First IVF No a Sucess - Why?

santafe1212 · Post by **santafe1212** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:01 am

Hi everyone,

This is my first time here and I was wondering if anyone has any input. I just completed my first IVF cycle and everything went well - stimulation, retrieval, transfer. I followed every instruction to the T and it did not work. When I found out I was crushed because I cannot for the life of me understand why it did not work when everything went so smoothly.

I want to try another cycle, but I'm not sure if I can handle it emotionally.

HELP!

bekkie31 · Post by **bekkie31** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:06 am

Hey,

I do not have all answers - I will be having my first IVF this month (and fear it will also fail ). I heard it can depend on what the interfility problem was to start with, age (they say +35 the chances are less ? ), chromosone problems..
There are other reasons which I am sure others may be able to answer..

Did the doctor not know why it failed either?

Bekki

About to undego IVF this month
Ectopic pregancy last feb
Age: 31 Husband age: 34

wannababy1229 · Post by **wannababy1229** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:51 pm

Santafe- You story sounds a lot like mine. I haven't met with my doctor since my BFN and won't be doing so until next week. When everything was going well for me, I had more and more hope, so when I got my BFN, devastation was not word! It's frustrating. I'm going for round two at the end of the month. When you are ready emotionally and financially, give it another try. Hopeful the next attempt will be successful for the both of us!

santafe1212 · Post by **santafe1212** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:03 pm

I am 39, that's a huge reason for my disappointment. 40 is approaching fast and it sometimes seems that I'm the only one in a hurry (referring to Dr.s and Staff). I will have my follow up appointment on the 12th at which time I hope to gain some insight as to what happened and discuss trying another cycle. Hopefully, the second time will be the charm.

deepa100 · Post by **deepa100** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:07 pm

Same thing happened to us. After everything went great, we did nit get pregnant.

rparsons · Post by **rparsons** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 1:19 am

I was told my my doc that sometimes it just doesn't work because of a chromosomal problem, there is really no way to tell. Just like in a pregnancy through intercourse, there are SOOOO many miscarriages that people don't even know about. This is usually due to a chromosone (I know I'm not spelling this right) problem meaning that there is really nothing that can be done. It wouldn't have been a normal pregnancy anyway.

I know this doesn't make it any easier or better and really doesn't give you an answer but it was the one that was given to me from my doctor.

Good luck next time,
Rachel

zookaa · Post by **zookaa** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:20 pm

Santafe,

I do know exactly how you feel. I felt like the whole time, everything was going so smoothly. 18 follies, 18 eggs, 14 fertilized, 2 blastocysts transferred, 3 frozen. Everything sounded great. I've been through infertility in 4 yrs and for the first time ever, I completely lost it. I cried for days like I was mourning a loss.

You can count on one hand how many times you can go on and try again. That's why it's so devastating....you're doing the best that money can buy.

After my post IVF visit with my doc....he mentioned that a possible cause for failure might be the hostile environment in the uterus and body caused by all the meds, stress, surgery etc....and a frozen cycle would prevent. Do you have any frozen?

hellokitty · Post by **hellokitty** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:29 am

Santefe,

I'm so sorry that it did not work this time for you. I know how you feel. I actually got a BFP but later miscarried very early, although like you everything looked perfect. But don't give up hope. I just had my followup visit and we are planning to try again in December. They are going to do a ton of blood work and a hysteroscopy to rule out some issues. So, your dr should be going over some reasons why it may not have worked. Everyone patient is different.

I know it is very hard and extremely emotional. But it will all be worth it once you have BFP.

santafe1212 · Post by **santafe1212** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:14 am

No, I don't have any frozen and that is a question that I have for my doctor. There were 12 follicles and he only harvested 6. 6 were fertilized and 2 did make it, 1 was of poor quality and 3 were at early blastocyst. Ultimately 4 were sucessfully transferred.

I feel like I should have a hundred questions for him during our follow up, but I must say that I am at a loss.......I quess I'm just not familiar enough with the process to know what to ask. My follow up is on the 12th. As far as I know we did as much preliminary testing as there was to do before this adventure began. From the inside out, everything looked good.

