# When to draw the line



## Writers_of_note (Oct 3, 2016)

Hello, I'm new to the site. My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 3+ years now with no pregnancies and one failed round of IVF (ICSI) in August 2016. His sperm is excellent but my eggs not so much. I was told I have low ovarian reserve (AMH 6.8 in December 2015) and in our cycle I achieved 4 follicles, 4 mature eggs and two embryos that were transferred on day 2 (a negative test result after 2WW). 

In our recent review with Care Fertility I was told that my eggs were poor quality and the embryos slow to develop. The advice was donor eggs. I feel scared to undertake another round in case of (likely) failure, but giving up on my own eggs after one cycle seems like chucking in the towel. I asked the consultant if we should try again and mentioned NICE guidance that couples have 3 goes, but he said that's not based on such poor egg quality.

I am 34 but feel like time is running out with my ow eggs and I'm not sure what to do for the best. Any advice is welcome.


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## Welshgirl1977 (Sep 30, 2016)

Hi Writers of note,
Sorry to hear this has happened to you. Its rather frustrating that after one look at your eggs they are writing them off and suggesting donor. Clinics seem very very keen to suggest donor when the going gets tough, I've seen it a lot on these boards. I would definitely do some research into how to improve egg quality. I take ubiquinol Q10 (200mg) for egg quality and last cycle I also did acupuncture, but there is bound to be a LOT more things out there that you could try for egg quality. I read on my zero fertilisation board about a lady called Tahica who had repeated low fertilisation due to egg issues and went to ARGC and had much improved egg quality and got a BFP! I think ARGC is expensive though and not sure where you are located but I have found that a lot of the ladies who had issues have kept trying, often switching clinics if they weren't getting enough help.
Don't give up yet based on one clinics recommendation. I have found SOOO much information on this site and it has given me so many directions to try before we give up. If you want to use your own eggs, there are more avenues to check first. Best of luck!
xx


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## Welshgirl1977 (Sep 30, 2016)

Just spotted some recommendations of this book on another post and thought you might find it useful: 'It starts with the Egg' by Rebecca Fett  
x


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## mo89 (Feb 4, 2016)

Hi. You sound the same as me. I have really low amh too although mine is less than 4. Im only 26 but feel time is running out. I defo wouldn't do doner eggs just now. I used dhea and co enzyme and then my egg quality was top!!! Only got 3 eggs. But they were all top quality embryos. Athough mine has failed we are now going to goto argc as they are the best in the country. We are from edinburgh so us going to be tough but their results speak for themselves. Xx


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## water-lily78 (Oct 21, 2015)

I find that where to draw the line is probably most often a financial question. So my partner and I decided that with my AMH numbers (0.7ng/ml or 5 pmol/l) in 2015 and the look of our embryos we'd do a max of 6 cycles with my own eggs. The doctors said that this was reasonable with our response. I have to say that the first 3 cycles was at one clinic and we used a short protocol every single time getting out between 4-8 eggs and only half of them fertilised in general leaving only 1 decent looking embryo by day 3. We switched clinics afterwards and went private. Now we have a long protocol and different drugs. We got more or less twice as many eggs out of the 2 cycles and I had a chemical BFP and am currently 7 weeks pregnant, so I have to say that from only BFNs this is a positive trend. So protocols and drugs can make difference and I'm in my late 30s now, so I think your odds ought to be better.

I also read "It starts with the egg" and messed around with diet and supplements for the past 2 years, but for me the difference was more protocol and optimising number of eggs per cycle to raise the odds.


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## Writers_of_note (Oct 3, 2016)

Thank you all for these heartening replies. I'll definitely look up the recommendations. I've just started taking dhea and Co Q10 so I'll see how that goes. I had a more positive talk with my husband (who wants to stop treatment now) and he understands that the clinics often advise in certain ways to protect their success rates. Who knows.  For us it is more the emotional cost then the financial that concerns us. My husband doesn't want to risk our marriage which I respect but moving on is hard.


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