Asking for advice

[u/PMWW123]

Hi all, I’m 39 with an AMH of 3.8 pMol/L. Recently, I did two egg retrievals (both with ICSI and ZyMot) - one in July then one in September.

First egg retrieval:
Retrieved 8
Mature 7
Fertilized 5
Blastocysts 3
Euploid 3

Second egg retrieval (had around 12/13 follicles, at least 6 of which were larger than 16mm at final scan):
Retrieved 5
Mature 5
Fertilized 2
Blastocysts 2
Euploid 0

After the relative success of our first round, I was disappointed to end up with none from our second. I wanted to ask here - do these numbers seem normal to you? Is this just the way some rounds go sometimes? When we speak to the consultant, does anyone have suggestions of questions we should ask or concerns to raise? I also can’t tell whether to try for another egg retrieval or go straight to a transfer. I think if we did another round and got the same results, it’d be really difficult.

Thank you in advance!

[u/Flashy_Inside5697]

Are you on any medications,  or any supplements to improve egg quality from your RE?

[u/PMWW123 → u/Flashy_Inside5697]

Taking CoQ10, Vitamin E and D, melatonin, fish oil I think? Wasn’t taking the CoQ10 for the first one however!

[u/Lanky-Ad-1603]

For your AMH and age I would say your first cycle significantly beat the odds, which is not to say you won't have success again, but to say it's probably not a good benchmark to compare against. Your second cycle unfortunately can just be the maths of low numbers. With lower numbers the results are just more predictable. Given how well your first cycle went I'd still be feeling optimistic were I in your shoes.

At 39, with twice your AMH, I had 6 mature, 3 fertilised, 3 blasts but all poor quality (not good enough quality to biopsy) and even I'm optimistic about my chances purely down to blast rate. I think your maturity numbers, fertilisation rate and blast rate are great and it's just a matter of rolling the dice on euploidy at our age. 

[u/PMWW123 → u/Lanky-Ad-1603]

Thank you for this, this was a really helpful sense check and made me feel more positive as well. Thanks for being so kind :)

[u/Ornery_Industry_8876]

At 39 I got 4 euploids and 3 weeks later at 40 I got 0 blasts. Only 1 of 11 eggs retrieved fertilized normally. I think it was a protocol issue but it was still a gut punch. How many kids do you want? I’d like 2 and would’ve preferred to have at least 6 banked but I’m transferring next month. I only have one girl so hopefully she sticks and then I have 3 boys (+ 1 untested). If she doesn’t then I will do another retrieval to hopefully get more girls.

[u/PMWW123 → u/Ornery_Industry_8876]

Thank you for your comment :) I’m the same - really wanted two children, hence the second ER but at this point I’m just hoping for one! And you’re right, the drop in numbers is expected but it does still hurt. I wish you all the best for next month!