NEED ADVICE/STORIES - Under 35, Healthy, IVF just not working

[Anonymous]

And what RE were you seeing? We had a miscarriage (fetus was no chromosomal abnormalities), my first natural IVF failed (the embryo stopped developing), I have a suspicion it might have something to do with my husband's sperm (he has below normal count, super poor motility and morphology). I will go for another cycle of natural IVF, but if I want to go through a medicated IVF, I willl definitely want to switch the clinic you went to to make sure they select the best sperm.

[Anonymous]

OP here...thank you all so much for sharing your stories and offering such kinds words of encouragement. It is giving me hope.

Hoping that my last negative IVF with ICSI and FET were just the result of using eggs that might have been a little fried from the lengthy time I was on Lupron and stims.

What is the average time most women are on these drugs before egg retrieval? Is 13 days a long time?

[Anonymous]

OP, you should discuss giving your body a break after egg retrieval. find a clinic that does vitrification and then freeze your embryos at day 5, let the drugs clear your system and then go back fora transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, what clinic was that?

I went to a clinic in Panama, but I am pretty sure Cornell uses those same techniques. Ask around if DC clinics use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should discuss giving your body a break after egg retrieval. find a clinic that does vitrification and then freeze your embryos at day 5, let the drugs clear your system and then go back fora transfer.

This is actually a really good idea. Has anyone ever done this and have success? Wondering if maybe all the stimming is causing havoc on my body and maybe that is why my last IVF/ICSI and FET failed.

[Anonymous]

I had a long run.....4 yrs TTC...
4 IUI's at SG, 2 IVF's at SG.....all BFN
1st IVF at CFA- BFP, m/c
1st FET at CFA- BFP, m/c
2nd IVF (4th fresh cycle) at CFA- BFP...I'm 26 wks with triplets!

This has all happened between 27 and 31 years old, no issues what so ever. The weird thing is I had basically identical protocols with SG and CFA. Who knows why I got pg 3 times at CFA and none at SG. I had good experiences with both clinics.
Good Luck to all!

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, sorry you've had to go through this. PPs have had some good advice about getting other consults and some tests to try. I did just want to chime in and say nonetheless that it's entirely possible that nothing went "wrong" with the cycles. Of course you want to investigate further, rule out diagnoses, make sure that whatever you do next maximizes your chances. I'm not discouraging that. And yet even if you took a perfectly fertile male and female and did IUI, IVF, etc., it's all statistics and a matter of time. DH and I were both 31 when I finally got pregnant; only diagnosed issue was horrible sperm morphoogy. Third IVF with ICSI did the trick. I felt desperate after the second b/c we'd decided beforehand we'd try three and if the third didn't work that was the sign that it wasn't meant to be. If it hadn't have worked, maybe we would have changed our gameplan and done more, I don't know. First two cycles had been great on paper--only no pregnancy. So who knows what happened or didn't. I knew that my stress was not good so I took 3 months between the second and third cycles and got into yoga and meditiation. Did meditation throughout the cycle. I'm not claiming it's magic or what made the difference, but I was glad that I got myself in a calm mental state before and during that cycle. If you're feeling really stressed, consider postponing any further attempts. Do whatever testing you want, get all the answers you want and deserve, and I suggest that you only go forward when you feel confident that you've ruled out other physical things and when you can feel a little less stressed. Easier said than done, believe me I know. All the best to you!

[Anonymous]

Regarding the posts earlier about vitrification/freeze all followed by a transfer after your body "recovers" from the stims. baseb on the experience I had at Cornell and what I heard from friends who went there, Cornell does *not* do this. They actually don't vitrify at all and have very strict freezing criteria. My doctor there did not mention any benefits to doing a freeze all cycle. he said they typically only do that for cancer patients who are preserving embryos for after their treatments. However, I think CCRM in Colorado does do this (esp so that they can run all their genetic tests before transfering).

OP, Dr davis at Cornell did mention that my eggs might have been over-stimmed by SG. How big were your follicles at trigger? Cornell triggers earlier than other clinic (when largest is 16 or 18 vs SH which let me go until the largest were 20+).

