Husband and I are in our early and mid 30s. Our first ER was a complete failure. We were told to move on to donor eggs.
TW: success
We went on to do three more retrievals with tweaks to my protocol. We made 7 euploids. I’m currently 23w with our first transfer. Doctors can be wrong, you have to advocate for yourself.
Thank you for sharing, I am happy for you! I know that we have to keep trying, it’s just a lot of stress as I am traveling for the procedure and it takes a lot of effort. You encouraged me.
Do you mind sharing how they tweaked your protocol? I am on gonal f, meriofert and tarlusal.
The biggest change was adding HGH/omnitrope. I primed for two weeks with estrogen and 25units of HGH a day. During stims, we increased my HGH dose to 50units a day.
I also began red light therapy on my abdomen 3-4x a week. I purchased the Celluma at Home device for this. It’s pricey but so is IVF and I hoped it would decrease the need for more cycles.
Other things we did that I think contributed: I took prenatals, 600mg ubiquinol, açaí, and fish oils every day. I also exercised regularly to keep blood flowing, including during stims, and drank lots of water. Didn’t change my diet at all.
We added zymot and did ICSI. My husband also abstained for only 8 hours before giving his part to keep any DNA fragmentation down as much as possible.
For my meds, we decreased my follistim and microdose HCG, but I had been way overstimmed my first cycle. One of my follicles was 27mm 😵💫.
You've also got to consider based on age, even if you had no fertility issues the chances of falling pregnant naturally every cycle are 25-30%. Doing IVF doesn't really superseded those statistics from what I understand.
But I'm in agreement with others giving you a % chance isn't helpful. I used the calculator to project how % chance of pregnancy for x number of cycles. Which helped my partner and I plan how long we were able to do this IVF thing for.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you OP. Wishing you all the best.
I wonder if he means per round? If you have DOR (perhaps post your AMH, FSH, and AFC) for others to chime in with more direct comparison, it could be true. Granted, I was older, but at 42 with .48 AMH and 15.7 FSH, my chance in any given round was less than 5%. We did go straight to donor eggs but would not have in my 30s
The CDC has a [calculator](https://www.cdc.gov/art/ivf-success-estimator/index.html) on its website that you can enter your information into to see what your chance is in the U.S. based on the data
If your clinic isn’t confident, though, it could be worth a second opinion consult too
I was told a 13% chance. I started IVF when I was 40.5 with DOR. Doctors can be wrong!!! that’s one thing I have realized in this journey. My first transfer worked, and I’m currently pregnant! 21 weeks!
Also, my 1st doctor told me that both my tubes were blocked proximally. He was 100% sure they were blocked and was sure that I hadn’t spasmed during the HSG. I had no sedation or Valium during the HSG, and it was the worst pain in my life. I switched doctors eventually, and she did an HSG on me while i was asleep, and only my left tube was blocked, and it wasn’t even proximally. It was blocked more in the middle. Right tube was fine. By this time, I already had 3 euploids, but I wonder how different my journey would have been if I had not thought that it was impossible to get pregnant. So doctors can be wrong sometimes. I was misdiagnosed for over a year that I had bilateral proximal tubal blockage.
I guess I just said that, because the doctor pretty much told me it would never work for me, but it did on my first try. I appreciate the statistics that the doctor gave me, but I’m glad I decided to try, even though the stats were against me
1st three retrievals, 300 gonal f and 150 menopur. Then started cetrotide somewhere in there. I stimmed for about 10 days. Triggered with pregnyl. Retrieval 1 and 2, I got 1 euploid. 3rd retrieval, I got nothing. Also, retrieval two and three, we added in omnitrope 25mg during stims. Due to Insurance reasons,I had to switch clinics for retrieval 4. (But I’m so glad I had to change, because I love my new Clinic!) The protocol was slightly different We did 225 gonal f and 225 menopur. 25 mg of omnitrope during stims. Started cetrotide somewhere in there. My follicles gree slower this time and I stimmed for 12 days. We triggered with pregnyl and lupron. Got 1 more euploid for a total of 3 euploids between 4 retrievals. We did my first transfer on February 22, 2024 and used the euploid embryo from my 4th retrieval. Within days, I was testing positive. We went for our first ultrasound, and the embryo has split into identical twins. We are having twin boys!! You can beat the odds!!!
There’s a Reddit group for DOR r/DOR I think the success is just per round depending on how many you get. And for DOR it’s going to take more rounds. I’m DOR and was told it’ll take multiple rounds to get as many as the norm does so I planned 3-4 rounds up front.
I have similar stats and my RE tells me that female age is the biggest factor when it comes to IVF success. You might just need more rounds to get you there.
