# Poor fertilisation during IVF



## Holly (May 4, 2002)

Hi Peter

Thank you so much for offering help. No doubt you will be bombarded with questions, so I promise to be very patient for a reply!!

You will see from my profile below that we have done two cycles of IVF and despite the second one working we very sadly had a missed miscarriage at 8 weeks. 

My question is:-

During both IVF cycles the hospital collected 18 eggs. In both cycles we had good initial fertilisation on day 2 (12 eggs fertilised and divided into 4 on the first cycle, and 14 eggs fertilised and divided into 4 on the second cycle.) My dh's sperm count was normal on both occasions. However by day 3 in both cases only 2 embryos had continued dividing. One had divided 7 times and one 5 times. The others were all 'slow'.

Do you think it is that I only occasionally produce a good quality egg, or that my dh and I are in some way incompatible?

Is there anything we can do to improve the number of embryos that continue to divide?

Thanks very much for your time

Holly


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## peter (Oct 2, 2002)

Dear Holly,

Thanks for all the information and for your support. I am sad to hear of your miscarriage.

Your egg numbers and fertilisation rates are perfectly normal. Did you have a day 2 or day 3 transfer? The concept of 'slow' embryos is a tricky one as everyones seems to define such things differently. It may be worth considering asking your clinic if you could try blastocyst culture and transfer. This will select out the best embryo but of course there is always the risk that none of the embryos will reach blastocsyt stage which would mean no transfer on that cycle.

It is difficult for me to assess egg qaulity without actually seeing them but based on your fertilisation rate the eggs are OK. You and your husband are clearly compatible in all ways! It might be worth asking about chromosomal analysis just to be absolutely sure but it is possible that this has already been done.

Overall your fertilisation rate is OK.

Hope this helps!

Peter



Holly said:


> Hi Peter
> 
> Thank you so much for offering help. No doubt you will be bombarded with questions, so I promise to be very patient for a reply!!
> 
> ...


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## Holly (May 4, 2002)

Hi Peter

Thanks very much for your reply. 

We had day 3 transfers for both cycles. The first time by chance because I had EC at the weekend, and the second time by choice, because we wanted to see if the embryos would be slow again. Most of them were.

Thanks for your suggestion about Blastocycst - we will discuss this at our hospital when we have another try.

The hospital are doing some chromosomal analysis on the embryo that they took away during the D&C. They are also doing lots of tests on me - antiphospholipid, all the hormone tests again and a base line scan to check whether my ovaries are at all polycistic.

It is a relief to know that my egg quality is not a major concern though.

Thanks very much

Hollyx


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## peter (Oct 2, 2002)

Dear Holly,

It sounds as though you are in very good hands. Best of luck with future attempts!

Peter



Holly said:


> Hi Peter
> 
> Thanks very much for your reply.
> 
> ...


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