Failed donor egg/What next?

[firefly44]

[vimeo]

I’m looking for some advice on what we should do next after our failed donor cycle. We’ve had 3 cycles with my own eggs and only had one blast each time even though we got a decent amount of eggs to fertilize. I always thought maybe we could have male factor too since we couldn’t get blasts. I was told we wouldn’t know until we did donor eggs. We did a donor cycle and had 7 eggs, 5 survived the thaw, 4 fertilized but None made it to blast and there was nothing to transfer. We are devastated as I thought we would have something to transfer. The dr suggested a frag test so we did one immediately. After not hearing anything for two weeks I was told that they just sent it off to be analyzed! We already picked out a new donor as we are in shared risk and I feel like they are stalling. I’m so upset that when I suggested a frag test before it was kind of ignored. If it does come back with fragmentation I have no idea how they will determine the cause. My husband does have a large hydrocele that everyone says doesn’t cause issues but I’m starting to think it is. I’m 44 and dh is 46. I was sad that ivf didn’t work with my own eggs but this has really shaken me?.

[Anonymous]

Get 2nd and 3rd opinion.

Did you buy frozen donor eggs? Why were they frozen?

[firefly44]

Yes, we did honor bank USA. It gave us more choices. What other clinics are close by besides sgf?

[Anonymous]

Are you using the frozen eggs from DEB in Shady Grove's shared risk program? You can ask your RE to check if they are from a proven donor, that is if there have been successful pregnancies with that donor. The quality of frozen eggs can also vary so it may not be entirely due to sperm issues.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I forgot to mention that there is an active pregnancy with the same batch of donor eggs. I guess the eggs that we received might not have been good quality, but dh’s sperm seems suspect since I had trouble making blasts.

[Anonymous]

I’m in the same boat, OP, but we are just now getting going on our DE cycle. Did you guys use ICSI/PICSI to fertilize?

[Anonymous]

This might not be the answer you want to hear OP, but we had very high sperm fragmentation and ended up doing double donor.

[Anonymous]

DH here. It's time to move forward with double donor. I didn't have any obvious issues (other than age) but it reaches a point where you need to move forward with life. The one positive aspect of the male donor process is that there are so many donors that you can easily find a younger better version of yourself.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry. I don't know anything really about male factor, but FWIW, my first DE cycle failed. It was heartbreaking b/c you think DE is the solution. I was in the SG shared risk DE program, and that gave me peace of mind. I chose a new donor (young and proven were my top 2 requirements, followed by similar looks) and the second cycle worked.

[Anonymous]

Do a fresh donation with all eggs going to you. You can do it abroad if it's too expensive for you in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so sorry. I don't know anything really about male factor, but FWIW, my first DE cycle failed. It was heartbreaking b/c you think DE is the solution. I was in the SG shared risk DE program, and that gave me peace of mind. I chose a new donor (young and proven were my top 2 requirements, followed by similar looks) and the second cycle worked.

This.
Those of us who move on to the DE phase are led to believe "it's the solution" to what previously brought only heartbreak. It's not really discussed that DE can fail too. I was totally unprepared for the devastation I felt from my first failed DE cycle. I was fortunate and successful with cycle #2. I know you suspect mention male factor and haven't done a transfer yet, but an option may want to consider adding to your toolbox if decide to do another cycle is an endo scratch. That's what I attribute to our successful second cycle.
Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. It really was a shock that it didn’t work. We still don’t know the results of the fragmentation test. I was told it’s be sent out by the end of the week two weeks ago and never heard anything I called the other day and they just sent it out. I really feel that it has to be something on his end too as we used isci each cycle. We’ve already picked out another donor and I want to move forward but have to wait for the results. It’s definitely a strain on our relationship too. Not to mention I don’t feel like anyone at the center gets my urgency.