IVF - PGD immature eggs, no hospital support

[ditherwood]

Hello, I am having to have IVF with PGD as I have an inherited balanced translocation. My partner and I have tried twice to get pregnant this year and succeeded both times but both pregnancies ended in miscarriage, the first at 7 weeks, the second at 11 weeks, most likely due to my translocation.

As we were about to have a CVS test on our second pregnancy, the wonderful specialist genetics team I'd been liaising with at St George's Hospital recommended on the miscarriage that I look into PGD and they referred me to CRGH where I was accepted on to one round of NHS PGD IVF due to my age (39).

We embarked onto the rollercoaster of IVF with CRGH and have accepted that as we are NHS as what is generally a private clinic that we won't be getting any hand holding in this process. It's been incredibly challenging doing it without medical support or guidance but we've been grateful for the opportunity.

I had egg collection a week ago on Saturday, they retrieved 13 eggs. The next day they told us 12 of the eggs were immature but one matured overnight, so we had two eggs that had fertilised. One degraded by day 5 but one became a blastocyst last Friday (day 6) and was biopsied and frozen and cells were sent off for testing. Apparently we have a 2-3 week wait for results.

I've asked for advice regarding the potential %'s for this embryo's survival or chances of having the unbalanced translocation and if I can see a genetics counsellor as apparently we should have had this support earlier in the process. We have also asked why the eggs were collected at an immature stage as the collection came earlier than the hospital predicted when looking at my scans - it seemed rushed. The hospital is not responding to our emails.

I was devastated when I heard eleven of 13 eggs were immature, I hadn't realised this process would feel like another loss and while we have one embryo, I know the chances are really low so I'm trying to stay hopeful but realistic.

My question is, is it normal to collect eggs and have the overwhelming majority be immature? Should this have not been better monitored and timed?

Hi I'm so sorry to hear this - you've really been through the mill. The waiting at this point is so hard.

Am I right that you haven't had any contact with CRGH's genetic counsellor? She should be able to give an indication of odds etc. I'd suggest emailing her directly.

I have experience of CRGH and they are usually pretty good with their monitoring during stim cycles. Whilst the clinic has its faults, my experience, and those of others I've got to know, is that they don't generally put clinic scheduling needs ahead of what's best for the patient. They do egg collections seven days a week, so there isn't the pressure to do an egg collection a day early so it doesn't fall on a Sunday.

However, they do tend to treat the first round as a bit of an experiment in terms of how you'll respond to the drugs etc. Which isn't very helpful to you given you only have one NHS round.

Book in an appointment with your consultant asap if you don't yet have one in the calendar, but be aware it could be a four to five week wait. You could also keep pushing the nurses to get back to you, but they will always defer to the consultant so it can be frustrating.

There is a supportive Facebook group that you might want to join - search for CRGH.

Wishing you all the best for your embryo

It isn't "normal" to have so many immature eggs but it depends on lots of factors and I've known people not get any mature eggs at collection?
What day did they do the egg collection and what size were the follicles?

msgloria thanks so much for your kind message and insights, it is so helpful just having someone respond. We haven't had an appointment with the genetics counsellor although a secretary did finally come back to melody to say that someone we have spoken to previously and is away today will be back tomorrow and that she will try to schedule something.

It has actually felt quite experimental so it's interesting to hear you say that. We may try to find the money to do a second round as I feel they've got so much information on us now, a second round might be more successful.

Thank you, I will search for the Facebook group, I didn't know there was one and thank you for your well wishes xx

Hi tiggerwhocamefortea they did egg collection on day 8 of stim, no one told me size of follicles, they did show me on the scan before collection that they had grown but no more information than that.