IVF Embryo Arrest Before Day 3

ellabella79

I am 38 yo and with no known fertility issues. I went the IVF route because my husband has Azoospermia so we needed to use a sperm bank. 

My first IVF cycle was a short stim cycle. I had 14 eggs collected and 11 were fertilized. On day 3 the embryos were categorized as medium / poor quality and two were transferred resulting in a BFN. The rest of the embryos arrested before Day 4.

On my second cycle the doctor put me on 5 days of BCP and a long stimulation starting with Lupron. This time they collected 10 eggs with 7 fertilized. They did a Day 2 transfer but the results were even worse. All remaining embryos arrested before Day 3, gaining lots of fragmentation.

I know this is likely an issue of egg quality and I feel hopeless. We already had to get a sperm donor so the thought of having an egg donor and a child genetically related to neither of us has been hard to take. 

Ladies can anyone give me stories of encouragement from similar scenarios? How many cycles should I do with poor results before considering egg / embryo donation?

Thanks for all your love and support!

Momifbysea

Hi @ellabella79, first of all I’m sorry for how your first two cycles worked out. My issue was egg quality too. I just turned 44 and am waiting for my first beta test after FET tomorrow so I’m far from out of the woods yet BUT have had positive FRERs for the past week, so am cautiously optimistic. My RE recommended donor eggs to us after my 4th failed cycle. Nothing survived to blastocyst those first four cycles and I was near hopeless but couldn’t give up so we agreed to give it one last shot and do a fifth cycle. To prep for this I dramatically changed my diet, personal care products and lifestyle. I went to the library and checked out books on IVF and improving egg quality coauthored by MDs and naturopaths. I became on a quest to do what I could to fight my age on my end of things and improve egg quality. It felt like fighting a midlife crisis and defying that age could cost me this dream of a child and I got very almost defiant and determined. I gave it three months like the books said and got two PGS normal embryos that time. It may just be a numbers game, another roll of the dice, as my RE seems to think, or it may be the changes I made, but there is hope is my point to you! I have all the details in my signature.

I wish you all the best. Other factors to obviously consider are cost, don’t know your insurance coverage, and of course, what you and your partner can physically and emotionally handle. Pray or meditate on it and you should come clear on what the right road is for you. Good luck!