We have had one failed round of ICSI where we got 1 5 day blastocyst from 5 eggs collected. 3 eggs fertilised and the other two did not make the cut unfortunately. We did not make it past week 5 with the 5 day blastocyst .
My husband has very low morphology 1% and I have AMH of about 6.9. We suspect there may be a DNA fragmentation issue given everything else tested was fine like my womb lining and hormone levels.
ICSI/IVF is emotionally horrendous and a lot to go through with low odds. It is a tough game to play. I am on the fence as to whether to go through it again and for terrible odds at a high cost emotionally and financially.
I have not found or heard a success story similar to mine to give me some sort of motivation that it could work making the risk worth taking.
We have done supplements and life style changes. Both my husband and I are under the age if 34 and fit/healthy. He has been checked for varicocele which some of you recommended and this was not identified.
Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. It is hard to face giving up but I would rather face reality if I can be spared further continuous heart break down the road if the odds are too low.
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Lionkingblue
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have you tried a dna fragmentation test to see if your theory is right? Zymot with icsi is meant to help with fertilisation with sperm issues. It’s a hard game not knowing why it’s not working and if it’ll work and if so how many attempts to get there. They say it’s a numbers game but it’s a hard slog with no guarantee
I had low AMH-under 5 when tested a year ago-we had to delay IVF due to genetic testing and I heard AMH can go down further so not sure what it has been this year as I wasn’t retested. My husband also had low morphology of 2% so we went down the ICSI route. I am not sure what you have tried already so just writing our journey in case it helps.
My first round a short protocol-only 4 eggs retrieved, 3 mature and 1 fertilised-unfortunately only got to a morula stage on day 5 and it did not take.
Second round-my husband and I upped our coq10-he began to exercise more and completely cut out caffeine and alcohol. His morphology increased I think by 1%. I had a long protocol which included down regulation to try and see if that would help with more eggs being retrieved. This time I had 7 retrieved 6 mature and 4 fertilised and all 4 got to a good grade blastocyst on day 5. Even the clinic who did the transfer as different to the one who did the medication asked what we did differently. We were lucky and I’m now 8 weeks pregnant on this round. The long protocol I had 46 injections compared to 18 and it does seem like it takes forever but it gave us better results with egg quantity.
Not sure which protocol you had but maybe ask about a long one with down regulation as for me that worked better with how many eggs we retrieved. Hope this is helpful and wishing you luck. It’s such a difficult journey xxx
Thank you so much for this as your story sounds similar to mine. I did long protocol the first time round but I was not on the highest dose of meriofert so was told next time to have this to potentially get more eggs. We were recommended Coq10 so we have been taking that which we did not take beforehand.
How long between rounds did you wait and take the supplements for? I had my last failed round in january so needed a break! I just wanted to hear a success story with what we had as everything I have read so far gives a bleak outcome so thank you for your response.
No problem, I know I needed this group lots so wanted to help as the story sounded similar. 🩵
Our first round we transferred end of January and our second round we transferred end of June. We had a gap but I think this was down to our hospital not having the space to go again straight away (we went private at an nhs hospital)
We upped our coq10 to 4 tablets instead of the 2 I had previously taken. My husband started a running plan as I think he wanted something else to put his mind too. I went to a few fitness classes to try to lose weight but my pcos wasn’t having any of that but I felt healthier in myself if not lighter. We did this all straight after the failed round as we were on the 3 cycles in a year package so knew we were going to go again especially as I had nothing to freeze in the first round.
Taking a break is definitely a good idea as it takes so much out of you. The first thing I did after our first cycle finished was book a holiday as I needed to get away from it for a bit.
wishing you so much success for your next round xxx
I don’t have any answers but what you are going through is similar to our situation although we are older. We’ve just had a MMC and are awaiting our follow up. We are hoping to get DNA fragmentation looked at too. I feel the same though, it’s such a tough process and the thought of going through another MMC if that’s likely to happen again makes me really consider if I can go through it again
We are in a very similar situation. Low AMH and low morphology and count.
We have just had our 7th egg collection got one egg and this was not mature. They keep saying as I’m young age is on my side. This time we did a modified natural cycle so minimal drugs. I haven’t done a long protocol before but I a goibg to ask about this following someone’s comment below.
We did do a dna morphology test and result was low - however clinic said we could do it but it would not change the treatment as the recommendation would be ICSI which we were already doing. So although it gave us an answer/figure it didn’t change anything else and it was quite expensive. I’d ask how the result will affect treatment before you do this and decide if you want to do it then.
That’s interesting about the DNA fragmentation. We had ICSI so likely our result for this is going to be somewhat irrelevant. I think I personally as just hunting for an answer - I’m like this with everything, it drives me mad to not know why something is the way it is!
Hi. We were in a very similar situation in 2021. Had 2 failed cycles golf ICSI with v low AMH, and the semen analysis was extremely poor (due to a past medical condition). We worked on our lifestyle, used CoQ10 600mg, Impryl for 3 months, changed clinic, and then had our 3rd successful cycle. Please don't give up after just on cycle just because you may think there's no hope. (If it's because of mental health or financial situation, that's a different story then). But there's a lot you can do. And age is on your side (unlike ours) which is a huge plus. You can pm me if you want to. All the best!🙂
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Embryos Arresting or not making blastocyst 
Sperm morphology issue - ICSI recommended - should do sperm dna fragmentation test even though clinic says no need? AMH 3.9 
Poor grade embryo success 
Low Blastocyst rate
