If you only had two mature follicles would you proceed?

[Anonymous]

My stims have resulted in only six follicles, and only two of which are very mature now. RE wants to stop IVF now saying they want 4 minimum mature follicles to continue.

Would you stop this cycle or continue?

[Anonymous]

I would do an IUI

[Anonymous]

How old are you? Have you done other stim cycles before? Is your IVF covered by insurance?

[Anonymous]

stop

[Anonymous]

Well, I have heard stories of women getting pregnant with just one or two eggs retrieved, but your chances are pretty low. I would say it depends in part on whether you have insurance or can afford many cycles on your own. Sorry, that's tough.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Insurance is not covering anything. I'm 41 and have done two cycles before. DH's sperm factor prevents us from doing an IUI.

[Anonymous]

I think I'd have a heart-to-heart talk with the RE about whether he thinks he will get a better response from you in the future. There are lots of different IVF protocols and some are tailored to women who are poor responders. If he thinks there is a better proctocol out there for you I would chalk this up to a learning experience and pay the money for an IUI (despite having crappy sperm). Find out what he would differently next time. I imagine retrieval/culture/transfer is the bulk of the cost of IVF and to go forward with these for just 2 eggs seems like it could be a waste of $$. If the doctor thinks you honestly might not respond better during another cycle then by all means go foward now with the retrieval.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Also, people do get pregnant with IUIs despite having really crummy sperm numbers. Sometimes having 2 perfect follicles from superovulation does the trick.

[Anonymous]

He should be counseling you to do an IUI--no sense wasting the cycle, since all it takes is one egg. I got PG first IUI, 4-6 follies and seriously compromised sperm (though we didn't know it at the time--counts all fine, sperm just couldn't break into my eggs.)

Go for it. Good luck.

If it doesn't work, talk about changing protocols, you may be oversuppressed if you are doing Lupron, for example. I had a second pregancy using Ganirelix--better results for women who tend to be oversuppressed. If he won't switch protocols, switch REs.... Go to Preston Sacks at Columbia, he is AWESOME.

[Anonymous]

How did you respond the previous 2 cycles? How old were you then?

I think if you think you might respond better in the future, it might be worth waiting for a better response.

[Anonymous]

I had 14 follicles, of those only 10 were mature, 7 fertilized, 6 grew, 2 became 5 day blastocysts, 2 became 6 day blastocysts that were frozen. My doctor said these numbers were normal. I would be far too scared of the cost to proceed with only two, since you are paying for this out of pocket. Perhaps, next time the doctor can use a different medication protocol and you can grow more eggs. This sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did you respond the previous 2 cycles? How old were you then?

I think if you think you might respond better in the future, it might be worth waiting for a better response.

I did better but still not an optimal responder to stims due to my age. All cycles were done within the past 8 months.

At 41 my obvious worry is waiting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should be counseling you to do an IUI--no sense wasting the cycle, since all it takes is one egg. I got PG first IUI, 4-6 follies and seriously compromised sperm (though we didn't know it at the time--counts all fine, sperm just couldn't break into my eggs.)

Go for it. Good luck.

If it doesn't work, talk about changing protocols, you may be oversuppressed if you are doing Lupron, for example. I had a second pregancy using Ganirelix--better results for women who tend to be oversuppressed. If he won't switch protocols, switch REs.... Go to Preston Sacks at Columbia, he is AWESOME.

A couple people said RE should be changing protocols. For all three cycles RE insists on using bravelle and menopur. In the first IVF, we did birth control and lupron. In the second IVF we nixed the birth control and did lupron on the belief that bc suppresses ovaries and they wished to avoid that. In the third we did no birth control, no lupron and instead ganirelix with vivelle patches. I asked why we couldn't stop using bravelle and menopur and use something else instead. RE said all of these meds are the same essentially. How can that be? Then why do different RE's use different stim meds on women?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should be counseling you to do an IUI--no sense wasting the cycle, since all it takes is one egg. I got PG first IUI, 4-6 follies and seriously compromised sperm (though we didn't know it at the time--counts all fine, sperm just couldn't break into my eggs.)

Go for it. Good luck.

If it doesn't work, talk about changing protocols, you may be oversuppressed if you are doing Lupron, for example. I had a second pregancy using Ganirelix--better results for women who tend to be oversuppressed. If he won't switch protocols, switch REs.... Go to Preston Sacks at Columbia, he is AWESOME.

How old were you with the second PG?

[Anonymous]

At 41, I had tried 4 IUIs before and had always only had 3 mature- so for IVF we just accepted it wasn;t going to get better- we went ahead- 2 resulted in embryos to transplant- 1 was a blighted ovum- the other our 15 month old.. it's your call on your history of responding to fertility drugs- we were just at a point to say- the cost of IF drugs was so much that iVF had to happen and we had to just try.. IUI is tons cheaper but the medicines are almost like IVF (I was at a very high dose).. gl.. best..