...Were you able to improve your outcomes from one cycle to the next? And if so, what did you do differently for that to happen?
I am gearing up for my third and final IVF cycle this summer. In preparation I've been taking these next few months to make lifestyle changes to improve egg quality.
I'm a month into my 'plan' and while I started out hopeful, lately I've found myself doubting this can even work for me. I'm already finding myself making life plans for if it doesn't work. I mean, so much has to go right with this process, and if I can't even make a decent embryo what chances do I have?
I'd love to hear any success stories to help give me some hope!
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neonpg
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Hiya! So I respond well to the meds but I struggle to make blasts. Past two cycles have been we follows:IVF#1: 15 eggs (all mature), 13 fertilised, 2 blasts (one BFN, one m/c)
IVF#2: 10 eggs (9 mature), 7 fertilised, 1 ungraded early blast which didn't stick.
Consultant says there's nothing wrong and these are "normal" results but scientific literature says that 30% of embryos make blasts. But for me that rate is more like 13-14%.
For our final round I'm taking a gamble and changing sperm donor. The consultant said this might give me worse outcomes but hey it can't exactly get any worse 🙃
How are you finding changing sperm donor? I have read that from day 4 it's the sperm that takes over but saying that the clinic should have the best of sperm selected anyway.
Vitamin D 3000iu spray is another I've added in. Plus CoQ10 60mg and omega 3.
I'm the opposite of you, I get very low numbers but they are mostly mature. This round I had 4 retrieved & 3 mature then fertilized. Day 3 is tomorrow. Last round I had 2 out of 2 that made it to day 5.
This is what the embryologist told us. Given that 4 of our 7 embryos were grade 1 and 2 on Day 3, it's disappointing and surprising that none made it to blast. Donor sperm is supposed to be top notch and yet I've heard from a couple of people on here who've changed donors and improved their blast rate, so we're giving it a whirl. Got nothing to lose (well...except money!)
Wow I'm keeping everything crossed for you on this latest cycle. It's sounding promising 🤞🏻
I don’t know if this helped or not but 3 months and right up to first period of my IVF cycle. I had monthly vitamin D and B12 injections. I also used iron supplements (like the Holland and Barrett ones). I used it mostly as my thyroid was never right in 7 years always too high or too low no matter what my endocrinologist tried we never got it right. I only have fertility thyroid issues) otherwise it’s normal. My endocrinologist suggested I come off the thyroxine and take 2 iron supplements daily instead. This was super easy for me as I had no side effects and just took it at breakfast. Easy to get and cheap as chips.
I did a thyroid test a month ahead of each of my positive cycles and the thyroid levels were perfect. Under 2.5. Without any other changes except the ones above.
I don’t know if these things helped but I didn’t do any accupuncture, reflexology. I do run 2 times a week and I ate normally, I didn’t stop drinking but had one glass of wine a month I don’t do caffeine (red bush tea is my drink of choice)
Mentally, I took on extra projects at work as well as personally to keep my mind busy and I planned my 2024 - even my ski trip at Christmas. (All will have to change if my current pregnancy progresses) but I couldn’t face another year of putting things on hold and after 8 years on the iVF rollercoaster I was indifferent. I am not a wellness pro so I don’t journal or meditate etc but I am Uber grateful for everything! My husband (he can be annoying) my job (very stressful and often over looked for promotions etc) but I do have one and I go happily everyday to the office even when we don’t have too! I just got up happy one morning and it all seemed to fall into place! Sorry for the nonsense but these were the only changes I made that actually resulted in BFP’s! I am 43 with PGT tested embryo and I am on immune protocol (steroids/blind thinners and I use prontogest) good luck with your plan my lovely!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It really is encouraging to hear about older women who succeed with IVF. I think I've kind of got into this mindset that 38 is too old which is of course wrong and not helpful. I also love your attitude and mindset so I'll do my best to try and have a similar approach to my upcoming treatment. It's hard when you've been on this road so long and had a lot of setbacks, but I'm not out yet I suppose.
You my dear are a spring chicken - at the tender age of 38! The embryos I transferred were all made between 36-38. I just took a break to do stuff - like volunteering abroad with animals caught in war torn areas. I kept super busy and I think it made me tough, inadvertently put things in perspective. I lost the I must concieve NOW mindset and just went with the flow. You have a great chance. You have a plan in place. Just be very nice to yourself and do things that make you happy. I went from going into a rage when people announced their Pregnancy to being the one who volunteered to host the baby shower… even now when I see a pregnant lady my first thought is you have overcome! It’s very weird! Good luck - you got this.
