Can’t get pregnant - collapsing / failing corpus luteum each month

[CollapsingCL]

Can anyone help or advise ? I’ve been experiencing secondary infertility for a number of years and the only thing identified is a collapsed/ failed corpus luteum at 3/4 dpo. Has anyone had this ?

I’ve had progesterone pessaries (didn’t help) , letrozole cycles , clomid cycles. Everything else has been checked and double checked and checked again! We take so many vitamin and have a healthy lifestyle but this issue being identified is the only thing wrong and our doctor can’t tell us why or what to do ??!!

Really looking for anyone who has been in a similar situation and if there was anything that helped?

@CollapsingCL have you had an appointment with a fertility dr? I would assume a fertility dr would know more than a gp.
ive had secondary infertility and ended up doing ivf, ours was male factor. The fertility specialists are so knowledgeable and have seen it all. I went through Wessex fertility and Salisbury fertility. Not sure where you are in the country.
Have you stimulated the ovaries to check how many follicles grow? I wonder if an iui would be good?

@CollapsingCL we had infertility for 5 years and I honestly understand the frustration in getting information and understanding.

have they said anything about iui or ivf? I know it’s a big jump from clomid but might be worth it. I’ve just been reading more about the CL and it usually collapses around day 10 if there’s no pregnancy. 3/4 is early but with ivf that kind of by passes all that need for it because it’s being done synthetically.

Yes I’ve had some Letrozole and clomid cycles with hcg trigger but none of them worked . The past few cycles I’ve had scans and each time it’s showing a corpus luteum that is ‘collapsed’ by 3/4 days after ovulation and my progesterone levels are too low on the day 21 test. I’m ovulating even on the non medicated cycles but something is going wrong just after. We are having a break till after Xmas now but I feel like our only option will be ivf. Everything else is fine it’s like something is going extremely wrong after I ovulate.

It did take us quite a long time to get pregnant with dc 1 and 2 and I had a lot of early losses too which now I think could have been low progesterone but at the time we were told just bad luck

You’ve been through so much already. It’s really hard emotionally and physically.
I could be wrong but, what I’ve been reading about the CL is that it collapses usually around 10 days if there’s no pregnancy but with ivf I think it completley by passes the need for any of that because they will be controlling it all.
you take progesterone about 5 -7 days before you transfer the embryo back in so (I think) there’s no need for the CL. I took 3x 400mg of progesterone pessaries a day and know of others who also injected progesterone, so you could do more.

I wish I knew more to help with regards to the CL but if ivf is on the table for you I don’t think it matters. Women who don’t ovulate at all do ivf and it’s successful.

Yes you’re right it’s meant to last about 10 days , my doctor said to me that it releases progesterone to make the lining able to receive a fertilised egg but with my corpus luteum collapsing / failing I’m assuming it means that’s the reason I havnt got pregnant. It’s so frustrating 😭
I think I need to get used to the idea that ivf might be the only thing that can somehow bypass whatever the issue is. I’ve tried googling but I can’t find much as to what the reason could be why I can ovulate but my ovary is not making a CL that functions correctly

IVF would definitely bypass the need for the CL, I’ve just been reading.

theres two types of ivf cycles “fresh” & “frozen”
with a frozen cycle you stimulate the follicles, go in for an egg retrieval and then freeze your embryos on day 5 or 6. You give your body a rest and have at least 1 menstrual cycle. You take the hormonal drugs to thicken your lining and trick the body into thinking it’s released an egg and is pregnant, you go in transfer your thawed embryo into your uterus. By doing all this, there is no CL because you never ovulated or released any eggs. The drugs stop that from happening.

to be honest, I all sounds worse than it really is. It’s super quick, all done within 2 weeks! And we paid around £6,000 altogether including icsi (male factor sperm quality issue) so without icsi it could be £4,500-£5000 for a full frozen cycle.

i really hope next year is your year hunny xx

Thankyou so much ❤️

Thankyou I will have a look at it I’m willing to try anything at this point