Hello, hoping for some advice and a bit of hand holding as feeling so disappointed and frustrated after a 3rd failed transfer. This is a bit of a long one but bear with me as need to process what’s happened…
i think it’s easy to question everything when you have failures but after my experience I’m really struggling to have faith in my clinics advice and judgement. There doesnt seem to be any thought to get to the root of the issue and can’t understand why they don’t recommend more testing ahead of time.
my story is:
1st round in 2020 with fresh transfer resulted in my DS and 2 frosties
Last year FET natural protocol with no drugs (this was our preference at the time but looking back am shocked I wasn’t even given one scan to check my lining etc before transfer). Difficult transfer as apparently my ferric was anterior and nurse had to call someone else in to do it. No ultrasound was use, which is standard at my clinic. Was told it was fine in the end. I got pregnant but sadly ended in early miscarriage at 6w.
next attempt at FET on natural protocol consultant recommended scan this time to check lining morning of transfer. Discovered my lining was on the thin side so this didn’t go ahead.
attempt FET again after bringing in two days of Bemfola to grow lining, scan ahead of transfer confirmed this had work. Transfer went ahead but again very difficult due to anterior cervix. I had requested most senior nurse to do transfer. She had to manipulate my cervix a bit but was told it was fine. Failed implantation and started period a few days before test day when normal period was due.
now all out of Frosties we made the decision to do one last round of IVF/ICSI. Ahead of this I did the DAYE microbiome test and discovered presence of Ureaplasma which was treated with antibiotics and followed by a course of vaginal probiotics (both oral and pessaries). Ahead of started treatment we were told the stims medication from my protocol was out of stock so I could change it or wait which was super annoying. After speaking with one of the consultants we decided to proceed with Meriofert. We got 7 eggs and all were mature despite having over 20 follicles at early scans (I wasn’t really told why and have been reading it’s possible I was overstimulated). 3 5 day blastocysts which the one graded 10/10 on caremaps was a fresh transfer. The transfer was awful. The doctor did it with a nurse doing the ultrasound and I was in there for almost an hour as they could see a curve in my uterus from c section scar that they struggled to navigate through. At one point the doctor was about to release the embryo but realised it wasn’t in the correct place so had to have it put backin the dish. In the end they had to give me local anesthesia in my cervix to complete the transfer which they could see on the scan went in the correct place. Despite all this I was feeling hopeful and positive.
yesterday 7dpt and have had regular quite heavy bleeding since, so my period has definitely come early and I’ve accepted this has failed. I am concerned why I have bled so early, my period isn’t due for another 3-4 days and I don’t think this is that usual, and read it can be down to low progesterone. The nurse also gave me the wrong dosage for progesterone on my discharge form so for the first day I took 2x per day when should have been 3x. Only picked up on it because I read the medical leaflet which said 3x and had to query it twice with them.
I was never once tested for progesterone during the cycle, is this usual? I was also told I could combine pessaries so 1x in AM and 2x in PM as difficult to do one in the middle of the day.
anyway I’m just feeling quite hopeless on what to do next and replaying all the possible things that could have gone wrong. I am kicking myself that we didn’t do PGA testing as I am 39. With two left I’m not sure it’s worth it now to thaw, test and re freeze. I will do another DAYE test to check infection has cleared and good bacteria at high levels. We have enough money left on our insurance to do 2 more transfers but that’s it, or PGA remaining two in the hopes that one is normal and transfer one. I’ve even considered transferring 2 with the hopes one sticks rather than going through all this possibly twice again, especially with the transfer being so difficult.
is there anything else, based on your experience you would insist on testing/ trying ahead of next transfer? I just feel completely lost on what to do next and feel you really have to advocate for yourself at these places to get anywhere. I wish we had unlimited funds to just throw everything at this but unfortunately not the case.
thanks in advance