Does Covid have an impact on egg quality? Do I need to postpone stims and egg collection?

[Hopewhite]

hi lovely warriors , I hope you’re all keeping strong and getting closer to your dream coming true xx

we were expecting to start stims around 10th September , so we took a lovely break in the sun to try to de stress and help with the situation . Unfortunately I had a really bad cold this Sunday, so I thought I’d test today for Covid just to discard it (I had never had it in all these years) and to my dismay it has come back positive!

I’m going to test again , as I’m in slight denial ( test line came before control line so that seemed odd, unsure if it means anything 😂) but chances are I’ve finally caught it ! Do I need to delay stims ? Does it have an impact on egg quality ? Would we be Just throwing some money to the bin ? How long would I have to wait ?

luckily my husband hasn’t felt bad at all , so hopefully he hasn’t got it !

I’m so heartbroken just thinking that we’ll have to wait longer ! not sure what the clinic will say and cannot remember their policy !

I’d love to hear your stories , hopefully the clinics are more relaxed these days but something tells me this may have an impact ?

many thanks , sending loads of good luck and good vibes your way !!

[Endofitall]

argh! I’m so sorry to hear. Our clinic has a policy which says they will cancel egg collection if you have COVID. I’m not sure how long before. I know it impacts sperm for 3 months but not sure about egg quality. I really hope you get a clear answer soon.

As you say gutting to wait but also don’t want to proceed if it had an impact. Really feel for you xx

[Hopewhite in reply to Endofitall]

Hi lovely, I hope everything is going well on your end xx thank you for your kind response , I’ve called our clinic and they said is debatable! But they said to definitely skip September plans , so October it is !

[Rubylou01]

Hi Hope white - am sorry to hear that you caught COVID. You'll get different stories here and your clinic might well have a policy too but I had a bad case of COVID in May and tested v positive for a whole week (8th day line showed signs of being a bit paler). I started stims in June and had a poorer response than expected - only one ovary responded and even then I only had a likelihood of 2 follicles/eggs by day 10. Could be my age - am 44 - but Dr thought unusual enough to test my AMH and it had dropped from 12 in March to 2 in June. Dr (head of clinic in London) hadn't seen that response before with anything other than flu - where he said if patients got a bad case of flu their bodies had a physiological response to it that affected their fertility system as well so that cycles had to be abandoned. Roll forward to July - and things looking better (12 follicles this time but one lead over 12mm so couldn't proceed) and another AMH test - this one was 7! And after long protocol in August this time I had 7 eggs retrieved...a big jump from 2 expected in June. Sadly by day 3 (yesterday) I only had 3 blastocysts out of the 7 remaining but had just passed the 3 months mark when stimming. So I'd very much say if your clinic ambivalent (as mine was when I told them I had COVID) it depends on your individual response. And if you're quite unwell I'd leave it for 3 months if you can. As actually you'll get a better response once you've recovered and save yourself some stress, heartache and money - and instead focus on getting as well as possible with lots of bone broths, etc. Good luck with your decision xx

[Hopewhite in reply to Rubylou01]

Hi Ruby thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience , I’m sorry that you had to go through all that and hope that things go well with your embryos , this part of waiting till day 5 is nerve wracking, but I hope these are your strong embryos , wishing you all the best of luck xx

My clinic said the impact was debatable but I should skip September, as I was expected to begin in 10 days , and I’m still positive ! I felt very bad last Sunday but have recovered energy after that , and feeling a bit better , so hopefully I’m over the worst ! Wondering if I should test my amh like you have , was that on advise of your clinic ?

Many thanks again , sending good luck your way xx

[Rubylou01 in reply to Hopewhite]

Thanks Hopewhite - unfortunately not a great outcome for me - only one abnormal blastocyst at day 6 which I've asked to be PGTA tested but am not holding out much hope. I am 44 though but was hoping for a better outcome. Am sorry to hear you're still testing positive - how miserable. With regard to AMH it was tested on the advice of the Dr as my response to stims in June wasnt in line with an AMH of 12 - (as left ovary doing nothing and only 2 follicles doing anything in right). When the AMH of 2 came back it suddenly made sense. And even 3 months later with the latest reading of 7 in July it was a struggle to produce 7 eggs by collection time. If you know your AMH before COVID it might be quite helpful to see if your bout has had an impact - as if I had known beforehand mine had dropped so badly I would have stalled a month or two xx

[Hopewhite in reply to Rubylou01]

I’m so sorry Ruby , remember you only need one , we had similar experience last retrieval and only had 1 blastocyst, we had already paid pgta but decided to transfer instead and at the end I bled on day 9 or 10, the doctor thought it was a chemical but I didn’t test . I did test amh in may so I’ll ask our clinic maybe we can do it again as a precaution, I’m feeling much better but now my husband caught it from me 🫠

