Support thread for ladies who have had 3+ failed IVF cycles

[Unlucky41]

Clare congrats the best xmas present ever. Only two nights in hospital you must have had a speedy recovery!

 

[gsn2014]

Hi ladies.
Recently failed my 5th embryo transfer. This is my 3rd cycle. It was a fresh transfer of 2 blastocysts. we have 4 frozen day 3 embies.
I took clexane, baby aspirin and steroids, for last 3 cycles. yet this is not working.
If anybody has been trough similar situation and succeeded later on, please suggest what did you do differently.
I am so lost and depressed right now.

 

[bubumaci]

Hi gsn! Welcome to this forum - I am so sorry, you have found your way here - on the other hand, the support of these ladies is amazing?

For us, it took 9 transfers (6x egg retrieval and fertilisation through ICSI, 5 transfers were fresh transfers, 4 were FETs - in our case, we have MF infertility). Unfortunately, there are so many factors that influence what happens - and most often than not, it is something that is out of the hands of the clinic : nature.
I had 88 eggs retrieved, 56 fertilised and 20 transferred over the course of 3 years (feel free to take a look at my journal), so we really consider our little man to be a miracle. The last three tries were the best : did endometrial scratch, injected HCG boosters, the embryos were grown in the embryscope ... I had two chemical pregnancies and one baby boy () from these three tries.
Also, the last three tries we followed the Fischer stimulation protocol. This is still antagonist, but the medications are different, plus the trigger is different.
It really was a case of try, try again. Our doctor believed we would get pregnant, he just could not tell us, how many tries it would take.
At the beginning of last year, I basically said "I will be 40 next year. If we are not pregnant by the end of the year, we are stopping. I've had enough" - and coming to that decision was so hard. But ... we didn't need to make that decision, because I got pregnant with the first try of the year, in February.

It is such a difficult journey. And it is so easy to feel lost and depressed ...
What is the cause of your infertility? MF? FF? Joint?

xoxoxo

 

[gsn2014]

Thank you so much,
bubumaci.
I had a brief look at your journal and your son is certainly a miracle.
Well, in our case the infertility is combined. I have bilateral tubal blockage and he suffers from ED. but I would need ivf anyway, because of tubal issues.
I have had 9 embryos transferred and all have been either of decent or good quality.
I have 4 more frozen and I hope I get lucky next time.
Stories like yours give me a lot of hope. You had no issues still it took 9 transfers.
I can certainly try few more times. But it is quite difficult to gather hopes after each failure.
Anyway thanks and congratulations to you for your bundle of joy. Take care.

 

[eveclo]

Hi ladies.
Recently failed my 5th embryo transfer. This is my 3rd cycle. It was a fresh transfer of 2 blastocysts. we have 4 frozen day 3 embies.
I took clexane, baby aspirin and steroids, for last 3 cycles. yet this is not working.
If anybody has been trough similar situation and succeeded later on, please suggest what did you do differently.
I am so lost and depressed right now.

Hi GSN!


I feel your pain, my husband and I have undergone 5 Embryo transfers (3 Fresh and 2 FET's) and all have been BFN. Our last cycle we did Clexane and Steroids (20mg of Prednisolone) and nothing again. I am looking into visiting a Reproductive Immunologist and seeing what he can recommend for us. I have researched and some people have had success with Intralipid treatment.

Have you looked into any of this? Or had your Natural Killer Cells tested? Sorry to hear about your failures but there are some great success stories on this thread that give me hope too!

 

[Northernmonke]

Haven't got time to reply ladies vut if you habe male fertility issues please look into Imsi. We had 4 failed cycles and the final was Imsi and I have 8 month old twins and 2 in thr freezer from that cycle. Nothing from yhe previous 4 x

 

[eveclo]

Haven't got time to reply ladies vut if you habe male fertility issues please look into Imsi. We had 4 failed cycles and the final was Imsi and I have 8 month old twins and 2 in thr freezer from that cycle. Nothing from yhe previous 4 x

Thanks for that, just had a quick google about it but it seems as though no clinics in Australia (where I am) offer it. They do have a thing called PICSI though which might be similar? Very interesting though. Thanks

 

[Plex]

hiya all Just wondering how u r all doing? Ive not been online much since our last epic ICSI failure. We have no funds left so no more treatments, its kinda hard to accept.
xx

 

[ashknowsbest]

Re subscribing. I accidentally hit unsubscribe.

