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NEED ADVICE/STORIES - Under 35, Healthy, IVF just not working
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Anonymous
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Hi all -
Any advice, stories, comments (good & bad) would be SO APPRECIATED! My first round of IVF resulted in a BFN and I just found out my first FET (1 egg frozen from my first unsuccessful fresh IVF cycle) also did not work and I'm starting to really panic. I just turned 33, healthy with no known fertility problems other than my husband's poor sperm analysis (count, motility, morphology all below normal, other tests show severe DNA fragmentation). We've been TTC for 3 years, I have never been pregnant, not even a chemical pregnancy. In that time I have undergone 2 rounds of NCIVF at Dominion, 2 injectible IUIs at SG, one stimulated/fresh IVF cycle and one FET at SG. Also, we are using donor sperm for many reasons...one being out of concern that my husband's sperm might be the reason why these fertility treatments don't work...however, donor sperm doesn't seem to be helping us any better! All of my treatments have gone almost 100% smoothly...beautiful response to the medications, beautiful embryos etc. It just all seems to fall apart during the 2 week wait when nothing implants. I've asked my RE to do an endometrial biopsy, test me for antibodies, NK cells etc, put me on Heparin but he doesn't think we need to do that. My first fresh IVF cycle did start off a little slow because I was a bit oversuppressed on the lupron (had to increase my low dose Follistim medication and stim for 13 days to play catch up)...we still got 12 eggs, all fertilized with donor sperm, transfered 2 blasts and SG chose to freeze 1. Eggs were a little slow growing but SG said they were good quality. (I personally think eggs got a little "fried" from playing catch up) Anyone under 35 and healthy also not having luck with IVF despite everything going well? If you were me, would you keep going? I'm just freaking over the thought that IVF may never work for us. |
Anonymous
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I'll not lie. I know next to nothing about IVF and infertility. All I know is a good friend was under treatment unsuccessfully for years.
Finally found out her uterus was peppered with polyps--preventing implantation. Had them removed, and a baby came very soon after. I would press your doctor. Good luck. |
Anonymous
| Thanks so much poster 14:33. Do you know how your friend found out she had polyps? What kind of test finds that out? I've had numerous ultrasounds/sonograms and no one has ever found anything. |
Anonymous
| Have you ever had a hysteroscopy to see if you have any uterine polyps? My understanding is that these won't show up on an ultrasound. Mine were discovered during a diagnostic hysterscopy, taken care of with a D&C. Pregnant several cycles later. |
Anonymous
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OP, your story is completely identical to mine, except that I went to a different clinic here in DC. I started IVF in 2009 and did 2 rounds of IVF and 1 FET, all negative. I was 32. I went to a RESOLVE support group meeting and heard about CCRM, Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine. Told my husband about it, we researched it. We took a break and then decided this would be our last shot so let's go to the best of the best. Had the phone consult, the RE there identified several misteps. Diagnostic testing was done all over again. I had the endometrial biopsy, tested negative for the protein that binds the embryo to the uterus. I bet you money that is your problem too. If you can produce a good number of eggs and high quality embryos, nothing else is wrong with you, and male factor is your only issue, there is no reason for the embryos not to implant.
I highly recommend CCRM, but there might be docs here or elsewhere on the east coast who are willing to do the same kind of stuff. I am now 10 weeks pregnant with twins. |
Anonymous
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a hysteroscopy will show polyps if you have then - definitely a good idea to have one if you haven't already
My DH and I had a similar experience - under 35 & mostly undiagnosed - went through all of that other testing (NKs, etc.). Three rounds of IVF/FET locally. We finally had success when we went up to CRMI (Cornell - in NYC). I would ask your RE for ideas - try to trigger earlier? different protocol? slow growing follicles aren't a bad thing necessary, but overdoing the stims could fry them. I'd also get consults elsewhere - if you want to cut to the chase I'd just go up to CRMI (Dr. Davis is the best, but the other REs are great too). You don't even need to cycle up there - just a different opinion can really help!! Sometimes it just takes a bit of time...and sometimes it takes some finesse (top RE)...and sometimes unfortunately it never happens. BUT I've been on many IF forums and almost everyone gets pg eventually. Very rare for it not to happen after several cycles. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thank you all SO MUCH for your responses so far. As always, this board proves to be so helpful to me.
In additional to having normal day 3 bloodwork (my AMH level is a little low - 0.7, but I respond do well to all kinds of stims) I've had 2 HSG tests done and both were normal with no polyps or anything. Both RE's who did the HSG (done at SG) literally said "they would bet on me." But I'm still not pregnant after 2 cycles. Poster 15:05. You mentioned that you got tested for the protein that binds the embryo to the uterous. What did the RE at CCRM do with your IVF cycle/protocol to help you move past the protein issue so that you were successful? I'm definitely thinking of getting a phone consult done with either Cornel or CCRM. |
Anonymous
OP, I am one of the posters who suggester hysteroscopy. I was under the impression that an hsg would show blockages in the tubes, but not necessarily uterine problems like polyps. |
Anonymous
| I have had polyps and fibroids, both of which were easily identified initially with plain old u/s and confirmed with HSG and saline sono - no hysteroscopy required. Most can be identified without hysteroscopy by a good RE. |
Anonymous
Fibroids, yes...but it depends on the size of the polyps. |
Anonymous
after egg retrieval, they froze blasts at day 5. for 2 months i did depot lupron shots, then went into their regular protocol to prepare for the embryo transfer. the poster from Cornell is right, go get a another opinion and this will work for you. hang in there. |
Anonymous
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I would definitely push for a hysteroscopy if you haven't had one yet - I thought DF required an office one before starting IVF?
It would show scarring, etc as well. |
Anonymous
| No advice on your side of the equation, but we had success with my DH's low sperm count and poor morphology by doing IVF/ICSI. I can't tell if you've tried that, but it worked for us. Just to give you another option. Also, we had a BFN on the first cycle, miscarried after a successful FET, and then were finally successful on our third try -- which was a fresh IVF cycle. Both fresh cycles were with sperm retrieved from my DH using TESA. Best wishes. |
Anonymous
| Another male infertility success story! I think the reason we were successful was because our clinic used IMSI and PICSI for IVF patients with male infertility issues. IMSI is super magnification of sperm and PICSI is when they test if the sperm is bonding properly. By using these two techniques, the lab selects the finest, perfect sperm. Also, the RE put my husband on a cocktail of vitamins that improved his sperm. |
Anonymous
| PP, what clinic was that? |