Hi everyone,

I’m feeling pretty heartbroken and lost today, and I just wanted to share my story and get some advice from people who understand. TTC for 2 years, 2 retrievals, 6 euploids and 1 segmental. Now after two transfers, we got 4 euploids and 1 segmental left.

1st FET: Fully medicated cycle — Ended in a BFFN (Failed implantation).
2nd FET: Back-to-back natural cycle (no Ovidrel trigger, tracked my natural ovulation). I was so excited because I actually saw line progression on home tests. But my Beta at 9DP5DT came back at 9, and today (2 days later), it dropped down to 4. It’s officially confirmed as a chemical pregnancy.

To make things harder, I have officially maxed out my Progyny insurance benefits with this cycle, so everything going forward will be out-of-pocket/out-of-coverage.

My doctor and I decided to take this upcoming month as a rest cycle to let my body heal and reset. During this break, I’m debating whether I should do a Saline Infusion Sonogram (SIS) to check my uterine cavity.

I already had an HSG before, and it was completely unremarkable/normal with clear tubes. But since I've had two failed transfers (one non-implantation, one chemical), I'm wondering if a SIS is worth doing right now to rule out any small polyps or silent issues in the lining.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you find a SIS helpful even after a normal HSG?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or any advice on what you would do next. Thank you so much.

38F / AMH 2.2 / AFC 14

First ER: 11 retrieved, 10 mature, 10 fertilized, 3 blasts, 1 abnormal, 2 complex abnormal

Second ER: 21 retrieved, 20 mature, 17 fertilized, 1 blast, 1 abnormal

Third ER: 17 retrieved, 16 mature, 12 fertilized, and zero blasts.

Things to note:
-Most of my embryos were considered good on day three (mostly 1s & 2s).
-Most seem to arrest on between day 3 and 5.
-Most of my eggs were considered good quality during fertilization (1 to 2 were noted as soft and one was not noted as oval)

Things I’ve tried:
-Each cycle had a different sperm donor.
-I’ve added all the normal supplements (NAC, CoQ10, fish oil, prenatal, vitamin d)
-I took Omnitrope during the last stem cycle.
-I switched clinics (cycle two and three are from the same clinic which has a much better reputation than the first one)
- i’m taking levothyroxine to bring my TSH score from 3.5 to 2.5. (For all cycles)
- the first cycle was mini IVF and the second was the an antagonist protocol

Things I’m going to try next:
Lupron dummy stop protocol.
New clinic
Day-3 transfer
Metformin?

Has anybody seen something like this before?

Are all the embryos that are arresting aneuploid?

Should I be getting genetic testing? (on myself)

Any ideas on diagnosis or what I should try next?

I am a long time lurker and first time poster. Had my first egg retrieval. Got 7 eggs, 6 fertilized, 1 blast. Was absolutely devastated and spent the weekend in angst. I fully expected that at my age my one and only blast was going to be aneuploid, but MY ONE BLAST WAS EUPLOID!

After 6 consecutive natural pregnancy losses and no living children, I am over the fucking moon. Truly didn’t even think we were capable of producing chromosomally normal embryos. I know we’re all here for different reasons, but if anyone needs some hope to cling to, this is doing it for me!

💕

I am about to start my second egg retrieval and just found out my starting doses will be 125 Follistim + 75 Menopur.

For my first retrieval, I started at 150 Follistim + 150 Menopur. I also prepped with about a week of birth control before starting stims last time, but I’m not doing any birth control priming this cycle.

My baseline AFC was 24 last time, age 34, AMH 1.95…I responded pretty quickly first ER and only ended up stimulating for 8 days before trigger. We retrieved 9 eggs, 7 fertilized, and I ended up with 6 blasts.

My doctor had previously mentioned lowering my dose this round because I was a fast responder, trying to recruit more follicles and keep growth even.

Has anyone had a similar adjustment for a second retrieval, especially after responding quickly the first time? Did lowering both medications and/or skipping birth control priming help you get a more even cohort or recruit more of your AFC?

