Success with poor egg quality..anyone?

Areej76 · February 2014

Hi Ladies...I'm really feeling down and not very hopeful. RE says that average IVF for women with poor egg quality due to age is 5-6 times before you take a baby home. He then said its a 50/50 chance. I am 38 and moving forward with IVF #2 with "freeze all" cycle. Would love to hear success stories as I am feeling very discouraged tonight. xoxoxo

whoberry · February 2014

I have not experienced this specific issue but just wanted to wish you luck and tell you to try to stay positive. I know that's a lot easier said than done though.

Areej76 · February 2014

Thank you so much whoberry.. xo

Ylvelill · February 2014

My issue wasn't so much the quality of eggs but more the amount. We were told at my age with my numbers we had about a 25% chance at getting pregnant.

We got pregnant

only took one try.

jezebel57 · February 2014

My egg quality and ovarian reserve were not great at all and I got pregnant on the second fresh ivf. They transferred a 4 cell, 5 cell and 6 cell.

4legsRbest · February 2014

What is your FSH and AMH? It could be argued that my quality isn't great and I am "older" - I can make 15+ but barely 1/2 fertilize and only 1/2 of those grow. Out of my first cycle I had 1 that stuck and is now a healthy 13 month old. It only takes 1, that has always been my motto. Your RE should be able to tailor your meds to get the best result. A 50/50 chance is all anyone has at best. Mine gave me a 30% chance this cycle and here I am. 5-6 times is a lot, IMO. What did he do differently this cycle?

GL to you!!

Areej76 · February 2014

@4legsRbest Hi! Im sorry what is FSH and AMH?

4legsRbest · February 2014

They are hormones that can help determine ovarian reserve and may give a hint to egg quality. They aren't definitive tests, but are part of the larger picture.

I think your dr is giving you the stats for your age and for ivf, not necessarily for your specific dx. Don't let it get to you too bad!

BzeetyD · February 2014

You sound like you're at the beginning of your journey (?).

Actual age matters less than how your body/egg reserve/hormones are aging. The hormone levels that 4legsRbest called out are important factors in determining how your body's age is looking. If your RE hasn't told you the results of these tests, I'd be cautious about proceeding with any kind of plan until you understand how all these hormones and numbers affect your potential.

For my own "success" story:

I am also (newly) 38. I have been pregnant at 34, 35, 36, and 37 - but suffered 4 losses. This will be our 1st take home baby.

In my case I have a ton of eggs and the right hormone balance, but the eggs are prone to chromosomal disruptions, which could be due to my age, but could be due to other factors, regardless, it is the most common cause of miscarriages.

Equally important is the male piece of the puzzle. Poor sperm can contribute greatly to lack of success. Male factor infertility can be a knot that take a long time to unravel. We've seen this several times on the IF, IFV and PAIF boards. Simply having a great count or great numbers is often not enough, especially if there is a female age factor. In our case it took 3 years to find out that we had male issues as well.

Our success came through doing chromosomal testing on our embryos to assure that we were only dealing with chromosomally normal embryos before transferring them back in. This isn't a common need, but due to our losses, it was a great road for us to take.

Areej76 · February 2014

@4legsRbest Oh! Both numbers are very good according to RE. He was just as surprised as we were about egg quality. He thought it would be a "one and done" due to all tests coming back "above average."

Areej76 · February 2014

@BzeetyD Hi! How can I make a siggy like yours? Ive tried looking all over the page but cant find any! Congratulations on your pregnancy

My RE was equally surprised because all testing came back great! He was not worried about anything at all. I have a good number of eggs, my husband's sperm is more than 70 million which is great- we also opted for PDG because of age and to increase our chances of carrying a healthy baby to term. Out of 9 eggs retrieved, 7 fertilized, then we had to do a freeze all because I got premature luteinization (progestrone). We scheduled the followup for an FET and when we got there RE told us 5 out of 7 embies arrested on day 4, and the two remaining ones were trisomy21 and the other had chromosomal abnormalities, even though they were blastocysts. This totally crushed me.

I know this is crazy but DH cracked me up the other day when he said this could just have been a "bad batch!" I would appreciate any advice and thank you for sharing your story

Areej76 · February 2014

@BzeetyD~

My RE is adjusting our meds this cycle to get more eggs and increase the number of chances... Does this sound doable?

tryingyetagain · February 2014

Due to my age (42) and my loss history (3 miscarriages plus an ectopic), my RE had a dismal outlook about my egg quality/numbers. But we actually got pregnant on our own and the amnio showed a normal, healthy baby girl. I'm almost 30 weeks now. Good luck to you!

