Looking for some IVF success stories with low numbers!

ronniesgirl1981

In case you are mobile, I'm 33 with unexplained IF. We had two failed IUIs and decided to move onto IVF. i am supposed to be triggering tonight for ER on Sunday, but my RE thinks we'll get 4 eggs. He agrees that is less than he anticipated and that he'd make a bunch of changes to a subsequent cycle if this ends in a BFN. Both he and the nurse I spoke with today felt we should continue and not convert to IUI. We are almost definitely looking at a 3 day transfer. I was a hot mess in the office today and the nurse said she'd have my RE call me this afternoon once I'd had some time to think on it (and call out sick, take a valium, and eat a bunch of Cadbury mini eggs). I'd love to hear your stories if you've been in a similar spot. Actually I'd like to hear both the good and bad ones. Thanks in advance.

PhillyJ33

Are you OOP? For me personally, that might make a difference if you thought you could get more eggs the next time.
What is your AFC? Do they expect a decreased egg reserve at all or do they think this was a fluke?

I have been in a sort of similar situation twice but I have DOR. The first time was a bit different as they saw 3 almost mature follicles at my first monitoring appt- wtf?!? Anyways, we converted to IUI at the RE's suggestion and it failed.

The second time, I was told all along during monitoring that they only saw 3 to 4 measurable follies but there were a few a little smaller. I went ER thinking we would be lucky to get 4 but the smaller ones caught up and we got 7 eggs- all mature. Do they only see 4 measurable follies or 4 all together- if that makes sense?
Hopefully, due to your age and unexplained status, the eggs they do retrieve are of good quality. Were they planning on doing ICSI since there are a limited amount? We went that route with the 7 and wound up with 4 blasts, transferred 2 and have two frozen. I definitely didn't think that was how the cycle would wind up but we were very happily surprised and fortunate!!! We were told we would be lucky to have one to transfer...

Anyways- best of luck in making this difficult decision. Hopefully the RE can guide you better and manage expectations. I hope everything works out and if you need anything- let me know!!!

ronniesgirl1981

@PhillyJ33‌ That you for your lengthy response. My AFC has always been good (as high as 21) as have my FSH and LH. My AMH is at the very low end of normal at 1.2. My RE has never been concerned about my AMH, but it has always bothered me. I just had another chat with my RE and he said he knows of no RE that would perform an IUI with the follicles that look the way mine do and at my age. My choices are cancel all together or proceed with ER. He still strongly recommends proceeding with ER and--should it be necessary--he'll make changes to the next round. Insurance will cover 3. It looks like we are marching on. And congratulations on your baby boy!

PhillyJ33

Thanks! Good luck and I agree 4 great follies might be problematic for a IUI!
I hope they wind up all making it to blast and it is successful after all this worry! Can't anything ever just go as planned?
Good luck again!

rox825

I'm sorry that I don't have any insight, but I read your update on 3T and wanted to let you know that I'm pulling for you, I hope that 1 of the 4 is a super star!! Good luck to you, sending hugs...

ronniesgirl1981

@ThoseThreeWords‌ You make an excellent point that I had not considered. If we were to cancel and then end up with a similar response next cycle despite a whole bunch of changes, I would have some serious regrets.

Aurora1181

Go for the retrieval! We only had 6 mature an we ended up with five blastocysts. Quality over quantity.

PrincessPix

I don't have much advice - just my story.  I only had 3 eggs retrieved.. all 3 fertilized with ICSI, and 2 made it to day 3.  We transferred both of them and both stuck!

I guess my only advise is if you go ahead, and you're insurance is covering it, push for ICSI.. My RE said that with only 3 retrieved, that was our best bet and he was right!

Good luck!

Manada

I'm so sorry -- I was a hot mess when our IVF cycles weren't looking so good either.  We cancelled one cycle because we were OOP and weren't getting good response, and the 2nd cycle we went to retrieval thinking we would get 15+ eggs, and ended up with many fewer and terrible quality because of it.

In the end - on retrieval day, we had 10 eggs retrieved, and a whole lot of Endometriomas punctured (my partner has severe endo) --- and the call we got the next day was that only THREE of our eggs were good enough for them to consider fertilizing.   We were absolutely devastated at that point.  We figured that with that quality we would be out for sure.

Good news:  Of those 3 little eggs we ended up with 3 perfect Day 3 embryos.  We decided to go ahead with the Day 3 transfer, and to transfer 2 of them because we were so sad at that point and figured it would be better for us to have them on board, and hedge our bets that one of those two would take.      

