# Failure to go to blastocytes - anyone else?



## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to myself and whether there is any positive messages or people who have had negative 1st IVF and positive cycles the next time.

I am 33 and my husband is 32 years old. Iniaitally husband had a high abnormal morphology but with time and high dose Vit E his perm sample improved.
We had IVF this month and it has been a total rollercoaster. I had the short protocol and all was fine at first, had 14 growing follicles. After day 5 they became concerned about my oestrogen level, so reduced gonal F for 2 days, then coasted and ec was brought forward by 1-2 days.
On EC day they got 10 eggs, which i was pleased about. 2 hours later got a call from the embryologist who said that only 1 of the 10 eggs was mature, therfore they would not do ICSI, thankfully other halves sample was good enough for IVF. I however left feeling like it had failed ad cried all day and night. Amazingly the next day got a phone call saying that 8 eggs matured over night and a total of 5 had fertilised...i was over the moon with happiness. Day 2 one arrested, the other 4 doing well. Day 3 1 at 6 cells but good quality, 2  x7 cells and pretty good quality and 1 at 8 cells and good quality. Told we would go to blastocyst and that ET would happen Sunday (today). Got a phone call at 9am which i new meant bad news. they have told me that they are really surprised and that it was unexpected but they have not developed into blastocysts, therfore no transfer. they are phoning me tomorrow to confirm the situtaion but they suspect that it will be bad news.
Have any of you been through this?
Thanks.


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## ♥JJ1♥ (Feb 11, 2006)

How disappointing for you, ive had all mine ( not blasts) die before transfer twice- I think that this is always the risk of going to blasts, did they explain to you that this was a risk.  Would they not do your transfer earlier? Like today. Wishing you luck


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## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks for you reply. 
I think they decided that as i had 4 doing well they should go to blastocyst.......i think they were also surprised that none went to blastocyst....but like you said, that was always a chance.
Good luck for you.


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## *katie* (Nov 9, 2004)

Hi Benne,

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear your treatment has been such a rollercoaster, it's stressful enough without the additional up's and down's.   

I must admit after I read your post, I did wonder the same as JJ1...is there no chance of transfer now, even though they haven't made it  to blast stage?

The other thing I will say, on the basis that it may give you a little hope to get you through til the next phone call, is that we went to blastocyst.  Embies typically make it to blast on day 5, and despite no predicted problems with our embies, we got our phone call on the morning of day 5 from the clinic to say that much to their surprise none of our embies had made it to blasts.  I think the phrase was "there's a couple of embies which look like they're just about doing something", and we were prepared that it was likely to be all over for us.

However our clinic rang us the next mormning (day 6) & told us to come down for transfer as after all that we did now have blasts after all.  I had 2 transferred....and those 2 blastocysts are currently running round my living room! 

So... please don't give up all hope just yet.  Of course the reality is my clinic would never have prepared us for losing all our embies if their experience hadn't taught them that that is what more commonly occurs in this situation, BUT there is still reason to have some hope.  I really really hope that your phonecall tomorrow will bring you good news.

Good luck, do let us know how you get on.    

Katie x


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## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

Katie thank you for your reply. I have to say, at the time of the call i took v little in. I am pretty sure i did not hear any positive possibilities so i certainly wont get excited.....but hearing that certainly will give me hope in the future (if similar thing happens again) and hopefully hope to others who may be i a similar situation. Thank you. Good luck in your pregnancy.


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## *katie* (Nov 9, 2004)

Hi Benne,

Just wanted to pop in and say I've been thinking of you this morning.   

Katie x


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## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks Katie.
I got the news today that 2 had some movement but still remained at morula stage (on day 6!) and did not look good. They decided to transfer them anyway, although they were not positive. They said they looked at their records for me and only 3 other women had transfers similar to me and they all had a negative outcome..they also said that they could not find any relevant case studies that may give us hope....i guess at least i completed the cycle.....i will continue with the cyclogest until testing day...then i will look into what can be done differently and hope that next cycle will be different.
Your kind words yesterday did make a difference, so thank you...........plus i dont feel as bad as i did yesterday, so i am sure i will feel much better soon. x


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## Lexan (Feb 26, 2009)

Sorry to hear Benne   , there is still hope and miracles do happens.  Fingers crossed for you!


