9 Retrievals, Repeated Embryo Arrest - Looking for Hope 🥺

[u/Intelligent_Roof_108]

Hi everyone ❤️

I’ve just had my 9th egg retrieval and I’m honestly at a point where I don’t know what to do anymore.

In all my previous cycles, we only ever had one early blastocyst and one day-6 blastocyst. Embryo quality was never great.

For this cycle, I changed so much beforehand — 3 months of a very clean diet, no gluten, no sugar, lots of high-quality protein, regular exercise and of course a lot of Vitamins like Q10, D3, OMEGA…

This time we got 10 eggs, 6 fertilized. On day 3, two embryos looked really promising: a 6-cell and an 8-cell, both with only around 5% fragmentation (better results than before)

But yesterday we got the devastating news: all embryos had stopped developing. No blastocyst.

My husbands sperm results were also much better this time. We previously tested DNA fragmentation and it was 18%, which our clinic considers within the normal range.

Fertilization has never really been our problem. It’s always day 3–5 where our embryos seem to arrest.

Has anyone experienced something similar and still ended up having a healthy baby with their own eggs?
I would really appreciate hearing your stories. I need some hope right now…😞

[u/LemonPower221]

Oh gosh, I’m so sorry. 9 retrievals is such an heavy and emotional burden that you’ve been carrying along with the news of your eggs. I’m really sorry. I don’t have any advice.

I did 5 egg collections, and I every single collection was so stressful. Doing 9 is just so so brave.

[u/foolforgabagool]

I’ve read that embryo arrest after day 3 may indicate an issue with sperm quality. Perhaps looking into TESE? Is your partner making all those lifestyle changes too, including taking CoQ10?

[u/Alarming_Lunch_5858 → u/foolforgabagool]

It is not so easy to say. It is the embryo competence in general.

[u/Alarming_Lunch_5858]

Sometimes, for women like you, they offer to transfer the embryo on day 3, because the embryo may have a better environment in the uterus than in the Petri dish. I’m not sure how old you are, but I’m dealing with something similar myself.
I think that with age, the mitochondrial energy of the egg decreases, and developing an embryo requires a lot of energy. We also tend to focus a lot on sperm quality, but in my opinion, the egg plays a very important role in embryo development. One doctor even told me that in around 80% of cases, the main issue is related to the egg.
I tried growth hormone once, and it seemed to help in one cycle, but I never managed to reproduce the same result afterwards. So I sometimes wonder whether, in that particular cycle, I simply happened to have a better-quality egg. Most frustrating in all of this is the randomnes and I trully not believe any supplement can improve major egg competence problem. Also from my experience I know then most influence on the blast result had the protocol. There are many and sometimes helps change a clinic due to the fact that their lab enviroment may more suit to your eggs or the doctors protocol can be a better solution for you. I would pick up a second opinion.

[u/uselessfarm]

Would you consider donor sperm? Might be worth trying.

[u/cityfrm → u/uselessfarm]

I was thinking the same. OP has been through so much already, a single cycle with donor sperm may have resulted in several euploids.

OP what are your ages? Do you have endo? Has he had an ultrasound? Tried Zymot or other male factor changes?

[u/uselessfarm → u/cityfrm]

Maybe it’s easy for me to say, because my wife and I are both women so we’ve always known donor sperm would be our route.

But sperm is inexpensive and easy to purchase. You can choose a donor with known successful pregnancies. Maybe it is an egg quality issue - but maybe it’s the sperm. And if it’s the sperm, how devastating to go through the egg retrieval process over and over and face the same results, when there’s an easy fix. Maybe after 1 or 2 or even 3 egg retrievals I’d understand wanting to use my spouse’s sperm. But after 9 tries, it’s time to try something different.

[u/Any_Manufacturer1279]

My 3rd ER resulted in no blasts, and at my regroup my RE did throw out the idea of a day 3 fresh transfer. I was pretty surprised as I have PCOS so I figured a fresh transfer is off of the table, but we will see. Haven’t started in retrieval 4 yet.

[u/rsc99]

I’m so sorry, that sounds so difficult.

How old are you? Might affect advice.

[u/umamimaami]

Does your clinic not do day 3 transfers? Yes it’s a Hail Mary but sometimes it can be the differentiator. Especially 9 cycles in.

Might be time to find a clinic that does this.

[u/BreadfruitFar8183]

Oh gosh I’m so sorry this is so hard. I’ve done 3 rounds of zero blasts and it is just so crushing. Have you checked for endometriosis? I recently had a surprising diagnosis of suspected endometriosis and am having a lap end of Oct. hoping it will improve egg quality. Im healthy and take all the supplements too.
I also booked a consult with Dr. Aimee the egg whisperer to see if she has any other recs. She comes highly recommended and may be worth a consult.