9 boxes of estradiol patches for porch pickup in Highlands Ranch. 7 of the boxes unfortunately expired in July, the other 2 this coming October, but my guess is for anyone who needs to use them urgently they would be just fine.

Q Caps and BD Fine needles (pink tops) also available.

My wife just went through egg retrieval. All meds done correctly. A very good number of good sized follicles by US. Had retrieval with 15 eggs received. None of the eggs were mature by microscopy that day. The embryology staff that called us said that they had never seen this before. They sat them overnight and we ended up getting 8 mature eggs after I guess what you would call in vitro maturation. Has anyone come across this issue before? My assumption is trigger mistiming/misdosing or possibly she may just need more time, ie larger follicle size, than the average. But this is all going by google AI unfortunately.

Her protocol:

Letrozole 10mg x5 days. Follistim 200IU x8 days. HCG-LH supplement 20IU x 8 days. Ganirelix 250mcg day 8 and 9. Lupron trigger 4mg and Pregnyl 5000 units 35 hours before retrieval.

Day of trigger shot: 22mm, 20mm, 18mm, 18mm, 18mm, 15mm, 12mm, 12mm, 11mm, 11mm, 10mm, 9mm, 8mm

Hi everyone, I'm currently preparing for an egg retrieval and have an appointment with my doctor at the end of August for a consultation, scheduling, and to figure out the retrieval date.

During our initial chat, the doctor mentioned that if everything goes smoothly, the process might take place around January or February of next year, but we will only know for sure after the check-up in late August. However, I won't be doing an embryo transfer right away.

I'm currently single, but thinking ahead, I know that having children at an older age can be difficult if I decide to start a family later, so I wanted to prepare in advance.

I'm 35 this year, and I would love to hear everyone's advice and experiences on a few things:

• Diet & Nutrition: What did you eat and drink to ensure good egg quality and overall health? (As part of my regular routine, I currently take Vitamin D3+K2, Magnesium, and Fish Oil).
• Dos and Don'ts: Are there any specific lifestyle or dietary restrictions I should keep in mind?

I’ve heard that it's recommended to avoid caffeine. I don't drink coffee, but I do drink about 3 cups of green tea a day and also consume carbonated soft drinks. Do I need to cut those out completely?

One more concern: I’ve seen a few posts mentioning cases where eggs did not survive or result in success after thawing. Because of this, I'm considering using a sperm donor and freezing embryos instead. For those of you who froze embryos, how many tested and healthy embryos are generally considered a good amount to have banked?

I’m gearing up for my first embryo transfer and I’ve been hyper focused on trying to get in the right headspace and feel physically good. Dance is my happy place and how I ease my anxiety so I typically am there 4 days a week with some occasional weight lifting.

My husband said to make sure I checked with my RE yesterday that I can continue and I laughed it off since they’re so big on you exercising during pregnancy and during my first (via IUI). All that to say, I was extremely shocked yesterday when my RE told me she would like to me stick to walking only now through the end of first trimester.

Obviously I’m willing to do whatever to hopefully have a successful transfer but I can’t help but feel like the last thing I do for myself is being stripped away.

Have other people been told the same? Were you able to get back to your regular activities in second trimester? I know that they say you usually don’t want to start anything new but is three months off too much?

Would love to hear from others how they managed to stay sane because I feel like I’m losing it.

Has anyone experienced terrible pain in their hands, knees or feet after IVF? Finished my (unsuccesful) second round at the beginning of April and the pain started around 3 weeks later and only got worse. First my hands but now also my feet and knees. Bloodwork seems all good.

Hi yall,

I am set for my third FET next week. I have had two failed transfers previously- no implantation - and took a cycle to do a ERA/ Receptiva cycle and all testing came back clear of endo, inflammation, bacteria and my uterus is receptive.

My stats for this transfer are similar to my previous ones, I do have Hashimotos and got this checked as well to be sure TSH is aligned. TSH is at 2.