[Anonymous]

OP here...Poster 11:52...thank you so much! Awesome post. I just read it out loud to my husband and he totally agrees with you. Maybe nothing has gone wrong..maybe this IVF stuff is just going to take some time/a few tries. And even if I did find out that I have immune issues or lack the beta-integrin protein needed for implantation etc, there doesn't seem to be any drs around here who will do anything about it. And we just dont have the $$ to cycle up at Cornell or CCRM so I'm not sure if paying for a consult with them is worth it. Right now, its unfortunate that I have to say that if SG can't get me pregnant, then I don't think anybody else can.

But thank you again for your post. It has given me hope. I'm so glad you were able to get pregnant from one of your IVF tries!

[Anonymous]

11:52 here again. Thanks for your note, OP. It's such an agonizing process, as we can all testify on this board. I know that after my second failed cycle I got pretty obsessed with what had gone "wrong". We'd done enough testing that I felt as confident as could be that what could be discovered had been, though I know that there are still things that REs can't quantify and diagnose yet. I probably tortured my RE with "what do you think happened", "what went wrong" questions. I really don't think anything went wrong and it's just a matter of time. Now I look at my toddler and am grateful that the first two didn't work--if they had, I'd have had a different baby, not HIM. Believe me, I know this is all justification after the fact and I would have been thrilled if the IVF had worked before, but...I try to see the bright side. I really wish you all the best. I hope you get either a diagnosis that can be treated or some peace of mind and a successful next try!

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I think IVF is just a numbers game and if you roll the dice enough times you'll hopefully be successful. I just turned 30 when starting IVF for male factor - it took 4 IVFs until we had our positive result. We started up trying to conceive for #2 when my first was just 6 months old (so I had just turned 32) and it took an additional 5 fresh and 1 frozen IVF cycles to conceive my twins. I did get second opinions after IVF #3 and after IVF #8 to make sure that Shady Grove wasn't missing anything and those doctors agreed that SGF was doing everything possible. In my case - changing the drug protocol changed the quality of my eggs/embryos - but even those weren't consistent. I could have my best and worst cycles on the exact same protocol. Very frustrating. My best advice is to be persistent and not give up - and maintain hope and faith it will work. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much posters 16:14 and 19:24. You both have put a lot of my worries into perspective and I really do feel so much better about things. I'm so glad I posted on this board! Maybe this IVF stuff will just take more tries/time that I thought. You are both right, it really is just a numbers game in many cases and maybe I don't really have anything "wrong" with me. I will take your advice and just keep the faith and keep trying! Thank you again!

[Anonymous]

If you have a male factor and you do the IVF with ICSI , it's still not a guarantee that they pick "the best" sperm. All they do is look under the microscope and pick sperm that looks normal to an embryologist. However, the sperm that looks normal might not have all the genetic material present for an embryo to develop. I don't think any clinic in the area uses advance techniques now available to pick the best sperm (please see the links to those methods below). Therefore, don't beat yourself up - your eggs are probably fine, they might be selecting not the best sperm and it leads to the IVF failure.

http://www.fertilityfactor.com/ivf-and-imsi.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/07/prweb407895.htm

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with the previous posters who said that sometimes it just takes time. I am 31 and currently pregnant with twins after 1 IUI and 4 fresh cycle IVFs. We never had a diagnosis of what was causing our infertility, but I truly believe that persistence pays off.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, I also have a success story for you! My friend, 34 at the time and healthy with no issues was told that her husband would be unable to produce enough sperm of quality and that they would never get pregnant naturally. They did stimulated IVF with ICSI which worked, but there were severe health issues with the embyros and she lost one of the babies, it was a very hard time for them. About 1.5 yrs later she found herself pregnant- with a healthy baby - naturally! They believe it totally has to do with him changing his job to a less stressful one. I believe that what one of the PPs wrote is true; it's a numbers game and it's a little bit of a 'crapshoot' - despite all the high powered cutting edge technology it may or it may not work, and there are many issues in the realm of immunology that we still don't have control over and maybe never will, so that it may happen for people naturally as well even if it didn't happen before for many years... both is possible...