Advice Please 🙏🏻 Following Chemical Pregnancy

[Daisy-Delilah]

Hello everyone, I’m hoping for your help..

I have just had another chemical pregnancy. Following my FET on my OTD the line was very faint so they did a blood test and found the levels had dropped to 5.5 😢

I had one two months ago when by some miracle we fell pregnant naturally and the consultant let us start our next FET on the following period.

I have started my period now and said the nurse I presume it’s ok to use tampons to which she said ‘No’ in case of infection she also said we could try again until I’d had two normal cycles! Which is just heartbreaking to hear as we just want to get in with it after a number of difficulties this year 🙁 however if this is best practice I’m wondering if we didn’t wait long enough and that’s why I have had another chemical one!? 🤷🏼‍♀️

So I have a number of questions that I’m hoping you lovely ladies can help with…

- Is there anything else I should /shouldn’t be doing to help recover from my chemical pregnancy?

- how long did you have to wait following the chemical before starting another cycle/trying naturally?

-any idea why we have these chemical pregnancies?

-anything I should ask my consultant when our meet with him?

thank you all xxxx

[Me_and_Sparkle]

hi Daisy, I’m so sorry to read about this, I can’t even imagine how upsetting it must have been for you.

Did you test your embryos for chromosomes abnormalities - PGT-A? And did you check your lining for fibroids? From my research and from what my clinic said, these would be the most common reasons for it..

sending you virtual hugs 🤗❤️

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Me_and_Sparkle]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

I haven’t had them tested - last time I asked about this (after a MMC earlier this year) my consultant said it’s not really worth it as we’d have to defrost them and then they just take a small sample so something could come back good when it’s not, and the process could disrupt the embryos.

I’m not really sure what to do as I am very lucky to have 12 frozen embryos but if they’ve all got a problem maybe it would be better to know sooner as I’m not getting any younger 🙁 and the thought of doing another fresh cycle is a bit daunting.

I am also lucky in that I do have a child already so the clinic have again deterred me from doing PGA testing on this basis.

I haven’t heard anything about fibroids- can they be seen on a scan?

Xxx

[Me_and_Sparkle in reply to Daisy-Delilah]

Yes you can detect fibroids via ultrasound so I’m sure they would have told you if you had one. I had to remove mine before my FET.

12 embryos is a lot! There must be a good embryo there, you just have to keep trying I guess. I had 5 5-day blastocysts and 3 were abnormal (I’m 38) so 60%.

Best of luck with your next transfers xx

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Me_and_Sparkle]

Thank you for the information. My consultant said similar to you that the embryos are all from when I was 34 and so there should be a good one in there.

Thank you so much xxx

[Kittykat198]

I’m sorry to hear about your chemical pregnancy. I’ve had 3 myself and know how upsetting it can be. I was told by our consultant that they were likely nothing I did or didn’t do and most are caused by genetic/ chromosomal issues that mean your body quickly recognises the embryo isn’t viable.

I was prescribed (but didn’t take) steroids at a low dose in case my immune system was the cause of them not sticking but I had also had 2 miscarriages. So you could ask about steroids?

They advised taking coq10 to help with egg quality and aspirin to help implantation so you could ask your consultant if there is anything like that they recommend?

I also had recurrent miscarriage screening after my last miscarriage to rule out clotting issues and anything else which might be helpful? This was just a blood test from the hospital.

I started the meds for a fet as soon as period came after chemical from our last fresh cycle. I was asked to have a period between egg collections though and after my last miscarriage by the clinic before our third collection (and after hysteroscopy). I felt quite physically well and was a bit desperate to keep going.

There was some previous advice about waiting 3 months after a miscarriage to try but I think that’s since been debunked. The miscarriage association have advice on their page about trying again but I don’t think there is a set gap between cycles only when you are ready to try again. X

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Kittykat198]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply- this is really helpful ❤️

Do you mean you had the bleed after your chemical and then started on the following cycle? Xxx

[Kittykat198 in reply to Daisy-Delilah]

I had a fresh transfer in July early august 2022, then started bleeding in mid august (chemical). Then started the meds for fet in the September as soon as my period started and had the transfer for the fet on 27th September!

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Kittykat198]

Thank you! That’s helpful to know xxx

[Boo718]

hiya I hope your ok? I had 2 chemical pregnancies we did the era test and discovered I needed an extra day of progesterone so transfer was moved to day 6 instead of day 5 for the next round. Look after yourself xxx

[Boo718 in reply to Boo718]

I should also say these were pgta tested good quality embryos xxx

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Boo718]

Thank you so much! What is the era test, and what does it involve?