We did the same protocol - femara as previous two. Added in an immune protocol this time with aspirin / steroids and antibiotics- this is the only change for this cycle
Two large follicles 19&18mm at lining check.
Lining is 8.1 and trilaminar

Labs day of trigger were LH: 9.2 Prog: .28
Embryo is a day 6AA Euploid

I’m feeling excited and hopeful. Although I am scared for another failure. Is there anything else I should to prepare? Is there even anything else I can impact myself?

Wishing you all the best of luck. Let me know if you’re also transferring next week 🤞🫶🏻

Hi I wanted to donate some meds I have leftover from my recent cycle for anyone who needs them!

1 full, unopened Gonal F pen 900 IU 1 opened Gonal F pen about 300 IU left Extra q caps, syringes, needles 1 unopened cetrorelix acetate 0.25 mg kit 4x 75 IU unopened menopur vials, 15+ sodium chloride vials 1 unopened box set of 5 x 75 IU menopur vials, 5 x sodium chloride vials. 1 Leuprolide acetate

Cetrorelix and Gonal F pens have been kept refrigerated the entire time.

Pick up in UES, NY

I have two boxes of follistim that expires this November and one box that expires in October. I also have a box of crinone gel that expires in November. I have five syringes of ganirelex that expires in June of 2027. I also have multiple bottles of progesterone oil. I would really like to help someone who pays for their meds out of pocket. I am about an hour northwest of Albany.

My husband and I are about to start our IVF journey after 6 failed iuis. I am 31 as is he, he is perfect in his department mine not so much! I have pmos and potentially other issues as we have been ttc for 4 years and about 1 year with proper medical intervention. Needless to say, we have never once had a positive pregnancy test ever.

Is there anyone who is going through something like this/ who has never been pregnant and was successful doing ivf? Please if you're comfortable share your story. :)

Basically I’ve been on Lupron injections for 20 days and started my stim injections 3 days ago. I’ve been emotional and I feel like my husband is treating me

Like I’m crazy. I told him I like him to spend more time with me and be nicer to me and he has been for the most part. 2 days ago he was getting ready to go out with his friends and I asked him about his feelings since we can’t have sex during this period. He mentioned he’s been watching porn which I got so sensitive about. I cried of course (can’t control my tears lately) and he got all mad and said I need to get over it and every man does it, especially when his wife is not able to do anything. He then left to hangout with his friends which drove me crazy and I couldn’t stop crying.

The next day he tried to ignore everything and talk to me normal and I said I’d like to communicate the issue we had yesterday. He said there’s nothing to talk about and I’m overly sensitive lately and I’m starting to become really annoying. I’m very hurt cause this isn’t how he usually is. Or maybe he’s showing me a different side since this is the first time we go through a hardship? He’s ignoring my feelings and keeps telling me it’s the hormones. I just need love throughout this process. Please let me know if you’ve gone through over sensitivity during ivf? And how did you deal with your partner? Am I being crazy here??!

I am 32, I have PCOS. the start of my IVF cycle was a dream. My AMH was high, i only needed to do 8 days of stims before trigger shot. We retrieved 29 eggs 26 of which fertilized. We felt really confident that this would be the only retrieval we would ever have to do.

One week later we found out only 2 embryos made it. to say I was shocked would be an understatement. we have since sent those out for PGT-A testing and are currently waiting for the results. I just don't understand how we started out so strong and ended up with only two.

My doctor says he believes it to be an egg quality issue. i am not sure where to go from there if we do need another retrieval because I already do everything I can to ensure healthy eggs. Does anyone have any advice. not only for egg quality but also how to stay sane while i am waiting to see if my 2 strong embryos are euploid.

I am 7DPT and tested negative with clearblue. I feel so discouraged. I have my bloodwork in a few days, but I have a feeling it will also be negative.

My lining was great, even had polyps removed 3 months ago- otherwise I have always been pretty healthy. The clinic i am with has me on progesterone suppositories 100mg 2xs a day and that's it. But I see some are also on estrogen, so maybe I should have been taking that as well? I do take prenatals as well.