Do you know if you have better odds by doing IVF more than once? Does the medicine have a culmalitive effect?

Ghost · Post by **Ghost** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:22 pm

santafe1212 wrote:Do you know if you have better odds by doing IVF more than once? Does the medicine have a culmalitive effect?

No. The odds actually decrease slightly. There is one paper out that says the odds decrease "dramatically", but I think that's a bit much. I've seen many successes after failures. Happens all the time.

Among the possible causes of failure are (1) the embryos arrested development before implantation, (2) the endometrium was not receptive at the proper time, (3) a flawed transfer, and (4) random failure even when everything is right. The first two are common. We know that most embryos arrest development when grown in culture, and we know that ovarian stimulation advances the endometrium by a couple of days when compared to natural cycles. I'd guess that (3) and (4) are unlikely.

suzhan · Post by **suzhan** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:03 pm

Santafe - I know exactly how you feel. After going through this process twice now, it's very frustrating when all goes as planned and for whatever reason, you don't end up with a baby. All I can say is to try and keep a positive attitude (easier said than done, sometime, but try reading, posting here, research what you might do to make your body as healthy as possible, and just live and breathe in a positive spirit every day.) Best wishes to you!

cbaker111 · Post by **cbaker111** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:30 pm

Santafe -
Count me among those who had a failure the first time and a success the second time around - AND I was 40 the first time and 41 the second time. The first time I had 18 eggs and 12 embryos and all were fine at day 2 - by day 3 there were only three left to transfer and the others had all stopped growing. The three were moderate to poor quality. The MD told me that this was likely due to my age but when I asked around some others suggested that it might have been the lab. I went to a new clinic the next time, had 23 eggs, 19 embryos, no fragmentation in any of them, had 4 transferred and 12 to freeze and they were all excellent quality supposedly. So different cycles can result in vastly different results.
Don't be too discouraged - I think the per cycle success rate for patients age 39 is somewhere around 20% (check the CDC website). So you would have had to have considered yourself very lucky if it HAD worked the first time around. Even for patients under 35 I think the per cycle success rate is at most 40%. So most people don't have success the first time around. See what your MD had to say and if s/he recommends it, definitely try again!!

Pam120603 · Post by **Pam120603** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:22 am

I just wanted to ask Ghost to elaborate - because it seems like from reading on various chatboards that the majority of the women who get the coveted BFP did not get it with the first try. I guess that's not the case..

I'm so disappointed and discouraged now after getting my BFN today. I mean how much lower can my chances be if now that I've failed once I've brought down the statistics yet again...

Ghost · Post by **Ghost** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:50 am

Pam120603 wrote:I just wanted to ask Ghost to elaborate - because it seems like from reading on various chatboards that the majority of the women who get the coveted BFP did not get it with the first try. I guess that's not the case.

It may well be the case. I think the chance decreases a little. I don't have an estimate for how much. I do know that lots of patients get pregnant on a 2nd or 3rd attempt.

Here's the abstract of the paper that says it declines "dramatically":

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_docsum

That deceline may be correct if the approach is not varied at all. But there are many protocols. If one fails, try another. Don't underestimate the value of frozen embryos, even as the primary transfer...

I'm so disappointed and discouraged now after getting my BFN today. I mean how much lower can my chances be if now that I've failed once I've brought down the statistics yet again...

It probably helps your chances if you are positive, or at least, if you don't stress much while the embryo is implanting. So clinics try to be positive. It's a little white lie. The fact is most IVF cycles fail.

jordan22 · Post by **jordan22** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:22 pm

I would ask to be checked for Natural Killer cells.. it will be a blood test that has to be out of pocket and costs about 450.00 and sent to a lab in Chicago (I think there is one or two other places) but it is well worth it.. even just for peace of mind.. my first IVF faild and everything was text book.. my RE was shocked that it did not work.. so we tested and sure enough... I was POS... so we will treat that issue this time and have a much better chance... Natural killer cells are in everyone and fight cancer cells.. but if you have an increaded number of them (anything above 10) then they can attack the embryos.. sad thought huh.. but anyway.. that is something to think about...

Good luck...

First IVF No a Sucess - Why?

First IVF No a Sucess - Why?

I am sorry to hear

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