oocyte activation

[Elsidee11]

Evening all, hope you’re all well.

We had our final planning consultation today for round 3, and we’ve decided to go ahead with oocyte activation following total fertilisation failure on our last icsi round.

Has anyone got any success stories? Hopefully we’ll have more mature eggs/better quality this time as we’re changing drugs, pushing me a little further and I’ve been taking 600mg of coq10. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Thanks so much 💖

[StarsAllAround]

Hi Elsidee, I had better success on my 3rd round after making a few changes. Both my husband and I took 300mg of coenzyme q10 3 x a day (with each meal) for around 5 months to improve egg and sperm quality (it takes 3 months to take effect). I also used testosterone gel during stims ti change the environment the eggs grow in. We had an increase in egg numbers, fertilisation and embryos. Full treatment info in my profile. Has your partner had extensive sperm testing? As sometimes there can be issues with sperm that are not picked up with the standard sperm tests and egg quality can be blamed instead. X

[Elsidee11 in reply to StarsAllAround]

hi starsallaround, thanks so much, I will have a look at your profile. He has had dna frag which was normal. I don’t really know what else he can test? They think with his normal dna frag and doing icsi - we should have a better chance, I’ve been taking coq10 for 4 months but husband has left it a bit late now 😌

I’ve also been taking my 600mg at once, eek, is that ok? X

[Elsidee11 in reply to Elsidee11]

@starsallaround Wow what an incredible 3rd round you had!! I am moving to Ovaleap and merriofort too and down regulating with buserlin. They didn’t mention tesosterone gel, will this help with maturation? X

[StarsAllAround in reply to Elsidee11]

As it was to be our last attempt the consultant said to just throw everything at it and said there is some evidence that testosterone changes the environment the eggs grow in and can improve the quality and quantity but no guarantee. I can't say for definite if it was coq10 or testosterone gel that helped but there's no harm in asking your clinic about it. My mindset for our third cycle was also different as I was convinced it wasn't going to work I wasn't as strict with my diet and even treated myself to a few glasses of wine at a party so not sure if the fact I was far more relaxed than the first two cycles had an impact x

[StarsAllAround in reply to Elsidee11]

I'm sure that's fine as I was talking 900mg a day, just spilt with each meal as it works better when you have just eaten so was advised to have 300mg with each meal. If your husband starts taking it now it won't do any harm and may have some impact. X

[Elsidee11 in reply to StarsAllAround]

Ok thank you 😊 just about to stock up, why’s it so much money 😒 thank you so much for the info, I also have endometriosis - so it’s great to hear of your success and congrats on your little girl x

[StarsAllAround in reply to Elsidee11]

Thank you, I hope you have the same success. Yes my bank balance dropped massively 😂. I didn't find out until my third cycle that Asda pharmacy don't add profit to drugs so were much cheaper than the clinics supplier, could of save ££££ x

[Elsidee11 in reply to StarsAllAround]

When they priced up our next round, I joked and said ‘wow wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just get pregnant by having sex 🫣🥴’ it’s crazy - but I know will be worth it in the end. I didn’t realise you could get the drugs from Asda pharmacy???

I will ask about testosterone, thank you so much xx

[Football61 in reply to Elsidee11]

Sorry to butt in here. Definitely speak to the pharmacy at your closest Asda store! Some of my medication from Asda was - quite literally - half the price that my clinic’s pharmacy wanted to charge.

P.S. Ubiquinol is the pure form of CO-Q10 - and Holland & Barratt sometimes have buy-one-get-one-half-price deals (although agree that it’s still vvv expensive. Sigh).

[StarsAllAround]

I called Adsa pharmacy to check if they could get the drugs in I needed and asked the price they were very helpful told me what they could get and cost which was far less than the clinic so I just asked then to write a private prescription for me and took it straight to Asda, I did have to wait a few days for them to get it in stock but saved a few hundred £££. If you already know what drugs you need and clinic haven't already ordered give Asda a ring and check prices x

[PinkPanther1234]

Hi, we used AOA on my 3rd egg collection, due to lower fertilisation on my 2nd round. I'm not sure if it was the AOA or other reasons (as there were quite a few changes), but we had good fertilisation and also the most good quality blastocysts make it to day 5 and 6 than I had ever had. They also gave me a double trigger to help with egg maturity.

Good luck for your next round, hope it brings you success 😊 x

[Elsidee11 in reply to PinkPanther1234]

Thank you pink panther - delighted to hear you had success third time round, I really hope we have a better outcome too x

[Luka_Ru]

we used calcium ionophore activation on round 2. We had severe MFI. First round 21 mature/7 fertilised, second round 21 mature/12 fertilised, 3 embryos round one and 6 embryos round two. So we saw some improvement, even though the issue was with the sperm rather than eggs.

[Elsidee11 in reply to Luka_Ru]

Thank you Luka, that’s what we are having. I am just hoping more eggs will mature this time round. We had 4 mature eggs last round and none fertilised with icsi - I just hope for one atleast x

[TopGuntastic]

I’m so pleased to hear you’ve decided on your next step! Everything crossed 🤞 ✨ xx

[Elsidee11 in reply to TopGuntastic]

Thank you so much 🥰🥰