Anyone had lots of eggs but no embryos from 1st cycle any chance on 2nd cycle?! Change stims? Change clinic?! Supplements?

[Green_Lady]

I'm 39, have PCOS but they think it's more hypothalamic amenorrhea that's causing annovulatuon. Clomid and letrazole didn't work. I have a high AMH, BMI just got above19. We just did our first and only cycle of IVF allowed on NHS and I got 14 eggs collected from over 15 follicles & oestrogen was over 6000 on trigger day. I have OHSS now as predicted by high AMH, 15+ follicles & low BMI but had to use Ovitrelle trigger as I have low LH levels. So it was always going to be freeze all.

Everything seemed positive throughout stimulation, I was on 125 to 150 gonal F, 75 of Luveris.

We wanted to do IVF rather than ICSI if sperm was OK on the day & they said it was normal.

We were worried as my husband had a fever for a few days just before we started but spoke to the clinic & they said we could go ahead.

Out of 14 eggs, 7 fertilised, all looked poor on day 3 and none made it to day 5.

Totally devastated. I do want to try again and we have some money saved for private but need to make sure I get the best chance.

Anyone else have an expected failure with lots of eggs? Did you change anything next time? Have ICSI? Take supplements? Is there any hope?!

Any recommendations for London clinics? You'll have to PM me please 🙏

[McQueeny]

I’m so sorry, that’s really devastating…

Not quite the same, but we’ve always had poor survival rates - 15-17 eggs each retrieval, 12-13 fertilise well, then only 2 survive to day 5. But we do have one healthy baby ….

I’d say definitely worth trying again, and worth discussing a different stimulation protocol to see if it would make a difference. We didn’t change the stimulation but did do ICSI in later tries, but results were similar. Have you done any sperm tests?

Supplements wise, coq10 (400mg a day) is meant to be good for egg quality, I’ve always taken it - other than that all the normal pregnancy/conception multi vitamins, extra methylfolate, zinc…. Impryl is meant to be good for men for sperm quality.

The best of luck for a better run next time 🤞💫🍀

[Green_Lady in reply to McQueeny]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and giving me hope. We just did the normal sperm tests which cane back normal over last two years and on the day of egg retrieval but then they said there was a lot of fragmentation in the embryos and suggested it was the sperm.

I have read you can get DNA fragmentation tests but our clinic just seems to do the normal tests of motility /morphology /count and these have always been normal.

I would want to check more before trying again and plan to wait 3 months with good supplementation. My husband only really started a few weeks before so unlikely to have helped much.

[McQueeny in reply to Green_Lady]

yeah, my clinic wasn’t keen on the DNA fragmentation test either…. They said that as we are doing ICSI anyway it won’t make much difference. Don’t know.

The supplements are definitely worth a try. There are cases where it made a big difference.

There’s also a sperm selection technique called MACS (magnetic-activated cell sorting), which is meant to select the strongest sperm - I was never offered it in the UK (only in Czech), but might be worth asking if they do it?

[Green_Lady]

Thank you so much. I'll look into it.

[Eloquentia]

Hi! I am similar age as you also with PCOS. We got 18 eggs after stimulations, 12 fertilised with ICSI, froze 3 embryos on day 5 and another 3 on day 6. Like you, I developed OHSS (despite using agonist trigger), which they discovered on the day when I was supposed to have a fresh transfer, so we had to freeze all. ICSI worked well for us. Our clinic recommended taking Proxeed supplement - they have a version for women and for men. I also took Vitamin D spray and Ubiquinol. First FET resulted in a BFN but currently 22 weeks from the second FET. There is always hope! I hope your next round works well for you!

[Green_Lady in reply to Eloquentia]

Thank you so much for the advice. I do think we'll need to do ICSI next time & I will start taking vitamin D in a spray & Ubiquinol. My husband started Proxeed only a week before our cycle so we plan to carry this on now for at least 2 to 3 months before we try again.

[Rhubarb5]

Hello, so sorry this cycle didn’t work out. I have a couple of similarities to you but also some differences so I’ll just explain things I tried that relate to your experience.