How long does it take to test the embryos? Do you know if they have to be moved then defrosted and moved back to the clinic? Xxx

[Boo718 in reply to Daisy-Delilah]

It’s a test that checks to see when your womb is best receptive for transfer. They do a protocol like you are having a transfer but rather than transfer they take a biopsy of the womb and have it. Checked. I also did the Alice and Emma tests to check for bacteria levels and infection in the womb.I’m not sure how it would work for already frozen embryos we got ours tested whilst still fresh. Just took 3 weeks for results to come in xxx

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Boo718]

Thank you so much - this is really helpful! Xxx

[Fruitandflowers]

I had two chemicals/early losses back to back after fresh transfers, with only one natural period in between. I was told my embryos were top quality so I quizzed the consultant like mad on why it was happening, what else could we do or test for... similar to you I was told not to bother with genetic testing as we got a good nunber of high quality embryos, and all other tests had either been done or didn't seem relevant. He said it was just numbers - 1 in 3 was his rough stat for unexplained/no known issues. I immediately went into FET and have a daughter from that so he was right, and I don't think you actually have to wait if you and your clinic are happy to go ahead. I've since had a pregnancy of unknown location following another fresh transfer and a BFN on a FET, and now (one month later) a shock natural pregnancy for the first time in 10 years of ttc. So the timeline has been very much accelerated and it's a lot to go through, but don't give up hope as you sound like you've got a lot of embryos so maybe you can go with the just numbers theory (although it's hard) as you have such a great starting chance x

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Fruitandflowers]

Thank you so much. It sounds like you’re right, and my consultant said similar that we have a good number of embryos from when I was younger so 🤞🏻

Good luck with your pregnancy- that’s so exciting 💕 xxx

[Hidden]

I would also for a second opinion from your clinic as I don’t think you need to wait at all (I have a medical background but not fertility medicine). Good idea to let body rest after fresh cycle but otherwise usually no reason not to crack on. But ask your team for a second opinion may be that nurse has outdated info!

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much! You were right! We don’t have to wait that long thankfully! Xxx

[Waitingonarainbow]

Hi.

I’m not sure about having to wait 3 months, for us it ended up being over 3 months because of clinic availability but in relation to other questions to ask…

Maybe explore what additional tests they can do to check what could be causing issues. We have had natural losses, and since starting ivf we have had a chemical pregnancy and one failed implantation. When we had our consultant review I said I wasn’t happy to proceed with another cycle without some further tests, so I am having the EMMA and ALICE tests soon…

Ultrasounds haven’t shown any obvious fibroids or endo for me but they can do a biopsy to check for definite. They are also taking a biopsy to check for any infection or issues with uterine conditions that may affect implantation

My husband is also having dna fragmentation test.

We wanted to explore these things first before testing embryos and possibly putting them at risk

Wishing you luck x

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Waitingonarainbow]

Thank you so much. I asked my consultant about the Emma, era and Alice tests, he said to me that it’s up to us, but he doesn’t proactively recommend them as they are optional add ons. So I’m going to have a look into it and see if I think it’s worth it.

Good luck with your tests. Xxx

[Bqjsh in reply to Waitingonarainbow]

I know this is an old post, but I was just wondering if further tests helped to give you answers? I'm currently in the same situation after having recurrent chemical pregnancies both naturally and ivf along with failed implantation xx

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Bqjsh]

Hi , I’m sorry to hear you are going through this.

I carried on with another couple of transfers which failed and then had a hysteroscopy. In this they found that the D&C is had after a MMC had caused severe scarring in my uterus. They removed this although my uterus was still damaged in some areas. I had a double transfer after that which was negative but the following double transfer resulted in a positive test and I am now 19 weeks pregnant.

I hope you find some answers.

🤞🏻💕🌈 xxx

[Waitingonarainbow in reply to Bqjsh]

Hi. I remember being where you are now, and exactly how that felt.

My tests came back clear, so while I initially felt like we had no answers, and nothing to treat or “fix” so to speak, or guide us in relation to how we could do the next cycle differently, it did help us to rule things out.

I would say that I know someone else who had the same tests as well as others, and it did show up bacteria that was affecting implementation, so she was able to have this treated. She also found out that her transfers were happening on the wrong day.

For us, we felt it was worthwhile having the tests just in case there was something wrong or something that we could treat before continuing with our journey. I couldn’t put myself through any more losses or failed implantation without checking.

Sending you lots of love for your journey xx