Success after 1st failed transfer?

[Zest11]

Hi everyone,

I think I'm here to just hear people's success stories after their first ivf transfer failed despite everything looking good.

I had a failed fresh IVF just over a month ago and have 4 frozen embryos in storage. (I know that we are very lucky for that). However, no reason could be given for the embryo's failure to implant, the quality was good, and everything went exactly according to plan. We have u explained infertility and to be honest, I'm pretty fed up of it and being told everything looks perfect. I can't help but think if IVF was going to work for us, it would have worked then. I know IVF is not 100% (we were at about 50/50 as we had a selective embryo transfer) but surely they would have picked the best embryo out of the bunch and so if that one failed, the others will too. The consultant said it was disappointing but when I asked her what we could do for the next transfer, she said the clinic don't tend to change things until after 3 failures. Not sure if that's normal or because they are NHS.

Sorry for the rambly post, if you have any experiences you would like to share, that would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

@Zest11 my nhs hospital said they don't change until after 3 failed transfers, all my good quality embryos 3 failed and that was my nhs funding finished. I would push for them to look into changing protocol or see if there any other tests you can do privately before you have your next nhs transfer.

Sorry it wasn't the success story you were after but I really regret not pushing for more after the 2 failures before my last attempt.

My friends had 3 transfers before they got their BFP and he is now 2.
Conversely, I had a successful fresh transfer first time (he is also now 2) and subsequent frozen transfers have failed.
I think it's just the luck of the draw sometimes.
Good luck!

@Maximoo06 I'm so sorry about your 3 failed transfers...it's so rubbish. Are you going to go privately now and get some other tests done? It's all just so soul destroying!

@Ginger1982 Thank you for sharing that success story, that gives me some hope. Yes, that's what the staff at my clinic say...that sometimes, it's just down to luck!

I'm also confused as we had a natural early miscarriage about a year ago (after about 18 months+ of trying) yet IVF didn't work.

@Zest11 it really is a shit journey and I'm struggling so much. Yes we are going to go private abroad as can't afford the uk & am having level 1 blood tests with my gp. NK cell variance testing privately and maybe another hysteroscopy , currently waiting for all my paperwork and results from my nhs rounds to give to the private clinic but they are taking ages.

I do somewhat believe it is just luck though but you get sucked in to trying anything cause I couldn't take another failure.

It worked 3rd time for me despite the first embryo being the highest quality grade.
They grade on appearance which can give an idea of quality but doesn’t always.
They learned a lot with the two failures and the approach the third time was much better adapted to me.
I just knew from the collection onwards that it was going to work and he was 11 months old yesterday.

Sorry to hear OP. My fresh transfer ended in a brief chemical pregnancy. I went for a frozen as soon as I could and very happily it was successful and my toddler is such a joy. Good luck!

Hi there

I’m so sorry this is happening to you. My story is a little different, but I thought it might help.

My fresh transfer ended in a miscarriage (so failed, just a bit later) with two top quality embryos. My FET was considered not as good by my clinic and they didn’t even think bubba would make it to freeze - but he did, survived the defrost and we just had our 12 week scan!

What I’m trying to say is try to hold out hope - it’s not an exact science! They didn’t change anything for me either and I was really upset/cross - I figured why would it be any different? But it was. My nurse told me “different pregnancy, different baby, different outcome” and I found that really helped when starting the process over again

Good luck!!! Xxx

@Maximoo06 I feel you, I have been struggling with it all too, it's so horrible and relentless. I do find having a plan helps but as you say...it is so easy to get sucked in to all the different things and it's so overwhelming! Where are you getting the NK tests done?

@TwinsWhatAreTheOdds I am glad things have worked out for you. May I ask what they did differently? Everything went so smooth for us, including transfer and to be hinest I was surprised it didn't work.

@brownbreadicecream thank you so much for sharing. How frustrating to have a cp but your success is what I wanted to hear!

