What to change for second round of IVF following BFN.

[Seasidegirll]

Hi, just wondered if anyone has been in a similar situation and has some advice. We’ve just completed our first round of IVF and had a bfn on test day yesterday. We managed to collect 17 eggs, 12 were mature, 9 fertilised but only 1 made it to a blast on day 6 so we have no embryos left to transfer. It’s looks like I potentially have poor egg quality as lots of our embryos stop developing properly between day 1 - 3. I spent the last 3+ months prior to starting ivf completely changing my diet, taking all the recommended vitamins and supplements, so as you can imagine that came as quite a shock!

We have a follow up consultation tomorrow to discuss how to move forward but I’m not quite sure where to go from here! I was on a short protocol last time, would a long protocol help achieve a better outcome? Or should we change what drugs I was on? Or should we just stick with the same protocol and hope for a better result? Are there any tests that we should be doing before we start the next round? Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I’m feeling very lost and overwhelmed! We only have one more funding round left so really want to throw everything at this next round and hope it works out 🤞🏻

Hey @Seasidegirll so sorry you've had a hard round. I'm no expert but what is your AMH, age, AFC & do you have any other conditions like PCOS, endometriosis etc.?

Hi @Seasidegirll I had a sort of similar situation
We only had one nhs round and had male factor issues so had ICSI IVF. Both dh and I are 34, no other issues
First round only 5 eggs mature out of 14, 3 fertilised and only 1 made it. We ended up on a freeze all cycle so couldn't do a fresh transfer and decided to go for another round whilst we're still young.

On the first dose I was on Ovaleap on a low dose which was increased throughout stims. I questioned whether the change in dose caused the original issue, also poor response to hcg trigger (which helps the final maturation process)

Second cycle 300iu of Meriofert (which is meant to help with maturity) which was gradually decreased during stims as I ended up with 44 follicles growing which caused a risk of OHSS and very high oestrogen!
I had a half ovitrelle trigger and also a dose of decapectyl

That round ended in 24 eggs, 16 mature, 15 fertilised and 7 grade a/b day 5 and 6 embryos.

I think the meds probably paid a huge part in the turn around,
Other things were;

• I was way more relaxed during stims, injections didn't phase me and I managed my expectations more, so felt much less stressed
• I had more acupuncture sessions (only did 2 before the first EC)
• DH and I took Ubqiuinol vitamins since the end of the Jan cycle

I hope this helps abit and good luck

Hi @Lcm11! I am 30 (husband is 33) and my AMH was 26.6 when tested last year. I can’t remember what my AFC was but it was a good number. I don’t have any other issues as such. Husband sperm analysis have always been fine and he’s also had a dna frag test and that was also good. On paper everything looks fine but feels like something is definitely going on!

Hey @Natty2, thanks for sharing your experience with me. Sorry that your first cycle didn’t go to plan but what a great outcome you had on your second cycle! I will ask my dr about changing meds next time. I did do a little bit of acupuncture before EC but like you, I only had a few sessions so maybe I should look into starting up again. Thanks so much for the advice!

Ah it's super disappointing when you have all the stats on your side but have a bad round isn't it. We are in similar positions and I assumed because I had a good AMH and am fairly young I would breeze through IVF but that hasn't been the case.

If I were you, I would really put it on your clinic/consultant to tell you why exactly they think the round went wrong and what they would do differently next time. They do say your first round is trial and error, so hopefully they'll be able to give you a really clear action plan and I would ask them to explain the reasoning behind their suggestions.

As I said I'm really no expert, but in my next round I'm going to push for a long protocol. I've read some things that seem to suggest sometimes egg quality suffers when you're on a short protocol as the eggs grow too quickly and this compromises quality. Maybe this is something you could look into?

Please could you keep us updated about what you do for your second round? Really interested to know.

So reassuring to hear about your second round @Natty2

Hi @Lcm11, just wanted to let you know how it went with our consultant. She’s really keen for me to go with the same protocol as last time for our next round. She said I responded really well to the drugs and we collected a great number of eggs so she said it seems a silly idea to change that up. She also has suggested we try ICSI next time, however I don’t really know why because my husbands sperm has always been fine. Feeling extremely disappointed and frustrated!! I just hope that we were unlucky last time and we get a better outcome next time but not feeling so hopeful.

@Seasidegirll Hey, The supplements my fiancée took for 3 months doubled his sperm morphology and increased motility etc..

We both think the CoQ10 from Pharmanord 100mg per day was a big factor, But also Proxseed plus sachets that our dr and acupuncturist recommended. (You can get on Amazon) My friend was having acupuncture every week leading up to the FET which was successful for her. Hope that helps.

@Seasidegirll thank you for updating! Oh fingers crossed for your next round. I guess all we can do is trust the experts, but I know it's really hard. My clinic have told me multiple times that sometimes the exact same protocol can have really different results. They don't really know why but sometimes it's just luck, conditions etc.

Hopefully after you've had a bit of time to process the previous round, you'll start to feel a bit more positive and hopeful. I'll be keeping everything crossed for you x

Just had a similar-ish experience, terrible first IVF cycle results.

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 awful results for my age?! AMH is 13 so not terrible, AFC was 20. 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. Our diet is pretty strict, absolutely no drinking for both, no red meat for both, no added sugar for me... taking supplements - ubiquinol, pregnacare max before conception, omega 3 etc for me and Impryl, omega 3 ans others (can't remember all) for my husband.