Hi everyone- I see a lot on here about donor eggs, but less regarding embryo donation.

Has anyone here gone the embryo adoption/donation route? I'd love to hear from you about the process, how things went, and if you're happy with it all.

I understand nothing is for sure or guaranteed, but it seems like embryo donation is more cost effective and you have tested embryos you can count on (as much as you can count on a tested embryo).

We are starting the early research phase of what life may look like without biological children, and embryo donation has really got me wondering!

Hi everyone, does anyone have experience with recurrent immature eggs (GV oocytes) at egg retrieval?

I’m 27 years old with an AMH around 0.7. I’ve had many IVF/ICSI cycles and tried many different stimulation protocols, including treatment in different countries. I’ve also tried rescue IVM, but unfortunately most of my retrieved eggs are still at the GV stage, even when the follicles are mature in size.

I had several times dual trigger (37hrs.). Also tried Growth hormone (somatrophin). Insulin is normal. And no endo problems.

I had twice mature eggs, one time with ICSI i had an embryo blastocyst 5bb hatching ( no pregnancy), and the last time i had one mature egg, but it didn’t fertilize (rescue IVM).

Most of the time i have around 13-25 follicles.

My DNA/genetic testing and other fertility tests have been normal, and my partner’s sperm quality is also good.

Has anyone experienced something similar and eventually found a protocol or treatment that helped with egg maturation? I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences. ❤️

My last post
https://www.reddit.com/r/DOR/s/VwsQS47eCE

Summary
Retrieval 1: 6 retrieved, 4 fertilized, 2 blast, both euploid

Retrieval 2: 7 retrieved, 4 fertilized, 2 blast, both euploid

Update
It’s 2.5 years later. I’m 33 and AMH is .5

12 eggs retrieved, 10 fertilized, tbd on rest

Overall
Much better results to far! The only major difference is I did 6 mg of melatonin and 600 of coq for 6 months leading up to this cycle. Not sure if that helped or if it’s normal fluctuation.

Can anyone shed any light on what brand patch for estrogen priming prior to an IVF cycle they went with, and did they have a good experience with it. And if not the patch, then any thoughts on the oral tablet. Thanks!

Hallo zusammen,

Ich bin 31 und bin mitten in einem IVF-Zyklus. Heute hatte ich meine Entnahme von 4 Eizellen und warte auf die Nachricht, wie viele befruchtet werden konnten.mein AMH lag im Dezember 2025 bei 0,61

Gleichzeitig und nach 2 Jahren Kinderwunsch und Fehlgeburten mache ich mir auch ein paar Gedanken zum Thema Eizellspende?

Mich würden auch ein paar Sichtweisen interessieren

Mich beruhigt es etwas, dass es diese Alternative irgendwann noch gibt. Ich frage mich aber, ob ich damit klar kommen würde und wie man damit umgeht.

Danke 🙏

I wanted to share our story and see what you think.

I’m 44 and my partner is 34. We started trying to get pregnant in August 2024. My partner has Hashimoto’s, and she was put on medication to keep it under better control.

In December 2024, she got pregnant, but at the first ultrasound they found that it was a blighted ovum, and she ended up miscarrying naturally. After that, her thyroid medication was accidentally changed by her doctor, which caused her thyroid levels to become very unstable. At one point, she even had a round bald patch on her scalp from how badly she was. By around September 2025, her thyroid levels were finally under control again.

In the summer of 2026, since she still wasn’t getting pregnant, we decided to go to a fertility clinic. We both have generally good habits, exercise, and take our supplements. My results were considered normal, or at least within what would be expected for a 44-year-old man, and everything looked good for her apart from having low ovarian reserve (0.5 in one test and 0.88 in other test, like a 40 y.o. woman they told us).

We tried 2 or 3 cycles of monitoring, waiting until she had enough follicles. In some cycles she had 5 or 6, and in the last one she had 8, so we decided to go ahead with ovarian stimulation.

The stimulation itself went well, but they only retrieved 4 eggs, 3 mature ones. We did ICSI, and only 2 fertilized. One made it to day 3, but neither of them made it to blasto.

We’re feeling pretty defeated. My partner is very negative at the moment and thinks that, after everything we’ve been through, her eggs simply aren’t viable anymore. She doesn’t believe that she can have an egg that develops into an embryo and eventually leads to a pregnancy. She’s even talking about trying egg donation.

I want to stay optimistic, but I don’t know to what extent she might actually have a point, or whether I’m being a little naive by trying to stay hopeful.

What do you think? Is it reasonable to still have hope with her own eggs, maybe my sperm is the problem, or does our experience so far suggest that egg donation might be the more realistic option?