I had success on my third cycle. There were a few small changes to medication which you can read full details of in my profile. But I think what really had an impact was the fact a changed to less stressful job just before starting. My job during the first 2 cycles was extremely stressful. Also I had a completely different mindset I had decided before starting cycle that it wasn't going to work so I didn't put the effort in I had with previous cycles where I had the 'clean living' lifestyle. Instead I ate junk food drank caffeine even had a few glasses of wine. Went camping in the 2 week wait and even started planning a holiday to Egypt so when it failed my husband would have something to look forward to. My husband is convinced it was the drop in my stress and anxiety levels that made it work. Good luck x
Thank you so much for your reply. Funnily enough I've been weighing up whether or not to apply for a promotion at work and now I'm wondering whether I should hold off to try and minimise stress. Congratulations on your success!
Yay I'm so glad you got your success in the end. I'm due to get my TSH retested funnily enough. My levels have always come back normal thankfully but definitely something to consider.
Hi Neonpg, I feel like I have a similar journey to you. I am also 38 and my partner and I had ‘undiagnosed low fertilisation’ and after harvesting around x15 eggs for each of our x3 fresh rounds we only ended with x1 embryo at a time. We did our final round in August last year and I am currently 36 wks pregnant.
So here goes with some advice… you probably have all this covered but here are a few things I did especially in my last round (if it helps at all):
Supplements/Diet:
- COQ10 / Ubiquinol - this apparently is amazing for cell development (can be expensive but everyone says it’s a must!)
- High strength Vitamin D - I think I will always take this now as it helps rebalance your hormones as we get older and they start to deplete
- Folic Acid / Iron / Zinc / B12 / Vitamin C - you can usually get a women’s multi vitamin that covers all of these
- Food - I had a well balanced protein/veg/healthy carb diet during treatment (lots of chicken breast, fish, greens, beans and brown rice etc!) I tried to limit sugar and sweets as much as possible and avoid cold things (to keep my stomach warm for blood flow). I also ate loads of superfoods for snacking like walnuts, berries and pineapple - my god I ate SO much pineapple!!!
- Baby Aspirin - in my final round I also took baby aspirin before and after the implantation to thin my blood and help the embryo embed (have a read up there are pros and cons but in general it’s not too harmful so worth trying!)
Exercise - Running / Walking - I tried to take a walk every evening after dinner to help my food digest, it’s good for blood flow, and to calm me before bed so I wasn’t having too much screen time keeping me awake (try and get lots of rest!). I also tried to go for a couple of runs a week to help with mental health too
- Yoga - there are loads of YouTube tutorials especially for IVF to help with prepping for transfer and womb lining etc week by week of your treatment, I found this also calmed my aniexty too with the breathing techniques
- Accunpunture - this was incredible for calming aniexty, and helping blood flow, it might all be placebo, but I LOVE it and highly recommend! Try to find someone that specialises in women’s health as they will also be able to adjust week by week and prescribe Chinese teas which help with prep for each part of the treatment too
- Counselling - Hopefully your clinic will offer this free as part of your treatment, if not try and get it via NHS. This was a game changer for me!! Being able to articulate your frustration and sadness and someone validate that, make you feel you are not alone, and help you navigate your feelings made such a difference for me! It also made me create boundaries, as I was finding some friendships really difficult, but I learnt to just give them a little space and it was the best thing I did to be able to concentrate on myself!
In April last year we were told it probably wouldn’t ever happen for us, so our journey felt like pot luck in the end! There’s so much out of your control that sometimes that smallest things helped me feel like I was taking back some control!
Also a very good friend of mine also said whatever you decide to do next you will be loved, supported and still live the fullest and most incredible life! It’s an incredibly difficult thing to go through so if you at any point feel you have reached the end of the line that is completely validated and totally your decision! Only you will know if that time comes ❤️
Sending SO much love and luck with your final round! I hope this helps xxxx
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed response. This is so helpful and affirming. I am doing a lot of these steps already so it's encouraging to know that I'm on the right track. I've been on the fence about acupuncture but every day I'm leaning more towards it-even if it's just to help alleviate anxiety. And as for counselling I have just reached out to the clinic counsellor so I think this will be a gamechanger for helping with my mindset issues I'm experiencing right now.
