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Infertility

Our Infertility Support forum is a space to connect with others in the same position, discuss causes, treatment and IVF, and share infertility stories of hope and success.

Poor response to stimms

6 replies

Hayleylou128 · 07/05/2021 13:10

Hello guys,
I wonder if any of you guys can help me.
We had a fresh icsi cycle that resulted in my 2yr old son. During this cycle, it was cancelled due to me having a poor response. The doses were then drastically upped and we got 12 eggs, 9 being mature, 5 fertilised and we got two blasts.
Down the line I've since had a private scan of my womb & ovaries etc and they said I had lots of follicles and were perplexed as to why I had responded poorly during my first attempted cycle.
We are now thinking of embarking on 2nd fresh cycle and I am wondering if they will just whack me straight on max dose of everything and class me as a poor responder. Or do has anyone had cycles where they've "responded poorly" but are necessarily "poor responders" and have at other times had good responses to average doses of stimms etc.
Thank you in advance xx

OP posts:
Hayleylou128 · 07/05/2021 13:16

Sorry I should of added that I was 31 during that cycle. 33 now. MFI (azoospermia)

OP posts:
2mumlife · 07/05/2021 13:30

Hi @Hayleylou128 I'm 31, normal AMH for age (18 point something), normal weight, normal everything. Only on in IVF train due to needing donor sperm (sex sec couple) and having 4 unsuccessful IUI attempts.

I did a fresh cycle in Feb/March and had a similar kind of confusing outcome as you. I was on a long protocol, with Prostap down reg, and taking menapur (400iu first 2 days, then 200iu a day for subsequent 5 days). I had an ovitrelle trigger

I had a big discprency in follicule size, with 20+ smaller follicules, 4 really pretty big, and 3 really big at my first scan (day 8, after 7 days of stims). My clinic made the decision to trigger me that night.

At EC we only got 4 eggs - they'd expected around 7 (the big follies) and their conclusion was some of my eggs wouldn't come away from follciule wall (meaning they were still immature). Of 4 eggs 2 were mature, and we were very lucky to end up with 2 x AA 5 day blasts. Had 1 unsuccessful fresh tranfer, and having FET transfer later this month.

After that though, I've been labelled a 'poor responder' - I guess 'fast responder' would be more accurate.

I've had a lot of conversations with clinic about it after, and they're going to move me to a Flare procol if we need another fresh collection, with a delayed egg retrivel after trigger (so moving my egg colelction to 37 hours rather than 36 hours after trigger).

Its frustrating when you don't get the response you were expecting. I still don't really understand what went wrong or why I didn't respond as expected.

Speak to your clinic and see what they say - its totally possible to have 'good' and 'bad' cycles, but they might want to try a different approach with you.

Hope this helps, at least to make you feel like you're not alone!

2mumlife · 07/05/2021 13:31

Sorry for hideous typos! Should have read this over before posting!

Hayleylou128 · 07/05/2021 16:15

@2mumlife thank you so much for taking the time to write out your story!
Sorry that you've experienced similar frustration to me :(
So you're gonna be doing a short protocol?
I wonder if I'd benefit from that too. Are you nhs or private?
We're staying with our nhs that gave us our son but I'm worried nhs isn't as patient centred or tailored to each individual as maybe a private would be.
I wish you ALL the luck in the world for your upcoming FET! Xx

OP posts:
2mumlife · 07/05/2021 16:31

@Hayleylou128 So I don't know all the ins and outs of Flare protocol yet, but yes its a short protocol (so start CD1) but the aim is to cause a pituatury gland flare of FSH (rather than shut your pituatary gland down) to help with stimulating before adding stim drugs. Because you don't downregulate, you don't need to take drugs throughout luteal phase - I'd be on a single shot of ovitrelle day of ET for luteal support and thats it - (actually really similar to what we did in medicated IUI cycle, which also had an ovitrelle injection for luteal support).

We're private as NHS don't fund same-sex couples until you've paid for 6 pregnancy attempts privately in our area (it can be IUI or IVF attempts) so don't really have a choice.

2mumlife · 07/05/2021 16:32

@Hayleylou128 I hope you sort out a strategy with clinic you feel confident in, and good luck to you too :)

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