For HA I had to get my BMI up to 22 to get my cycles working properly which I did before ivf.

I would always get about 10 eggs which fertilised but didn’t make it to day 5. I tried both the long and the short protocols. My embryos did better with the long, some women do better with one or the other. I did a planned day 2 transfer, although perhaps not possible if you have ohss. We paid for the GERI incubator which films the embryos to really understand what was going on with them. It helped inform future decisions. Hope that gives you some info on what you could ask your clinic. Best of luck with your next cycle. Xx

[Rhubarb5]

I also changed doctors to get a fresh opinion but stayed at the same clinic.

[Green_Lady in reply to Rhubarb5]

Thank for your insights and it's useful to know that you had to get your BMI up to 22. I was always about 8st 2 as a teenager, which is BMI of about 21 when I had periods before going on the pill and falling into diet & excessive exercise for years. I've just got to 8st for the first time in about 10 years, with the inactivity of going through stims & now the OHSS! Hoping I might actually get my periods back if after all this but I know it takes time.

I was against the long protocol but I will consider trying it. The GERI incubator sounds good. A clinic I'm considering sounds like they use this but I very much doubt my current one does.

I will definitely look into the labs quality more for our next try. XXX

[Rhubarb5 in reply to Green_Lady]

Best of luck. You may well already be aware of the HA community and book No Period Now What? I found it very helpful in regaining my cycles.

[DisneyHopeMagic]

Hi, I'm in a bit of a different situation myself, I do have regular periods but have high AMH, 34 last time it was checked and also my testosterone was a bit elevated then, as well as my Prolactin at the time. I've wondered whether I may have PCOS tendencies as I get hairs on boobs and blonde hairs on upper lip on chin as I'm quite pale. I've recently had my first IVF cycle and had 25 eggs retrieved, 15 mature and 13 fertilised, 7 made it to day 5 but we had genetic testing (PGT-A NGS) and unfortunately all 7 were abnormal (full chromosome abnormalities). Like you I've been doing lots of research and have seen for PCOS many places recommend taking Myoinositol or a mix like brand name Ovasitol.

I've considered taking it myself this time as it's supposed to help with egg quality for PCOS. It can mean you get fewer eggs retrieved but quality is better apparently. It's just it's not recommended for women who don't have PCOS as it actually reduced IVF success rates in studies. So this is why I'm a bit wary of taking it myself as I haven't had a diagnosis of PCOS.

Here's what I was already taking for my first cycle:

Ubiquinol 400mg (more easily absorbable version of CoQ10)

Vitamin B6 50mg every other day

Prenatal including Folate

Omega 3 wild fish oil

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Zinc drops in pure pomegranate juice

In preparation for another go I've added:

Vitamin C 500mg

N Acetyl Cysteine 600mg

Increased my Vitamin B6 to 50mg every day

Unsure if it helps but just thought I'd post in case. I read It Starts With the Egg beforehand and took the info from there - in case you wanted to have a read of it yourself to help you decide what's best for you.

Also, if anyone thinks I might have PCOS from what I've mentioned above, please let me know. I'd be interested to see if anyone thinks so.

Anyway, all the luck and love to everyone. ❤️❤️❤️✨✨✨

[DisneyHopeMagic in reply to DisneyHopeMagic]

Also, I should add, I'm 37 now, was tail end of 36 during my first cycle.

And I started on 225 iu Gonal f which was increased to 300iu after first scan on day 5. I was kept on 300iu Gonal f through until trigger and had Gonapeptyl (non-HCG) trigger to try and avoid OHSS. I think I managed to avoid OHSS but was quite bloated for a while afterwards. Felt ok though, just tired.

[Tnthketnf]

It can happen. Quite often the first cycle is a little like this. My friend on cycle 1 had no embryos on day 5 out 0f 14 eggs. Second cycle I think she had more eggs not sure how many and ended up with 5 good quality blastocysts.

[Green_Lady in reply to Tnthketnf]

Thank you that gives me hope 🙏