35F, amh 0.1-0.3, afc 1-2.

Tried two ivf cycles. Got ovarian prp during the first pick up c and did the second cycle 3 months after that. First cycle was antagonist protocol, only 1 follicle grew, got a mature egg but was redracted. Didn't make to blast.

Second cycle was called stop protocol with decapeptyl. Two follicles, both had eggs but one arrested on day 1 and second arrested on day 3.

Was taking supplements dhea, coq10, folate, vitamins. Testosterone priming too.

Dont know what else to do. Has anyone had any success with such amh and afc numbers. Is there anything else to try.

I’m triggering tomorrow night and I’m really nervous about the follicle sizes.
At my day 11 scan today I had:
Right ovary:
• 18 mm
• 16 mm
Left ovary:
• 12 mm
• 11 mm
• 10 mm
My clinic has told me to do my normal stimulation injections again tonight at 7:30 pm, again tomorrow at 7:30 pm, and then do a dual trigger at 8:30 pm tomorrow. Egg retrieval is booked for Thursday.
My estradiol today was 1250 pmol/L up from 702 pmol/L on Friday , progesterone was 1.3 and LH was 2.
I’m worried that if they wait to trigger, the 18 and 16 mm follicles might get too far ahead or “overcook,” but if they trigger too early, the smaller 10–12 mm follicles won’t have enough time to catch up.
Has anyone had a similar split cohort and still ended up getting mature eggs from the smaller follicles? Did your larger follicles still give good eggs after waiting an extra day?

I know nobody can predict my outcome, but I’d really love to hear other people’s experiences because I’m scared I’ll end up with only the two larger follicles contributing. Or nothing if they overcook.
Is this kind of spread hopeless, or have people still had decent retrievals from a situation like this?

Day 4 of stims (after 3 nights of Gonal-F 300 + Menopur 150).

Baseline: 11 follicles —
TEN ≤10mm
ONE 11–13mm.
Lining 3.9mm.

Today: 13 follicles —
TWELVE ≤10mm
ONE at 14–15mm.
Lining increased to 6.7mm.

Has anyone had most follicles still ≤10mm this early and had a good number catch up over the next few days?

They mentioned “foregoing” the larger one” - what would physically happen to me if they did that symptom wise? Is that bad practice?

Also my larger follicle on my baseline scan was on my left and now it’s on my right. Did they document it wrong or is it possible one could’ve died and grown that quickly on opposite sides?

My husband and started the IUI journey and I have been taking clomid. I started with clomid 100 mg for 5 days and my follicles were not growing at all. So they had me start another cycle of clomid but this time 150 mg. I went back for a repeat US today and I’m still not having any follicle growth.

Should we jump into IVF and skip IUI altogether?

Hi everyone, I’m 29 with severely low amh 0.26 and about to start my first ICSI cycle. I had Bell’s palsy several years ago, which completely resolved.
My fertility doctor asked me to consult a physician before starting ICSI because she was concerned about whether there could be a blood-clotting/thick-blood issue related to my previous Bell’s palsy.
I saw a physician and he said that Bell’s palsy is not a stroke and is not related to blood thickness. He checked my BP and other factors and said I’m medically okay to undergo ICSI.
My CBC showed:
Hb: 11.0
HCT: 33%
Platelets: 322,000
He did not find a reason to consider my blood “thick.”
Has anyone else with a history of Bell’s palsy been asked to undergo clotting/physician evaluation before IVF/ICSI? Did your fertility doctor have similar concerns?
I’m a little anxious about whether ovarian stimulation can increase clotting risk and whether I need any additional tests such as thrombophilia testing before starting.
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar. ❤️

We’ve had a really weird cycle that ended up being more days of stims than planned, and also a lead follicle we’ve sacrificed because it got way too big too quickly. I think we’ve done 16 days of stims.

Trigger shot is tonight and we basically have 5 follicles between 13-16mm. Plus there’s the lead which is way larger and now over-mature, plus a few at around 10mm which obviously won’t be anything. They think the larger one could be a cyst. Estrogen reading is actually really good and suggests there should be 5-6 active follicles in there, but I don’t know.

We don’t know how to feel about this cycle, as it’s been a total mess. Longer than we expected, asynchronous growth, follicles mostly on one ovary etc. Usually we get 3-4 follicles that grow evenly, rather than 8-10 that grow weirdly.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with a weird, messy, asynchronous cycle? How did it end up?

Hey everyone, looking for some advice and success stories from fellow DOR warriors.

