July IVF/ICSI/FET

[DeeKel]

I didn’t see a thread for July IVF yet. I am due to start stims around 18Jul with estrogen priming starting the week before that. Collection will be the end of July all going well.
This will be my second IVF and I will be using ICSI. I will be 40 during treatment and 41 come collection. I have a child from my first IVF 3 years ago. Since then I had a chemical pregnancy Dec 2024 with my only other embryo from my 2022 cycle and a failed IUI in Feb this year.
I found the discussion board really helpful and supportive in my first IVF round as we all understand the crazy ups and downs of this rollercoaster. Wondering if there are any others with similar timing?

It’s a private clinic though I’m a NHS patient.
if we need another cycle, I’ll be a private patient.
Thank you for mentioning AOA, I’ll look into clinics who offer it. It makes me feel im doing something proactive rather than just waiting for Wednesday.

@StorkVisit So glad to be able to help! I can’t believe how much more I know now than when I started this journey. I would have made a lot of different choices along the way about treatment options, it’s such a frustrating journey. This is my 5th cycle and for this and the 4th one I just finished we are throwing literally all the treatment options into the mix!

Just had my egg collection this morning. They got 10 eggs but they said at least 4 would have been immature. That leaves 6, and based on the fertilisation and drop off rates from my last cycle that means we can only expect one embryo by day five. Given my age the Dr wants 4-6 embryos to test to be able to find one genetically normal embryo. The Dr predicted we would have 6 if we did two rounds but now it seems we will likely only get half way there. I certainly don’t want to make anyone feel worse by comparison, as I know the numbers could have course be worse! But just feeling so deflated at this point. Now for the 5 day waiting game 😔

@Pinguino24, it’s so difficult. Hopefully all 6 of them make it to blast. Every person is individual so hope you get a lot of them. Hate waiting at the best of times. Hope time speeds up!

@Pinguino24 congratulations! Every cycle is different so perhaps you’ll get more blasts than you expect, on my best cycle I had 3 blasts from 4 mature eggs, on others I’ve had a lot more eggs but no blasts.

@Hopeandfaith1990 yeah we did ICSI. They said that we can likely do another round on the NHS if we don’t make transfer, if they establish that they can do something different, which is a silver lining I guess.

does anyone know what that “something different” might be? I was on the highest dose of stims so just feeling a bit hopeless.

@Bloop123 from what I understand there are a number of different types of stimulation drugs, so you could ask the clinic to talk you through any alternatives that might work for you. You could also ask about whether an extra day of stims might help next time. Also, there are two different types of trigger shots and there is some evidence that a combination of two types might have a slightly improved effect for some people. The other thing you could ask about is Zymot, which may help the embryologist choose the best sperm (it’s an add on but has some evidence to back it up and costs an extra £200 or so. I follow Dr Tim Child on Instagram and I’ve found his info to be really good. He is on the board of the HFEA and seems very on top of latest research. Have a look at his insta, you might find out some other potential options. 😊

Thanks all for your support ❤️ this is a lovely community. And that’s good to hear @Pinguino24 that there are options for future rounds. I’ll keep you update on what tomorrow brings.

wishing you all luck in the next few days too xxxx

@Splishsplashsplosh93 we were supposed to use it this round but it just dawned on me that I wasn’t charged for it. I’m so worried now they didn’t use it today after my egg collection and I’m kicking myself for not noticing beforehand. The anxiety of worrying whether they used it or not is killing me!

@RainbowFluff thanks for the encouragement! Do you mind if I ask, is age a factor for you? My doctor seems to be emphasising that at 40 the chances of getting more day 5 blasts is quite low, but it’s so hard to know where you sit within the spectrum of the statistics!

Cannot recommend the Evewell in London enough for anyone with total failed fertilisation or low rates. Emma the embryologist on IG is amazing.

I’ll check out Evewell ❤️

@Pinguino24 I’m 41 now, when I started I was 40 and had 3 blasts from 4 eggs. Then 5 months later on my second round (still 40) I had no blasts, which they blamed on age but I can’t see I aged that much in 5 months! I had one more round with that clinic despite reservations and the same thing happened. Then I went to ARGC who found that my partner has quite severe DNA fragmentation so that can be a cause of not getting to day 5. I’m sure my age doesn’t help either but I don’t think it’s the only factor. ARGC have used zymot and also apparently have a very skilled embryology team, but we froze all the embryos at day 3 this time so I can’t tell if it has helped yet.

Im so sorry for this news. I hope your surrounded by loving family and friends. Fingers xd for that one little embryo.

Just catching up on the messages over the weekend and I’m so sorry for anyone the received disappointing news. This is just such a shitty process but hopefully in the near future it will all be worth it. Hoping everyone else is keeping well.
I have my follow up day 10 scan today so am hoping some magic happened over the weekend! I’m using donor sperm so I don’t want to waste it either on a bad round or converting to IUI. I’ll have to wait and see what doc recommends. TMI I did have a lot of EWCM since yesterday so hoping that’s a good sign that my estrogen levels are rising from follicle growth (and not that I’ve ovulated early!). Sending positive thoughts to all little embryos currently waiting to get to day 3/5/going for testing.

@RainbowFluff Thank you so much, that gives me a bit of hope. Now just waiting for that call to see how many we have in the running!

Good for you switching clinics - could not have just been a 5 month age difference cause such a different result! So many clinics seem to overlook the male factor issues. I hear ARGH is really good. I'm with CRGH - it's pretty chaotic and expensive but they also seem to have a really good lab team.

@DeeKel i hope your scan goes well today. Hopefully some really nice size follicles no early ovulation.

So I made it through day 3 with no phone call from the lab, but omg I had the biggest heart drop moment this arvo around 3pm. Reception from the clinic rang but of course it all comes up with the same number and when my phone rang and saw IVF on my screen, my heart sank straight to my feet. Our clinic only rings you to tell you how many eggs have fertilised and you dont hear from them again until transfer and they tell you how many there are left and if they ring you before this time it means there are no embryos to transfer. Thankfully as soon as I answered she quickly said she was from reception and she was just ringing to change my transfer time.

@DeeKel good luck for today, thinking of you.

Slightly more positive news for me today, just had the day 5 call to say that our little 4 cell embryo had actually carried on and is now almost at blast. they’re hoping it may reach it by tomorrow (day 6).

I didn’t realise that day 6 blasts were a thing - do you think they could be just as viable? Trying to hold onto that tiny bit of hope xx

@Bloop123 wow! That's amazing news. Good luck for tomorrow. Did you say if you were doing a fresh transfer or fet?

@Miraclemuma03 fresh transfer, so potentially transfer tomorrow if it makes it. I was really trying to ask how likely she thinks that is but she just couldn’t tell me understandably.

That sounds positive that they’re calling to book your transfer on day 3 - must mean they’re in the running still :)

@Bloop123 Congratulations! I'm so thrilled for you. Yes, my understanding is that day 6 blasts still have a decent chance of live pregnancy. A day 5 is apparently more promising but lots of day 6 blasts go on to make babies. Some clinics even used to continue to grow embryos to day 7 but the prospects are so much lower than most don't do that anymore.

I just had some incredible news. Despite the doctor telling me yesterday that only 6 follicles were a decent size, it turned out 9 eggs were mature and they all fertilised! One is abnormally fertilised but they will keep it going just in case, and the other 8 are normally fertilised. I've been so low the last 24 hours I burst into tears at the news. Completely unexpected. Talk about a rollercoaster! We will get a call on day 3 and then day 5. Hoping for 35-40% making it to blastocyst, which would actually give us a chance of the genetic testing going ok.