RES disagree on diagnoses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - which immunity tests did you do? Which treatments did they recommend?

Have you done a RPL panel too? Clotting factors, etc?

How is your thyroid? What is your TSH?

FWIW, after dabbling with a few IVF cycles down here and the immunity path, we finally found success at Cornell. If you want your absolute best shot with OE, just go there IMO.

PP did you have an immune issue and then found it did not need any treatment, or did Cornell do some type of low-level immune treatment like Prednisone, baby aspirin, etc that many Res are willing to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - which immunity tests did you do? Which treatments did they recommend?

Have you done a RPL panel too? Clotting factors, etc?

How is your thyroid? What is your TSH?

FWIW, after dabbling with a few IVF cycles down here and the immunity path, we finally found success at Cornell. If you want your absolute best shot with OE, just go there IMO.

PP did you have an immune issue and then found it did not need any treatment, or did Cornell do some type of low-level immune treatment like Prednisone, baby aspirin, etc that many Res are willing to do?

I had elevated NK count & activity level. Had a phone consult with Coulam, she recommended Intralipids. After reading the RI yahoo group I decided to self-treat with fish oil (4g/day I believe). Before my final (and first successful cycle) my levels were retested and back down to normal. Not 100% sure it was the fish oil, but I felt better about the whole thing. I had done baby aspirin in many prior cycles, but I think I stopped when I started the fish oil. Plus, my clotting panels all came back fine (I did RPL panel too just to cover all bases). I only did Medrol (steroid) that came as part of the standard Cornell protocol. RE did not treat immune issues for me, but I didn't push it with him either.

FWIW I also had endometriosis tissue removed before cycling and also think that helped. I believe the endometriosis and immune issues were intertwined.

[Anonymous]

I've dug into the science behind the immune aspects. I don't think there is any question that the immune system impacts reproduction. I do have a vested interest in the research due to my own issues, but that does not change the fact that I (along with others I know) have found success after many losses. I think REs have enough business with people who have general infertility that they don't even need to look at the immune aspects. There are enough places to address the subset of women who fall into this category that regular REs simply don't need to expand their knowledge base to include immune issues. So by default they "don't believe" in it. So then what would those REs say about me and several other posters in this thread? We got lucky? How many times does it have to happen before it's not just luck anymore?

The thing you have listed here that is something fixable are the immune issues. My prediction is that if you address the immune issues you may even see slightly better numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - which immunity tests did you do? Which treatments did they recommend?

Have you done a RPL panel too? Clotting factors, etc?

How is your thyroid? What is your TSH?

FWIW, after dabbling with a few IVF cycles down here and the immunity path, we finally found success at Cornell. If you want your absolute best shot with OE, just go there IMO.

PP did you have an immune issue and then found it did not need any treatment, or did Cornell do some type of low-level immune treatment like Prednisone, baby aspirin, etc that many Res are willing to do?

I had elevated NK count & activity level. Had a phone consult with Coulam, she recommended Intralipids. After reading the RI yahoo group I decided to self-treat with fish oil (4g/day I believe). Before my final (and first successful cycle) my levels were retested and back down to normal. Not 100% sure it was the fish oil, but I felt better about the whole thing. I had done baby aspirin in many prior cycles, but I think I stopped when I started the fish oil. Plus, my clotting panels all came back fine (I did RPL panel too just to cover all bases). I only did Medrol (steroid) that came as part of the standard Cornell protocol. RE did not treat immune issues for me, but I didn't push it with him either.

FWIW I also had endometriosis tissue removed before cycling and also think that helped. I believe the endometriosis and immune issues were intertwined.

Agree that this was probably an important factor. I didn't work with Braverman, but I believe endometriosis surgery is actually part of his treatment protocol for immune issues. A huge percentage of women with reproductive immune problems are ultimately found to have endometriosis, which is thought to be the root cause of immune activation in many cases.