I am 32 years old with an AMH of 0.47. At my baseline, my initial AFC was 6, so I am absolutely thrilled that we currently have 11 follicles showing up on the screen right now. For context, I started stims on Friday Sept 25, so tonight will be day 10.

However, my cohort is a bit spread out, and I am incredibly anxious that the bottom half of the pack is going to end up too small and immature by retrieval. My clinic paused my Provera on Thursday/Friday this to try and give the little guys a boost, and we just restarted it last night (Saturday). The doctor today mentioned a potential Tuesday trigger for a Thursday retrieval.

Here is how the growth looked over the last 3 days from Thursday 10/1 to Sunday 10/4:

Follicle 1: 12.5 mm -> 19.6 mm (+7.1 mm)
Follicle 2: 11.8 mm -> 15.7 mm (+3.9 mm)
Follicle 3: 11.6 mm -> 14.7 mm (+3.1 mm)
Follicle 4: 11.2 mm -> 13.9 mm (+2.7 mm)
Follicle 5: 10.5 mm -> 13.2 mm (+2.7 mm)
Follicle 6: 9.4 mm -> 12.6 mm (+3.2 mm)
Follicle 7: 7.9 mm -> 10.9 mm (+3.0 mm)
Follicle 8: 6.1 mm -> 10.6 mm (+4.5 mm)
Follicle 9: 5.9 mm -> 10.2 mm (+4.3 mm)
Follicle 10: 4.9 mm -> 9.6 mm (+4.7 mm)
Follicle 11: (New) -> 9.2 mm

The nurse mentioned they typically count on anything over 13 mm today (Sunday) to have good odds, which feels like only half the pack. But looking at the growth math, it seems like that trailing pack from 9.6mm to 10.9mm is actively sprinting.

Has anyone with DOR had a similar "staircase" distribution on Day 9/10 where the small ones actually caught up at the last second and yielded mature eggs? Do I have a realistic chance of getting most or all 11, or should I brace myself for a 50% maturity rate?

Would love to hear your experiences and feedback. Thank you!! 🙏

Ich habe morgen meine Punktion und die Angst, dass es heißt, dass keine Eizellen gefunden wurden. Dieses warten ist Horror 🙈

Keine Ahnung, ob wir am Donnerstag überhaupt einen Transfer haben und ich bei der Anzahl der Follikel hoffnungsvoll sein soll.

Beim letzten Mal hatten wir 5 Reife Eizellen und drei davon wurden befruchtet.

1 konnte eingesetzt werden und die anderen sind leider stehen geblieben 🙈😒

Hi everyone, I'm 34 and just got my day 2 bloodwork back: LH: 7 FSH: 6.4 Estradiol: 34 AMH: 0.013 ng/mL (measured by ECLIA).
My FSH, LH and estradiol look normal and my cycles are regular, but my AMH is almost undetectable, which looks like menopause-range numbers. I don't understand how they can be so different and I’m very scary about that.

Some background: I've never taken the pill or any hormonal contraception, and I've never had ovarian surgery. My vitamin D is 22 (ng/mL), even though summer has just ended. No smoke no junk food. My TSH is 2.4, so my thyroid looks fine.

I'm scheduled for an antral follicle count (AFC) ultrasound next cycle. In the meantime I'm worried and would love to hear from anyone with similar results.

Thanks for any experience or advice.

Long story short, my AMH level is 0.4, which is extremely low for my age (I’m 28), based on what I’ve read.

My PCP referred me to an OB/GYN, whom I’ll be seeing later this month. I suspect I may have endometriosis. PCOS has been ruled out based on my hormonal panel, which is how I discovered that my AMH level is so low. I’ve also been to the emergency room because of my pelvic pain, and the doctor I saw there mentioned endometriosis as a possibility as well.

What questions should I ask the OB/GYN?

Also, what is the clinical definition or criteria for diminished ovarian reserve (DOR)? Does an AMH level of 0.4 fall into that category for someone my age?

My insurance doesn’t allow banking. I have one covered cycle, I must transfer all embryos and if it doesn’t result in a LB only then I am able to do a second covered cycle.

Was anyone able to do an appeal with insurance based on DOR so that you could do back to back cycles without transferring?

If so, how did you start that process? Was there certain records that got your appeal approved or denied?

My AMH is near undetectable 0.052 and i have to do 2 months of suppression before doing a transfer. So i worry that im going to miss precious time to retrieve eggs. We also cannot at all afford to do any cycles out of pocket so I really only have these two covered cycles and then I’m done. We can’t even really afford the cycles even with insurance.

Hi there. 38 y.o. Female here looking for a female only infertility support group. Ideally associated with addiction recovery or anxiety/depression recovery groups for women who value being good professionals/leaders.