IVF#1 at 40, 29 eggs fertilized! Any insight or similar experiences?
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Anonymous
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Hi,
I've been reading this forum for a year, but this is my first post. I had 31 eggs retrieved yesterday, but didn't know until today how many of those were mature. Apparently, 26 were mature when removed, but 3 immature ones caught up in the afternoon, making 29 mature, and all 29 fertilized! I am stunned and over the moon. Context: we have male factor (low motility and count) and it was recommended that we go straight to IVF with ICSI. This was my first infertility treatment. (I did do 2 unmonitored Clomid cycles with my OBGYN, but that was before my husband's SA where he had ZERO motility. Luckily a few months later his motility improved enough to make ICSI possible.) I am 40 years old and all of my tests have been high average or quite good for my age. That being said, I have never in my life been pregnant, so I consider myself unproven territory. My RE expected me to stim for 12 days but I responded faster/better to the meds than expected, so I triggered on day 9. They also switched me from a HCG trigger to a Lupron trigger, as I was already overstimulated. (E2 was 5,500 on trigger/day 9; not sure what it is now.) I was very uncomfortable for the 2 days before egg retrieval, and the day of was pretty rough, but I am feeling much better now, except for some serious bloating. When I heard 31 eggs were retrieved, I was praying that close to 20 would be mature. I never dreamed that 29 would be mature, and that we'd get a 100% fertilization rate. I'm still in (happy) shock. I realize that many of these embryos won't survive, especially because of my age, but it's hard to imagine that we won't have at least a handful of good ones at transfer. (I hope!) Still, I am worried that quality may have been sacrificed for quantity, but my nurse didn't seem too concerned. She seemed to think that we'd probably do a 5 day transfer. Can anyone with a similar experience tell me how many of your embryos made it to transfer/freeze? I'm especially interested in hearing from those of AMA. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Are you really bragging on an IF forum? ugh. |
Anonymous
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WOW! This is news for sure. Not AMA but at 31, during IVF #1 I had 19 eggs retrieved but only 3 fertilized and 3 made it to day 5 blast. 1 transferred and 2 frozen but no embryos from that cycle resulted in a baby. Next cycle was 29 retrieved, 10 mature and 8 fertilized with ICSI - 5 blasts at day 5 and one worked (4 frozen).
If I were you, I'd be asking my doctor about doing PGD on day 5 to figure out which ones are normals. Regardless of age, 100% fertilization rate is rare. Good luck. |
Anonymous
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Thank you for your advice; I will ask my doctor if he thinks PGD is a good idea. I have some immune issues so I am worried about implantation. The fertilization rate shocked me; I feel very grateful to the technician who ICSI'ed all those eggs!
Also, I apologize that my post came off as bragging. I didn't mean it that way, and I certainly didn't mean to be insensitive, though I can see now that I was. I guess I have just found it very helpful to read about the range of experiences that women have had, in gauging my own expectations... |
Anonymous
I second this, too! Since you will likely to have a good pool of embryo, you can do PGD and filter out the genetically normal ones. Also, I know a case where 100% fertilization occured, but (not trying to discourage you but it just so happened) she had to repeat Frozen Embryo Transfer until almost exhausting all the saved ones. She was able to get pregnant and now a mom of beautiful girl. Just that implantation is another territory. I pray for your success!!! |
Anonymous
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I was 35 and had 1 cycle. We had 30 retrieved and I forget how many fertilized. We transferred 1 at day 5 and froze 7 more on Shady Grove's strict standards (I think there were actually 14 at day 5, but not all high quality).
Congrats on your many eggs OP. I'll warn you, I felt like I had been hit by a truck for about 2 weeks afterwards although I didn't progress to OHSS. I finally felt less bloated around 8w, just in time for pregnancy symptoms to kick in. |
Anonymous
| I was 42 when I had my "best response ever". 12 mature follicles but ultimately only 5 fertilized - which was still great for me. The RE put them all back in because she felt only a couple had potential. (I believe we did PGD but honestly can't recall). Unfortunately - I didn't end up pregnant. I also responded quickly - much quicker than usual so I feel like my eggs were fried by the time retrieval happened. I lost so many whereas in the past, I would usually just have about 5-7 mature and most of them fertilizing. My other IVFs resulted in pregancy but later miscarried. Not to be a downer, but be cautioulsy optimistic. And if you do get pregnant - please don't get too excited until you pass the 3 month mark. one of my miscarriages happened in the 11th week, with a strong heartbeat days before. I hope everything works out for you! |
Anonymous
| OP: what helped your husband's issue to improve? We have a similar challenge and are looking for any ideas. Thanks very much |
Anonymous
| Honestly, that many eggs/embryos is considered a negative by many (especially the top) RE practices because it can mean that you achieved quantity over quality. Most RE's try to get their patients to respond right in the middle-- about a dozen good eggs and 6-8 embryos. |
Anonymous
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OP here - thanks for the many replies and kind wishes. I am cautiously optimistic but also trying to temper my expectations; I know that things can go wrong at any stage. I'm also a bit worried that it's too many eggs, and maybe they got fried in the process. I met my husband (who has MFI) five years ago, but the fact that I was never pregnant before that gives me pause. (I wasn't trying and was being careful, but still...) I also have some immune issues (sub-clinical hypothyroid & psoriasis) so I'm worried that implantation could be a problem. But thanks again for all the advice, especially the cautionary stuff...
