Advice for next FET

[Skp77]

Hi all

Ive had 3 FET, which resulted in 2 chemical mischarriages, 1 failed.

I am now considering what to do. In my last FET I was in lubion and utrogeston and progestogen.

Now I need to rethink what to do next that will get me to my goal of having a baby.

I'm am 36 and have 9 frozen embryos. My clinic have asked me to do mischarriage blood test which looks at my blood and kyrotyping. Suggested pgt-a but I'm worried about this as it would mean 1. I could lose alot of my embryo through the process 2. Heard it not worth doing as sometime the results are in accurate. 3. It's costly.

They said that they could give me blood thinner as an additional thing if the blood tests shows clotting. Is that all a clinic can do or is there other things I should be asking or considering?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

[RecipIVF]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, that must have been very difficult.

You could ask about NK cell testing and a endo scratch?

9 embryos is great, fingers crossed next transfer will be your time 💕

Good luck xx

[Skp77 in reply to RecipIVF]

My current clinic doesn't do NK cell testing. I could look to changing clinic just worried about transferring the embryos

[Skp77 in reply to Skp77]

Thanks for the advice

[Snurf]

Hi, I’m similar to you but perhaps a little earlier. 1st fresh failed and FET took but faded away by the time of OTD so chemical was the outcome. I saw my consultant and said I’m not up for throwing more back in without trying to improve my environment, I have 4 left all day 6 blasts. My protocol is going to change now so 1st task was the miscarriage blood test and thyroid antibodies, I’m also going to have a saline scan which will check for endometriosis and polyps or anything else odd in the womb, the saline also acts as a scratch. We’re going to move from progesterone pessaries to lubion and all these blood tests will determine whether I need steroids and aspirin. These investigations will mean I have to delay next transfer by a month as they need a cycle of no activity to do the testing. When we go again we’re going to transfer 2 and if they don’t hold we’re going to do the full stimulation and retrieval again despite having spares as my doctor is not happy that my blasts were day 6 and not day 5 so she thinks they’re slow.

[Skp77 in reply to Snurf]

Thanks I will look into saline testing I wasn't aware of this. My clinic doesn't allow for 2 embryo transfers.

[Snurf in reply to Skp77]

Mine only allows 2 when you reach 36, I just turned and like I say I don’t think they’re convinced this batch is any good. My husband is a smoker and wouldn’t quit so whilst the blasts look ok we’re fairly convinced the actual quality may be poor.

[Skp77 in reply to Snurf]

Hope it goes well you never know they maybe the one to get you to your dream always a chance. best of luck and thanks for the advice. X

[Greyeverything]

Hi, I had two failed transfers and one chemical. My 4th (successful) transfer I had the ERA and Emma/Alice tests before hand. I was advised to do this before considering PGT for the reasons you have said. It’s much cheaper for a start. My ERA came back pretty much normal (only 4 hours extra progesterone needed) but it gave me a tailored number of hours of progesterone to have before the transfer. My consultant also put me on clexane injections this time just in case there was a blood clotting issue. We never tested for it but he said let’s just try it anyway. I am 10 weeks pregnant now. No idea if it was anything to do with the ERA or the clexane or just a numbers game with the embryos (i.e. finding the right one) but here we are. My embryologist said sometimes it is just a numbers game, you may have more abnormal embryos than normal and you just have to keep going till you find the normal one 😩

[Skp77 in reply to Greyeverything]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't heard of emma/Alice test will look into that. Will ask about ERA as they didn't mention this. Not sure if they do it.

[Greyeverything in reply to Skp77]

Yes have a look in to all three. They all focus on uterine receptivity. Even though I had a chemical they still classed me as having recurrent implantation failure which is why those tests were discussed with me.

[MrsOrangejuice]

Very similar story here - just turned 37, had 2 chemicals so far this year from fresh 5day embryos. Am about to start meds for a FET. I have tried with my NHS and private clinics to see what else they can test, do or change but both think everything's positive because the embryos are good, they implant quite strongly, my progesterone is high... They don't believe in NK testing and won't use steroids without evidence there is an autoimmune issue as they said there must be a positive risk-benefit. Said with our ages PGS testing is unlikely to be helpful as chromosomes are probably not the issue and like you said we would risk losing some. The private clinic suggested a 3D and saline scan but when I mentioned I'd had a hysteroscopy when I was younger, they said that would have shown any major anomalies. I've had two laparoscopies over the years - the second they even tested for 'micro endometriosis' which I'd not heard of. I don't know how many sets of blood screening I've had. It all comes back fine and only suggestion is to change to Ultrogestan by the front, and add lubion. They said aspirin won't do any harm but they wont recommend it. It sounds like you've already had this combination of meds though so perhaps the scans are worth looking into - my clinic said the hysteroscopy is the 'gold standard' over the 3D/saline but I think it can be expensive privately, especially under general and not sure it's necessary. I had it on NHS but I think there might be a wait at the moment.

9 is a fantastic number but every round and loss is so hard, and each embryo is so fought for and precious, so it's awful feeling that you may be 'wasting' them. I am trying not to look at it this way but if this third one doesn't stay with the changed meds I will have to rethink. I hope you get some answers x

[Skp77]

Thanks; it is soo hard as I know pgta may be good but it may also been no embryo after the process and that could be a combo or good and bad. I cant believe all mine are bad. I just hope we find out what is causing the failures so can fix it. Is hysteroscopy the one they check for blockages in your tubes?