Hi all.
I posted last week asking if anyone had issues with a thin lining and FET cancelation and I didn't get any responses, which is fine. So I guess I'll reach out and ask if there are any ladies out there with uterine-factor infertility (as opposed to tubal, ovarian reserve, male-factor, etc.). I understand it's relatively rare in the 'infertility world' for the uterus to be the reason one is unable to conceive or carry, which is why I'm hoping to find people in the same boat as me so we can compare notes, treatment options, struggles.
Thanks!
Re: Uterine-factor infertility?
Diagnosis: Mild Endo, DOR (AMH of 1.5), Poor Quality Eggs/embryos, Displaced Window of Implantation (ERA Post Receptive)
March-May 2016: 1 TI and 2 IUIs- BFN
June 2016- Laproscopy- found/removed mild endo and confirmed only 1 normal healthy ovary.
August 2016- IVF #1 with Antagonist Protocol- Cancelled (2 lead follies), converted to IUI- BFN
Oct-Nov 2016- IVF #2 with Estrogen Priming Micro Lupron Protocol, 2 eggs retrieved, day 3 transfer of 1- BFN
January 2017- New RE, IVF#3 with Estrogen Priming Antagonist Protocol, 12 eggs, 8 mature, 6 fertilized, 2 day 5 early blasts transferred (none to freeze
May 2017- Sept 2017- Starting Donor Egg process! Waiting for donor to be available... and then she is pregnant at baseline
Oct 2017- Donor #2: 25R, 22M,18F, 12 blasts frozen! Fresh transfer cancelled due to thin lining with fluid
Nov 2017- Hysterscopy to remove polyp
Dec 2017- DE FET #1 on 12/8 on 2 perfect blasts- BFN and devastated
Jan-Mar 2018- ERA #1- Post receptive by 24 hours, ERA #2 RECEPTIVE with 4 days of Progesterone
Apr 2018- DE FET cancelled for lining issues
Jun 2018- DE FET #2 of two 1AA blasts- first BFP ever! Beta 10dp5dt- 378, Beta 14dp5dt- 2840, Beta 16dp5dt- 4035, beta 18dp5dt- 10916. Due on 2/20 with one baby after a vanishing twin
Baby Born born early @ 33.5 weeks due to Pre-e
Back for # 2!
I have lately had a thin lining on my past few cycles, but I was able to transfer at 7.5. I did end up (TW) with a mc, but not due to the lining. I was able to implant with that lining. I think it is not just about the thickness but it has to also be trilaminar. Do you remember if you ever got to that level?
Ive been told that having a thin lining is the most frustrating thing just because REs don't understand it fully and there's not a ton they can do to solve the issue.
Im on my phone right now so don't know if you have a signature with your post but hopefully your RE can try different versions of estrogen to see if your body reacts better (I didn't react at all to oral or injections but did better with estrogen vaginally)
my lining was almost at 11
Basically I think that's so cray since ive never seen it like that, but I'm guessing all the time of just leaving my body alone let it grow or something.... I haven't done much different....just added some extra coQ10, so I'm sure that's not it.
The thinkest my lining has been up to now is 7.5
My bet is that when I go through this next medicated cycle that my lining will be all jacked up again. But my plan is not to do any fresh transfers anyway. But to be honest, for 2 years my lining never got better than that one time it got to 7.5 (and that was during a "natural" FET) but during my cycles I mostly heard 5's and 6's.... I NEVER thought I could get a better lining than 7.5.
My hope is that it can get back to this..i just don't know how
It's so hard to know how it's going to go the next time, so I understand. Before my laparoscopy in April, before I even started the egg retrieval process in March, I had a lining of 15. Which is way TOO thick but I chock it up to having fibroids and scar tissue. Even at the height of egg stimulation meds, when I had 16 counted follicles, my lining got to 8.95 which is awesome (yet still not a 9 or 10), but again that was before my surgery.
I scour the internet almost all day long looking for some indication that I have a shot, and not having this happen again, and I come up empty handed over and over. Everyone's bodies react so differently and everyone has their own extending circumstances and health histories that looking at someone else's experiences to give you hope for your own is probably a fool's errand, but I still keep trying.
I honestly figured since even with a thin lining I was getting trilaminar I could probably implant. I think that's one aspect.
Do you know if they think your lining is thin due to damage (like from past surgeries) or due to blood flow? I know lots of articles talk about vaginal Viagra and stuff like that for people that are having just blood flow issues
I've heard about Viagra as a possible solution, as well as a Neupogen wash (whatever that is). There are about a half dozen possible fixes for different causes of thin lining that sometimes work for women and sometimes don't. It's a trial-and-error thing, which as you know is always fun. Who doesn't love when their body is a test dummy for six or seven different meds?
Yeah, I got some L- Arginine but never used it yet
In terms of my IVF - I've had a fresh and three frozen transfers. One of my frozen cycles was cancelled due to thin lining, and I tried a natural one that was cancelled too, but the point of my post !!! Is that we've had good results (lining-wise) the last two transfers using stimulating hormones (menopur) to grow my lining. It's a lot less than what I took for my egg retrieval, but enough so that I'm using my own hormones (as my dr says, not really sure I understand that completely) to grown my own lining. I think I got to the very low 8s this last time. It almost worked, but it must have been a bad embryo bc it never grew past 5-6 weeks. And bc I have such a risk for scarring, I couldn't have a d&c and just had to wait a couple months before everything passed on its own. I mention that just bc it just fucking sucks, like seriously, have we not gone through enough here already?!?
Anyway, I'm getting geared up to give it another go after we go on vacation in a couple weeks. I feel like after four transfers (and a couple cancelled cycles) we've finally figured out the right protocol that works. And we're lucky that we still have some more embryos on ice waiting for us. I've never actually posted on this board before but I've been a semi-professional stalker for close to three years, so I guess it's time, and your thread subject just spoke to me
But I'm happy to try and answer any questions you may have. I've had at least 7 FETs cancelled - I've honestly stopped counting. And I've tried every protocol, drug, surgery, etc. you could think of: natural; neupogen; letrozole; Lovenox; Viagara; injectables (menopur one time, follistim another) to try and stimulate a lining; L-arginine and vitamin E therapy; scratches and biopsies; anti-inflammatory protocols; immune protocols; I even had more surgery (a hysteroscopy) to check for Asherman's and endometritis (no Asherman's but I did have mild endometritis despite having several negative biopsies in the months before, so that required a 6 week antibiotic treatment). If you can find it on Google my doctor and I have tried it (as well as all the standard stuff, too). I can usually achieve the trilaminar pattern, but no matter what we've tried I cannot get my lining to even a 6. Even during my retrieval cycle, which I responded to really well, my lining only ever got up to a 6.2.
You are absolutely right that thin lining can be extraordinarily frustrating, particularly because it is very uncommon and not well-understood. My RE is extremely experienced and he told me that in his career less than 1% of IF patients he's treated have had this issue (lucky, right?). I think for me the hardest part has been coming to terms with not even getting to a transfer.
After spending a year (and more money than the IVF itself actually cost) trying different therapies, protocols, etc. we finally decided to move onto to surrogacy. But I only decided to go the GC route after exhausting pretty much every possible protocol out there and clearly not responding well. It sounds like you are still a bit earlier in the process, and given that you were able to get a good lining during your retrieval cycle I think you have a strong shot at finding a protocol that your body will respond to (maybe injectables?). With thin lining, a lot of it is just trial and error - figuring out what does and doesn't work for your body. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for taking the time to tell me your story. I'll keep you in my thoughts as you start looking for a surrogate and begin that process.