To the poster who asked about my husband's rise in motility. His first SA showed zero motility. We did another SA 6 weeks later and it was essentially the same: 2% motility. I was devastated and when we had our initial consultation at SG our doctor said that we needed to re-test and that if the results were the same, he wouldn't be able to work with it, even with ICSI; my husband would have to do TESE/MESE, etc, to retrieve sperm. My husband's 3rd SA was 3 months after the first one and his motility was 69%! (Though the count was still low.) While we did use fresh sperm for our IVF, I had him freeze a backup sample, just in case, and this time the motility wasn't as great - forget the exact numbers, but somewhere in the 30s - but still good enough for ICSI. Here's what I think made the difference. My OBGYN told me that I had chlamydia antibodies in the fall. I had had this false confidence that I was fine on that front; I was dismayed to discover that regular pap smears are not good at detecting chlamydia. I was horrified that my husband and I had been passing this back and forth for 4+ years. I was worried that I might have fallopian tube scarring as a result, but luckily my HSG was clear. I sent my husband to our GP for a full physical and STD check; he also had chlamydia antibodies of course. I asked our GP for a course of antibiotics so we could both wipe this out (and stop passing it back and forth)! I thought the chlamydia might have affected my husband's fertility, and was hoping that the antibiotic might make a difference, but I was shocked when we saw so much improvement. I then did some research and discovered a study (done by Canalejo University Hospital, La Coruna, Spain) that showed that antibiotic treatment could reverse the damage chlamydia does to a man's fertility. After much hunting I found the actual study in a medical journal and it was very compelling; I had to request the document through my university library's databases and the link they sent me expired after two weeks, so unfortunately I don't still have electronic copy of article (though I printed it out somewhere!). If you look online you can find articles that mention the study (though the actual study is a much better read!): "They analyzed the sperms of 143 men - they were infected with Chlamydia and another urinary tract infection and had not managed to father children. They found that the degree of DNA fragmentation in these men's sperm was three times higher than in healthy men's. As well as having a low sperm count, they had a higher number of sperms with defective shapes. They also found that infected men's sperm had poor motility (they did not swim well). After treating 95 of the infertile men with antibiotics for four months, the researchers found that their sperm DNA fragmentation improved 36% - during this time 13% of them managed to get their partners pregnant. By the end of the treatment period 86% of the couples became pregnant." The other possibility is that after the first SA I had my husband start taking FertilAid and Motility Boost; he'd been taking them for just about 3 months when he did the 3rd (vastly improved) SA. Personally, I think it was the antibiotic that did the trick, but the supplements may have also made a modest difference. After the good SA my husband got lazy about taking his supplements, and his most recent sample wasn't quite as robust, so it's possible that the supplements may have made a difference. (I don't think they would have boosted him up from zero motility; my guess is that the antibiotic did that heavy lifting, but the supplements may have helped too.) I hope this helps! |
Anonymous
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That's great!
I would also suggest you do PGD before the transfer. With too many embryos available on day-5, the probability of finding the right embryo would be quite low, unless you are awesomely lucky. What is your AMH and FSH? GL! |
Anonymous
Honestly, if you have a spare $5K sitting around I would look hard at getting anything that makes it to blast CGH tested. The unfortunate truth is that at 40, only about 1 in every 10 eggs is genetically normal. Gorgeous, perfect, 0% fragmentation embryos can be genetically abnormal and ugly, fragmented lower quality-looking embryos can make perfect babies. CGH tested embryos don't guarantee a pregnancy, but it sure might save the heartache of repeat transfers. On the bright side, you have a lot to work with so hopefully there are a few embryos that will want to become babies. 
Given your high E2 and bloating, having them tested and doing a FET next month is not a bad idea--particularly since you mentioned immune issues. Are you doing anything about that or is it just suspected? P.S. I'm 40 and out of 30 embryos over 2 cycles we never had any make it to the freezer. |
Anonymous
Agree with this. Sadly, I have heard of several high producing 40 year olds who weren't able to get pregnant, even though they had lots of embryos. |
Anonymous
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OP here. My FSH was 7. I think my AMH was 2.0. My antral follicle count was 16 the first time, 20 the second.
The immune issues are only suspected, as everyone in my family has some kind of immune problem. I mentioned it to my RE but he didn't seem inclined to investigate. On the other hand, my younger sister had many fertility problems (endo and other problems, I believe) plus Crohn's disease, and while her fresh transfer didn't work, her first FET did. But if this transfer doesn't work I will definitely pursue the immune angle... Unfortunately we don't have a spare $5K; even if we did, I'm not sure I could convince my DH to spend it on testing. But I'm definitely going to google these tests now... Right now all side effects are gone except the bloating, which has also improved, though my nurse said it could come and go. My nurse seemed to think I'd be okay for a Saturday transfer, but I would be fine with a freeze-all cycle and then doing a FET in a month or so.... Thanks everyone. I especially appreciate the reality checks. Truly. When the numbers first came in, I was getting a little too giddy, but I know that's setting myself up for disappointment. I am trying really hard to have a positive yet realistic outlook!
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Anonymous
| Good luck! I bet it's going to work out for you! |