Hello everyone,
After our last failed ivf with icsi cycle, I've taken a few months to regroup. We are at care fertility but we are considering moving. Time is always against us with my partners condition.
We have had a few concerns with the clinics approach. I've seen so many great reviews but I was left with many questions not answered. I'm looking for any outstanding clinics with great reviews or personal recommendations in England. We live in Yorkshire but are prepared to travel.
Our Story in brief: I'm almost 39. AMH 9. On ultrasound before stims they found 5 noticeable follicles. With short protocol stims gonal f, meriofert, zanirelix and trigger I got 9 follicles all different sizes. 8 were deemed suitable to use. We had icsi. My partner produces large volume of sperm but his ability to penetrate the egg is low so we used icsi. Devastating only 4 of the 8 fertilised. The clinic said this is very disappointing and they aren't sure why but nothing was suggested to investigate. I understand I'm almost 39 and I know alot of it is the egg quality but it just seems odd only 4 fertilised with icsi. I asked what the reason might be and they said they weren't sure. The only changes they suggested were me going on a long protocol so that all my eggs would hopefully mature together. I'm in agreement. In fact I asked going into the first cycle should I be on anything to ensure they all mature together as I've read up and they said no. My mother has shared they found endometriosis in her hysterectomy. I asked the clinic about this and they said my ultrasound looked fine and my uterine lining is wonderful.
Changes we have made after cycle 1:
Mediterranean diet ** we did eat alot of processed food before due to partner struggling to maintain weight for to cancer diagnosis.
Avoiding plastics
Switch to all natural organic soaps, shampoos
Detergents
Deodorants
No make up or perfume or aftershave
No car seat warmer
Low caffeine 2 cups per day
I'm taking 600mg ubiquinol, Vitamin e, & c, 3,000iu vit d, selenium 200, ashwaganda for stress, prenatal, Vitamin b high strength and microbiome tablets for vaginal flora.
My partner is taking impryl, Vitamin d, selenium, ubiquinol and we found out he's extremely low in folate so he's on that now too high strength.
I feel we are doing everything we can and I'm looking for a clinic who will do the same. It's over £12,000 per cycle and we don't have that money and we never know what time we have together so there is time sensitivity with this too.
We are considering sperm dna fragmentation test, using IMSI, and Artificial oocyte activation (AOA) as we read that the low fertilisation could also be that the sperm and egg didn't trigger the calcium chain reaction to begin the process.
Out of the other 4 that did fertilise, they were all very slow to grow and 1 made it to day 6 blast but pgta revealed it was aneuploid.
Any clinic recommendations who can help us with would be greatly appreciated xx