My Follow-up Consultation for the failed round two of IVF was just before Christmas.
I was told to wait until I had started to bleed and a confirmed negative to book my consultation but I didn’t, I booked it straight off the bat – because I just KNEW.
I had to book my consultation via the private hospital again, and I’ll be honest I expected to be waiting until beginning to mid January – so I was shocked that I could get it before Christmas!
This was another Zoom call, later in the afternoon – but it is definitely better to do this so the consultants reduce their face-to-face time
Again, he was sad to know that it had not worked as we had put back a “lovely” embryo. This embryo was a 2bb which on the grading from 1cc to 5aa – 2bb is on the lower end.
I spoke about that the Embryologist had commented that my eggs “looked dark”, that they needed to use extra flush to get my eggs out and the consultant commented that they were “sticky” and didn’t want to come out – and having extra follicles but no extra eggs.
He said that this is indicative of poor-er egg quality – despite being on supplements for egg quality I had a worse second round. He thinks that unfortunately it is a sign of my age, the 15 years of treatment for endometriosis and the fact that I’m still quite a bit overweight. (I have lowered my BMI from 45.5 and was at 34.4 or my last treatment, so he knows I’m better than I was. Also NHS was BMI 29.9 or under and Private is 34.9)
I was asking about how likely it was to work – and he asked how many rounds I was looking at. I said financially I could do another two rounds. He said that if I wasn’t pregnant by the end of the two rounds if I proceeded with my own eggs – chances are I wouldn’t be after anymore.
Going forward with round 3 and 4 it would be the same protocol again – nothing to change. He’s worried about putting me on long protocol that they’ll struggle to get my ovaries to switch back on.
I asked about donor eggs, and he said he personally wouldn’t recommend it yet – but the waiting list at the current clinic is 18 Months – so it would be better if I stayed to go another round with my own eggs first.
It has given me a lot to think about – and choices and thoughts to go through.
Solo Mum Overload 
My goodness, I didn’t realise they were so stringent about BMI! If you don’t mind me asking, what age did they say egg quality goes down so much ? You don’t have to say your age but that is shocking I had no idea it could be so soon in a woman’s life 😕 xx
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Oh he’s! For private it needs to be 34.9 or under to start your cycle! For NHS it needs to be 29.9 or under! Sometimes clinics will set their own “limits” but some clinics will treat patients BMI of 40+
They don’t say much about age and egg quality but I believe it’s meant to be like 35 (I’m 36) but I’ve had GnHR drugs to treat my endometriosis (puts into fake menopause), three surgeries and then was on long term depo contraceptive every 10 weeks (rather than 12) for treatment for my endo for almost 6 yesrs. They think this hasn’t helped egg quality at all. I added in omega-3 and CoQ10 between rounds one and two and it should have helped but I had a worse round! 🤣 I’ve dropped the CoQ10
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Oh wow okay so there’s a lot of factors I suppose, but I still can’t believe the age with women though, it’s just never taught in schools which is ridiculous to me. We should all be informed it’s so important, and about all the other fertility issues you can and might be effected by. As a bigger girl myself I wouldn’t qualify for NHS and I didn’t think I was THAT big! BMI definitely needs an update if you ask me, there’s more than weight and height to consider in health. Thank you so much for sharing your story I love your updates, I’m so rooting for you! ☺️ x
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Thank you ❤️ it is such a weird one I get why they do it there has to be some cut off as everyone wants it to work and the healthier you are the better it will work….in theory. X
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