New protocol

[Gillian84]

Hi everyone I have had 3 failed rounds of ivf this year. I am now 37 with an amh of 11 and afc off 11 and severe male factor infertility. Each round I have had this year has been short protocol and the most we have ever had is 5 eggs retrieved and 2 emryos with nothing frozen, all 3 rounds ended in a BFN at the end of the 2WW. We have decided to change clinics for this 4th and potentially last round. We had our consultation with the new clinic today and she has suggested we change to long protocol to try and get more eggs. I am happy to try anything new however, my current clinic always said long protocol leads to worse quality eggs. Has anyone changed from short to long protocol and had better results? TIA

[Vivkim]

Hi Gillian84Our circumstances are very similar except we’re on round 2. Our clinic has suggested a long protocol this time round also. We share your concerns as we’ve also heard that long protocol often produces quantity over quality.

However, after posting here, I was reassured that making changes to something that hasn’t worked previously is a positive thing. I’m hanging on to that thought.

I have everything crossed for you 💜

[Gillian84 in reply to Vivkim]

Thank you. This is what my OH has said to me. I think it's just the fact I think it's the last round we can afford now I'm going to be like this the whole way through but like he said short protocol hasn't worked for us 3 times so we have to try something else. Good luck to you when do you start? Xx

[FrancyItaly]

I imagine you had ICSI? Did you have your embryo tested before transfer?

[Gillian84]

Yes we has icsi. No my clinic didn't offer that x

[Vivkim]

We get details of the new treatment plan on 12th Nov and hoping to start before Xmas.

Do you know when you will start? It would be nice to have someone who is going through the process to chat to. My OH is great, but can only tolerate me talking about this kind of thing in short bursts 😄

[Gillian84]

I need to ring them on my next day 1 and like you hoping to start before Christmas. Yes my OH is the same. He wants it as much as I do but I literally spend every hour thinking about it or googling which I know isn't good but I hate this feeling of being out of control. Feel free to message me. Be nice to have someone going through the same at the same time to talk to xx

[Vivkim in reply to Gillian84]

Same here! I still don’t feel very informed despite all the googling as there’s so much stuff out there. There are so many variables and different approaches it makes my head explode!

I’ve just given you a follow. When I find out a bit more about this round, I’ll get in touch. We can use each other as a ‘sounding board?’

Im going to call the clinic today to see if I can find out the basics of this protocol so I can do a bit more research before the appt on the 12th.

Have you been on theduff.co.uk?

I got a very useful timeline of the long protocol from the website and a handy list of all the different drugs/ what they’re used for. That helped me understand a bit more.

Other than ICSI, did they make any other changes/investigations between cycles? Like Wonder_dog suggested, I’m going to push the doctor for some other tests/changes this time.

Speak soon x

[Wonder_Dog]

Hi Gillian, my medical status is almost identical to yours, except my AMH is 6.Our first round we did long protocol and only got 1 day 5 blast which we transferred and failed. Round 2 we did “flare” protocol which I believe is similar to short - we got 1 blast on day 5 (transferred and failed) and a second embryo made it to day 6, which we transferred as FET (also failed). I don’t feel there’s much between the outcomes of the types of protocols in my experience.

If you haven’t already considered it, I would highly suggest looking into immunology issues that might be causing implantation failure. It might be that other factors are at play. Don’t be afraid to keep pushing for more from your doctors - ask them about recurrent implantation failure and what they’re doing to investigate / treat that.

Good luck missus x

[Gillian84 in reply to Wonder_Dog]

Hi thanks for your reply. My clinic has always insisted on an early transfer so I don't even know if they make it to day 5. I had a day 3 transfer and then second 2 rounds were day 2 transfers. I feel like I'm going into 4th round but we literally know no more. I don't know if the embryos even make it past day 3 or if its an implantation issue. Its so infuriating xx

[Annakabana in reply to Wonder_Dog]

I agree with Wonder, I think it's worth looking into immunology issues.From my personal experience I would say that changing from short to long protocol didn't make much difference for me (in fact in my long protocol cycle only 2 eggs were retrieved, in my 4 short protocol cycles I had 3-7 eggs retrieved, but alas only one embryo progressed in each cycle). What worked for me though and I had my 1st ever bfp after 5 cycles and 5 transfers was steroids and intralipid after a hysteroscopy and endometrial scratch.

[XxMrsBXx]

Hi Gillian ,We had no luck with short and didn’t even make it to collection and was changed to long protocol.

Our first time we had 2 retrieved , both fertilised and good grade A’s but after transfers a negative.

My meds were tweaked and I did a second long protocol earlier this year . Had 13 retrieved and 7 fertilised , 6 grade a and 1 grade c .

I am currently going though my second frozen from this round . My meds have also changed for this too and have been increased .

I certainly had better results and so glad we went with what my clinic recommended.

Good luck with your cycle ❤️

[Latetotheparty38]

Hi Gillian I’m a poor responder with low AMH I’ve just done my sixth round this time trying the long protocol “estrogen priming” and it was the worst outcome for me only had one follicle of the right size after two months and taking human growth hormone cycle was cancelled and converted to an iui which failed. It’s good to try new things and find what works for you. If you don’t try you’ll be left wondering what if, all the best xx