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## leinlondon (Apr 5, 2010)

Benne,

I see from the Lister thread that you are there as well (I follow but haven't posted yet), or at least you were for your last cycle... I have just replied to another post on here on this very topic but what happened to you sounds very similar to what has just happened to us. We just did our first cycle, I have an AMH of 30 which they think is high but have no signs of PCOS. We didn't get as many eggs as you all did, though I had about 25 follicles on low dose Gonal F we only had 12 eggs, of which 7 were mature and 5 fertilised (IVF converted to ICSI on the day due to a random, hopefully one-off, poor sperm sample). All 5 made it to grade 1 8-cells on day 3 so they suggested going to blast but none made it. I was supposed to be going in for day 5 transfer yesterday, it was put back to today to see if they would catch up but they all perished overnight







we are obviously cut up not to even get to transfer.

Has the clinic suggested changes for this next cycle you are starting? Wishing you tons of luck x


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## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

Leinlondon: I am so sorry to hear your news!!!! It is so horrible isn't it!! It was my first time too and when you go to the appointments you are filled with positivity and do not really hear the negative IFs and BUTs. I was so shocked when i heard (in the end we had a v poor 6 day transfer.......surprisingly ended up with a HPT but had a v early miscarriage). We got the news about the tranfser as we were leaving home to go to the Lister, i was sooo devestated. Sadly, i do not think we are the only ones, i have read quite a few people who this has happened too. 
When i went for my F/U appointment i got the impression that this was unexpected but hopefully down to bad luck. My DH has had a DNA fragmentation test done this am......if there is a high abdnormality rate we will have ICSI next time, which may help. Otherwise this time they are going to change my dosage (only a little) in the hope that my estrogen does not go wild. Otherwise they said i responded well to treatment. Meanwhile i have continued to not drink too much alcohol and lecture my DH for drinking too much alcohol. He is taking Vit E, Vit C and omega as well as antioxidants in form of green tea and the occasional wheat grass. I am taking preconception vit, omega 3, antioxidant and just brough APTIMIST (which is so sweet and horrible)....we are now waiting to start at the end of the month/April...............am just hoping for the best, as not sure i could go through this again!!
If i was you, go out with your DH, have a fun carefree night and then get back into gear for another cycle!!
I would get an appointment (it is free) and then hopefully you will feel more relaxed!!! Lots and lots of luck for next time!!


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## leinlondon (Apr 5, 2010)

As we were right outside the hospital ready for transfer when they called with the news I asked to see a consultant to discuss what went wrong and what we could change. Apparently although I don't have PCOS I have "polycystic tendancies" while stimming and they have suggested next cycle we do short protocol with Menopur instead of Gonal F, plus Cetrotide... they've started me on Metformin as well which is odd as I thought that was only for people with PCOS









It did help me seeing someone straightaway I think... still gutted but at least I can think about what they have told me now rather than furiously googling to try and work out what went wrong. Think we will need a couple of months break at least to recover (and to save up as much as we can!)

I wonder why they don't prepare people more for this happening, if it does happen as much as it sounds you would think they would tell you to be prepared for it being possible. I also got the impression it was unexpected for them from the way our embryos looked on day 3. We are dosed up on vitamins in this house too! DH is on the Wellman, I am on Pregnacare and have been for years now, as well as Zita West supplements... I might think about getting some additional Vit E for DH. I doubt I could encourage him onto the wheat grass!


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## benne (Nov 15, 2010)

I think it sounds very positive that they are changing your meds....FC next time it will work a treat!! Enjoy your few months with no treatment.
i have tasted the wheatgrass and it is seriously yucky!!!!


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