Tests

[Khloe9]

If your ivf cycles kept failing and they didn’t understand why because “eggs and sperm look healthy”, did you ever get success after more rounds? If so, did you change the protocol or have additional tests that indeed showed an issue that couldn’t be detected in the lab?

I have looked into different tests but they’re so expensive and I just don’t know what tests would be beneficial. I’ve never achieved pregnancy and have had multiple failed transfers, all with the clinic saying everything looked “great” (eggs, sperm, lining) but I just think something must be wrong.

I’d appreciate any insight into what others have done to achieve a successful transfer/pregnancy.

Sorry you're going through this, we were in the exact same situation and can completely relate.

We had four failed transfers, all excellent quality embryos but none of them worked. We never got an answer as to why, we got more of a shrug from the doctor and told it's like a lottery.

We're currently pregnant from our fifth attempt. Absolutely nothing was different to the last four times (that we know of), this one just stuck.

There was never a reason found for our infertility, we conceived our DS naturally without any issues and then took 3 years to get this one. The helpless feeling of being in the dark was so frustrating, really shows how much there's still to learn about women's health and fertility ❤️

@cookingaroast Thank you so much for responding. Sorry you went through it too, it’s so tough. I just hate the unknown and not knowing if we’ll be able to achieve a successful pregnancy and birth.

Congratulations on your success, it must have been a relief after all that you went through. I’m really hoping we’ll have a positive outcome soon 🤞🏼

@Khloe9 I don’t have any advice but following this thread because I’m in a similar position. Sorry you’re in this situation it really is the worst.

@cookingaroast congrats on your pregnancy! Can I ask if all 5 of your transfers were from from same egg collection please or did you do multiple collections?

@TSHconfusion hope you get success too! It really is such a hard and isolating thing to go through. I just feel like my life is on hold and we’ve been going through it for so many years now that I wonder if it’ll ever happen. I obviously try to remain positive but it’s hard sometimes isn’t it?!

@Khloe9 i feel exactly the same feel like everyone’s life is moving forward and we can’t plan anything or spend money on anything because we don’t know what is happening! It really is so isolating especially when all your friends are having babies etc. how long have you been trying for now? Have you had many transfers?

@TSHconfusion I know, it’s so frustrating. We’re the same. We just don’t know what to do with ourselves and it’s hard when everyone seems to have their family unit and whilst I’m happy for them and acknowledge it’s not their fault, it’s so hard to be around them and constantly pretend to be happy in their presence.

We’ve been having some form of treatment for around 6.5 years (we did have a break in between). We’ve had Clomid, 2 IUI and 2 rounds of IVF, 4 transfers. Sadly our last one was a complete failure despite a considerable number of eggs. What about you?

@Khloe9 yesh definitely. I’ve definitely started to isolate myself from everyone a bit because it’s just easier but we’ve only told our parents about our treatment etc so friends probably wonder why.

aw that is a long journey I’m so sorry. Have you had much testing done around why they won’t implant? We have had one round of ICSI which we got 6 embryos from but we’ve transferred 4 so far with no positive test

@TSHconfusion I think it’s to protect ourselves. I can’t help it now, I just don’t have the energy to pretend anymore.

No further testing yet as we were having treatment under the NHS (future treatment will be private) and they don’t do the additional testing but they also didn’t think we needed it as they said the lining, eggs and sperm looked good. Although, it makes you doubt that when you continuously have failures. I’m hoping someone will come along with advice on what tests helped them.

sorry you’ve had multiple failed transfers too. It’s so hard. Are you planning on transferring the others or is that why you’re looking into possible tests first?

@Khloe9 very similar to us this is our NHS round but future treatment will be private. Similar to you our consultant thinks we’ve just been very unlucky so far and should go ahead and transfer the other 2 so we’re just waiting to do our last FET now. I pushed to have a hysterscopy to see if they could see anything that would be stopping implantation but it all came back normal. Our consultant doesn’t really believe in microbiome testing or anything

@TSHconfusion fingers crossed this one works for you 🤞🏼 good news that your hysteroscopy was clear but it’s hard to constantly be told you’re “just unlucky”. Obviously don’t want to be told there’s issues but sometimes, I think at least then you can look to fix it. The unknown is horrible.

@Khloe9 yeah exactly if we had an answer that we could fix it would almost be easier! We do know why we haven’t conceived naturally. My husband has antisperm antibodies that attach themselves to the sperm and stop fertilisation which we thought we had overcome with ICSI when we made our embryos but now we don’t know why they won’t implant or if we’ve just got a bad batch essentially and need to do egg collection again

Our transfers were all from the same harvest. We got 7 embryos from this and froze them. Initially, this sounded amazing but actually it got me in such an awful loop of failing and trying, failing and trying. My mind and body were absolutely exhausted from it.

Our doctor wasn't keen on us doing any further tests, she really didn't think the tests would give us the answers we wanted, the focus was a pregnancy and finding out none of them would work could be devastating (even though going through it is bloody devastating too!). She wanted us to go into each transfer hopeful, and not keep count - easier said than done but honestly, there's no reason this one worked and the others didn't.

Sorry I don't have a great answer, its a horrible situation to be in, I honestly feel like those years of trying we're the hardest thing I've put myself through.

@TSHconfusion I know. It wouldn’t be great but would be good to at least be given an answer instead of being told we’re just unfortunate all the time. It’s good you’ve found that out but again, frustrating that it’s still not worked. Really hope you het some luck with your next ones.

@cookingaroast sounds like you had a really hard time. It is so mentally and physically exhausting. Interesting they weren’t keen on additional testing. It’s hard to know what to do isn’t it? My fear is pursuing a private cycle without additional testing when there could be something wrong that nhs tests didn’t pick up and we’re going into cycles that will never make it (if that makes sense). I obviously don’t want there to be anything wrong but it really does baffle me that nothing has worked, despite multiple attempts with different treatment and transfers.

It's so difficult to know what to do. I remember feeling so helpless and clueless, I needed an expert to tell me what happens next and they couldn't.
Our doctor said none of the tests are 100% accurate so to do the test, get a result saying an embryo will work, then it doesn't would create more heartache that the current position of knowing that the odds of IVF working are low and crossing your fingers. Also, any tests done on the embryos can damage them, so you're risking an embryo that make have worked being damaged. I'm not sure how many you have but I felt I wasn't in a position of sparing any.

@Khloe9 thank you, I really hope you get some success soon too!

@cookingaroast this is pretty much the same situation as us. We got 6 embryos and were delighted with that but obviously now the first 4 haven’t worked and our dr just thinks we need to keep transferring and hope for the best with no changes to protocol. Really hope number 5 is the lucky one for us as well.

do you mind if I ask what the protocol was for your transfers? Did you add aspirin or anything?

I didn't add aspirin, I did natural thaw for all of mine. I was told the odds of success are exactly the same for natural or stimulated cycle, I preferred natural as I didn't like the volume of drugs already taken and how much they affected my body - I got ovarian hyper stimulation just before harvest.

It was completely my preference though, and it failed the first four times so I wouldn't say this made any difference to our success