Donor Cycle ended in chemical pregnancy

ufrower · February 2013

Hi ladies --

You are all always such a good resource for information. I just completed a donor cycle using a 25 year old's egg. We retrieved 21 eggs, 20 mature and 15 fertilized. Day of transfer we had 11 embryos. In some respects it was successful in that we ended up with 10 frozen embryos. After much debate with my doctor -- we ended up transferring just one embryo (I wanted to put more than one back). It was a day 5 transfer of a 4AA embryo. Well...we just got the final results and it ended in chemical pregnancy.

I realize that it is more than likely just bad luck. But should I be concerned about the rest of the embryos? Should I be thinking about doing testing on them?

AmCheri · February 2013

I'm very sorry for your loss. Hugs.

As far as your other embies, I have a few questions. Is your donor proven? What info, if any, do you have on any prior cycles with her?

As for you, have you been pregnant before? Do you have any other info about your ability to carry? I ask these questions because a m/c can indicate problems other than those with respect to the embryo.

Without additional info, I tend to think that you don't need to be overly concerned. It feels so harsh saying this (and it's coming from someone who has also suffered a m/c), but it's most likely rotten luck. The chance of m/c in any given cycle is not insignificant. Sadly, it happens and hopefully this means nothing about your remaining embies.

Have you discussed with your RE yet?

Again, I'm sorry you're dealing with this heartache. It's not fair. Big hugs.

ufrower · February 2013

AmCheri -- you are so kind. Thanks!

I have been pregnant before. We did an IVF two years ago with my own eggs and were successful.

We did another IVF with my own eggs at the end of last year that ended in a blighted ovum and ectopic at the same time. That was when we made the choice to move to donor eggs. I am DOR and we were only getting 3 eggs with each IVF.

This donor is not proven in the sense that this is her first time donating. However, she does have a 3 year old and a 17 month old. Now I am starting to grow concerned about my husband's sperm -- although we did ICSI and he has had a sperm analysis done and there didn't seem to be any concern.

We are meeting on Monday with the RE to discuss a little further. He doesn't seem concerned but I just don't want to be missing something and go through this again.

Could this really just be bad luck? I know this happens more times than not...but want to make sure that I am not missing something.

MrsT4 · February 2013

Hi ufrower,

I just had a very similar experience...although I have less frozen embryos than you (total of 4 left, frozen in pairs, so in reality I only have 2 tries left).

I think a lot depends on your age, your diagnosis, your prior TTC history, etc. For me, I decided to pursue additional testing (a full immune workup) to see if there is something else going on with me, particularly since I only have 2 more tries left. My donor was even younger than yours and donated twice before (successfully) so I can't help but think something might be going on with me.

We actually put 2 back embryos and my betas were very low to begin (16). Although they doubled initially, they seemed to trail off after the 3rd beta (I lost track of how many betas I had)....also, my betas were very slow in coming back down, so I was worried about ectopic, but fortunately that was not the case.

I was also told it was most likely "bad luck", but for my own peace of mind, I felt I needed to pursue additional testing on myself vs. the embryos, given the age of the donor plus the fact that I "only" have 4 left.

It's such a personal decision, but I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide to do...but my sincere advice is to follow your heart.

I'm sure you realize this, but I know the embryo testing can be very expensive and likewise, so is the additional testing that I'm pursuing...so financial considerations may also come into play.

Again, wishing you best of luck!!!

ufrower · February 2013

Thanks MrsT4. -- it definitely a hard decision as to where to go from here. I am 36 years old and the only cause for concern is hypothyroidism -- which is under control.

With this cycle the first beta came back good -- 144. But from there it went up 15 points and then as of today is has started to drop. I feel like I got bamboozled by my doctor because he kept throwing out his statistics of success. He says he has 80% success with donors -- so I guess we just had that head in the clouds situation and just thought it was going to work.

Now I am just second guessing myself and finding it hard to have hope for any further procedures.

MrsT4 · February 2013

Well, you have age on your side (at least compared to me, LOL)...and it sounds like you had a successful pregnancy before, is that correct?

I just hate that many doctors just seem to blame things on bad luck, while at the same time, offer donor eggs as a cure-all - YKWIM?

You may want to check out the book "Is Your Body Baby Friendly" by Dr. Alan Beer. This, along with reading about others that had immune testing and treatments, kind of swayed me in that direction...despite the fact that many RE's are not usually supportive of immune testing and there are only a handful of places that specialize in it and if they find something wrong, some of the treatments are VERY expensive.

However, I may not have gone this route, if I had more frozen embryos and perhaps, if I had already had at least one successful cycle.

Hugs to you...I know it's not an easy decision.

ufrower · February 2013

Thank you so much ladies. You guys are such a source of comfort and information! Smile

My clinic does use vitrification. My RE from the short conversation we had today doesn't believe we need to have testing done on the embryos. But he said he would be willing to do it if (1) I couldn't bear to have another loss or (2) if we didn't want to keep all 10 frozen.

I am not sure I need to rush into testing but am just so scared to have another loss. I guess when we meet on Monday he can give me some more guidance on it.

Thank you for your thoughts! I appreciate it more than you know!

Chantillygirl · February 2014

You reply was comforting. The same thing happened to me. Chemical pregnancy after transferring one AA blastocyst. Thanks!

brooklynesque · February 2014

I'm sorry. It sounds like your cycle went well generally and you most likely have a few good embies in that batch. You probably just fell on the wrong side of the odds, which is bad luck. I'm not sure I would do genetic testing at this point if I were you. Because you have day 5 embryos you would generally have to thaw and re-freeze and that carries a small chance of loss even at the best labs.

I wouldn't blame the fact that you did an eSET, either. Your doc just recommended what is increasingly viewed as the right course of action in an egg donor cycle with good-quality embryos. Believe it or not, if you had a number of high-quality embryos available at day 5, your chances with a double embryo transfer would not have been much higher, and if you had become pregnant with twins, chances of devastating complications would be MUCH higher.

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