Cancelled transfer

[Hopewishprayer]

Hello, I had my first cycle of ICSI in November where I had 7 eggs retrieved, 3 of which were mature and all fertilised. However, on day 3 the embryologist was concerned about the quality as they all had irregular cell divisions. On day 5 my transfer was cancelled as they all failed to develop past day 3. I was so surprised about this, we are doing ICSI due to MF and I have no fertility issues (I guess other than my age which is 38).
We now have another chance to try and the doctor recommended changing from short protocol to long protocol.
I am so anxious to go through this again, as none of the embryos developed I am wondering if it is likely to happen again.
Would really appreciate if anyone else has been in a similar situation to share your experience with me 💕

I'm sorry you're first round ended so abruptly

Unfortunately with MFI there is a much higher risk of not getting any to day 5 as it's generally accepted that it's sperm quality that dictates whether it will make it to blastocyst from day 3 onwards - did they feed back anything about egg quality and whether your eggs fertilised normally? And also what they were like on day 1?

@bonetiredwithtwins thank you for your reply, the MF we have is that DH is a CF carrier and so his speed was surgically retrieved, there’s no issue with the quality. At my review the doctor said that they just didn’t know why this happened it could happen again or I may have better results as embryo quality varies so much, it’s just a case of try again and see what happens 😞

Hi @Hopewishprayer

I’m sorry to hear about your first cycle. Your outcome sounds very similar to my first cycle - 5 eggs collected, only two made it to day 3 and both were bad quality.

I made some changes in my second round - upped my dose of stims, added menupur and did a double trigger. The outcome was totally different and I ended up with 5 blastocysts.

Hopefully your change in protocol will be the key (and I’d ask for a double trigger). They say the first round of IVF is an experiment - unfortunately it’s a hugely expensive and emotionally draining one but small changes can make a difference.

@CurlyJ21 thank you for sharing, that’s a great result for you, I wish you all the best with your journey.
I was wondering if I should do another round but this gives me hope! This time round I have also started acupuncture and have added some supplements I know it’s subjective as to wether they make a difference but may as well try. I will look into the double trigger too x

Ah ok so you'll be doing PGD testing if you get any to day 5? If your quality was fine it just may have been an unlucky be off changing protocol may help that but I'd say maybe your DH needs to do a 3 month detox cleanse load up on really good preconception vitamins instead?