Wishing you all the best of luck xx

[Rubylou01 in reply to Hopewhite]

Thank you xxx Am wondering if should have just transferred as well given an abnormal 4CC won't do well with being frozen and defrosted, etc. Oh no, sorry to hear that your husband has caught it too ...I did hear that some clinics ask for men to wait 6 weeks after catching covid as there is more evidence of it affecting sperm quality than egg quality (unless he's already banked ofc in which case it doesn't matter all). Glad you're feeling better and all the best to you both xx

[Hopewhite in reply to Rubylou01]

Thanks Ruby, I hadn’t ask about sperm , unfortunately we have MF so not great but hopefully it won’t impact further 🤞🏼🤞🏼

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi. I’ve not heard of it impacting human eggs. But you should keep away from anti intflammatories such as ibuprofen . Hopefully it will soon be over, but get yourself better first. You’re more important at the moment. It will all come right. Thinking of you. Diane

[Hopewhite in reply to DianeArnold]

Thank you Diane for your kind words

[BlahBlah55]

If helpful, I got Covid the day I started stims! It didn’t even occur to me that I would delay treatment so I just carried on as planned and am now 17 weeks pregnant from that round which started with covid. Most covid cases now are fairly mild, and I’m hoping it means I’ve got some immunity to stop me catching it while pregnant.

Good luck with your cycle!

[Hopewhite in reply to BlahBlah55]

Hi thank you very much for sharing this , and huge congratulations on your pregnancy! I hope everything is going well xx. I’ve called my clinic and they advised to skip next month and start the one after so now I’ll have to follow that. Glad that it all worked for you this time despite Covid ! I did think the positive side , I will now have immunity for the winter months 😂, every cloud !

[Here4ivfinfo in reply to BlahBlah55]

I had covid in my two week wait and my embryo(s) stuck 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[Hopewhite in reply to Here4ivfinfo]

Hi huge congratulations 🥳 and thank you for sharing the positive news , I’m glad it worked well for you , I hope you’re having a smooth pregnancy, all the best of luck !

[Here4ivfinfo in reply to Hopewhite]

Thank you. I’m only 6 weeks 3 days so still anxious about whether it’s truly worked. I feel mostly like my usual self still. Best of luck to you too!!

[Hopewhite in reply to Here4ivfinfo]

Ahh fingers crossed for you ! Let’s hope everything keeps developing like it should and these are your lucky embryo(s) 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 when is your viability scan ? Hopefully the time will fly by for you xx

[Here4ivfinfo in reply to Hopewhite]

I don’t have one booked with the nhs yet but I have booked a private one on sept 11th. I’d go sooner but my sister in law is coming to stay and if it is bad news it will be too hard to hide our feelings. She might go and see her mum for a few days and if she does I might move the scan forward as you can see a heartbeat by 7 weeks and that’s this coming Tuesday.

[Hopewhite in reply to Here4ivfinfo]

I wish you all the best , I hope you see a strong heartbeat and everything is developing perfectly!

[Tnthketnf]

In my last retrieval i caught covid during the stimulation period. My clinic even tested me the day before trigger but I obviously didn't have enough virus to show at that point. Anyway I went through retrieval without suspecting a thing. I had a ton of follicles, more than previously but got less eggs than other times when I started with less follicles.

The embryo development and quality wasn't much different than previous times maybe the quantity was affected a bit but that could be other reasons too. I ended up with one early blastocyst out of 8 mature( When previously I had 3 blastocysts from 10 mature) I transferred it at a later cycle and failed.

The clinic said that there is not evidence to say that covid impacts on eggs.

To be honest at the time I thought if I knew I wouldn't have gone through the retrieval

[Hopewhite in reply to Tnthketnf]

Hi lovely I hope you’re well , I’m sorry that it had an impact on your cycle , I hope you’re keeping strong and get lucky on your next one xx

Thank you for sharing this , our clinic said similar that it was debatable , and I’ve heard both ways so far from people in here , but so hard to guess and with everything else on ivf , do you mind me asking what’s your amh like? Mine was ok when tested in May but they changed the protocol and it was worst , only produced 7 eggs and we got only 1 blastocyst (before 9 mature, 3 blastocyst) so maybe we also need to look into the protocol ? Was yours exactly the same ?

[Tnthketnf in reply to Hopewhite]

I don't know my AMH any more. It was last tested when I was 39 about 4 months before my last retrieval and it was 16 and something. I had 5 retrievals with decent number of eggs in total over 60 eggs most of which were mature but always very few blastocysts 1-3 of average to low morphology.

That was my last OE cycle. I have now moved to DE and for the first time in 6+ years I had a positive test. Currently 13 weeks.