Preparing for 2nd cycle

[LittlePea23]

We have just had our first cycle of IVF/ICSI. Unfortunately this failed with a chemical pregnancy and did not get any frosties.

We will have our review appointment with the consultant in due course. The nurse has said it will be 6 months before we can try again. Is this a standardised time scale or clinic specific?

Has anyone found acupuncture useful?

Also is there anything people have found useful to ask at their review appointments? Our initial thoughts are:

1. Is there anything else we can do to increase egg quality (had 12 follicles bigger than 15, and about 6 smaller: 10 eggs collected, 8 fertilised but only 1 to blasto stage). I am on 200mg CoEnzyme q10, 3 times a day. I do have slightly reduced ovarian reserve.

2. Do I need more support post transfer to aid with implantation/ongoing development (had progesterone pessaries, 3 times a day).

3. Did I respond appropriately to the medication/ was I over stimulated so body was less able to focus on quality of a few eggs? (Not sure what number is a good number to aim for).

4. What can we try differently next time?

Sorry for all the questions would just be useful to get any ideas from people that have been there.

[Goldy23]

I was on lunion injections post transfer as my progesterone level dropped. I also had acupuncture pre and post transfer. I’m now 38 week! Xx

Very best of luck xx

[Cutecolliedog]

sorry to hear your first transfer didn’t work 😢

in terms of cycle timing that is generally cycle specific but I think usually NHS ones will say 6 mths between full cycles and 3 mths wait between frozen transfers. I believe if using a private clinic (and sometimes NHS use private clinics in certain regions) you will not need to wait as long.

Sounds like all good questions to me! I found it was always good to focus/change things as you go along so you feel like you can improve/tweak things. Might be worth asking if you would be on the same protocol/same medication as I found I responded different when using different stimulation drugs (unsure if was going to be different or it was the change which made a difference or not though)

[DB_1]

HiI'm so sorry to hear you first cycle didn't work. I haven't heard about having to wait between cycles at our clinic. We went almost back to back with 2 fresh icsi cycles (first didn't work but second was successful). The consultant said sometimes it helps to go again soon after. That was a few years ago and I think some clinics now do something called duo stim for some patients which is slightly different to what we did as ours was a cycle apart. Although I haven't read the recent research on it.

Our consultant at nurture fertility said they aim for 15 eggs. We got 11 eggs both times. I also added prontogest progesterone injections second time round (they are hard to tolerate though!) and embryo glue, and time lapse but I think many do time lapse and embryo glue as standard now (ours was 6 years ago).

"It starts with the the egg" by Rebecca fett is a good book for looking at things that can help egg quality. There is also a facebook group discussing how to improve egg quality think you have to have the book to join it:

facebook.com/share/NWpG7CxJ...

Good luck. Please feel free to ask me any more questions.