No viable embryo after day3

[Avibaby]

Hi, I have gone through two failed IVF. I have a slightly low ovarian reserve. I’m 32 with AMH level 12.2. In our first IVF round we had 10 egg collected 7 fertilised but didn’t grow after day 3. Second round 13 eggs collected 7 fertilised ,2 reached partially compacted morula , one got transferred but no success. I took DHEA for about 6 weeks before IVF. Lab says I have poor quality egg. If anyone has similar story please share and what can I do to improve egg quality. I have started taking coq10 now. Thanks

[HollyT7]

My Amh was the same at the same age. We had 24 follicles, 16 collected, 9 mature, 3 fertilised. They said it’s likely my eggs take longer to mature so they would have kept me on medication for longer if they had known this.

We had a chemical from our first and two pregnancies from our frozen transfers. A lot of this is just luck. I drank loads of Pom juice before transfers, took pregnacare and had an acupuncture session the day before both frozen transfers and once after with our second frozen transfer. I ate healthy with the fresh transfer, takeaways with the first frozen and average for the third. All the best ❤️ xxxx

[Avibaby in reply to HollyT7]

Thank you for your reply. I have also started acupuncture twice a week and some supplements. We are taking break for few months before we start another IVF.

[Football61]

Hi, I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties. I’m 44 with an AMH of 11.5, and also have severe problems with egg quality. In my first IVF cycle in May, I had 16 eggs collected, 14 were mature, and 13 fertilised. Unfortunately, 10 of the embryos degenerated by Day 3, and the 2 blasts that I had on Day 5 came back abnormal after PGT-A testing. I’m in my second IVF cycle as we speak - with my egg collection tomorrow. Everything we have done this time has been geared towards improving my egg maturity. I’ve been taking DHEA and Ubiquinol for a couple of months, and the Genotropin MiniQuick growth hormone for six weeks. We got rid of Gonal F this time, and took Pergoveris throughout - at a higher dosage (as well as Meriofert). I also had a double trigger last night. I’ve not responded as well to the stims this time around, and have fewer follicles, but I can only pray that the quality of my embryos has improved and I will find that one precious euploid. Wishing you the very best of luck x

[Avibaby in reply to Football61]

Thanks for sharing your journey. I have started taking DHEA but stopped after failed cycle. Now, my doctor suggested ubiquinol. Hope it’ll improve egg quality. Good to know about different medications that you have taken. I can also ask my clinic next time. Good luck with your egg retrieval tomorrow ❤️😇

[Elsidee11 in reply to Football61]

Thank you for sharing. I hope you’re collection went well 🫶🏻 I am changing to meriofert and have been taking coQ10, keen to hear the different. Sending you best wishes xx

[Ganges]

hi I was advised 600mg coq10. 2000uk vit D and 75mg DHEA. Also vaginal probiotics. I’ve had no luck so far, but you just want to know you’re doing everything you can. As well as acupuncture you could try fertility yoga? Videos on fertility network page I think. Good idea having a break, sometimes it’s needed.

Good luck x

[Avibaby in reply to Ganges]

Thank you for your reply. All these advice and suggestions are really motivating.

[Rhubarb5]

Hi,

I had a similar issue with embryos doing fine up to day 3 and then only reaching compacting morula by day 5 and had similar egg numbers and fertilisations to you. I was told it was most likely due to an egg issue. My AMH was 8 at age 33 when I first started IVF. I tried both short and long protocols and did seem to respond slightly better to the long - some women respond better to one or the other, so that might be worth discussing with your Dr. For my 4th round I added Human Growth Hormone - it's an unlicensed drug, it's expensive but my Dr thought it was worth a shot - might be worth asking about although not all clinics offer it. This was my best round. I got a BFP which didn't end well unfortunately but we also managed to freeze one embryo which I had transferred in January and is still going strong. Hope that helps and best of luck with your next attempt. xx

[Avibaby in reply to Rhubarb5]

Big congratulations to you😇.I have also done long protocol but didn’t respond well. So, we had to cancel the cycle. My doctor is suggesting to add embryo gen and ICSI in our next cycle. Thanks

[Trinity1981]

Hi!

eggs quality can be improved in 3 months cycles as 3 months it takes for them to grow.

Medication only speed up the maturing process, so make sure you keep your self 3 months before ivf in the best possible condition and shape.

1. No caffeine - no tea, coffe or chocolate in any form.

2. Sleep at least 8 hours daily, preferably go to sleep before 10pm as your body relax, regenerate and grow new cells the best.

3. No processed food, especially no to processed meat.

4. Before, during or after ivf don’t eat anything which can upset your stomach and try not to eat things you shouldn’t eat in pregnancy.

5. Keep your body warm, mainly your feet as your body will need extra blood circulation. This applies also on all 3 months before ivf.

6. Yes to pregnancy multivitamins.

7. Pay extra for “glue”. Is statistically proven, that it helps with implantation of embryo.

8. Insist on laying down position after egg transfer at least for 1 hour. Some clinics have even 2 hours policy.

Strict, but effective rules. Good luck!!!