 

[bubumaci]

Hi Plex - I see you are moving forward with adoption! Wishing you all the best - I hope the approval goes through smoothly! xoxo

 

[Plex]

thanks bubumaci, looking at ur siggy i cant believe fabian is 4 months, hows life going with him? Babies are amazing

We're trying some last ditched attempts at ttc. We also have our WTF appointment (from our last cycle in NOV) at the end of May - already had to chase to get an appointment then it got moved back a month. Then i think we will move on. Its such a hard decision to make, adoption, i keep going over our options time and time again - i guess sometimes u just have to go for things xx

 

[bubumaci]

Oh, I can't believe that he is already 4 months old either, believe me! It is unbelievable, how time just races by!
He is very sweet, loves looking around, has the most heart-warming smile - it is such a pleasure to just observe him, watch him developing. I feel incredibly lucky to have been blessed by him!
Just on Wednesday, I went and organised his child passport, as we are driving to Budapest next weekend to visit my Grandma (she is 102). It will be a short visit, but a visit nevertheless and she will finally get to meet him ... I don't know how long she has left...
Here, a photo of him from last weekend, before going on a walk

Ah, I wonder what they will say at your WTF appointment .. you have had to wait such a long time for it, unbelievable!
Do you know what the source of the difficulties is?

I think you're right, at some point comes the time to decide one has had enough. For me, it was the beginning of last year - where I said "next year I will be 40. If we haven't become pregnant by the end of the year, we are stopping"... Our little miracle was conceived on the first try of last year! As I really really wanted to have a baby, I was struggling with adoption, because here, you won't be given a baby if you are older than 35 (there are rare cases where you can, but highly unlikely)...

 

[eveclo]

Re subscribing. I accidentally hit unsubscribe.

Hey Ash I posted on your blog a few weeks ago just to check in with you and see how you are going! When do you start your next cycle? We had our 5th IVF failure (3rd fresh cycle) back in December. Waiting to see a Reproductive Immunologist now. Hope you are well.






Bub LOVE the photo of your little cutie. You must be over the moon. Such a well deserved gift xxx

 

[ashknowsbest]

eveclo - So sorry you've had another failed cycle. It sucks! I start my next cycle sometime in late April, early May. My hubby and I are not in any rush ... not sure why. I'm sort of just having a good time busting my butt at school and my hubby is really busy with work. We also don't want to stress out finances so that's another reason we're waiting. April/May is better financially. We could afford to do it now but it would put a tad bit of stress on our finances so we're choosing to wait. This is my last attend with my own eggs (depending on what the outcome is) and I just want to make sure I'm not stressed about anything during the cycle.

I was supposed to have my e-tegrity biospy yesterday but DH and I had sex accidentally while I was ovulating ... oops. So I have to put it off until next month but like I said we're not doing our cycle until April/May so we still have time. They want to make sure I have this certain protein in my uterus during implantation time. This is sort of the last test IMO until I want to move on and stop using my eggs. Dr. Surrey said that if I still get a horrible attrition rate during my cycle with them then he thinks its most likely my eggs even though all of my numbers have come back ok.

If I don't get pregnant this go with my own eggs I'm okay and at peace with using donor eggs. I just really want to experience pregnancy ... I should at least be able to do that.

Bubu - your LO is adorable! Enjoy the time, they grow up fast!

 

[eveclo]

eveclo - So sorry you've had another failed cycle. It sucks! I start my next cycle sometime in late April, early May. My hubby and I are not in any rush ... not sure why. I'm sort of just having a good time busting my butt at school and my hubby is really busy with work. We also don't want to stress out finances so that's another reason we're waiting. April/May is better financially. We could afford to do it now but it would put a tad bit of stress on our finances so we're choosing to wait. This is my last attend with my own eggs (depending on what the outcome is) and I just want to make sure I'm not stressed about anything during the cycle.

I was supposed to have my e-tegrity biospy yesterday but DH and I had sex accidentally while I was ovulating ... oops. So I have to put it off until next month but like I said we're not doing our cycle until April/May so we still have time. They want to make sure I have this certain protein in my uterus during implantation time. This is sort of the last test IMO until I want to move on and stop using my eggs. Dr. Surrey said that if I still get a horrible attrition rate during my cycle with them then he thinks its most likely my eggs even though all of my numbers have come back ok.

If I don't get pregnant this go with my own eggs I'm okay and at peace with using donor eggs. I just really want to experience pregnancy ... I should at least be able to do that.

Bubu - your LO is adorable! Enjoy the time, they grow up fast!

Sounds like a great idea to wait until you are ready, it sounds just about the same way I am feeling about making that appointment to the Reproductive Immunologist. Just waiting until I feel confident enough to call him and make the appointment - not there yet but soon.

