Ivf 2-clinic won’t do dhea,

[Kitkat369]

Hi, I met with my consultant last week to talk about upcoming ivf cycle (I paid for multi cycle), after reading lot of positives here And reading it starts with an egg I suggested dhea to my consultant but they weren’t an advocate and said no proof to help with egg quality.

They then said that 90 day rule for egg maturity again no research behind and that you can get good or bad egg during any cycle. Seems they are keeping same meds as I’m on max dose for both gonal f and cetrotide. Only thing different they will do is heparin doing my transfer (having freeze all due to my endometriosis). I’ll be 42 And hope I get better luck as last two were both chemicals.

Did anyone have similar experience with their ivf clinic. They haven’t been great at giving me tips for supplements and I’ve done mostly my research which they seem to think is tosh.

I also asked my clinic about DHEA as I've got rubbish egg quality - they said it's only really for women who don't respond well to stims and don't get many follicles - and actually if you take it without needing it that it can actually adversely affect your fertility

They didn't really say too much about supplements for me to take - I got the impression too that as long as you were taking a pre conception vitamin then the rest didn't really matter

I'm about to do my 4th egg collection on Friday - I've changed diet/supplements a few times in the 90 day run up to each cycle and I can honestly say it's made little to no difference in quantity or quality of blastocysts

What has seemed to make the difference though is changing from normal IVF to natural modified - clinic said no point in forcing body to produce eggs it would never have chosen for itself so I'm on very low dose stims every other day - my last egg collection doing this I got 2 eggs both fertilised both the best quality blastocysts I've had
(Compared to full IVF where I got 14 eggs and only 4 fertilised and ended up with 2 average quality blastocysts)

Similarly, my clinic didn't recommend any supplements, my egg quality is rubbish (was nearly 45), only said take folic acid and vit d (which i was taking anyway for a long time as we were still trying naturally..), and i actually didn't have time to change my lifestyle, diet etc prior ivf as had no time to do it - we decided to try, only 1 try due to age , at a very last minute, met consultant only 10days before we started the cycle (i have just normal diet, but dont drink, but used to drink 3-4 double coffees a day), there was no time for anything. I was on a short cycle as we wanted to stimulate my ovaries as much as we could..i got 11eggs, 10 fertilised, all were still going on day 5, 2best 5d blasts were put back and we were incredibly lucky and i'm 15w preg with single. Wish you all the best.

Congratulations fool, that’s amazing news and very positive

So I guess I’ll just work on getting fit, eating well and continu as planned to start cycle later next month

I’ll still take my supplements

@Kitkat369 my second cycle was actually worse with DHEA - admittedly there was a year between the two cycles but I'm not convinced by it to be honest!

I'm in a similar situation, but I am seeing a fertility nutritionalist recommended by my consultant. I asked her about DHEA and she recommended not taking it. I looked into it further (I have a medical background so felt confident to do so) and I found a paper from the only trial conducted in the UK. Long story short in the 2 trial groups there where 6 live births in the DHEA group and only 1 in the placebo group. Because it was a small trial it wasn't enough to certify the drug in the UK given there isn't much documented research on side effects. I have a low amh for my age and during my first round my eggs where poor quality. Given what I have read about dhea helping in my specific group of premature ovarian aging my DH and I decided we are going to keep taking it (didn't take it before previous cycle) we are also having more in depth blood tests to check all my minerals ect are within normal range. I'm not planning on starting my next ivf cycles until I have a clear plan in place from the nutritionist and then 3 months to let it take effect..

Thanks everyone, it’s been interesting hearing your experiences and glad I asked as I was panicking a bit that I wasn’t giving it my all. My amh is around 6 so maybe keep to what consultant said and try lose weight in meantime before I start next month