Failed Embryo Transfer (IVF in Sydney)

[u/Charming_River6112]

Hi All,

Long story short:

My wife and I were TTC for upto 1 year with no luck. I went and got tested and it was found that i had cryptozoospermia (sperm count 250k) and low testosterone. Our endocrinologist put me on HCG injections and in one month my test levels increased to within normal range. There came a point in Sydney that HCG was impossible to procure due to a shortage from the supplier in Germany.

At this time, we opted to see an IVF clinic. I was prescribed anastrazole and Clomid. After taking these for about 6-8 weeks, my sperm count came back at 3 million. I will post up more specific results later, however, our fertility specialist gave us the option of choosing IVF which we ended up going ahead with.

We successfully had 8 embryos frozen after fertilisation. Now, we have just waited the 2 week period after the embryo trasnfer only to be told that it was not successfull. It feels like a kick in the guts with no proper explanation unless we book in to see the specialist for a consultation.

We feel like we are back to square 1 - not sure what to do now. I have made some drastic lifestyle changes in the last 6 months which include weight training and eating cleaner, however these are sometimes difficult to maintain due to my work schedule (whiich i am looking into). I was smoking hookah 3-4 times a week but now thats been limited to once a week if that. Our naturopath has also prescribed a bunch of vitamins to be taking daily, but i feel like these are not really helping much anymore. I can list these here later....

I would love some advice/next steps/anything from those who have been in a similar situation in the past and what you've done to successfully conceive. For reference im 32 yo, 112kg and 175cm in height.

[u/CallMeParagon]

So you have 7 embryos left, correct? We had 6 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, and our 7th was the one that stuck. It’s so so so hard, our poor wives going through all the injections and the emotional rollercoaster.

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[u/National-Ground4958]

This isn’t surprising if you look at the odds. You don’t mention the day/grade for your embryos or if they’re PGTA tested.

Even for a PGTA tested, chromosomally normal, well graded embryos, the odds each transfer are around 50/50. It looks like you’re in a country without PGTA but euploidy is mostly predicted from age. So you can take your wife’s age and get the % euploid.

There’s a ~95% chance of a pregnancy after 3 euploid transfers.

You may have lower odds than that if your sperm issues include DNA fragmentation.

Basically, your clinic should have set expectations better at the likelihood for each transfer. You’re not going to get a “proper” explanation bc there’s no true way to test an embryo that doesn’t implant and it’s also not surprising that the first didn’t work. If you continue and they continue not to work, that’s when you might do additional testing for causes of implantation failure like endo/adeno/etc. and add things to your protocol.