3rd IVF horrible embryo quality

[alli ny]

Hi Sarasen,

I did cycle with Cornell again and third time was the charm! I have twins....a boy and girl and they turn 2 in May!

I am afraid to go back and count but I think I cycled 8 times....3 at Cornell. I had a good third cycle, actually my best ever, and while my doctor thinks this was solely due to finding a protocol that worked for me, I am convinced that part of it was also due to changing meds. I feel like my body had built up a resistance to gonal f. My second cycle was follistim but other than that alll gonal. The last cycle I used bravelle (?something like that) and ended up with 9 embryos that fertilized. I put 5 back and ended up with twins. Hows that egg quality for you? Basically out of 9, 2 were good (the others didnt make it to freeze). It just goes to show you that some people have to go through a lot of eggs to find a good one. (in my case 8 cycles worth).

It was most likely my last cycle as we invested so much money. Miracles can happen. Dont given up even when you have mentally given up.

[sarasen]

oh, that is just wonderful, alli ny - to hear about your success and healthy kids.

I cycled twice in nj - at st. barnabas, and both failed. first time, i was on 150 gonal f & 75 menapur, (long lupron) and retrived 23 eggs, 12 fertilized, 6-7 made it to blast, and we transferred 1 blast. it didn't stick, and I had none to freeze.
Tried again 1 month later, on antagonist protocol, on 75 follistim and 75 menapur, retrived 12 eggs, 6 fert, transferred 2 8-cells and again didn't stick and none to freeze.
I would imagine that since i had none to freeze, that means my egg quality is bad - but i'm new to this, and honestly so confused as to what's wrong with me - is it bad eggs, my age (just turned 37 a week ago) or something else.

thinking of trying cornell or RMANJ - leaning towards Cornell - but so worried about the travel from NJ to the clinic and then getting to my job by 9am. I don't know if it can be done? Do you recall how long the morning monitoring took - ie, the wait time?

any advice? who did you cycle with prior to cornell?

[alli ny]

I was like you in that I always had about 12 eggs, but usually only a few made it to the 3 day transfer. I never did a 5 day transfer (actually my first cycle I did and thats when I had an miscarraige at about 7 weeks).

This board is a wealth of information. You can learn alot here and also find so many people in your shoes. I started trying to get pregnant at 36. I think I was almost 38 when I did my first cycle. I did a lot of local cycles in Syracuse and the egg quality seemed to get worse and worse. I went to Cornell and did co-culture to help with egg quality, Some people belive it helps, others don't but I was at the point where I would try anything. I loved Cornell. I had and loved Dr Spandorfer but also hear amazing things about Dr. Davis. ..Dr Davis is the name you hear the most there. I know a girl that was at Cornell with Dr. Spandorfer and he basically told her after 2 cycles to try donor eggs, she went ot a different RE that is getting stellar reviews and got pregnant. The clinic was SIRM.

Cornell has pretty early hours. I know some women that worked would get there right when they opened and generally they are pretty quick. If I could do things over, I would have stopped cycling in Syracuse (although they are a great clinic for I think easier cases) and run straight to Cornell. I heard it was like a factory, and they do have things down to a science, but alllll the doctors and nurses that I generally dealt with were wonderful.

I ended up on super high stims and on my last cycle (and this is why I think it had to do with the change in meds) they dropped my dosage WAY down because my estrogen level was increasing quite a bit....and they continued to drop the dosage throughout my cycle.

I seriously tried every vitamin, every supplement, wheat grass, healthy smoothies, everything you can imagine. Feel free to PM me for more information or any quesitons.