Five failed IVF attempts

[ttcsince2017]

Hi All,

I just wanted to reach out to the mumsnet community and see what options I should explore.

I am 32, have endometriosis and have had five failed IVF cycles.
We collect a good number of eggs each time approx 12. However, the embryos are either highly fragmented, not dividing as expected, slow growers or poor quality. I have had a mix of day 3 transfers and a day 5 transfer with embryos which haven’t quite reached blastocyst. None of my embryos have ever reached blastocyst so I haven’t ever had any to freeze either.

I have tried combinations of Accupunture, fertility massage, healthy eating, supplements as recommended by “it starts with an egg” but nothing has made a difference so in my recent cycle I just decided to go with the flow instead and have a balanced diet with folic acid, vit d and coQ10.

I have been on a prostap followed by a combination of menopur and gonal f recently 450ui but still had no luck.

There are no Male factors as we have done all the tests.

Does anyone have any advice on what we should think about next please.

Xx

Have they been IVF or IVF ICSI cycles ? Also when you say healthy eating, have you gone zero caffeine?

If egg quality is your issue, have you considered natural IVF ? It's supposed to focus on quality rather than quantity. I'm no expert but worth a quick google or discussion with your consultant ?

Have you PGS tested anything or done aa karyotype ?

I changed to natural modified IVF and it made a massive difference for me

I would highly recommend listening to this app. I have learnt SO MUCH!! About different protocols and tests to take. She is a fertility and IVF genius and super sweet and funny. If you listen to quite a few of the podcasts you will definitely hear people with the same story as you. She also has a website. Highly recommend. Her name is Dr Aimee. She’s massive in the States. I listen to her all the time and know so many different options I’m going to take if I have to do another cycle.

Sorry meant to say podcast- not app.

@ivfbeenbusy what was your protocol before and what is it now? How did it change? Thank you so much.

Haven’t even finished this cycle yet and already thinking of what next. 😆.

@ttcsince2017 - I'm in a similar position, with endometriosis, and having 3 failed cycles due to bad egg quality.

At my last review my doctor said she would be very very surprised if at age 32 I just had 'bad eggs' and instead I just probably had excessively bad endo inflammation affecting egg quality, so best to go on a 6 month endo suppressing drug course (I'm doing Dienogest for the next round. I know you've said you've done prostap, have you tried anything else? And for 6 months rather than 3? At age 32 you've got the time. Also at 450 iu you do seem to be on a high dose of stimms, that doesn't seem necessary of you're getting 12 eggs each time, you might get better results if you drop to maybe 300iu and aim for 6-8 eggs instead?

Good luck, I know how scary and tough this will be be for you xxx

@RichmondLady1981

It was tamoxifen tablets daily from cycle day 3 (similar effect to clomid) and then 150ml bemfola every OTHER day from cycle day 3/4 - egg collection cycle day 13 ish.

My first 2 cycles were short protocol IVF with ICSI - total of 28 eggs but less than 30% fertilised and got 4 average quality blastocysts- PGS tested 2 and neither were normal. 3 transfers- 2 BFN and 1 ruptured ectopic

So then I changed to a multi cycle package of natural modified IVF with ICSI. Over 2 cycles I got 9 eggs 100% fertilised 4 top quality blastocysts - didn't bother with PGS, 2 are my twins which I gave birth to last month with 2 more frozen x

@LouiseTrees

Hey. The first four were IVF and the fifth was IVF ICSI. I found I had worse fertilisation rates with ICSI.
I didn’t go zero caffeine but I only have one cup of tea daily anyway.

@Marty13
I had thought about natural IVF but my consultant at Care said given we don’t reach blastocyst with any of the eggs we have collected it wouldn’t be ideal for us. I may book a consultation with create as I believe they specialise in natural IVF

We have never had an embryo which could be tested. I have done the karotype blood test and that came back normal.

@RichmondLady1981thank you so much for this. I will take a listen and hopefully it will help me put together a plan

@CatyZoo12
Hey, sorry to hear you are also going through the same. It’s been really tough pulling myself together and trying again.

I had an operation to clear my endometriosis prior to my first cycle on a long protocol IVF. I then moved to a short protocol where we had fewer eggs but it was the same story.
I then went back to a long cycle on 300 menopur where we changed our lifestyle and diets but this was the worst cycle to date with only 3 eggs collected but I had around 11 follicles. The 3 eggs didn’t make it past day 3.

With the following two I was put on prostap and the higher dosage of 450ui, in the most recent cycle they tried ICSI and Artificial Oocytyte Activation.
The embryos all behaved in a similar manner.

In my scans I had a endometrioma on the left and right which measured about 2cm so didn’t seem as bad as it used to be. Not sure whether I should have another hysteroscopy to see how bad it really is as it’s been two years since my operation.

@ivfbeenbusy

Congratulations on your twins and Frosties.
May I ask which clinic you did the natural with please and where you went initially?

The tablets you mention, are these part of the natural ivf?

Also wanted to say thank you to you all for your responses so far. Much appreciated xx

Hi @ttcsince2017, we're in a slightly different boat as I'm fine and we have MFI, but we don't get blasts even with ICSI, I've been doing lots of research into MFI recently to try to increase our chances an soemthing not often looked into is sperm dna fragmentation. Have you had this test or just standard SA? Dna frag really effects embryo development and fertilisation and can still be a hidden issue for men with normal SA results and needs a specific test to identify it. Might be worth looking into as well. Finger crossed for you that you find a way forward and get your BFP.

Thank you @Beaglemum91 I’m afraid we have done this test too. It came back normal :(

@ttcsince2017

I was with Create for all 5 rounds. We started with short protocol IVF as we didn't know about my egg quality - after 2 rounds of disappointing results we gambled on sticking with Create and changing to natural modified IVF which obviously paid off for us

Yes the tamoxifen tablets are part of the natural modified IVF protocol

Thank you @ivfbeenbusy I am booking a consultation with Create next week as we have a clinic locally and will see what they suggest.

Hello.
Just reading through these messages tonight as I’m in a similar position.
We’ve had two failed attempts first round 10 eggs, only 2 mature, 0 fertilised
Second round with ICSI this time. 7 eggs collected, 6 mature, 5 fertilised. Only 1 of the 5 made it to blastocyst the other 4 were discarded as they didn’t develop as they should. I got a BFP but then had an early miscarriage.
Just wondering if you got any answers with Create?

Hello just reading through the messages this morning as I am in the same boat. I too have endometriosis and I got it removed in January, and started the IVF process, by the time it again came back with 2& 3cm on both side.
I had my first failed IVF + ICSI (with frozen embryo). Started with 16 follicles, 9 eggs collected , out of 9 four had no genetic material , out of 5 only one reached blastocyst stage.
Doctor recommended to go for frozen cycle to increase chances and resulted in to negative results
I really don’t know what to do next

Although this one embryo was a good quality as per doctor although it was not genetically tested

@ttcsince2017 have you got any success with create and natural ivf

@Curious92
Hi, sorry to hear about your failed attempts. I’m starting my cycle with create today. I just feel guilty as I am full of nerves, anxiety and struggling to be positive this time round. Just really scared as I know this is my last shot now :(

@ttcsince2017 Good Luck and finger crossed, hope you will get positive results this time 🍀
Are you going with natural IVF + ICSI?

Thank you @Curious92 we are doing natural modified ivf as don’t have any male factors