# Any success stories after 4+ unsuccessful DE IVF attempts?



## Cfish

We've just received another BFN and are feeling at a bit of a low ebb.  We're preparing to go again, hopefully in Oct/Nov, and this time for a fresh cycle with a new donor, and are trying to stay hopeful for that.  If that cycle doesn't work, then the doctor has suggested some fairly invasive tests to check for a potential implantation issue.  Does anyone out there have a good success story in a similar situation to encourage me?!  It seems like everyone else seems to have got a good result by this stage, and we'd love to hear from someone who had a few negatives first in this kind of situation and then got a positive in the end.

Jan 2012: SET DE IVF (fresh cycle) - BFP, then m/c at 8 weeks due to a chromosomal issue with the embryo
May 2012: SET FET - BFN
July 2012: Double FET - BFN
Aug 2012: Double FET - BFN

Oct/Nov..... New donor, fresh cycle, fingers crossed.


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## theodora

What invasive tests have been suggested? I'd do them first, could be very simple solutions to fix implantation or failure problems.


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## Cfish

A uterine biopsy of some sort.  The doctor suggested it was worth giving it another go with a new cycle first, and then said that most people decide to pull out of the programme rather than do the tests.  Do you have any ideas of what kind of tests would be worth me suggesting to him?  Thanks xx


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## theodora

I did an endometrial biopsy, & it did hurt (had no anesthesia or even ibuprofen ahead of time), but it was no big deal. It is usually done in the luteal phase, you check to ensure the endometrium/lining looks good, the biopsy sample is tested for hormone & inflammatory levels in the lining. At the same time they usually do a doppler ultrasound to check the blood flow in the uterus, & also they check the volume of the uterus. All of these are important to know.

You could do this in your next cycle & still go ahead with donor afterwards, it won't mess you up!

Have you also had a hysteroscopy to check the uterus shape & anything that might be there (fibroids, cysts, what ever)? This is also something that can easily be done, my doc does it with no anesthesia & it feels like a Pap smear. Because a high-powered scope is used, it's good for checking for problems. Again, this could be done without messing up plans to do donor eggs soon...

(A non-invasive check to do as well would be sperm DNA fragmentation & chromatin condensation tests. If you are already doing donor eggs, might as well be sure the sperm is not messing up the eggs...)


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## Cfish

Wow - thank you.  That's really helpful.

I had an 'aquascan' which I think is about the same as a hysteroscopy before we started the treatment and it all seemed fine, but after the miscarriage I had to have an ERPC and we've had no success since then, so I'm having another auqacsan in the next few weeks to see if that caused any problems.

DH is also having the 'morphology' of his sperm done, so I'll check whether that looks at DNA fragmentation etc like you've said below.  We'd been assuming it was the eggs that weren't working, but of course it could be either aspect.

I was told that if we did the biopsy it would have to be done as part of a mock cycle rather than a real cycle, so it would delay treatment, but interesting to hear that wasn't the case for you so I'll follow up on that one too.  Maybe they could still do these tests and then we can still proceed. I think they've suggested holding off for the moment because, as the first cycle did implant and get to 6-8 weeks or so (and that process was healthy, even though eventually the embryo wasn't) they've been thinking that implantation issues were less likely... but now we've had so many failures, it's more difficult to rule it out.


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## Lollipoppet

In terms of success stories. We got pregnant on our 6th cycle of treatment. 5 were DE (3 also with DS). Was starting to think I was one of the unlucky ones it wouldn't work for. 

Good luck.

X


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## Hopefulat35

Hi cfish sorry yu are having such a hard journey. An aqua scan is not as thorough as a hysteroscopy which can show much more. Does your clinic do them? Many on here have gone to serum in Athens for a hysteroscopy and hidden c testing. I can't remember the hidden c cost maybe 100 and something euros. We didn't need a hysteroscopy but thats 1000 euros. The consultation with penny at serum for an aqua scan and discussion of the hyster result is free. 

Good luck!
Hopeful x


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## Cfish

Thanks for the advice.  I'm having hidden c testing next week, so hopefully that will cross that one off the list.  My doctor is keen to do only an aquascan this time (as they want to rule out issues following my ERPC after my miscarriage in cycle one) but he doesn't think a hysteroscopy is essential at this time as they aren't convinced it's an implantation issue yet.  So, I'll have to see how that goes and then go from there.  We're trying to hope that we just didn't get a good 'batch' of eggs/embryos last time and that with a new donor we'll have more joy, but it's all a bit of an unknown...!


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## mierran

Hi just to say the usual sperm tests dont check dna fragmentation so you probably haven't had that done. You can get tests on menstrual blood for not just chlamydia but also ureaplasma and other infectious causes of implantation failures/ miscarriages. 
However i see most of yor cycles were fet and it was all with same donor. For stats they usually count fets as part of the same cycle as the fresh. 92% of women will have success after 3 de cycles but this is 3 fresh cycles and all associated fet.
So def dont give up. By that measure you're only about to start your second cycle tho it feels like more so your chances still v good.
Good luck. X x


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## Cfish

That's interesting; I didn't know they counted them as the same overall 'cycle' and had started to get very worried that we were in the 8% that didn't get pregnant in 3 cycles.  SO... thank you for the clarification - it seems much better looking at it that way!  We have a new cycle (fresh, new donor) now planned for October so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it works this time.  The strict Kruger testing on the sperm seems to be fine, and my aquascan was good, and I don't have hidden C, so maybe just bad luck so far.  Thanks for all your kind messages! xx


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## TB2306

Hi,
I am now pregnant on 5th go (although I did get pregnant on 3 of the 4 previous goes - 2 m/c, 1 chemical).
Before you go again I would suggest an hysteroscopy via Serum in Athens, FULL sperm testing and also maybe to downreg for 3 months?
Good luck xx


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## theodora

As TB2306 said, you should do further sperm testing, which includes sperm DNA fragmentation & chromatin condensation. We did several IVF cycles then did that testing, & it turned out chances are that with the bad results we had on those tests, we'd never stay pregnant. It's a slight expense but at least you'd know you are not wasting time like we did. And I'd still recommend a hysteroscopy, just takes a minute or two... Good luck in October, hope this new donor is the ticket!!!


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