TTTC'er, Re-Intro, Advice please?

drake986 · July 2013

Hey There

It's been awhile, but I'm back on the bump. I was on the TTTC board back in 2008 when my DH & I started IF Treatment. After about a year of tests and treatment, we decided to go on a break to pursue holistic treatment and get our lives back. The break lasted about 4 years, way longer than we anticipated, but we're healthier for it. In October of 2012, I had to go to the emergency room for hemorrhaging, and ended up having an emergency DNC and blood transfusion. Not 2 weeks before, we'd decided to go back to treatment, so we got one thing out of the way... Fresh start & ready to begin!

In March, we were finally able to start our first cycle after test cycles & a sonohystagram. That injectable IUI failed. We went straight into the next cycle, but moved on to IVF w/ICSI. We got 27 eggs, 23 mature & fertilized, 20 started developing, and on day 4 we had 14 still going. On Day 5, our scheduled transfer, we got the news that all the remaining embryos had arrested. There was no explanation, they just stopped. To top it off, I got OHSS.

In June, I went on Lupron, and we officially began IVF cycle #2 at the beginning of July. At retrieval, they got 15 eggs, but an additional 5 were unreachable because I had OHSS again and was too swollen. They used ICSI and were able to fertilize 13 eggs. On day 2 & 3 we had 11 embryos left. We did a day 3 transfer with 3 embryos, 2 6 Cell grade 1, 1 6 Cell grade 2. The remaining embryos were left to develop to hopefully get to the blastocyst stage. 3dp3dt, we got the call that all the remaining embryos arrested. Again. Nothing to freeze. 2 IVF cycles down, nothing left. The doctor that did our retrieval this cycle asked if there was any MFI, which to our knowledge, there wasn't. We thought that was the one thing we didn't have to worry about. He suggested that because of when our embryos stopped developing, it may be a sperm issue, not a an egg quality issue like our doctor thought. This is where I need your help... Has anyone else had this happen? Do you have any advice? Any questions that we should ask at our consultation next week? We're going to request an SCSA. DH had lead poisoning when he was about 3yrs old, but we were told that shouldn't have affected him since it was before his development.

I appreciate any help you can offer. It's great to know that there's such a great community our here with such supportive members. Thanks for reading and chat with you all soon!

Ruthie04 · July 2013

Something similar happened to me. Between my two full cycles, I had 25 embryos, many of which were looking fantastic on day three. But, we had bad news with on the morning of day five. With our first cycle, we were lucky to get one "textbook perfect" embryo. That cycle resulted in an unexplained failure and we had nothing to freeze. With the second cycle, 12 of our 16 embryos were looking fabulous on day three and we had about eight or so that had become blasts, but were doing poorly on day five. We ended up transferring two "fair" blasts. One of which only became a blast within hours of transfer and couldn't even be graded. Those two blasts became my twins. We did assisted hatching and pre/post transfer acu with that cycle and I really credit that with our success. While no doctor has ever said such a thing to me, I really believe that our embryos were lacking the energy to break out of their shells and they struggled to attach. So, I think the AH really did the trick.

After the first failed cycle, the RE thought it was a fluke. He said they sometimes see similar things happen when MFI is in the mix, but that DH had always had fabulous SAs. During the 2ww of our second cycle, I emailed my RE in tears and he mentioned something about egg quality and said we might be able to consider a 3dt in the future (perhaps my embryos hate the lab??). Since that cycle was successful, we never got further answers. However, had the cycle not been successful, I think I would have asked for some additional sperm testing, as I had read a hidden MFI issue could be the cause of the problem when embryos tank around the morula/ blast transition. DH had a horrific case of scarlet fever as a child and we've wondered if this has something to do with the problem. His siblings also have needed ART to conceive.

I'm so sorry for this struggle and I'm so sorry I don't have additional suggestions for questions. My RE said he thought we had countless eggs fertilize during our TTC journey, but that something always went wrong around the time of implantation or shortly thereafter.I'm curious to hear what you RE says about things. This is all so frustrating. Many hugs your way and please keep us updated.

drake986 · July 2013

Hi Ruthie-

Thank you so much for all the info and congratulations on your success!!! You gave me a lot to think about and questions that we can ask our RE about. Maybe it is the AH that is the issue... Never thought of that. They won't tell us what the quality of our embryos is until the transfer because they don't want to get your hopes up So, we have no idea what our first embryos were like. We know that we got the best 3 out of the bunch, but the remaining embryos weren't so great. I think we had a few 6 cell grade 2, and the rest were 2-4 cells and weren't expected to last long... Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this and have success in the future Thanks again so much and I wish you all the best!!!!

Ruthie04 · July 2013

I'm so glad I could help. I don't know if I think the waiting to hear news about the embryos in the lab is good or bad! We got calls with progress everyday, but I definitely feel as though we got our hopes up. In the end, I always felt like the IVF process itself gave us the best answers to our underlying issues, as we were unexplained. It still really bugs me that we never got a definite answer and I wonder if additional sperm testing would have revealed something. I was 29 at the time of my retrievals, so we didn't suspect egg quality issues, although that could have been an issue too.

No matter what, it all just stinks!! I'm so sorry you are in the midst of such uncertainty. Please know that I am sending you all the very best thoughts for some helpful answer/ suggestions at your WTF and a great plan that will bring you a sticky BFP!!

TTTC'er, Re-Intro, Advice please?

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