IVF/ICSI February 2025 🌟 ❤️

[ivfjourneyandme]

Hi ladies,

Starting early with this thread in hope some are on a similar time frame!

36yo, been trying to conceive for 2yrs. Severe MFI as well as AFC of 3 and AMH of 1.9pmol/l

First IVF cycle with ICSI ended with a total failed fertilisation - 4 eggs collected, all mature but no fertilisation.

We have now switched to long cycle and added in DHEA, COQ10, melatonin, vitamin D, omega 3 alongside our fertility vitamins.

I should start my period end of Jan; and then start down-regulating February with transfer hopefully late February if I’ve worked it out right!

Anyone else on this mental torture of a ride?

Hi all,

I have made a group chat on telegram for the purpose of discussing our upcoming ivf treatment, infertility etc. Makes it easier to discuss on a group chat I thought. If you would like to join the link is

t.me/ivf2025 or search "ivf2025"

So gutted to hear about the bfns on here. And you know after my last failed ivf I said I’d never do it again but here I am. I’m sorry for what you have gone thru but don’t give up on your dreams. 🥹I read this today and liked it - remember a goal without a strategy is a wish. Heal and plan, and get what you deserve. Sending all the love and hugs. ❤️💔💪🏽💫

I'm not sure what to make of my cycle - is anyone else on day 6 of tww?…how are you getting on?

also just to sensitively add as a positive story - I thought I was out on my first ivf cycle where I had 1 egg retrieved. But it turned into an average day 5 embryo that they put back in and with a lot of rest it stuck. That’s my divine 2 year old. Wishing us all the luck where ever we are in our journeys. 🥰✨

My day 5 update wasn't great today. All developing slowly, 2 near early blastocyst and 1 lagging behind. The embryologist said they will check again tomorrow to see if any manage to catch up but said 'it's not looking great' so I'm not holding out much hope that we will get any this cycle.

@Poppycock84 Hey im day 8 of 2ww, my transfer was 23rd and official testing date 6/3. I’m testing positive which I’m so grateful for but this is my 4th positive in 18m so not getting ahead of myself - 2 ectopics & 1 MC (heartbeat at 6w) so far so sustaining it is my difficulty. This is my first round of IVF and was a fresh transfer.
How are you getting on? X

For anyone still checking this thread, I had my day 5 call today. Similarly to @Allnew2021 not great news. I have one morula still dividing that they think might make a blast tomorrow. That’s my best looking one but still not great! There is another one that’s still going that they are leaving until tomorrow to see what it does, the rest are far too slow.

@Poppycock84 I'm on day 5. Time is going soooo slowly. I'm desperate to test early but not sure what to do. I'm Googling everything and symptom / non symptom checking constantly. Fingers crossed for you. How are you getting on?

@Quaver9 omgg that's amazing news. I have everything crossed for you too xxx

@BeSharpPinkDreamer thank you xx I got a very faint positive on day 5, I was testing out the trigger which finally disappeared on 3dp - started to rise again on day 5. Thought I was out on day 4 when it was negative! Wishing you lots of luck and let us know when you test xxx 🤞

@Quaver9 congratulations! I really hope this is the one that’s super sticky for you.

@RainbowFluff thank you, really hope you & @Allnew2021 get good news about your blasts tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞 xx

Ah I feel you ladies in tww. I have tested and on day 7 and didn’t see anything - yet. Will try and just wait it out or test daily to see if anything rises from here. I looked back on a video diary I kept with my first ivf success and reported feeling out of breath and hungry and like baby was wreaking havoc on my bladder also generally a bit greasier! Urgh! But that was all at day 14 SO……Que Sara I’m looking at holidays that I insist on having if it’s not my turn this time. Also trying to convince my self to be excited about the prospect of trying for a baby instead of a nervous jittery train wreck haha. Hope that helps some of you ladies waiting sending so much love to everyone x

gosh that’s such a lot in such a short space of time I’m sorry to hear that - it must have been head spinning. Are you taking progesterone following the ivf cycle, I’d never got as far as you on my own but I have suspected that progesterone helped me maintain a pregnancy. Wishing you all the luck it works out for you with some help xxx

@Poppycock84 thank you. I’ve actually had some blood streaked cm today so I’m not hopeful - this is how all my losses previously have started. I’m on progesterone pessaries, I was told to use them rectally but I don’t know if I should switch incase this isn’t as effective?

my usual early symptoms are also feeling short of breath, tiredness and dry lips/skin! I’m also usually really hungry until about week 5/6 when the nausea starts to ramp up.

hope you see that second line soon or at the very least in your next cycle 🩷

I’m out for this cycle, the two potential blasts stopped growing overnight which leaves me nothing for this cycle. I can’t believe from 8 fertilised eggs I still got nothing! Last time this happened the clinic just blamed my age, even though I’d had 2 blasts 5 months prior. Surely it doesn’t change that quickly?