Areej76 · February 2014

@tryingetagain this is amazing!! Congratulations on your baby girl

Allison7 · February 2014

I am 35 and a week before our BFP we were told that I was DOR. With our history of early loss, the RE thought that egg quality would play an issue and said that we basically needed to go the IVF route. Now, we got extremely lucky and got a BFP on that retesting cycle - so there were no meds or procedures done, but this left us very worried about possible issues because we hadn't done anything to increase the quality of the eggs. We got Verifi back this week and it was good (negative for downs, trisomy 13 and trisomy 18). Of course, there are a ton of things that can still go wrong now, but I am not going to focus on that!

I would be disappointed with the first IVF too, but a lot of IF is trial and error. Your RE will have learned a lot from that first round and now can make adjustments to your meds to up the numbers. Some people get lucky on the first try, some don't. Just stay positive. GL!

BzeetyD · February 2014

Areej76 said:

@BzeetyD Hi! How can I make a siggy like yours? Ive tried looking all over the page but cant find any! Congratulations on your pregnancy

My RE was equally surprised because all testing came back great! He was not worried about anything at all. I have a good number of eggs, my husband's sperm is more than 70 million which is great- we also opted for PDG because of age and to increase our chances of carrying a healthy baby to term. Out of 9 eggs retrieved, 7 fertilized, then we had to do a freeze all because I got premature luteinization (progestrone). We scheduled the followup for an FET and when we got there RE told us 5 out of 7 embies arrested on day 4, and the two remaining ones were trisomy21 and the other had chromosomal abnormalities, even though they were blastocysts. This totally crushed me.

I know this is crazy but DH cracked me up the other day when he said this could just have been a "bad batch!" I would appreciate any advice and thank you for sharing your story

My RE is adjusting our meds this cycle to get more eggs and increase the number of chances... Does this sound doable?

Possibly. Clearly I'm no doctor.

More eggs and PGD willl likely get you the best chance for a successful pregnancy. PGD will tell you a lot. But having 7 embryos (even if they arrested) is a strong number, especially for 9 retrieved so I wouldn't try to change too much about your protocol. In my opinion that's a decent cycle, even if the results weren't what you hoped.

If you do another cycle you may find a normal in the bunch - there are some % of normal predictions based on age out in the world, but it's nothing concrete and that doesn't mean you couldn't have all normals or no normals.

If you do another cycle and find a normal, you could transfer it now and hopefully have a successful pregnancy.

But, depending on your age, your desire, $$, and the size of family you want, you could do a couple cycles and try to bank any PGD normals and then do a transfer. Because you may not find normals if you wanted to go back and try for a sibling.

In our case, with our loss history, we won't ever be trying on our own to get pregnant again, we'll only use our frozen normals. We'd rather avoid a miscarriage - but that decision is personal and up to the individual couple.

I hope that helps!

Areej76 · February 2014

@BzeetyD You just gave me hope again. Thank you so very much. I will definitely been doing the transfer immediately if I find a normal and defo will freeze any good ones if there are any left. It was the shock of "everything looks great" and then WHAM! Yes, I am surprised that 4 decided to arrest altogether on day 4. Not to make light of the situation (I find I do this when Im nervous) but it reminded me of when dolphins "beach" themselves all together and die! It was just a total shock. Not much change in this cycle- we did an antagonist (Gonal+Menopur+ganrelix then ovidrel for the trigger. My RE is going to increase the Menopur, delay the ganirelix, and trigger with Lupron to avoid OHSS. Any insight on meds increase in this way? Thank you very very much xo

Areej76 · February 2014

@Allison7 Cancelled IVF #1 was a bloe to be honest. Umm, what is DOR? I have no idea

Allison7 · February 2014

DOR is diminished ovarian reserve. It has to do with the number of eggs, but also the quality of eggs too.

