It Starts With The Egg - are these results actually possible?

[strtng]

Came across this in the intro to ISWTE book - so she had 22 eggs retrieved, of them 19 mature and 19 fertilised (that I believe). But of 19 mature fertilised eggs for 100% of them to make it to blastocyst? Isn't something like 20-30% of eggs in a woman aged 30 (she was late 20s, nearing 30) abnormal? Surely, even with luck and the help of vitamins at least a few would still be abnormal due to natural selection?

I didn't have as many and we have severe male factor but at 34 I got 7 eggs, all mature and all made to blast though one slowed down so wasn't frozen. Inread that book and followed alot of advice but my husband did alot too. Got our baby on the 2nd transfer:) so even though first was best quality it didn't take so yeah doesn't mean everything is guaranteed because we got the blastocysts.

I mainly followed so I knew I'd done all I could, so if it didn't work we both wouldn't torture ourselves with what ifs.

@Imisscoffee2021 which supplements did you take?
I currently do folic acid, vit d, ubiquinol (coq10),melatonin, try to eat super healthily etc. Unsure if I should take DHEA? I don't drink or smoke, neither does my husband.
My worry with DHEA is the book literally says it may harm egg quality for some?

I didn't take DHEA, I took the others you listed exceot the melatonin and I avoided plastics and didn't wear makeup or nail varnish etc for anlit 4 months just to knownindodnwhat I could as well as the usual alcohol, caffeine avoidance etc. Ate healthy and got fitter too. Our issue was male factor due to a varicocele so I think my husbands efforts with vitamins life style changes and frequent ejacuamtion to avoid oxidisation helped the most.

When your round or have you already done one?

@Imisscoffee2021 great numbers on your eggs and congratulations on your baby! Out of interest what diet and supplements did your partner follow? I’m already following all of the things you have mentioned but my we want to make sure he is doing everything on his side too. He already takes zinc, ubiquitol CoQ10, B Vits, proxseed sachets.

— no caffeine, no dairy. He still drinks alcohol. Lots of green veg, fish/ chicken.. He doesn’t really like desserts or sugary foods (lucky him) so pretty healthy overall diet,

We only have 1 round left, so I want us to do everything we can for best results. Last round they took only 2 eggs, both matured and went to day6 Blasto, unfortunately both failed.

Is there anything else you would recommend he does?

He took proxeed, coq10 and high dose vit d, and quit alcohol, caffeine and didn't have baths, wore loose boxers and the usual. Our issue meant there was a chance of high attrition rate after day 3 hence why he ejaculated every other day, as we had ICSI we didn't need a huge sample, just needed the sperm that was there to hopefully not be oxidised and damaged. Tried to get his varicocele fixed first but surgery didn't work sadly.

We're both vegetarians but not sure that's hugely relevant to our round as alot of advice states it may negatively affect but my husbands been a veggie all his life so wasnt an option to eat meat really and we didn't change diet except to eat healthier and avoid using plastic so we cooked alot from scratch and used glass storage containers etc. Back to plastic now 😅

Not sure what else can be done, have they rejigged your protocol a bit the last round to aim for more eggs? It's so hard, we took the first round as a test and learn (paid for multiround of 2) and were surprised it went so well after spending so much time trying and getting nowhere, then not being able to fix my husbands varicocele so we're convinced we'd lost most of the embryos we managed to make to begin with.

Hope your next round goes well!

My partner went from 2% motility to 6% (still not phenomenal but it's tripled and is in the normal range now) by taking Impryl, vit d, l-carnatine and omega 3, cutting out alcohol, having veg with every meal, stopping cycling

I used uvositol as it was recommended by my clinic and has folic acid and inositol. It was a Spanish brand, but I am looking for a different brand without the folic acid.. as I take methylfolate already.

@strtng I have heard about L Carnetine and thinking of adding that in, I’ve not heard of Impryl, I might take a look.. lots of people mention it. Your partners morphology has improved massively! That’s great! Similar to our results, my partner went from 4% to 7%

@Indigopantha yes thank you I absolutely meant morphology 😂 multitasking not my thing clearly