We had our follow up with the consultant after our first failed cycle. I responded well to the meds, and had a total of 18 eggs, but only two fertilised, and one failed to implant.
I thought this was due to egg quality, but he seemed to think it was ok/ mixed so was a bit baffled really. He has suggested trying AOA to improve fertilisation rates, and short protocol on stronger meds to get same amount, possibly more eggs!
Has anyone seen improved fertilisation using AOA, and was there a cost associated with it?
Hi Porridge98, we used AOA in my last cycle for the eggs and we used Zymot for the sperm the 2 together created the greatest result we had out of the 3 cycle we have done... First we had 2 embryos (non tested - didnt stick), then 1 (non tested - stuck but lost it) and this time we had 5 embryos they were able to test 4 and we had 2 euploid embyos, and I am 8 weeks pregnant today... I can't really tell how much of it was the actual AOA but I am glad we went with it!Good luck with your next cycle! 💕
I haven't done a round without it so I can't confirm for certain but I think it helps. My husband had really poor sperm (less than 0.1 per ml) so he had a TESE. We used extracted frozen sperm for the first round, and fresh sperm for the second round. We are embryo banking so haven't done a transfer yet. Despite really terrible sperm parameters, we have had normal fertilisation rates and progression to blastocysts (4 blastocysts from 12 mature eggs for each round (mixed quality, some good some not great) using AOA .
Obviously as we haven't done a round without AOA, I think there's a good chance the AOA really helped, because I wasn't expecting those results from that sperm. Our clinic said they do recommend it if the sperm is lower quality or fertilisation was previously poor - apparently it is just calcium, which is required for fertilisation naturally, so adding extra calcium just seems to give them a boost.
We paid £400 for it each time, so it wasn't cheap but I think worth it to know you have done whatever you can. From my research I think £100 - £200 is a more normal price. Surprising as our clinic prices are normally pretty standard. I'd be interested to know what other people paid.
Did you have a low number if mature eggs before the sperm was introduced? AOA helps to mature the eggs and is a great shout if this was an issue.
However I don’t think you want more eggs, I think you want less but higher quality. Higher stim produces more eggs but often not as good quality. If it was me, I would be asking to reduce or change my stims.
Thanks for your response. 16 of the 18 eggs were mature and were ‘mixed’ quality. The consultant isn’t really sure why more didn’t fertilise, so is giving it a go! Hoping for around the same amount of eggs but using mediofert this time, as apparently this can help with quality!? Good luck on your journey x
16/18 mature is good, are you sure they are recommending AOA? I think different stim meds work differently for different people, so many differing stories on what works best. It’s good they have ideas about what to change up hey
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