So many questions. Male fertility affected by Covid? Diminished Ovarian Reserve? 1st Failed IVF with 5AA embryo? Any additional advice?

[green121292]

I’m sorry in advance for the rant and lengthy post, but I feel the need to just talk about what’s going on and no one else I know is going through IVF.

I’m 30, my husband is 34, we have been trying for a year with 1 miscarriage and 1 chemical pregnancy. We had fertility testing in October and found out that I have Diminished Ovarian Reserve and my husband has low morphology and motility, which we were told could be because he caught covid in July.

We (very luckily) get fast tracked NHS as we currently qualify for IVF because of my low AMH levels, but would soon be too low to qualify (which in itself I find mental! Thank you to the incredibly kind doctor who referred me). I started an intensive course of acupuncture (1 a week for 4 weeks) and have my first ever pain free period (clearly it did something right!) We start IVF injections mid December and miss travelling to see my family in Scotland to do treatment. My body responded well to the injections and we got 9 eggs out. This then dropped to 5 being mature enough (which we’d expected), but only 2 fertilised. I now know that it is more common than I originally thought for quite a few not to fertilise. 1 dropped off over NY and we ended up with 1 5AA embryo which, frankly, we were delighted with! Although, I had originally believed most people end up with quite a few to freeze with - I now know this isn’t the case.

I had my embryo transfer on 2nd Jan and have managed to get through most of the horrendous Two Week Wait, including all the fun pessaries. This morning I wake up and I have a sizeable amount of fresh blood. Certainly not the spotting I’ve experienced before and I’m just devastated.

I’ve tried to look at this process as treatment for infertility rather than the blessing that might come out of it. But I’m now lying in my bed with a hot water bottle, crying on and off just wondering if my time will ever come.

Have any of you lovely people in this group had Diminished Ovarian Reserve? Do you have experience of your partners sperm being affected by covid? Have you had any failed IVF rounds?

I’m sorry again for the lengthy post, I’m just a despairing 30 year old who feels that their sole purpose in life is to have a baby and I couldn’t feel further from it. Xxx

[Rain415]

Hi Green, I'm so sorry to hear this. I had 1 failed transfer with a 5AA and one early miscarriage. I was also 30 at the time. I don't have low reserve but my husband had poor sperm results with count and morphology. He took preocieve max for 6 months which did help. Our third transfer was successful, and a 'lower quality' embroyo. Did you do ICSI? We had half ICSI have IVF and found higher amount of fertilisation and blastocyst with ICSI. Wishing you all the luck for your next steps x

[green121292 in reply to Rain415]

Hi Rain, thank you so much for your message. I’m so glad your third was successful! It just seems like such a mountain to climb to go through this again, but I know so many people do.

We did do ICSI with 2 then fertilising, but one dropped off in the end. Hopefully round two will be successful and thank you so much again xxx

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Sorry to read your post Hoping you get lots of replies as this forum is a great source of support and information Sending you and your OH big hugs and good luck wishes for the future

Thinking of you

Janet

[green121292 in reply to JA-fnuk]

thank you so much, Janet, I really appreciate it! X

[Habibi87]

I am so sorry that you have to go through this. It is emotionally really hard and your feelings are completely normal. I was 34 when I was told I had extremely low AMH and that we also had male factor infertility (possibly caused by an infection a few months earlier). I was totally devasted. We had two cycles to just bank embryos and it took us 3 transfers (and so much heartache) to have a strong positive ❤️. Each transfer was with embryos that had been genetically tested too. Wishing you lots of luck and love. Stay strong and be kind to yourself you can go through this xx

[green121292 in reply to Habibi87]

thank you so much, and I’m so glad things worked out for you in the end! I really, really appreciated your message and it certainly helps knowing I’m not alone. Hopefully it will work for us soon too! Thank you again xxxx

[Ranchu90]

Please don't lose your hopes! I know cases that had been more complicated than yours and they been successful, so stay strong. I am writing to you saying that whoever told you that your husband is having issues with his sperm more likely because of COVID is just bul****ing, that is absolutely wrong. My husband had COVID just few months before the craziness started, to be more precise in July 2020 and lockdown was in March '20. He had to provide fresh sperm just after one week from when he finished self isolation. From that sperm we managed to create 4 blasts and 3 were chromosome normal. From those 3 embryos, 1 was a chemical and 2 are now my boy and girl twins - 14 months old.

Because you had a miscarriage and chemical it means your body is responsive to pregnancies which is great but maybe you need help in another way, not to get pregnant but to stay pregnant. Probably you have to focus more in having some tests done before moving forward like NK cells, blood clot disorder, lining inflamation, thyroid issues or genetics - like karyotype.

I had 3 chemicals myself and without steroids I couldn't keep the pregnancy.

If your are bleeding or spotting now, I would have tested at least to know if you had a chemical or you might be even pregnant but your progesterone is not enough in your body so you started spotting. Don't use hot bottles after embryo transfer, we should not overheat the embryos by taking hot showers or using hot bottles. Just keep your feet warm that's it.

Also I read recently that a lady had AMH of 0.1 Ng/L (this is not UK units) and she had 5 blats. She ended up with twins +3 embryos on ice. You are young, if you react now in a right way without losing your time the chances are on your side.

Stay strong my love. Any questions please ask.