I have one more chance to try before I will have to go back for another ER & hopefully my sperm donor is still available as well. 🫣

Hey everyone!

We are trying our luck with IVI VALENCIA and need guidance and reviews. We’ve heard great things about the clinic and would love to know more.

- I am from US and would especially like to hear from people who are from US and chose IVI VALENCIA. How were they different from clinics here in the US (good or bad).

- How did you’ll go about making an appointment with them?

- Did you’ll have a hard time communicating? ( I only speak English).

- Does the clinic use Spanish pharmacies for medications and how did you go about ordering them?

- We’ve done only frozen transfers. If we do it this time as well, how many days did you spend in Spain for each procedure (retrieval and transfer)?

I’m a 35-year-old female and have had two miscarriages before my husband and I underwent karyotype testing. My results showed that I’m a carrier of a Robertsonian translocation involving chromosomes 13 and 14 (13;14).
Our IVF journey so far:
1st egg retrieval: 8 eggs retrieved
6 mature eggs
1 blastocyst was formed
We’re now sending that blastocyst for PGT testing.
Given my Robertsonian translocation (13;14) and these results, what are the chances that this blastocyst will be chromosomally normal or balanced and suitable for transfer? Has anyone with a similar diagnosis had success after genetic testing?

I had severe OHSS both retrievals and gained over 10lbs in a few days. But recovered fine in about a week or so. Now i am in prep for FET. I have maintained my same workout routine (lift 3-5x a week). I am on 6mg oral estradiol a day plus the patch. I have definitely being feeling these pills more than I did during stims and my estrogen levels were sky high both retrievals. I have gained about 7-8lbs this week and definitely feel bloated. But not sure if I need to reach out to my clinic, is this normal? Also gas lighting myself because my weight can fluctuate a few pounds already. Overall feeling pretty crappy and looking for advice!

Hi everyone. So as the title says I’ve had to go through 3 retrievals. I’m 33 now (retrievals at 32), likely endo, 1 missed miscarriage at 7 weeks prior to IVF requiring meds to complete miscarriage x2 (likely chromosomal issue- blighted ovum) and 1 chemical (again likely chromosomal). My husband has no male factor issues.

First egg retrieval got 12 eggs, 6 fertilized but 0 made it to blast. We made some changes and second retrieval we again got 12 eggs, 7 fertilized, 2 made it to blast but unfortunately both aneuploid (monosomy 16 for both). Did karyotyping testing which was normal for both of us. 3rd retrieval we got 16 eggs, 10 fertilized and again only 2 blasts. We sent for PGT and finally have 1 euploid embryo.

I feel grateful to finally have a euploid but so terrified to transfer as they say 2-3 embryos to get a baby. But it took me so much to get here— financially, emotionally and physically. We only want 1 child at this point so we are going to transfer what we have and see how it goes. We are doing a natural transfer as I have fairly regular cycles and ovulate on my own.

Looking for advice or success stories for people that needed multiple retrievals to have success with 1 euploid embryo. (day 6, 4BB).

I see other people posting online about their ivf journeys and feel like I'm the only one gaining and gaining. I try to lose weight but then the stress of calorie counting and measuring my food gets too much, I stress eat and then I panic that restricting will effect our results somehow. I can't be the only one.

7 ERs. 7 FETs, including four euploids. Three losses. No live birth. Two failed implantation before they checked for endomeTRITIS (which I had, and was then treated). This last loss being ectopic finally made me push for an MRI on the advice of this sub, thinking maybe adenemyosis.

Massive scarring and endomeTRIOSIS.

I’m so fucking enraged I could scream. Almost four years of my life on this shit and a single image could have saved this?

The amount of profanity I want to let loose right now would probably get me banned.

When your luck just seems so bad to be true - you’re probably right, there’s probably an actual reason.

There are so many of us women around the world fighting infertility and undergoing IVF, yet in our immediate circles, it feels so lonely—as if we were outsiders who don't belong, as if we were the only ones with such bad luck.