Poor egg quality? What can I do!

[Cherryade06]

Looking for advice! We’re currently in the middle of a three cycle package of mild stimulation IVF - me and my husband are both 33: I have lower end of normal AMH results (6.5pmol/L) and husbands sperm parameters have always come back great (in terms of count, motility, morphology at least). Apart from the AMH there are no other obvious reasons why we have struggled…
Our first round I stimmed with 225 gonal-f and triggered with triptorelin, we were all surprised when we had 12 eggs collected at retrieval of which 10 were mature and 6 fertilised! (This round followed a disastrous false start where the first attempt was cancelled on day 4 due to an AFC of 1)

Of those 6 fertilised, by day 3 we had 1 x good quality, 4 x fair quality and 1 x poor quality embryos and the clinic have frozen that one good quality one. Unfortunately none of the other 5 made it to blastocyst which the clinic mentioned may indicate quality issues on both sides? Has anyone had similar results and managed to improve between cycles? I’m taking Coq10, vitamin D, selenium, and a TTC multivitamin and my husband is taking Coq10, and a multivitamin…
Interested to hear if anyone has had similar and if the clinic have suggested any protocol changes etc. We’re proceeding to cycle 2 with no changes to the protocol because the clinicians and embrylogists were in agreement that technically we’d had a good result from the IVF itself??

I haven’t got as far as treatment yet, we’re still in the early stages. However in the lead up to it all I have been taking 600mg ubiquinol, high dose omega 3, folate, optibac probiotics for women and 4000 IU vitamin D. I can’t say for certain if they have helped but I’ve taken some recommendations from it starts with the egg. I haven’t gone too wild with it x

What protocol are you on?

Short protocol! Owing to my low AMH…

I would really recommend reading ‘it starts with the egg’ - I was concerned that it would make me feel even more pressured but it was actually empowering. I started following the advice a few months before my first egg collection so can’t compare IVF results, but my AMH increased from average for my age to really good for my age. I’m convinced that this was down to all the advice in the book.

Hi,I may not be an expert, but I hope this article might bring you some helpful insights: https://fertilityroad.com/mag/how-to-boost-your-egg-and-sperm-quality-prior-to-ivf/

I actually think that's a pretty good result, I was 30 when I found out my amh was only 3, our 1st found of ivf I got 4 eggs 0 fertilized, 2nd round 2 eggs 2 fertilized with icsi but deteriorated day 4, embryologist said my eggs for bad quality, Fertility Specialist said this happens with low amh what's left is like scraping the bottle of a barrel looking for a "good egg"
Anyway changed clinics had a ovarian prp 6 weeks before my 3rd EC also low stims, collected 8 eggs transferred 2 embryos on day 3, currently 17 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby boy and 2 blastocysts on ice. So I owe the ovarian PRP for improving my egg quality:)

Hi could really do with some woman power help today. Im 38 and went Cyrus recently for ivf. No health issues on both sides. 17 eggs collected. 3 made blastocyst. Needed frozen transfer as was having symptoms of ohhs. Had NGS testing done and all 3 have come back non transferrable as they lack chromosome 22. Monosomy -22 is what shows on my report.
Has anyone else experienced this and does this mean if I went for another cycle, the embryos would have the same issue?

@Cherryade06I am so sorry - it’s so difficult and heartbreaking. I just had a similar retrieval, 8 eggs collected, 7 mature, only 2 fertilised. Just waiting for day 3 results but it doesn’t look like any embryo will make it through. One thing I am learning is the need to advocate for myself - I requested an appointment with my consultant, I will ask for protocol changes, I will also ask why the embryologist didn’t explain to me why so few embryos fertilised, tried rescue ICSI etc, I will also speak to a different clinic. This might give me the illusion of control - but I feel so powerless otherwise. Saying it’s a good result with 1 embryo (and you didn’t mention PGT-A, so not necessarily euploid) is insulting frankly.
If possible at all, do ask again about protocol changes. Did they do ICSI?
I’d be careful with all of the diet advice we are bombarded with- I’d think with a baseline good diet, healthy BMI and supplements, there’s not much evidence that anything else would make much difference, whereas a protocol changes (long protocol, different trigger etc ?) could have a significant impact ? Thinking of you.

@Nazy87I am so so sorry. I am also facing the outcomes of a cycle with no good embryo. It’s heartbreaking. You feel completely alone and broken. From what I have read, sadly this happens a lot. But it doesn’t mean next round won’t work and you won’t get an euploid embryo. Most people 38-39 need a few cycles sadly. How are you feeling this morning?
(It’s so hard to stay up all night browsing insta, forums, blogs… trying to find hope and answers. I am definitely there)

My first round yielded no embryos and they thought it could be egg quality. I was spiralling looking into donor eggs etc, but they changed my stims meds and it worked!

