Very low fertilisation rate after IVF EC

[Lilac242]

Hi,
I'm looking for some thoughts, hope... anything really as I'm confused.
We were TTC #2 18m. All tests pretty normal, sperm excellent just some cysts on my ovaries but hormones and ovulation ok.
We saved up and started IVF in May. Day 8 of stims was showing hyperstimulation so they brought the EC forward to day 10.
Pretty rough experience...woke up during the procedure which was painful but that's another story, and have developed some mild OHSS so advised it will be freeze all.

Anyway they collected 23 eggs so I was pleased.
Day 1:
16 mature
13 atypical fertilisation (0PN)
2 typically fertilised.

I'm so shocked and upset by this initial drop off. The embryologist mentioned something about sperm fusing to the eggs but not making it in, and suggested we might need ICSI in future.

Has anyone been through anything similar? In struggling to find info on what could have happened here, other than that it's unusual to have such a low fertilisation rate.

I'm spiralling a bit. Really worried about further drop off before day 5 which I know is entirely likely.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts x

Sounds like rubbish clinic and lab in all honesty. Look up Emma the embryologist on IG. She’s great at explaining things

Why do you say that? Do you mean it could be something to do with the lab?

@Lilac242 Sorry to hear you are feeling so deflated, it's understandable and this process is brutal. However, it's also diagnostic and reveals factors that under normal circumstances you'd not realize. I think that the comment from the clinic that icsi is needed is actually helpful though a shame they didn't use it to start with but they often don't with the first attempt unless male factor is indicated. That does seem a low fertilization rate, now it's how many get to blastocyst stage. 2 can be enough but that drop off must've been a shock. So many eggs does make me question their quality but again, now that clinic can alter things if you have a second cycle.in your shoes, I'd see this cycle as information and see what the plan is moving forward. Unfortunately, it's normal to have a few rounds of ivf before success. Wishing you all the best.

Hi there, I'm sorry this has happened as it's such a shock getting a drop off like that. The same happened to us our first round (NHS). Morphology was always 2% or 4% on testing and I pushed hard for ICSI but they refused because it was 4% on the day so we didn't tick their box. Our drop off was 31 eggs (I have polycystic ovaries), 30 mature, 2 fertilised, 1 blastocyst. We got a similarly vague explanation that "the sperm are moving around but there's little evidence they've tried to enter the eggs". The day they rang to say only 2 had fertilised was awful, but the way we dealt with it was by remembering that some people only get a small number of eggs to begin with, so it just put us in the same position as many others doing IVF, who can still get positive results! Our 1 blastocyst did implant but sadly I had a missed miscarriage at our 12 week scan. We were obviously very unlucky there as we saw a heartbeat at 6 and 8 weeks, so it can go the other way and even if you only get 1 or 2 blasts now, they could be your lucky ones! We're about to start our second round (private) and are doing ICSI and Zymot to hopefully improve fertilisation rate and get more blastocysts. We did a sperm DNA frag in the meantime which showed slightly raised levels (hence Zymot), so this is something you could look into if you want to do further testing if you need another round.