@Eggcellent29 I am sorry about your miscarriage, that must have been so heart wrenching. But what a lovely turnout that your frozen came through! How exciting and I hope you are managing to enjoy pregnancy. Your post is just what I wanted to hear, so thank you. I was also angry, upset and cross at my follow up when they said they wouldn't change anything...I also think...why would it be any different but your nurse's words are fair actually, I didn't think of that.

@Zest11 I guess you have to keep hopeful & you have only had 1 failed so fingers crossed the next one works for you. It's hard hearing other people's success stories as on my second & especially my third transfer I thought it has to work. Someone from mumsnet was talking about the test here's the link warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/biomedical/tem/bru/

The difference was different medications at much much lower doses leading to 100% fertilisation rate, which is a great indicator, and all blastocysts hatching.
Good luck!

@Maximoo06 yes that is so hard. I think you are right to get the immunes done...I have been contemplating that too but will give it 1 or 2 more goes I think.

@TwinsWhatAreTheOdds wow...100% success...mine was 80% so I was happy with that. None of my blasts were hatching though (I think the best were "expanded?") so when we have to start paying for our transfers I will do that. Unfortunately we can't seem to do that with the NHS or even pay the difference! All hatching blasts sound great!!

I’m really sorry you’re going through this Zest11 - I think one of the hardest parts of IVF is the constant uncertainty. I’m not sure whether my story will give you hope or not, but I’ve transferred 9 top quality embryos and 2 average quality embryos (so 11 in total) over 7 transfers. We got a BFP from 3 - the first ended in a MMC, the second was an ectopic and I’m now 22 weeks with the third.

Frustrating as it is, it’s not that unusual for your first transfer to fail, even with a top quality embryo - our first transfer was of a perfect looking 5AA blast and resulted in a BFN - and there’s absolutely no reason to think that none of your remaining embryos will work.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!

@lulahbelle Thank you so much for replying and sharing your eventual success. you're right...I think the hardest bit is the not knowing. I am so glad for you that finally things are looking good! 7 transfers must be so hard but it will give hope to myself and others too. ( @Maximoo06 ) May I ask...how did you cope with all those transfers?!! I know I have just had the one and there are a lot of people including yourself out there that have had far far more. I am also surprised that your 5AA didn't take. I guess it just goes to show there is no correlation.

First two frozen transfers failed for me, and the consultant was really surprised as everything seemed perfect (we were also unexplained infertility). For the third one i did a course of intralipids and was on clexane, and it worked. I also spent the months in between second and third transfers exercising more, eating well and doing acupuncture. So could be any or none of them.

Sorry you're going through this, it's really really hard especially when there's no clear reason for any of it

I know of several couples whose fresh transfer didn’t work (my own included), but who then went on to have success with frozen embabies, including ones of much lower grades than the original “perfect embryo”.
I’m currently on my 2WW again, and this time we’ve tried changing what we could - diet, yoga, acupuncture, meditation. It might not help in the slightest but it makes you feel far more relaxed and like you’re doing “something”.
Don’t lose hope xx

I had two fresh cycles of ICSI both time AA grade embryos implanted and nothing.... my 3rd try turned 4 a couple of days ago.
I had immunosuppressants on the 3rd round that was the only difference.
Good luck. And I’m sorry this round hadn’t worked out. Xx

I had a fresh cycle fail and then a FET a few months later which was successful. I too had unexplained infertility. The only difference was the clinic upped the progesterone dosage slightly. I realise we were lucky that it was only our second attempt that was successful although I was very disappointed after the first cycle.
We were then incredibly fortunate to conceive naturally when our baby was 9 months. Hoping you have success with your frozen cycle.

Hi @Zest11 hope you don’t mind me asking how you got on with your others transfers? My first fresh has failed unfortunately I am currently going through a chemical pregnancy which is awful but have one final to take Friday and holding on to hope however we do have 4 frozen and I know we are lucky to have that. We had been told my partner had low motility but on day produced a good sample so we went for ivf. So possibly also unexplained. Was there anything to requested or your clinic did different next time? We have been told we can go again soon. Thank you and I hope you got the ending you wished for