What next? Losing hope.

[Turquoise2018]

We have had 3 rounds of IVF now…

Round 1: 2 embryos at day 5 (1 average quality, 1 low quality) both transferred, BFN.

Round 2: 1 embryo average quality at day 5, BFN.

Round 3: no embryos at day 5

Our problem seems to be that our embryos are not developing, we have changed diets and taken supplements, cut out sugars, caffeine, alcohol. Have checked for thrombophilia, negative. Still no diagnosis so unexplained.

I don’t know if it’s worth gambling another 6k when we have such poor results which are getting worse. We are considering the dna fragmentation test next…but don’t know what else we can possibly do to help our embryos.

[Millbanks]

Hi lovely, sorry to hear your cycles haven’t been successful so far. I think often if the embryos aren’t developing well past day 3 it can point to a sperm issue. I would definitely get a dna frag test done. Have you always done Ivf? Can you try ICSI or PICSI?

Worth a discussion with your consultant.

Have you tried ubiquinol / NAC or impryl for sperm health?

Xx

[Ivfgotadream]

Have all your cycles been the same protocol?I’d change protocol to something different? Natural modified?

[Turquoise2018 in reply to Ivfgotadream]

First 2 rounds were short protocol. Third was long. It seemed to be going better this time as we had quite a lot more follicles but the outcome was untimely worse! X

[Ladybugluck]

I’m so sorry you are going through this. How old are you? So many of the stats for the likelihood of an embryo being chromozomially normalAnd sticking have to do with your age and/or if you have signs of diminished ovarian reserve. If you are in your early to mid 30’s and decent AMH your odds are still pretty good; I may keep trying with IVF.

My wife just got news of her 3rd failed cycle this year with very similar patterns, although zero blasts from 3 rounds made it. Things stop developing around day 3. Our doctors are confident it’s an egg quality issue which I agree

with, she’s 38 with a low-ish AMH. We also have a sperm donor who has created 4 babies at this point (his two kids and our two kids, I’m currently carrying the second) so it’s clear it’s not the sperm quality. Every embryologist and specialist we’ve talked to has said it’s an egg quality issue, and we’ve had a LOT of consults. I’d look into what you can do to improve quality if you go for it again. Will be thinking about you!

[Turquoise2018 in reply to Ladybugluck]

Thank you for this! It’s so hard to know if it’s an egg or a sperm issue…maybe it’s both!? I’m not getting average egg numbers at retrieval (6 then 5 then 8) and most fertilise…but that final stage is where it all goes wrong for us! I’m 34 and my other half is 33, age is on our side but genetics/biology doesn’t seem to be!

[Seren0119 in reply to Turquoise2018]

From this I would definitely do a COMET test as the same happened to us. Go and see Dr Ramsey. When we corrected the fragmentation we got dramatically different results x

[Squareark]

Oh man, it sucks that you have to experience this, sending you a hug. I think it's good that you guys have tried a lot of different things and age/time is on your side, so fingers crossed for you. One suggestion is that I've heard people had good luck with natural IVF cycles (i.e., where the focus is on the quality of the egg retrieved rather than on the quantity) when the more traditional versions didn't work out. Maybe look into that see if it's something that you guys would like to explore? Also, I know that some people have had better luck trying different clinics (at least here in the States).

Best of luck and lots of baby dust!

[Chel91]

Hi, I'm sorry you haven't had better results so far. I've also had 3 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, but with somewhat different circumstances.

Have you possibly had your DHEA-S and Testosterone levels checked? You can supplement for this if it's really low. My clinic is also a fan of using growth hormone to improve egg quality. Have your protocols been with the same stim medications? Sometimes switching from a FSH/LH combo medication to a straight FSH like gonal-f only can improve results for some ladies, or vice versa. There is also immune testing / treatment, hysteroscopy / laproscopy, ERA / EMMA / ALICE testing.

I think the important thing is to find a clinic that really wants to find a solution and will change things up for you. I've definitely seen success stories where ladies have had much better cycles and positive outcomes once they found the "unexplained" issue. Best of luck xx

[Seren0119]

Has your doctor changed your protocol for any of the cycles and have your checked for sperm DNA fragmentation?

I did three rounds - hardly any eggs and first cycle no blasts and nothing to transfer. Then I did long protocol plus DNA testing and got three embryos, one of which is successful. This was done with IMSI.

My advice is that it’s not vitamins you need to change - your doctor needs to give you a new approach and more tests. Don’t give up x