Noticed this thread has become active again and so thought I would reply with some good news/positivity after the (many) low points of this journey!
After this first round we proceeded to retrieval 2, with no changes to protocol except for ovitrelle trigger (had triptorelin first cycle) and got 13 eggs, 11 fertilised, and cycle yielded one ‘excellent’ quality day 3 embryo which was frozen at this point, and then 3 blastocysts (2 x day 5 and 1 x day 6).
I then had another cancelled cycle owing to low AFC but proceeded to cycle 3 the month after. Same protocol again (with ovitrelle trigger) and got the best results to date! We got 12 eggs, 1 good quality embryo frozen on day 3 and then 6 (!) more blastocysts (4 x day 5 and 2 x day 6).
It means we finish our three rounds of embryo banking with 12 attempts at transfer and will start transfer cycles soon!
I really have no explanation for the HUGE variation in our results but hope that it brings reassurance/hope to others that anything can happen? We changed nothing cycle to cycle so no idea why there was such variability but I suppose that it is just the unpredictable nature of this IVF rollercoaster 😅
By cycle 3 I was fed up of putting my life on hold and so was more relaxed with diet/having a drink - this was the only difference? Excited for the next step and transfers but also anticipating more antics and failures based on our track record 🤣

Thats great news @Cherryade06!

I think there's definitely a degree of luck/unpredictability in IVF and rounds can go so differently! I actually think I got better results (egg collection and FETs) when I chilled out a bit more

Having said that, after my 1st round (8 eggs, 5 mature, 4 fertilised, 1 blast) we switched my stims and did a higher dose for a bit longer, different trigger and got 9 eggs, all mature, 7 fertilised and made it to blast. They were back to back transfers so hadn't had a chance to improve lifestyle, I'd been taking coq10 for ages and had been on Ovum supplements which include a lot of what is recommended in it starts with the egg. I'm sure a lot of it was luck though, and we did ICSI in round 2

How are you @frenchgyal?any postive news?

I love reading posts like this. Makes me feel like there is hope. im new here, used to always read posts but never joined. Makes such a difference talking to women on the same journey

Does anyone know is there’s any medication to improve egg quality at 38?
or what medication or procotol can they change? They’ve asked me to wait 2 months because my follicles apparently need to recover. Really want to improve on my vitamins and mental health before I start again

@Nazy87thank you for thinking of me.
2 embryos were frozen at day 3, I had a sobering thought however than each embryo has about a 10pc change of a live birth outcome.

I saw my consultant yesterday, she agreed I had a ‘suboptimal’ response - so for the next round, we have amended the protocol, another long protocol, but changed some of the meds and doses. They are swapping buserelin with progynova in the down reg, then starting stims on day 1 and at a higher dose during stim phase. We are also adding calcium ionophore to my eggs in the lab to improve fertilisation rates. Still doing ICSI, also using ‘zymot’ a machine that’s supposed to help find the best sperm.
i have also been prescribed DHEA - a supplement to take 3 times a day- this is something you could look into?
I was taking gummy vitamins and supplements (vitamin D, folic acid, coq10) now switching to OVUM.
my husband was told proxeed plus is a good brand for his supplements (but apparently the conception ones he had been taking are good too).

what I can tell you is that I have had since many conversations with people who have had a better second round. I know there is no guarantee.

I am sorry - the waiting is the worse. - fertility action runs a support group on Tuesdays and Thursdays ? Could be something you could join ?

Hi Nazy, I've just posted a full breakdown of my lifestyle on a separate thread which lead to me having 27 follicles/21 eggs retrieved/14 fertilised and all of them made it to blastocyst stage - please feel free to have a read and let me know if you have any questions!

Our son is a 5cb so I believe quality isn't always what's important. There are many other factors such as whether that embryos is chromosomally normal and your lining as it needs to be receptive.
Having been through ivf twice, i do think alot of it is to do with the clinic. Protocol, expertise, equipment.
I've done two rounds and while we've been fortunate that every fertilised egg has resulted in blasts,we saw a huge difference in the quality between clinics.
Our blasts this time were A B grades, a big step up from the cb and ccs we had on our last round. Our consultant was convinced he could get us better quality blasts. We used embroscopeflex . I think this was a huge part in achieving better quality blasts . Does your clinic offer it? The environment the embryos develop in is really important. It's it's a standard incubator they have to open and close it all the time , this can really affect the embryos whereas embroscopeflex uses time lapse so they can monitor them without disturbing them. We also used imsi to pick the best sperm.
We didn't do a transfer we froze but I became pregnant immediately after treatment ( 20 years trying naturally) I'm 40 and have pcos, the only difference compared to other cycles was the heap of supplements I took. Maybe they helped quality ?

I’m taking the fertility wild nutrition supplements, vitamin D and iron. That’s all I was told to take. over the many years I have taken alot more and never felt anything worked and each supplement was so expensive.

Can I please ask where you had your treatment from? In the uk I was with Create fertility and now this round we went to British Cyprus clinic

And I checked. My clinic doesn’t have the embroscopflex

Hi sorry what thread was this on. I’m 39 and starting my first round of ivf in March. Is there particular medication you took. My consultants have been rubbish and just telling me that folic acid is enough .

How did everyone get on? Did anyone have a notable difference after taking supplements?

I’ve just had my second IVF round and only 1 mature egg from 8 follicles - the rest were empty/fluid only. We did ICSI due to my husband’s sperm count (5 million/ml, 30% progressive motility), but sadly it didn’t fertilise. The round before was cancelled due to poor response, apparalently another indication of poor egg quality?

Feel so hopeless at this point. We’ve both worked so hard preparing for IVF — lost weight, ate more produce, took supplements for 3months (folate, vitamin D, ubiquinol; husband also taking zinc and L-carnitine). We brought our BMI down to 31. Now thinking should I even bother continuing with these expensive supplements.

Any feedback is grately appreciated x