# Donor egg treatment experience



## Costache (Aug 6, 2018)

Hi all,

I would like to share my experience about donor egg treatment. I hope to get valid feedback from you and share experience.

Summary: this cycle has failed. We hope for better outcome from next.

Husband (me) & wife age: 44. No known problems (beside age). Normospermia (160mil / ml), rather regular cycles (28-30 days), 8-9 mm endometrium. Previous pregnancies: 2 (natural, live births). Abortions / chemical pregnancies: none. Donor age: 28. Day of OPU (oocyte pick-up): 11 oocytes, 6 embryos made to day 5 (expanded blastocysts).  4 x grade 1 and 2 x grade 2.

The fresh cycle was standard: down regulation then oral estrogen pills (2mg x 3 / day).
8 days before OPU, the endometrial lining was less than 5mm. The doctors instructed to increase dose to 4 pills, 2 orally and 2 vaginally.
6 days before OPU, my wife started bleeding vaginally (she never had this kind of problem before, excl. menstruation, of course). Our OB-GYN, after an ultrasound exam, said the endometrium was "not OK". The clinic asked us to keep taking the meds.
2 days before OPU, the bleeding stopped.
The day we arrived to clinic, the endometrium was less than 7mm. Progesterone was started the day of OPU.
Day 5 after OPU, 1 embryo was transfered - chemical pregnancy 4w5d.

Second transfer (FET): estrogen pills 2mg x 3 / day, starting day after menstruation. On day of transfer, endometrium was less than 7mm.
Transferred embryo: grade 1. Note: after thawing, the embryo went from grade 1 to 1 minus.
Chemical pregnancy 4w1d.

Third transfer (FET): natural cycle, with progesterone supplementation after ovulation. Endometrium 8-9mm. 1 embryo transferred (grade 2). Anembryonic pregnancy. My wife stopped progesterone administration during week 7. We waited for the ovum to eliminate itself, but ended up using drugs to abort during week 9.

4th transfer (FET): same protocol / endometrium as before. 1 embryo transferred (grade 2). No results.
5th transfer (FET): same protocol / endometrium as before. 1 embryo transferred (grade 1). Anembryonic pregnancy. Aborted with drugs during week 7.

6th transfer (FET): same protocol / endometrium as before. 1 embryo transferred (grade 1, went 1 minus after thaw). No results.


Out conclusion: natural cycle is better for us (however, we got tremendous help from our OBGYN, to pinpoint ovulation, can't ever thank her enough). The blame for failures goes either to husband (sperm) or donor.

Questions:
1. how can we deal with the difference of lining thickness on natural cycle vs meds ? I mean, if we start a new cycle, the fresh cycle will be medicated. How many estrogen pills can my wife take daily?
2. Is it common for embryo quality to go down after thawing?

Thanks,


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## Stacey10 (Jun 7, 2013)

Sorry to read of your results, but I’d actually be looking at doing more testing on your wife before doing any other cycles, the fact that she has also had chemical pregnancy naturally plus the others during a cycle would suggest to me possible immune or clotting issues, or mthfr mutations. Your wife is getting pregnant ok, so something is happening between initial implantation and early stages. I would do this gp first to rule everything out with your wife. So immune testing , nk cells, ana, factor Leiden, mthfr mutation, etc for starters .


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## Costache (Aug 6, 2018)

For the sake of clarity, I modified the original post - my wife had 2 previous natural births (with me). And as I already said - no abortions / chemical pregnancies before the donor egg procedures.

To resume - during the donor egg cycle, there were 2 chemical pregnancies, both with medicated stimulation and 2 anembryonic pregnacies (natural cycle). Chemical pregnancies  mean aneuployd embryos or endometrial problems. Anembryonic pregnacy means aneuploidy. This leaves my wife out of the problem and leads to male or donor factor.


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## miamiamo (Aug 9, 2015)

> This leaves my wife out of the problem and leads to male or donor factor.


in case genetics of your wife is clear, then poor sperm quality or a donor might be the issue


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