23 eggs retrieved, 15 fert. by ICSI ...and nothing to freeze

[Michellyn8]

Hi,
I just got done with my first IVF cycle. They retrieved 23 eggs, 15 fertilized w/ ICSI. They were going to do tranfer on day 3 and switched it last minute to day 5 becuase they said that the 14 left looked good. When we show up for the transfer they have 1 good one and an okay one that they will use for the transfer. They tell me that they won't be able to freeze any of the other eggs. Is this normal? I am really hopeful for the embryos inside me but very disappointed that I lost the others. Has anyone else had a similiar experience? Should I question using my clinic again?
Thank you,
Michelle

[sassynlv]

michellyn8:
First of all, congrats on your recent transfer! Oh, unfortunately, i do have a similar story. On our #3 fresh ivf, we got 16 follicles retrieved (twice as many as we had before) and 12 fertilized (ICSI). out of those 12, we only had one grow to blast, and it did so haltingly. VERY disappointing. As for us, though, having done PGD before, know that the vast majority (if not all?) of our embryos are chromosomally abnl. Not knowing anything about your clinic or their stats (although stats only tell part of the story), don't know that i can give you advice on whether or not to change. Many women do change REs and sometimes get better results. So if you are unhappy with your clinic, you could do phone consults with other clinics to see what they have to offer. Also, if these embryos don't "take", then your RE should be sitting down w/you and discussing what he/she thinks happened and what he would recommend for the next go.

I am hoping this won't be an issue for you, as i am hoping you get your bfp this time. good luck!

[hopeful-in-LV]

Hi Michelle, good luck with the 2ww. I hope you will be successful. Sorry you did not have any embies to freeze. It can happen. My clinic (which happens to be the same as sassy's) will not freeze any embies that are not good enough for a fresh transfer. My cycle is a little differnet than yours because my embies were frozen in Dec the same day of retrieval. we had 16 embies, they were thawed on 1/21 and 14 survived. only 5 grew to blastocyst stage and we had 2 transfered on 1/26. My RE told me we may have a couple to freeze, but there's a chance not. I still have not heard from the clinic so I don't know if the others stopped growing or what. unfortunately it's pretty normal for more than half the embies to just stop growing at some point. many REs believe that if an embie can't make it to 5 days, then it probably was of poor quality anyway and would not have gone on to a viable pregnancy. just stay positive and envision the embies in you growing big and strong. chances are these 2 are all you need.

[bonita23]

I am in a similar boat as you. PCOS with severe male factor. Luckily I am pregnant now after transferring 2 day3 embryos. They retrieved 19, Did ICSI on 17, 9 fertilized with ICSI. There were 2 more besides the one w transferred that they hoped would make it to blast so we could freeze. They should have let us know last week if that happened, but we haven't heard if we have any frozen yet. I don't think we do. I am more than grateful I am pegnant now, most likely with one due to my beta. We were hoping to have some frozen ones for another cycle, condsidering my husband has to go through surgery if we have ot do another fresh cycle. I guess thet don't always have ones to freeze. Good luck to you!

[angieleto]

I had almost the same numbers on my first IVF attempt. Everything looked great until day 5 and then I only had two blasts left for the transfer and nothing to freeze. For my 2nd IVF attempt, I had similar numbers but they did a day 3 transfer with assisted hatching. I guess that made all the difference. Sometimes embryos are better off in their natural enviroment rather than the lab.

Good luck - don't give up hope!

Angie

[Michellyn8]

Thank you for the advice. I got a BFN which was not much of a surprise since I got my AF two days before test. I am meeting with RE in two weeks to see if she has any suggestions for a 2nd cycle. I am contemplating switching clinics. I will decide after meeting with her. They don't seem to have any reason for anything...which I know happens but I am having a hard time putting faith into this working.

[Mazy++]

Hi Michellyn8,
I found a very good website to ask questions, it is:

http://www.ivf.ca/Invision/

If you go to the section that says "Ask the Embryologist", you can put in a question and he usually answers it directly the next day. It's SO helpful!!! At my clinic (I'm in LA), they explained everything to me in detail - and I asked a lot of questions - so that helped. You deserve the answers you need!!!
I hope this helps a little bit.
My best wishes to you,
Mazy