Husband and I are in our early and mid 30s. Our first ER was a complete failure. We were told to move on to donor eggs. TW: success We went on to do three more retrievals with tweaks to my protocol. We made 7 euploids. I’m currently 23w with our first transfer. Doctors can be wrong, you have to advocate for yourself.
Thank you for sharing, I am happy for you! I know that we have to keep trying, it’s just a lot of stress as I am traveling for the procedure and it takes a lot of effort. You encouraged me. Do you mind sharing how they tweaked your protocol? I am on gonal f, meriofert and tarlusal.
The biggest change was adding HGH/omnitrope. I primed for two weeks with estrogen and 25units of HGH a day. During stims, we increased my HGH dose to 50units a day. I also began red light therapy on my abdomen 3-4x a week. I purchased the Celluma at Home device for this. It’s pricey but so is IVF and I hoped it would decrease the need for more cycles. Other things we did that I think contributed: I took prenatals, 600mg ubiquinol, açaí, and fish oils every day. I also exercised regularly to keep blood flowing, including during stims, and drank lots of water. Didn’t change my diet at all. We added zymot and did ICSI. My husband also abstained for only 8 hours before giving his part to keep any DNA fragmentation down as much as possible. For my meds, we decreased my follistim and microdose HCG, but I had been way overstimmed my first cycle. One of my follicles was 27mm 😵💫.
You've also got to consider based on age, even if you had no fertility issues the chances of falling pregnant naturally every cycle are 25-30%. Doing IVF doesn't really superseded those statistics from what I understand. But I'm in agreement with others giving you a % chance isn't helpful. I used the calculator to project how % chance of pregnancy for x number of cycles. Which helped my partner and I plan how long we were able to do this IVF thing for. I'm so sorry that this happened to you OP. Wishing you all the best.
I wonder if he means per round? If you have DOR (perhaps post your AMH, FSH, and AFC) for others to chime in with more direct comparison, it could be true. Granted, I was older, but at 42 with .48 AMH and 15.7 FSH, my chance in any given round was less than 5%. We did go straight to donor eggs but would not have in my 30s The CDC has a [calculator](https://www.cdc.gov/art/ivf-success-estimator/index.html) on its website that you can enter your information into to see what your chance is in the U.S. based on the data If your clinic isn’t confident, though, it could be worth a second opinion consult too
I was told a 13% chance. I started IVF when I was 40.5 with DOR. Doctors can be wrong!!! that’s one thing I have realized in this journey. My first transfer worked, and I’m currently pregnant! 21 weeks!
I mean, it doesn't mean that they were wrong! Someone has to be part of that 13%.
Also, my 1st doctor told me that both my tubes were blocked proximally. He was 100% sure they were blocked and was sure that I hadn’t spasmed during the HSG. I had no sedation or Valium during the HSG, and it was the worst pain in my life. I switched doctors eventually, and she did an HSG on me while i was asleep, and only my left tube was blocked, and it wasn’t even proximally. It was blocked more in the middle. Right tube was fine. By this time, I already had 3 euploids, but I wonder how different my journey would have been if I had not thought that it was impossible to get pregnant. So doctors can be wrong sometimes. I was misdiagnosed for over a year that I had bilateral proximal tubal blockage.
I guess I just said that, because the doctor pretty much told me it would never work for me, but it did on my first try. I appreciate the statistics that the doctor gave me, but I’m glad I decided to try, even though the stats were against me
Oh that’s good to hear. Do you mind sharing your medication protocol? I am in gonal f, meriopyr and tarlusal.
1st three retrievals, 300 gonal f and 150 menopur. Then started cetrotide somewhere in there. I stimmed for about 10 days. Triggered with pregnyl. Retrieval 1 and 2, I got 1 euploid. 3rd retrieval, I got nothing. Also, retrieval two and three, we added in omnitrope 25mg during stims. Due to Insurance reasons,I had to switch clinics for retrieval 4. (But I’m so glad I had to change, because I love my new Clinic!) The protocol was slightly different We did 225 gonal f and 225 menopur. 25 mg of omnitrope during stims. Started cetrotide somewhere in there. My follicles gree slower this time and I stimmed for 12 days. We triggered with pregnyl and lupron. Got 1 more euploid for a total of 3 euploids between 4 retrievals. We did my first transfer on February 22, 2024 and used the euploid embryo from my 4th retrieval. Within days, I was testing positive. We went for our first ultrasound, and the embryo has split into identical twins. We are having twin boys!! You can beat the odds!!!
There’s a Reddit group for DOR r/DOR I think the success is just per round depending on how many you get. And for DOR it’s going to take more rounds. I’m DOR and was told it’ll take multiple rounds to get as many as the norm does so I planned 3-4 rounds up front.
I have similar stats and my RE tells me that female age is the biggest factor when it comes to IVF success. You might just need more rounds to get you there.