Initially when we went to the RE, we were classified as unexplained. My FSH was within normal range (under10, lower is better with this) and while my AMH was slightly low (that hormone the bigger numbers are better), I had still had a few recent losses. My RE really felt that with medication and IUI, I would have a successful pregnancy in no time. But each time it didn't work, it was really hard. I responded okay to clomid the first time, but then my response lessened and eventually (my 4th round) I failed to ovulate at all. I had never had problems not ovulating! That was when we had to induce my cycle with provera and then retest my numbers. On retesting we found that while my AMH had stayed the same, my FSH had risen and I was no longer below 10. The high FSH combined with the failed clomid response, and failed IUIs led to the diagnosis of DOR.

When I was diagnosed I was told that IVF was the only option. There was also talk of donor eggs if I wasn't successful at producing enough quality eggs. This was terrifying and I was devastated. I cried everyday and then we got the surprise BFP.

I wish I had a crystal ball for you and that I tell you that it will all be okay. I know that everyone's path to parenthood is different. There are women on here who used IUI, IVF, donor eggs, donor sperm, surrogacy, embryo adoption and more. It is amazing what can now be done. But, however you get there, it will be worth it in the end.

Areej76 · February 2014

@Allison7 Thank you so much for clarifying. My Ovarian reserve is good my RE says. No problem there whatsoever. No problem anywhere! I kind of wish I have a problem that can be fixed...because I dont think there is anything that can be done about egg quality. I started taking Royal Jelly supplements- otherwise not doing anything different. I am so happy for your Miracle

krdesi · February 2014

I have poor egg quality. I produced a good number of eggs in each of my two ivf's, but in ivf #1 I ended up with 5 embryos out of 15 eggs and none made it by day 5 due to bad quality and I got cancelled. IVF #2 I had 16 eggs, 15 fertilized and by day 5 we had 2 embryos that made it to early blast stage and I am now 16 weeks pregnant with one of those two embryos. The second embryo was transferred as well, but didn't implant. I feel so incredibly blessed that this one little guy managed to find my one good egg out of 31 eggs!

Good luck with IVF #2!

Areej76 · February 2014

@krdesi Wow!! You just gave me hope! Thank you so much and congratulations! Did you do PGD?

FloridaSun82 · February 2014

I have PCOS which is usually linked to poor egg quality. However, my doctor had me take something called Pregnitude, which is supposed to improve egg quality, in the month leading up to the IVF and during the stims. I have only done 1 IVF, so I can't compare results, but our results were decent. 11 retrieved, 6 fertilized, BUT 5 made it to blast.

brooklynesque · February 2014

weeklyplanner said:
I would get a second opinion at a clinic with great stats before spending money to do 5 or 6 more cycles.

This. This as extremely unusual statement for an RE to make. Not that some ladies don't do that many cycles ... but frankly if an RE can't get you there within ~3 IVF cycles it's generally time to move on ... either to a new RE with concrete ideas for a new protocol or to another solution altogether like donor eggs (if your results are so poor it's pretty obvious you need them).

I was in the latter camp and, though it's not where anyone wants to be initially, I can't imagine bring more excited about a pregnancy than I am with this one even though I used someone else's egg. So even my former worst nightmare is something I can accept and appreciate in the end. You'll find a way.

Areej76 · February 2014

Thank you so much!! I just ordered Pregnitude!! @brooklyesque My RE is part of this huge top notch practice. But I will get a second opinion. Thank you both very much and congratulations to you both xo

stvetter · February 2014

I just wanted to say that I am 36 and have been through 6 failed IUI's and 3 failed IVF's. The doctor said that my AMH levels were a little low at .6 which meant that my egg quantity was diminishing but that was the only reason they could give me for not getting pregnant. We had these procedures because my husband had a vasectomy with his first marriage. After not wanting to spend any more money on fertility treatments, we decided to have a reversal and hope for the best. The reversal was done in June and by November we had a sperm analysis done and told that us my husband had low sperm count. Ugh....fast forward to now and I am six weeks pregnant. Six weeks naturally pregnant after being told that my eggs aren't the greatest and my husband's sperm sucks. I have a long ways to go to have a normal healthy pregnancy but we did get pregnant. The first positive pregnancy test I have ever seen. So, when everything tells you that there is no way you can get pregnant....always know there is hope and it CAN happen.

anations · February 2014

I had low egg quality, 3 losses, and endo. I am 37. Did IVF, per genetic testing and 25 weeks pregnant with twins that tested fine! Don't give up. It can happen:).

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Success with poor egg quality..anyone?

Re: Success with poor egg quality..anyone?

IF, 5 losses, 1 son, 1 on the way.

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