@RainbowFluff sorry to see this 😣 how old are you?

@RainbowFluff im so sorry. How many cycles have you been through now? It sounds like a few 😔 xx

This was my third cycle, I just turned 41 but reasonable AMH and getting decent egg numbers. We think it’s male factor but our clinic haven’t done any tests for it as we’re having ICSI. I think it’s time to look into other options, I know egg quality will decline with age but I feel there’s something else at play here.

@RainbowFluff absolutely it takes 2 to tango. Very strange they didn't test his semen. Amh as you know indicates eggs left but not quality. Egg quality deteriorates of course but so does sperm. The issue with icsi is the sperm they choose might not necessarily be "normal". Someone here mentioned zymot, some clinics use this when doing icsi to try to simulate natural fertilization whereby the best sperm make it. If you're changing clinics I'd probably favour one who uses that or similar. They really should have tested him I think.

This is my clinic explaining about sperm quality and zymot. We didn't do icsi so we didn't use it but it might help www.beaconcarefertility.ie/treatments-services/tests-treatments/semen-analysis/

@RainbowFluff So sorry to hear this, look after yourself ❤️‍🩹 I genuinely don't think it changes this much across just a few months, I think it's just random luck - what eggs are in a cohort at any given cycle, and also what sperm got to fertilise these eggs....

At least what I'm trying to persuade myself to think to have hope before approaching our next cycle. I know it may not help much when you just got the bad news 😢

Not so great day for us either. We've had the PGT-A results, all 3 embryos abnormal (that's after the one transferred fresh resulted in a chemical) so feeling pretty dispirited today. But keep telling myself it IS just random chance and may be different next round.
We do have one more as part of our plan so will be going ahead, I think our next cycle is likely to be in June.

@RainbowFluff so sorry to hear that 😣 I second the zymot if you do decide to try again.
@Quaver9 I have everything crossed for you and hopefully the tinged cm doesn’t mean anything 🤞🏻😣

@Happibara sorry to hear your news too 😣

Thank you so much I hope I do too…let’s hope your cm doesn’t mean anything.. our bodies do funny things but are resilient. As for pessaries def push for what you feel is most comfortable and the science and data and statistics and research about what is effective and not only goes so far, at the end of the day energetically you have to do what feels good and right to you intuition. Have you incorporated accupuncture to support the pregnancy?

Hi @RainbowFluff im so sorry to hear that news how disappointing. Not sure what clinic you’re with but if you haven’t already and would like to, I’d highly recommend trying CREATE. I’ve found them to be the best in my experience at meeting your body where you are and tailoring the treatment to you specifically and lots of close monitoring scans and bloods throughout. Whatever the outcome is for me - I feel assured I’ve been in decent enough hands with them, I’m 41 in June.

Sorry to hear your news @RainbowFluff . Are you going to try another cycle?
Oh no @Happibara , sorry for your disappointing news 😔. wishing you luck for your next cycle.

We had a call this afternoon to say 1 of our 3 embryos caught up on day 6 so they have taken a biopsy to send for testing and the embryo is now frozen. We have about 2 weeks to wait for the PGT-A results.

@Allnew2021 keeping my fingers crossed that your PGT-A comes back normal, keep us updated.

@Happibara wishing you so much luck with your next cycle, as you said it’s a lottery and maybe this will be the one where your numbers come up.

@Poppycock84 I went with Create as we wanted to do the mild ivf being fairly sure it was male factor, but haven’t been very impressed with them. Everybody’s experience is different though and their statistics are good. This is the third cycle with the same protocol and they’ve still done no DNA fragmentation or blood tests on my partner (who has a family history of infertility) as they keep insisting the poor outcomes must be my age. I have family members who’ve been pregnant naturally in their 40s, and there’s nothing more I can do for egg quality other than giving up work! I’ve always been very healthy and I made so many modifications already (gave up alcohol, caffeine and gluten a year ago, taking all the supplements, doing acupuncture, getting 8 hours sleep a night).

This is really infuriating and uncompromising, I’m so sorry that you experienced that kind of dismissal. How could they justify not testing your husband? Can you get his tests thru gp or privately elsewhere? It’s mad how some clinics just insist their narrative is right and aren’t willing to listen and investigate things further. Bizarre. On this journey I think we’re made from different stuff, and I know you’ll do the right thing at the right time for you. X