Failed first IVF - what next?

[strtng]

I'm 29, my DH is mid 30s. We've got a DC who is 2 and was conceived first month of trying. TTC for just over a year and just had our first IVF privately.
Results: 13 eggs retrieved, 8 mature, 1x day 5 embryo, 2x day 6 embryos. None euploid.

Those sound like terrible results for my age?! AMH is 13 so not terrible. A million investigations have been done on myself and DH (hormone profile, hycosy, follicle counts, scans, semel analysis... to name a few), no issues found at all.

Has anyone had a similar case? Do we need to adjust the protocol? Change clinic? What questions would you ask to the doctor?

Hi @strtng sorry to hear your first round didn't work.
I had my first nhs round in January this year (both dh and I are 34, with no children)
We had male factor issues, so had ICSI IVF. I have no issues and the clinic were surprised when we had 14 eggs collected but only 5 mature, 3 fertilised. One embryo made it, but was frozen as I ended up on a freeze all cycle.
We decided to do another round privately (whilst we're a abit younger) and the docs changed my meds to a high dose of meriofert.
That round we ended up with 15 fertilised eggs and 7 grade A embryos. We transferred one last month and currently 10.5 weeks pregnant (and super anxious!)
I honestly think the change of medication made all the difference, I also had more frequent acupuncture sessions, we both took ubqiunol vitamins and generally felt abit more relaxed going into it the second time round.
Hope this helps abit

I should add, this was with the same clinic. Unfortunately they say the first round is trial and error!

@Natty2 amazing!! Congrats on your pregnancy 🎉
I'm just not sure what exactly to act my fertility doc - I don't know what the stimulation protocol SHOULD be so I can't exactly tell him what he should change it to? Is there a way to learn what was wrong with the existing protocol and how it can be made better?

Thank you!
I really think they should be advising you in a follow up consultation, hopefully with their own plan moving forwards. What clinic are you with?

My main question to them was whether there was better medication to improve the quality of eggs retrieved (as maturity seemed to be my issue) although they had already worked out that they would change the meds the second time round and were confident it would result in more and better quality embryos.

I assume all the tests you had were recent? It might be worth asking if there's anything both of you can do to improve the overall quality?
A lot of people on here who I've spoken to this year, including myself found ubiquinol helped massively- and for some resulted in natural pregnancies before starting IVF!

Best of luck

@Natty2 I already take ubiquinol but thank you!!

I've read a lot about how changing protocol could help, to make more eggs mature of the ones retrieved, to improve the quality of the ones retrieved... but the thing is I don't know HOW. And I understand I should ask my fertility consultant what he would change in my next protocol but I don't know what the correct answer from him would be because I'm not a fertility consultant myself? For example he could say "well give you more Gonal" or "we'd give you less Menopur" and I'd have no clue whether that's the wrong decision or the right one, all I can do is nod!

Yes all tests very recent, in the last 6mo!

Unfortunately you just have to have the faith they know what they're doing! Sometimes it really can just be a case of what your body is doing that month too. On my second round, my baseline scan showed I naturally had more follicles and went on to have a better round.
They are the experts so hopefully you can get some feedback from others who go to your clinic to find out their track record

@Natty2 ahh thank you!! Hopefully better luck next time!
It was maybe my mistake for choosing such a "young" clinic so not too many reviews - I'm at Lister at the Portland which only formed in 2022.

@Natty2 and sorry, for some reason I missed the question you asked earlier.
I'm with Lister at the Portland. Very happy to switch if that's what better for results but also happy to stay if I need to... I just don't know what's best or what my next step should be really to max healthy embryos. Seems like a bit of a gamble either way

I think you do just have to have faith in your consultant. Our first round I had no viable eggs and was devastated. I was thinking I couldn’t naturally have children and that we’d end up with donor eggs, worst case scenario immediately.

They switched the meds used for stims and we had better results next time around. They also advised me on what meds I could take at home to increase my chances (in my case I tried impryl, not sure if you’d have that as I’m in the UK, but they were able to say that clinically there had been some improvement in eggs with this supplement). We now have a 6 month old (third round).

Good luck 🤞🏻