Covid and EC

[wool12]

Hello all

I wanted to ask people's experiences on how long they were advised to wait after having covid and starting a new EC cycle. My clinic said men need to wait 3 months as covid affects the sperm, but apparently not eggs. I had covid in July and it was really bad, had to stop treatment and now trying to decide when to start the next cycle..

Thank you

[Redsequin]

Hi lovely. Sorry you were so unwell with Covid in July: it’s such a horrible virus. I had Covid over Christmas but still started a new cycle end of January as my clinic insisted we didn’t need to wait (it seems some clinics ask for three months for sperm recovery, and some don’t).

I was highly sceptical, but in fact we had a slightly better number of embryos from this round (3 vs 2 on our previous round) so it seemed being v unwell didn’t affect our results. However, when I asked about it on here, there were a few people who said previous viruses had really negatively affected their results so it might be quite individual.

I do also think it’s important to factor in how you’re both feeling. If you still feel exhausted, it might be worth postponing until you feel stronger.

Best of luck with your decision! I know it’s a hard one to make.

xxx

[wool12 in reply to Redsequin]

Thank you. To be fair I am not exhausted, just the worst infection I had when I was positive and lasted around 3 weeks. I just worry a month becomes two etc.. and then time goes by as I have already delayed since July. Ugh

[Koala365]

I haven't had COVID but I was told that they suggest women wait 3 months after having had COVID before trying again with another IVF. I also read a medical article which I will try to dig out for you where they ran a trial to try to find out the effects of COVID on women during IVF and concluded that the only effect it had was a reduction in the number of top quality embryos (which sounded like a major effect to me!) I think they also advised waiting 3 months after having COVID. That would make sense to me due to time for the egg's cycle I guess.

[Koala365 in reply to Koala365]

Here is the link to the medical article I was talking about above pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/339...

[wool12 in reply to Koala365]

That does make sense. Thank you for sharing the article. I wonder why the clinics don't advise to wait then. Yes top quality embryos is a BIG reason to wait lol. I mean, I wonder if this is due to the eggs or sperm though?As sperm are affected by covid..

[Koala365 in reply to wool12]

I think in the study they observed mainly women who had got COVID during the IVF process and then also a few men separately so it must have affected the eggs and/or embryos while the women were carrying them or presumably they couldnt come to that conclusion. Whether they had taken into account whether the woman's partner or sperm donor had also had COVID and if so, at what point is not clear though. You would expect them to but who knows!

[Roobs33]

heya,

I had covid at the beginning of May and started a Fresh Cycle at the beginning of July. My clinic just said as long as you feel fully recovered then it’s fine to go ahead. My husband had it in March so it had been a long time between then and the cycle. Wishing you all the best xx

[wool12 in reply to Roobs33]

thank you for sharing that. Did your cycle post covid have any effects of potentially having covid?

[Roobs33 in reply to wool12]

I actually had a better outcome. I got one less egg but ended up with 3 blastocysts rather than two from my first cycle. I’m currently pregnant from the this most recent cycle. I was very focused on my diet and supplements in the lead up and I don’t think having covid affected anything. I was so worried about catching it, but once I’d had it I actually felt quite relieved and not so worried about getting during the cycle. Like others have mentioned I think it can affect sperm more than eggs. As long as you are feeling well in yourself and recovered then you should be ok. Wishing you lots of luck xx