We had our debrief appointment with our doctor last week following our recent cancelled cycle. The cycle was cancelled due to poor follicle response.
We have now had several fresh cycles with massively varied results. We have had blasts but not from every round. Our last two cycles were the one described above and prior to that 2eggs collected no blasts.
Our current protocol is embryo banking due to low reserve.
So since the cancelled cycle we had discussed things and thought let's try a frozen cycle (we have 2 frozen, one tested). And then look at donor if no success. Because we don't appear to be getting any decent eggs from fresh rounds. I fully anticipated the doctor to say this too.
But the doctor said she remains confident in me getting another euploid embryo and recommends us to go for another fresh. She thinks I have age on my side, she sees follicles, she says some months are better than others and thinks I am capable of this.
I don't know what to do.
With such mixed results, what do you think I should do?
Thank you for any input you wonderful lot xx
EDIT We are PGT-A testing our embryos so any transfers are going to be frozen.
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Skittles11
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Hey hun 💞 I would share what I would of done in your situation. I would go for one frozen transfer and see what happens. Personally I started to believe frozen transfers are more successful than fresh ones and put less pressure on your body. I've been also reading here and there that America for instance mainly do frozen transfers as they believe the success rates are higher. Don't know how true is that but my consultant in Turkey is sharing the same opinion and I tend to agree with that. Of course that's my opinion and what I would do. What I would say is do what your hearts says to do. You never know, this one frozen transfer might be the one. If this one doesn't work then go for another round. But why put your body through all stims and everything when you have a frozen embryo. It could fail, you could get a BFN but as long as there is a chance for a pregnancy I would go for it.
I think if money or age isn’t an issue (our clinic have daft rules about transfers and additional costs), then I would be tempted to have a frozen as they are a good chance of pregnancy and gives your body a break from the stress of a fresh? I found frozen to be much easier, less scans and I wasn’t having a nervous breakdown about my egg quality.
Personally, I would go ahead and transfer the embryos that you have, either together or the tested one first.
I don’t know how old you are but do know a bit about your story and I feel like you’d have such a good chance with your tested frostie. One clinic we met with said they’ll only do single transfers of PGT embryos because the chances of success are around 70% compared to 30% or less for untested. If the cycle failed it shouldn’t have wasted too much time and you can carry on with the embryo banking.
I am horribly impatient though so that also factors in to my choices 🙈
I’d say if she thinks age is on your side then you have time to do a frozen one and go back to fresh in a couple of months if it doesn’t work? BUT what if it does work? 😊
I don’t see any point in not giving it at least one shot with a frozen round (and fling everything but the kitchen sink at it meds wise) but it is also good news the consultant thinks you should also keep trying with own eggs if not
Ps frozen worked for us (always BFNs with fresh) so I am personally a big fan lol xx
Thank you for all of your replies. I think perhaps I've not fully explained that any embryos we get are being PGT-A tested which means any transfer I have would be frozen anyway. So the question is whether to have another egg collection and aim to get another "normal" embryo in the freezer so we have higher chances of it working (we have been embryo banking - or trying to - due to my low reserve). Or whether to use the frozen one/s we already have (of which one is tested and one is untested). I wouldn't do a fresh transfer because of the testing plus I agree about letting the body settle after meds. Don't know if this changes anyone's input xx
I’m thinking if you were successful with your next transfer, then you would have to think about whether you’d use remaining frozen embryos, if there would be costs to keep them frozen… Or you could use what you have now and then if not successful, bank again? Just some ideas to explore.
Questions like how many children you waant or how you feel about discarting unused embryos might help you decide. Ivf is unpredictable but you might get your baby from your first euploid transfer. xxx
I find consultants usually err on the side of caution, so I don’t think yours would suggest continuing if she wasn’t confident you’d get another embryo. However, I think it really comes down to how many children you ideally want (tough to think about when it seems so hard to have one, I know!). If you transferred one embryo and it worked (and as you know, the chances are so much higher with a tested embryo), you’d only have one left to try later on. So if you’d be content with maybe only having one child, I’d say go for it and transfer, but if the possibility of a second is important to you (I know more back up embryos doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does up your chances), it might be more sensible to try and get it now because a) egg quality and b) maybe it’s harder going through treatment while looking after a little one (pure speculation on my part!).
Another thing to weigh up against this is your mental and physical health. How are you feeling about IVF at the moment? What about physically? Is having back up embryos worth putting yourself through further cycles considering every round takes its toll, no matter the outcome? If you did carry on with more cycles, would you set a limit at how many you do?
Sending lots of love.. I hope with time a decision that feels right to you becomes clear xxx
Hi Slightly different story to yours but I have low reserve and had a few failed transfers .