6 days after the transfer we got a very faint BFP on the FRER, and we found out 4 weeks later that we are having twins.   We never thought we'd have that success with those numbers.   So it does happen!

Good luck.  Before this I was very much all about quantity of eggs retrieved, but it really was a quality thing for us.   We suspect that all 3 of the eggs retrieved that were good came from my partner's healthy ovary (we only had 3 from that one).   The one with the endometriomas gave us lots of bad eggs, but the other one didn't respond as well but the eggs that came from it were perfect.

amwenz

I had 7 retrieved and 4 were mature the next day. On day 5 we ended with 5 blastocysts. We put one back and froze the other 3:) so, numbers can be scary and I was devastated but it can work.

Jen071407

I'm so sorry you are dealing with this, it is so frustrating! I was in almost the exact same position for this cycle -in case you're mobile, I'm 30, unexplained, AFC was 18, good FSH and AMH levels, and after 10 days of stims only had 4 mature follicles thought to be due to over-suppression from BCPs. After discussing it all with my RE we decided to convert to IUI, mostly for financial reasons. It looks like you've got great coverage, so I think it makes sense to go ahead with retrieval. Best of luck with whatever you decide!

healz413

@Manada gave our longer story but I just want to add that our RE believes strongly that age was the most important factor in our case (that we could have only three eggs fertilize but that all three would make it to excellent day 3 embryos and then that the two transferred would both stick). I'm 32 and will be 33 soon. In the infertility world we are still pretty young and that affects outcomes. Our RE would have probably refused to do an IUI with me if I had 4 mature follicles (if I still had my Fallopian tubes) so I agree with others about being cautious there. As for cancelling before retrieval, we did that the first time and I think that was the right decision for us. But we had drug coverage but not IVF coverage so our OOP was almost nothing for cancelling before retrieval but would have been cost prohibitive to try a second cycle if we'd gone to retrieval and not gotten pregnant.

ronniesgirl1981

I just wanted to pop back in and thank you all for sharing your success stories with me. Unfortunately, we got handed another blow this morning and learned that I ovulated through ganirelix. My front runner follies were gone, however my RE discovered 3 more that were still hanging on. My RE said he'd never seen this occur before (not sure how many years he's been practicing, but he has to be in his sixties). Now we wait. Honestly, I feel like this cycle was a bust and am ready to call Mulligan!

Ylvelill

I had 9 follicles, but only got 4 eggs at retrieval. Only two of them were mature, and we ended up with two embryos.

Now I am 22w with twins

ld08271

I hope the 3 that were retrieved turn out to be your rockstars! My friend had 4 retrieved and only 1 fertilized....she's now weeks away from delivering her miracle baby! Anything is possible. Sending you lots of good thoughts. 

OutdoorGirl10

Sending you many positive thoughts. We were OOP and age being a factor we were going ahead pretty much no matter what. Only 4 retrieved (4?? Ugh) and we did an ICSI split. 2 weren't mature enough, the 1 ICSI'd but wasn't viable, which left 1 that was fertilized naturally! Yay! Except I was so upset that we spent all that time and money and only got ONE??? We did the 5dT and it stuck! Now 18 weeks and am thinking that even though I was so upset at getting just one, I think of it as that was the strongest, best one and so that's the one that was meant to be.

Jen071407

Fx those 3 fertilized well and you get some smooth sailing here on out!

healz413

ronniesgirl1981 said:

I just wanted to pop back in and thank you all for sharing your success stories with me. Unfortunately, we got handed another blow this morning and learned that I ovulated through ganirelix. My front runner follies were gone, however my RE discovered 3 more that were still hanging on. My RE said he'd never seen this occur before (not sure how many years he's been practicing, but he has to be in his sixties). Now we wait. Honestly, I feel like this cycle was a bust and am ready to call Mulligan!

Wow. Frustrating! Let us know what you end up deciding to do. I hope that either those three turn out to be your magic three or that next cycle is much better.

ronniesgirl1981

@healz413‌ 2 out of 3 are mature and fertilized normally. We are blown away! If we have something to transfer, you may have to scrap me off the floor! Thanks for checking in on me!

healz413

Wow! That's great. I didn't realize they discovered that at retrieval. I assumed it was on an ultrasound.
So does that mean you are looking at a weds transfer if they're still going strong? Good luck! Hopefully we will see you here for good in a couple weeks.

ronniesgirl1981

@healz413‌ From your lips to God's ears!! And yes, assuming we make it to transfer, it'll be on Wednesday.