I can't imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to have been told it probably wasn't going to happen for you. I'm so glad you managed to prove them wrong ❤️
The counselling was offered to me from the start by my clinic, but it took for me to get to a low point last year to recognise that I needed it. It helped so so much, I’m glad to hear you’re considering it - it gives you mental clarity and validation when you need to focus on yourself and your well being the most.
And I can’t recommend accunpunture enough, especially if you find someone that specialises in women’s health - see if they do moxibustion which is quite specific to fertility.
Good luck with everything, remember you are not alone and we are all sending you positive thoughts and energy! Sending love ❤️ Xxx
hi I’m so sorry your going through this🥺, but I had 3 egg collections, I only ever had 2 embryos on each collection and the first two collections embyros were poor graded, all 4 failed on seperate transfers. on the third I did a month of testosterone priming, this included rubbing testosterone gel alternating between my Inner thigh and stomach and I got 2 embryos but much better quality. I also had an ERA test which came back that I needed 24 hours extra progesterone. The first one failed and the second is currently 8 weeks old in my arms. I really think the testosterone and ERA were what made the difference for us, like you really started to believe it would never happen for us but please don’t give up hope ❤️. Sending you lots of love and good luck ❤️
Thank you for sharing your story. It must have been hard to only get v.few embryos, and to then have the struggle with implantation (I've had two implantation failures and a miscarriage so I totally get it!). It's amazing that ERA provided the answers your treatment team needed to help it work for you. Congratulations on your little one ❤️
After 4 failed IVF cycles due to endometriosis, endometrial hyperplasia and adenomyosis, I stopped eating meat, fish, eggs, dairy etc and boom, my next cycle worked!!!Some swear that the carnivore diet was what worked for them but for me, Vegan diet worked.
Whole food plant based plus B12 supplement daily. This is because B12 can only be gotten from animal sources.
Hi Goldgirl thanks for sharing your story. It's amazing that diet had such an impact, and it definitely gives me something to think about. My fertility supplements contain B12 (amongst others) so it's good to know I'm on the right track there
I've had three egg collections. First round 11 eggs, one blast (resulting in successful pregnancy) second one, we got 7 eggs and one blast which resulted in BFN. Third collection I started taking a new supplement NAC - n acetyl cysteine. No idea if it was this but we got 5 eggs and 3 made it to blast. We transferred two which sadly didn't work but got our first ever frozen embryo. I think it can help both men and women
Wow this is really encouraging SarahHit-thanks so much for sharing! And your numbers sound very similar to my first two cycles. I'll definitely look into NAC.
Great! Yeah, we never thought we'd get an embryo to freeze as the drop off has always been terrible. Adding that supplement is the only thing different. I'm going to have acupuncture for frozen transfer too as I did have that during my successful round.
I take 1200mg each day. Also take Coq10, proceive, omega 3/DHA and a probiotic.
Hello hun, my son was from my third egg collection (all at age 40). First two I got about 1 or 2 blastocysts, third 6 good blastocyst, so definitely a very different outcome from cycles is possible. Similarly to you I had good egg numbers but relatively poor embryo development, I wrote a post at the time about the changes I made. In brief I saw a fertility nutritionist and changed my diet, followed a lot of supplement advice from 'it starts with the egg' including DHEA (got my DHEA-S and testosterone levels tested), changed sperm donor, for stimulation meds I seemed to do better with Menopur. Good luck hun I believe there's every reason to think this can work for you, and in my experience it's definitely worth making the lifestyle changes etc.
Hi Neonpg, I am on my 4th IVF cycle, the 1st I only managed 3 eggs (all fertilised, 1 transferred) no success. So I read "it starts with the egg" as recommended and after using Ubiquinol, prenatal with folate and omega 3 I managed to increase my number of eggs to 13 on my 2nd round (3 transferred separately) 1 BFP but ended in early miscarriage. For my 4th round I reread the book and due to my age 41 I added 3mg melatonin during stims before bed and increased my egg collection to 19! (5 frozen and 2 ready to transfer). I'm convinced the melatonin helped... waiting for my transfer so fingers crossed. Good luck xx
Oh my goodness those results are incredible. I'm really keeping everything crossed that one of them sticks. I have the book and I'm now taking most of the supplements you mentioned (I've been taking folic acid and CoQ10 for two years but not in folate or ubiquinol form which may be where I've been going wrong). The only thing I haven't tried is melatonin as it's not prescribed in the UK. Did you just buy it online?
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