I’m currently embryo batching and have to say i had the same dilemma of using a frozen one or banking a bit more. I decided to wait on my frozen embryo a bit longer as it’s there. And I thought what if it works? What if a miracle happens! And then I’d still have low amh etc after birth. So I decided to bank a bit more and pgta test them all at the end of the banking cycle. ( about to commence my 3rd and final one I hope)
I do plan to use my frozen one when I’ve finished this cycle and have a month or two break to feel like I’m in the right place etc.
Good luck with what you decide. I would say thinking about chances. You want to do whatever gives you the best shot at being a mummy x ❤️
This is a really hard one. Have your two frozen embryos already been PGTA tested or were you planning on testing them all together once you had banked a few? Assuming they haven't been tested, I think I would test them then decide next steps. I think if I found one or both of them are normal then I would probably want to proceed straight to transferring one and re-freezing the other (assuming they were both normal and it is possible to refreeze them - if not, I would test them one at a time). If neither of them are normal, then I would clearly need to proceed to another stimulation cycle. If only one is normal then I guess if transferring it results in BFN I would start the stimulation cycles again. That said, doing another cycle might result in a few more embryos for testing and greater chances of pregnancy but given the poor response and cancelled cycle what reassurances can your consultant give you that the same wont happen this time? Is she planning on changing the protocol and monitoring your thyroid etc or just trying again with the protocol which didnt work? What did she say she thought the reasons were for the poor response this time and why does she think things will be different next time? I think I would want those answers but given the difficulties, using the frozen embryos now would probably be my approach but I realise that this is so hard and different people will have different views Xx
Hey Skittles, I'd be feeling pretty confused and unsure of what to do in your shoes too. I suspect your consultant may be saying this because of your age (despite low reserve) and as you were able to get a euploid embryo not so long ago - so even though you don't always get embryos to test, there's recent evidence that it's possible for you to make good quality embryos.
In a lot cases I do think that embryo banking is the most sensible route for people of a certain age. It makes sense to make hay while the sun shines. However, I think I'd be really anxious going in for another IVF cycle when I'd had cycles which hadn't resulted in any embryos. It's true that cycles can vary a lot and it may be that the next cycle is the one that'll net you another euploid, but I think I'd feel very anxious going into it (that's not to say I wouldn't do it). Did your consultant say anything about what she'd recommend if you did another cycle and it didn't go well? That might be helpful information to know.
I think if I were in your shoes I'd potentially consider having your untested embryo thawed and retested. I know that's a scary prospect and some clinics may not even offer it, but I think generally speaking that if this is done by a competent embryologist and it's a strong embryo then it should be able to survive this process. But of course there are no guarantees and you don't know how much it might affect the embryo even if it does turn out to be euploid - although hopefully in good hands any damage would be unlikely.
Like you've said, you could also consider transferring your euploid embryo, but have a Plan B in place in case that doesn't work. A natural or medicated FET takes around 1-2 months in total depending on your treatment plan, so you won't have lost too much time. Your Plan B could then be to either transfer your last untested embryo, do another IVF cycle with your own eggs or with donor eggs.
Good luck with making a decision. It's certainly not the easiest of choices to make!
Oh lovely how confusing.
Has it been the same protocol every time? Did she have any ideas about what protocol she would do this time?
I always use the rule 'will I regret not doing it' - if you think its hopeless doing more rounds and you won't regret not trying then its quite understandable you don't want to do any more rounds. In my head the ones in the freezer are staying the same quality whereas the eggs in your body might not be, so if I had to prioritise which to do first I would do more collections, having said that like someone else said if your ambition is just one child and you don't need a family of 20 then maybe trying an FET will give your body a chance of a break and might give you the rainbow baby you so deserve.
I know I got to the point I was just so tired and beaten by fresh rounds that I just didn't have any more in me. but I did personally need that second opinion to tell me giving up was the right thing to do
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to my post, all with great input. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. It was such a hard decision on what to do next but we had a couple of conversations with our doctor who feels we still have good chances of getting another "normal" embryo with fresh batching. So we will try for one more fresh cycle in the hope of getting that precious euploid embryo. We are seeking a good FSH and good follicle numbers as a starting point in the hope that this may improve things. Will see how this approach goes and if we can't capture that good FSH it will be back to the drawing board. Also switching one of the stim drugs in the hope this may help... I have no idea if this was the best decision as I think I would be unsure either way...thank you so much for all of your support. Xx
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Another negative result 😢 next steps?
Good news day! Accepted on access fertility donor programme. Our new journey is really starting.
NHS funding fresh vs frozen