[Avibaby in reply to Trinity1981]

Thanks for all these suggestions. I’m trying my best to do everything right. Hope it’ll pay off.

[BearPanda]

Hi Avibaby! I'm 36 and have a very low reserve (AMH 0.6) and I am going through my first round of IVF. Our doctor basically told us not to get our hopes up with the potentual number of eggs. I took 3 months to prepare and had good results (even the doctor was surprised) 16 collected, 15 mature, all fertilized due to AMH and 7 made it to blastocyst. I just had my first FET so can't say if all will end well yet.

As you do already, I took supplement complex including Q10(100mg is the min) plus fish oil, probiotics, vitD, stopped drinking any alcohol, reduced caffeine under 200mg, started doing more yoga and exercise to encourage blood flow, min 10K steps a day, drink min 1.5l water a day, acupuncture weekly and psychotherapy to manage stress. Best of luck !!!

[Avibaby in reply to BearPanda]

Your story is very encouraging. I’m also doing acupuncture and started taking supplements. Also, trying to reduce stress and not thinking so much. Good luck with your transfer. ❤️😇

[BearPanda in reply to Avibaby]

Thank you so much! I really hope all goes well for you, giving yourself time to prepare was definitely a way forward for me! Good luck with your journey ❤️

[Icykoala88 in reply to BearPanda]

Hope you don’t mind me tagging on! Was your amh in pmol or nmol? 16 for the AMH is really impressive! What protocol were you on? x

[BearPanda in reply to Icykoala88]

Hello!Not at all, the more the merrier sorry for a late reply, I actually had to go back and check; so my AMH was in ng/ml. My protocol was the short one; wait for period, then Gonal-f 300 from day 3 daily, add Orgalutron from day 7. I went for an ultrasound on day 9 to check. My doctor saw 14 follicles (even she was bamboozled when she looked at the ultrasound!) and all was well so no changes to the protocol. I continued for another 2days and then I think I got the trigger (ovitrelle) but I don't remember exactly. They ended up finding 16 oocytes and 15 survived the retrieval. Hope this helps!

[mumma_in_the_making]

Sorry to read this, that must have been such a huge blow. I’m 33 with AMH 14.1 (a year ago) and had my first IVF egg collection earlier this month and feel very lucky. I did the long protocol and had 19 eggs collected, 16 fertilised, 11 blasts. I had two fresh embryos transferred on 7th and have 5 frozen.

I took CoQ10 (ubiquinol) for several months before collection. I don’t know it that helped but I suspect it did. It’s not cheap but I felt it was worth paying for. Also (no idea if this helped) but when I started my meds I kept to a very regular bedtime routine and made sure I had plenty of sleep.

Good luck x

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[Itisajourney in reply to mumma_in_the_making]

I hope you don’t mind I jump in. Can i ask you to send me by pm what is your clinic? I always tend to have 12-14 folicules but then they just stract 5-8 as they all grow on different tomes so would be good to get all them collected.

[mumma_in_the_making in reply to Itisajourney]

That’s strange, I’ve never heard of that before. My clinic is Leicester Fertility Center. They just collected all the eggs I had and I thought that was normal practice x

[IVFat40]

Hello hun, I found the advice in the book 'it starts with the egg' by Rebecca Fett helpful for improving egg quality/embryo development, and also saw an improvement after seeing a fertility nutritionist and following her advice for 3-4 months before my next egg collection. Wishing you so much luck.

[Avibaby in reply to IVFat40]

Hey Thanks for your reply. I had a look at the book and find it somewhat helpful. If you don’t mind can you please share what other things your fertility nutritionist advised. 🙂

[IVFat40 in reply to Avibaby]

The book is quite overwhelming isn't it, I found the advice on supplements, DHEA etc particularly useful.In terms of the fertility nutritionist it was a whole diet plan so a bit tricky to fully summarise but she was particularly focused reducing inflammation so encouraged no alcohol, no caffeine (although I still had a little), no/low wheat and dairy, no refined sugar (although I still had a little), high protein, no/low red meet, lots of fruit and veg of course, plenty of things like salmon, she recommended particular things that are good like beetroot and other particular nutrients to try and get. There were plenty of good fats in the diet. Worth getting your vitamin D levels checked. Honestly I was sceptical about the impact of nutrition when I started but for me it did seem to make a massive difference.

[LadyM2019]

I’m so sorry  Avibaby . Do you know if the embryos appear to be developing normally until day 3? Our consultant explained that when embryos don’t make it from day 3 to 5 this can be due to male factor problems. Best thing to do, if you can, is have your parter booked in for a sperm DNA fragmentation test. Sperm samples can look ok via standard screening but this test is different. Dr Johnathan Ramsey at the Lister is a well known male specialist. I don’t have any other advice in addition this as I am using donor sperm for our treatment.

[Avibaby in reply to LadyM2019]

Hi LadyM2019

Thanks for your reply. We changed the doc and he advised us to do sperm fragmentation test. My husband’s test came higher (31%) he is on supplements now like ubiquinol, vit c , menevit, DHA…