Zymot - worth switching clinics?

[Anonymous]

Currently a GW patient and thinking about switching to SGF (Dr. Humm). Humm was my doctor but left for SGF in December. Now I’m with Dr. Frankfurter whom I love, but did not have a great first IVF cycle.

SGF has Zymot, which GW does not offer. I’m really interested in Zymot because we had poor blast rate in January (9 mature/ 6 fertilized/ 1 day 5 blast that was transferred fresh and unsuccessful—none to freeze).

Anyone have experience with Zymot? Is it worth switching clinics for? I’ve just read so many negative things about SGF and even though I think (hope) Dr. Humm would still “think outside the box” with me, I’m concerned. I’ve got questionable ovarian reserve.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear you are experiencing this. I don’t have experience with Zymot, but if you haven’t already would try to contact your dr directly and confirm that he would do Zymot at SG. I asked SG about Zymot about 2 years ago (with a different doctor) because we also had a very low blast conversion rate, and at that time was told that SG didn’t do Zymot because the evidence wasn’t strong enough, but that was a few years ago so they may have updated their policy since then. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I also don’t have experience with Zymot. However, would you consider transferring 3-day embryos instead? I was DOR and didn’t get a lot of eggs (and thus embryos). Dr Frankfurter recommended a 3-day transfer, as did Dr Davis at Cornell. It took a few rounds, but I’m feeding my 3-day transfer right now. Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

I think Zymot is fairly new at SGF. My SGF doctor says they have it now, and it’s $150 (a bargain in the IVF world). She would do ICSI with Zymot, whereas GW would do conventional IVF this time (did ICSI last time… we’ve had mixed success with IUIs in the past, so Dr. F said it might be better giving the sperm a chance to select themselves since it’s worked for us “in the wild” previously.

I did ask Dr. Frankfurter about a three-day transfer, but he said he does not want to do that with me because he does not want to transfer more than one embryo and have me end up with multiples (seems so far fetched right now, I can’t even). PP, did you do a day3 transfer with just one embryo or more?

FWIW, Dr. F goes back and forth re: whether I have DOR. I’m almost 34. My FSH has been as high as 10.5, AFC varies between 8 and 12, and AMH has been anywhere from 1.8 to 2.4 (was once 2.7 but they said that was probably lab error ugh)… but we attempted a second ER last month and I never got more than 6 follicles (half of what I had the previous month), so we converted to IUI and now I guess I’m a “poor responder.”

[Anonymous]

Oh, and PP, congratulations!!! That makes me so happy to hear.
Did you end up having success with Frankfurter or Davis?

I’ve got 2 more rounds covered by insurance and if this one doesn’t work I think we’ll try to get in with Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Hi - I’m the PP. I did two 3-day embryo transfers at Cornell, with three embryos each time. But I was older than you — 39 — so I don’t think that Cornell would have transferred more than two 3-day embryos had I been in my early/mid 30s. (At GW, I only transferred a single 3-day embryo, but I only had one, so two or three wasn’t an option). I ultimately had success at Cornell. GW and Cornell recommended a similar low-stim protocol for me after my three high-stim rounds at GW that didn’t go so well, but I had some concerns about the monitoring at GW, which is why I decided to switch to Cornell. Of course, it’s possible that I would have achieved success at GW, but I felt very good about my cycles at Cornell. I had more eggs retrieved each of those cycles (the last cycle I got 11 after having a cycle at GW getting none and cycle round getting only 3) and a high fertilization rate. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

No experience with zygote but fwiw I had no blasts across two cycles a SGF and got 6 blasts in my first round at SGF. My SGF doc was very complimentary of Dr. humm but told me that SGF’s lab was superior. We also did a different protocol, but I think the stats make it seem like it’s also a lab quality issue so I’d at least try to make the move if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No experience with zygote but fwiw I had no blasts across two cycles a SGF and got 6 blasts in my first round at SGF. My SGF doc was very complimentary of Dr. humm but told me that SGF’s lab was superior. We also did a different protocol, but I think the stats make it seem like it’s also a lab quality issue so I’d at least try to make the move if you can.

Sorry no blast across two cycles at GW*. (Sleep deprived and holding my two week old from SGF right now!) good luck !