IVF Embryo Arrest Before Day 3

ellabella79 · September 2018

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 · September 2018

Hello @ellabella79 and I'm sorry to read about your failed cycles, it is definitely hard to keep hope alive, especially when you don't have any make it to blastocyst. I have not had a successful transfer yet, and hope to later this week, but I wanted to at least let you know that I had none survive to 5 days and was told to move on to donor eggs after failed cycle 4, but I insisted on one last try with a 5th cycle (the last the insurance would cover) and got 2 PGS normal embryos from it. Needless to say we were shocked. You can read full details in my signature. So, is it that I changed my diet significantly, or is it that I just needed one more roll of the die? Only God knows. I say go for more cycles if you have the physical energy, financial/insurance, and mental wherewithal to do it, and that answer will be different for each one of us. I wish you the best in making that decision for you. But hopefully my story might give you hope - they had given up on me and I'm glad that I didn't.

embryoman · September 2018

@ellabella79 that's certainly a tough situation when you look at the number of eggs you're eggs and it does sound like an issue of egg quality. You might want to take some time to focus on your health/diet to try to improve their quality. Not to be rude but if you're overweight this can have an impact as well. Stress is another factor that can influence quality. I hope you don't smoke! Ask your doctor for recommendations. There's lots of books out there that deal with improving egg quality through diet, check them out (I know "It Starts with the Egg" is a popular one though I haven't read it). Good luck!

mayflower513 · September 2018

Since using your own eggs is important to you I would definitely try dietary changes and supplementation for egg quality improvement for a few months and try another cycle. You can do royal jelly, coq12, and I’m sure there are others. Good luck!!

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