers trying to find out what is going on and to understand. During my degree I actually practiced injecting eggs and doing dna fragmentation analysis on sperm etc. And my PhD was on cell division and things that can go wrong due to molecular stress. But doctors tend to get annoyed with me when I ask questions and when it comes to this they are the experts (or so I hope) as hormones were never my strong point and I know so many things that affect them (stress, what you eat, how you exercise etc). So our response can vary although technically the drugs they give should override that. So that might be the reason one doesn’t always respond in same fashion. Sometimes when they give us too high concentrations of drugs the system can start to overcompensate the other way as well and fight against it. I just wish doctors would spend more time trying to understand what actually I’d going on and looking at the data to tailor protocols better.

[Rol81 in reply to Sandyels]

Thanks, I totally agree with you x When do you think you’ll start again ? X

[Sandyels in reply to Rol81]

I think it will likely be in August as we have to wait for a “natural” period (after the withdrawal bleed).

[BECIO]

Hey I was in the same predicament each scan I was so anxious but yesterday there had been sudden growth and a few more follicles and cycle going ahead, I stimmed for 15 days. Don’t lose hope as things can change. I have my egg collection tomorrow never thought I’d get to that points x

[Rol81 in reply to BECIO]

Awww good luck . How many follicles did you have? Thanks xxx

[BECIO in reply to Rol81]

Thanks I only had two and at last scan had 5 really trying to be positive and hope there are eggs! Hope things progress for you xx

[Rol81 in reply to BECIO]

Thanks so much . Wishing you so much luck tomorrow. Let us know how you get on. 🤞🤞🤞🤞