Unsuccessful 1st Cycle - no blastocyst - what's next?

[vasa062015]

Hi all,

my husband and I went through our first ICSI cycle in November in London and unfortunately the results were not great, from 5 eggs retrieved, we had only 3 embryos on day 3 and no blastocyst on day 5.

Our clinic highlighted two issues: the low follicular response rate (potentially low egg quality) and sperm DNA fragmentation. My husband did a varicocele embolization 6 months ago but strangely his DNA frag got worst rather than same or better.

I am wondering if anyone in this community have a similar case and/or if there are any recommendations around:

- Given we must go through ICSI, is there any clinic comparison on which ones are recognised for the best embryologist and equipment too?

- I am on my 40's any recommendation on specialist that could help me around egg quality?

- other suggestions from anyone that went through similar situation

thanks again for your support and good luck for everyone on similar journeys 💚

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hope you get some replies with the information you are looking for Make sure have people around you for support Take a look at our website ww.fertilitynetworkuk.org Access Support - Fertility Groups - UK-Wide Groups then select 40 and over Fertility Group -next meeting 7th Feb via zoom

Thinking of you

Janet-Partner

[RekaV]

hi vasa062015! We started ivf/icsi in Aug2023 due to recurring miscarriages. We had all of our tests done in May2023 and my OH also had issues with DNA fragmentation. He has been taking Wellmen Conception tablets once a day and cut back on alcohol since. We both made lifestyle changes and I’m also taking vitamins since May2023 such as ubiquinol 400mg, folic acid, inositol etc…I’m a poor responder to stimms so we only ever got one or two embryos per cycle however they did reach blastocyst stage and quality has improved and we got 4BB and with the latest one 3AB embryos. Our clinic also issued a report about the sperm quality and it has significantly improved since May last year due to the changes we made.

As we are doing PGT-A testing due to the previous miscarriages we only have one viable embryo on ice however please don’t give up hope!

We are with a very well equipped clinic in Prague, if you would like to know the details please DM me.

[Clayhugs]

hi. I had a very poor first round with 3 eggs collected and all fertilising abnormally. I’ve low amh and husband has low morphology, unsure about fragmentation.

Before the second round I did acupuncture, ate a. High protein breakfast every morning of Greek yoghurt and nuts, did pikates, reduced stress, ate lots of fish And took a concoction of supplements excluding dhea. Second round didn’t respond well again and was expected to be cancelled but upped my meds half way through, I went to more acupuncture and an hyperbaric oxygen chamber and managed to get 5 eggs out, 3 fertilised and two returned in a day 3 transfer. Both have stuck and am cautiously nearly at 11 weeks. Husband also took supplements, nuts, Accupuncture and went to the gym to lose weight and increase his testosterone. His numbers doubled in that time,

I am s little younger at 36 but was after first round of no fertilisation was not expecting any luck at all, esp with my very low amh.

Best of luck to you, I didn’t believe it but a second round can go wildly different to a poor first round,. ❤️🫂🤞