[green121292 in reply to Ranchu90]

thank you so much, I really appreciate your message and huge congratulations on your twins! Currently the clinic think it could well be a chemical, sadly. At least this gives us things to work on for next time. Thank you so much again! X

[Marisa32]

I have DOR but that should not be preventing you from getting pregnant. Did they do DNA fragmentation test on sperm? Possibly more issues there. I would investigate that and if all good, just keep trying. Lower stims/mild IVF may produce healthier eggs. It's a game of trial and error really. Good luck!

[green121292 in reply to Marisa32]

thank you so much for your response, Marisa! X

[effecta]

Hi! I am in the same situation, started when I was 34 (last month turned 35). Low ovarian reserve. Did 2 cycles, 1 did not produce any eggs.. second we got 1 embryo which is currently frozen. We are planning to start our 3rd cycle next month. I started reading the book “it starts with an egg” and thinking of adding more supplements to improve the chances of success for our next cycle. We are young and hopefully we can make it.. totally understand your feelings now xxx

[green121292 in reply to effecta]

hi there, thank you so much for your message and huge congratulations on your frozen embryo! We were so naive in thinking we’d have a couple to freeze from the first round, but only 1 which we then transferred.

Agreed re supplements, I’m about to have my first Dr follow up appointment and I’m going to ask about DHEA and her thoughts on it.

Would you mind letting me know which supplements you were thinking of taking please? I’m currently on the pre pregnancy pregnacare with Symprove and cod liver oil tablets. I was also taking aspirin, but stopped when the bleed started after ET. Thank you again for your message xx

[effecta in reply to green121292]

Hi! Thank you so much for your nice words. We were also so naive when we started this journey 2 months ago.. We thought we would collect a lot of embryos in our first cycle. I even did not know what was AMH 5 months ago and here we are now.... I am going to have a follow up with my Dr tomorrow and it is crazy as I was planning to also ask exactly the same - about their thoughts on DHEA!

So, I used to take Pregnancare but then switched to Proceive but then after researching a little bit, I noticed that the doses of supplements included in Proceive (probably same with Pregnancare) are very small, especially for CoQ and Folic Acid. So, CoQ in Proceive is 25 mg, whereas for low ovarian reserve it is suggested to have at least 400mg (again from that book)... So, I bought on Amazon Ubiquinol CoQ10 complex with the dose of 600mg. I bought separately Folic Acid 400 mg, since proceive only has 400 mg, so I take them both to have 800 mg dose for Folic Acid. I also take Omega 3. that is about it. Basically, I started following the plan outlined in the book "it starts with an egg" for people with low ovarian reserve and trying for IVF. The book suggests to test your DHEA first to check the levels before taking it and of course, all of this must be confirmed with your doctor. Tbh, I only changed the doses last week, so I am thinking of making 1 month pause to have a little bit higher chances for the cycle. Wishing you good luck and let's keep updating each other!

[green121292 in reply to effecta]

Us too! We are so lucky with the nurses at our clinic, but even so you can’t prepare for everything and I just assumed we’d get the embryos to freeze! Especially as our NHS funding offers 3 frozen cycles (we are really lucky) - problem is that you obviously need to get enough out and or high enough quality which we just didn’t this first time!

I’m not sure what to expect with round 2, maybe a higher dosage to get more out? Likely that will send me loopy - my poor husband!

Thank you so much re book suggestion - I will get onto it now! Great idea re the supplements you’ve suggested. I would imagine you’ve already looked into this, but I had an incredible response from acupuncture before we started treatment which I think really set me up well and, even though the first round don’t work, my body felt prepped and responded well to the treatment (which was a surprise). I would absolutely recommend it!

Let’s definitely keep each other in the loop - huge good luck tomorrow with the follow up. Fingers crossed you’ll get answers and some resolve for your next round with a positive outcome! Xxx

[effecta in reply to green121292]

Thank you soo much! I am hopeful we will both go through this with a positive outcome!! <3 Actually, on my first round we have increased dosage to see if I respond better but unfortunately it did not work. Apparently, with low AMH it is preferable to go with a mild stimulation to win quantity over quality. Have not tried acupuncture yet but thank you for the suggestion, will definitely give it a try! Fingers crossed with your next round! xxx

[Jokiekin11]

I know it’s a tough journey, but don’t give up. IVF is a massive learning curve. People who are successful on the first round are very lucky, because most are not.

The doctors may change drugs/doses and protocols depending on how your body responds.

I had very low AMH, and they had to take my case to a multidisciplinary team meeting because it was below 5 (nhs cut off for ivf) they said I’d have to look at donor eggs. Fast forward I had three rounds of IVF, only 3 eggs per round, but we were successful on the third go.

Have you read the book it starts with the egg?

Taken supplements? Also for partner?

It’s very promising to have been able to produce a good quality blastocyst. Remember AMH indicates how many eggs we have not the quality, you are below the age of 35 so have a very good chance of some of them eggs being genetically normal.

Really hope this help, be strong, you can do this. Get some positive affirmations xx

[green121292 in reply to Jokiekin11]

thank you so much, I really appreciated your message! Someone else recommended it starts with an egg, so I’m going to buy it now. Re supplements, my husband has been taking proxceed, fenugreek, impryl and Wellman conception and I’ve been taking pregnacare pre conception, Symprove, aspirin and cod liver oil. I’m about to have my follow up appointment and I’m keen to find out about DHEA tablets.

Thank you again, I really appreciate it xxx

[Jokiekin11 in reply to green121292]

I took the supplements recommended in that book for 4 months before the last round and the outcome was greatly improved. I didn’t need to take DHEA. Xx