How do they know that it could be your eggs? Or is it a process of elimination? Last cycle our stats were so bad - 15 eggs, 13 mature eggs; 8 fertilized with ICSI and 3 fertlized with IVF, then on day 5 we only had one Blastocyst and then one more on day 6 frozen. We have no idea what to think of it all and our clinic doesn't seem to care or have any ideas. Eh!

Good luck with it all, i will be following your journey.

 

[ashknowsbest]

Pretty much it's just a process of elimination. I've had a total of 75 eggs retrieved and have only had 6 make it to transfer. And at transfer I never had a great quality one. So even though all of my blood work that coincides with egg quality has come back good my dr said reproductive medicine has only come so far and there are some things they just can't test yet regarding eggs. So ... we'll see. Like I said, I'm comfortable moving on to DE if that's what we need to do but I really want to experience pregnancy so ...

Good news is that I had a hysteroscopy and there is nothing wrong with my uterus. Dr. said it's beautiful and ready for a baby! So ... that's good news.

 

[eveclo]

Pretty much it's just a process of elimination. I've had a total of 75 eggs retrieved and have only had 6 make it to transfer. And at transfer I never had a great quality one. So even though all of my blood work that coincides with egg quality has come back good my dr said reproductive medicine has only come so far and there are some things they just can't test yet regarding eggs. So ... we'll see. Like I said, I'm comfortable moving on to DE if that's what we need to do but I really want to experience pregnancy so ...

Good news is that I had a hysteroscopy and there is nothing wrong with my uterus. Dr. said it's beautiful and ready for a baby! So ... that's good news.

That is very interesting thank you for that. I had a hysteroscopy before our last cycle too and the doctor came up to me afterwards and said 'you'll get pregnant'. (I didn't but hopefully one day haha!)

what is your fertilisation rate like usually ? Does that have anything to do with egg quality? Did you do day 3 or day 5 transfers? I hope the next cycle provides some Answers for you. X

 

[ashknowsbest]

These are all averages but here are my numbers:
I got approx. 25 eggs each retrieval (I've had 3)
Out of the 25 on average 10-12 fertilized with and without ICSI (we didn't do ICSI with the first IVF but we did with the 2 following)
Out of the 10-12 fertilized each cycle we had approx. 3-4 by day 5 (I've always had day 5 transfers)
I believe the highest quality embryo I had was a 4AB
Out of my 3 fresh cycles I've only had 2 to freeze. Those 2 were transferred during my FET that I had last August which also didn't work.

So .... it seems like it is an egg quality issue even though all of my numbers regarding egg quality are good. (Meaning my AMH, FSH, and my age) But there's obviously something doing on since I have such a horrible attrition rate.

Yeah I'm hoping the next cycle provides us with some answers although I'm not counting on it. I tried to convince my DH to allow us to move on to donor eggs already but he really wants to try one more time with my eggs. So we'll see what happens ....

 

[LadyLovenox]

Ash knows best... Have you had an endometrial biopsy? I had three failed fresh cycles and one failed frozen. They would do a biopsy in between each cycle, and the biopsies always showed inflammation also known as endometritis (not endometriosis)... They treated me with antibiotics every time, and the inflammation never went away. My doctor always acted like that wasn't a big deal, but then they did a study a found that endometritis caused a hostile environment for embryos and prevented implantation in many cases. Since antibiotics didn't work, my doctor recommended I go gluten free, as gluten intolerance causes inflammation in many parts if the body. I had no Symptoms of gluten intolerance but I went strictly gluten free for three months and had another biopsy... My 4th! Finally... All inflammation was gone!! They gave me another round of antibiotics just to kick out anything else that may remain, as far as the inflammation. We did one more round of ivf and got pregnant with twins!! I ended up losing one at 8 weeks, but I'm currently 15 weeks pregnant with the remaining twin and everything looks healthy and right on track. I was similar to you.... I'd get 15-17 eggs... By day 5 only had a few... Highest quality was 4AB....they said that was super quality and were very happy w those though. I only ever had one to freeze. My hsg was normal as well... They don't show inflammation. Just wanted to share my story with you and anyone else on here in case it helps.

 

[eveclo]

Hiiii everyone, hope you are all doing well. Just wanted to check in to say that i am have finally met with a Reproductive Immunologist who has sent me off for many blood tests including natural killer cells, full immune panel and MTHFR as well. Hoping that we do get some sort of answers from these tests but I know that this journey is never smooth!