[Sunshine122]

Hello everyone

I suppose I'm just looking for a bit of hope and wondering if it's even worth trying again or should I just give up and consider donor eggs?

Have had 3 failed cycles at London womens clinic, my AMH is 4.5 but we only ever had 1 embryo left to transfer, most eggs collected is 3. This last time I had about 10 follicles but only 2 contained eggs (1 immature).

Have booked in with the Lister for a couple of weeks to discuss a further cycle but in all honesty I wonder if theres any chance. I've always been on 375 Gonal F (middle cycle we added a tiny bit of Menopur for a few days which is when I got the 3 eggs), maybe I should ask to be changed to Menopur, has anyone had better results on this? Also thinking about asking for a different trigger, usually use Ovitrelle.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Molly82]

Hi Sunshine122, There is always hope  As many success stories on here and elsewhere have shown, doctors are not always right! A lot of it is trial and error and finding a protocol that works for each individual. I have a lower AMH than you (3.6) and responded well to 225 Gonal F and 75 Menopur but I did need to stim longer. On my last cycle we upped the Menopur and that was a dreadful cycle but I don't think the Menopur was to blame. Sometimes the eggs in a cycle are very poor quality with us low AMH ladies. I also have high FSH (14) which is an indicator of quality. Every woman is different and unfortunately there isn't one golden protocol. I wish there was! I have always used 10,000 Pregnyl but I know lots of women have had success with Ovitrelle and some consultants swear by it. Was your retrieval planned after 36 hours?

Hope your consultation at the Lister goes well and maybe you would be better suited to a different protocol or more of a mild approach I.e. less stims. Wishing you the best of luck and chin up X

 

[ShadyWheat]

Hi Sunshine

I'm very very sorry to hear about your failed cycles... it's tough I know. Personally I think it is worth persisting to try something new and perhaps a new clinic too, if you have the money and stomach for it.

As you can see from my signature, I was in a very similar boat to you after 3 cycles, I had only ever collected 2 poor quality embryos and wondered whether to give up. I switched to the Lister over the summer, and am now trying to bank some embryos on a mild antagonist protocol (letrozole for 5 days and 150u Menopur from day 2-3 with cetrotide from day 5-6ish). Maybe you could ask them about that when you see them - they recommended this to me, and I also had an apt at CRGH and they recommended something very similar to me (clomid and Merional instead). I am only going from the one cycle I have done with Lister, but my feeling is that this protocol is a bit kinder on my eggs and ovaries than max stimms - I felt that max stimms actually suppressed me. I got the same number of eggs or even better with the mild protocol and they seem to be better quality too (in terms of fertilisation, they are only day 1s in the freezer but fingers crossed that they will develop ok).

I hope you have a good consultation at the Lister and keeping my fingers crossed for you! If you fancy joining us on the buddies thread, please do, there is loads of expertise there from many of the ladies who know far more than I do and have been doing mild or natural cycles with DOR and getting great quality eggs and embryos.

x

 

[Rio2016]

Hi Sunshine,

I'm in a very similar position to you.

I had 3 cycles at Guy's. I've just had my ET at the Lister today. My results were very similar on different drugs. I'm glad I tried something new but think my eggs just aren't good enough.

Lister were fab and suggested lots more tests. All our results from those were fine.

Happy to DM with more details of those tests if helpful
Xx

 

[Sunshine122]

Thank you for all your replies.

Hi Shady, so are you freezing as many as you can over low stim cycles and then having them transferred at a later date? I wonder if this is what will be suggested to me too then.

Hi Rio, was this your 1st cycle at the Lister, how did you find it? Fx for you now you've had your transfer. Would be good if you could let me know details of the further tests you had.

I'm really hoping it goes well at the Lister, we had lost hope at London womens clinic as felt they didn't really know how to help me and only stayed with them as had paid for a 3 cycle package. X

 

[ShadyWheat]

Hi Sunshine

sorry to hear that you lost faith at LWC. It's tough as many clinics don't really know how to deal with DOR - I found this out too to my cost paying for 3 cycles elsewhere. I think Lister are really good so far. It's pretty busy is the only thing but my consultant is ace (Dr Nicopollous - who are you seeing?) The original plan was to put any embryos straight back and not bank, but I had too thin a lining to transfer last time. I had to wait a month as I was travelling with work at the right time last month to put back so I figured I'd just do another cycle anyway and see how it goes. If I still have a thin lining this cycle, I may cycle once more and then pick the best to go back. If my lining looks ok, Dr N suggested we could just culture everything up in one go. I'd like to try and get enough to go to blast if possible but I don't know if that's a vain hope! If you do want to bank - they do a 3 cycle banking package which works out slightly cheaper than what I'm doing but I never plan things properly!

x

 

[Sunshine122]

Thats useful to know Shady and another option for me to consider. My appt is with Dr Hani Daabis ??

After our last cycle the 1 egg that fertilised made it to a day 7 blastocyst (now frozen) - the embryologist said she wouldn't recommend freezing it and there was less than 10% chance of it working out and might not even survive the thaw, but ultimately that the decision was ours. We did decide to freeze it as put on the spot like that we couldn't bring ourselves to let it go but hoping we won't need to use it.

Think I will pop over to the buddies thread a bit later on, you all seem so knowledgable x

 

[Rio2016]

Hi sunshine,

I really liked the team at Lister. I was always seen on time (if not early) and they were all really lovely. I'd not had my own room before (at Guy's) either so it felt a bit like a hotel for the EC.

The extra tests we had at the Lister were - thyroid, sperm DNA fragmentation, progesterone levels during stimulation and a full blood count. I hadn't had those at Guy's.

Hope this helps xx

 

[Sunshine122]

Thanks Rio, that really does help. Oh a private room, I haven't had that before either will be nice to have a bit more luxury! x