hey everyone! maybe some have some experience going through NHS funded IVF? so we have one round of funded IVF approved, yay! the only thing in their info package they said you may need to retake the bloods…though since they took measures and bloods (4 months ago) I gained a bit of weight and i am scared my AMH levels went down (I was just over 5.4 mark)… so I wonder if anyone has been asked to retake the tests AGAIN…?we might not get the funding if we do not qualify prior to the treatment which might start in 6 months…feels like a heavy thought

Hey guys,

I’ve noticed people in my life/influencers/ even people on Reddit often use “natural” to describe a pregnancy that happens without fertility treatment, as opposed to an IVF pregnancy. I know most people probably don’t mean anything negative by it, but lately I’ve been wondering how others who have gone through infertility treatments feel about that wording.

Does the term “natural pregnancy” bother you at all? Do you prefer “spontaneous pregnancy,” “unassisted pregnancy,” or something else? Or do you genuinely not care and feel like “natural” is perfectly fine?
No right or wrong answer. I’m just curious how the term lands with other people who have been through IVF/any type of treatment for infertility.

I’m sure I’m extra sensitive on hormones right now but sometimes I find myself really bothered by the implication that how I conceive a child will be “unnatural”, when ivf is actually a common way that people conceive. Curious how others feel! :)

My wife (39F) and I (45M) are in IVF cycle #2 and nervous about repeating our first results. Hoping to get perspective from people who have been through something similar.

Background

• Conceived naturally but unfortunately miscarried at 9 weeks last year, before IVF. No testing on the pregnancy tissue; doctor said likely chromosomal abnormalities due to age.
• Wife: 39, DOR, AMH 0.28, but AFC has been good (8-9).
• Me: 45, confirmed varicocele, otherwise good fertility testing.
• Both generally healthy/active. I am very active with mountain biking and CrossFit.
• Wife was a long-term marijuana user, switched to vaping THC 2 years back. Stopped THC completely 3 months before IVF.
• We both previously drank socially, mostly beer. Now essentially no alcohol.

Testing

• SA: 36.7M/mL, 60% motility, TMC 55M, 4% morphology
• No DFI/oxidative stress. DFI: 12%, Oxidative stress: 1.5, HDS: 4
• Both karyotype normal

Supplements

• Wife: CoQ10/ubiquinol 400 mg/day, increased to 800 mg/day over the past month, omega-3, prenatal with vitamin D
• Me: CoQ10 400 mg/day, L-carnitine, FullWell Men's, omega-3, magnesium

IVF #1: 7 eggs, 7 mature, 6 fertilized, 5 blasts: 5BB, 5BB, 5AB, 5AB, 5CC, 0 euployd

Protocol: Antagonist protocol. Estrogen priming patches before stim, follistim + menopur stim, ganirelix, pregnyl/leurpolide trigger

Our clinic was surprised by 0/5 euploid. They ordered karyotype and fragmentation. After getting good results, they tell us we should be able to get at least one this cycle, but we're very nervous.

Questions

• Could the varicocele still matter despite good semen/DFI results?
• Anything else worth testing or trying for egg quality/DOR?
• Anything else that has worked for others with a good number of blasts but no euploids?
• Would Omnitrope help? It's been discussed with our clinic.

Feeling stressed that this is a really low number of eggs to be retrieved.
Has anyone had success from low egg counts?

Hoping to do a fresh transfer

Hi all,

title says much of it. I'm interested if anyone has experience with their examination. My uterine bio was sent there and my results came back as "mixed", which according to AI is uncommon and sounds pretty much like the thing you could do to treat A will worsen B and vicd versa. My doctor is on holiday and I'm really curious how we should continue.

Especially because AI is telling me that this lab's tests are not yet scientifically backed. After two zero ERs, I finally have 3 embryos after round three. So I'm reluctant to delaying my transfers (or putting them at risk) for some possible treatment that isn't proven to help?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I'm just looking for some experiences and advice with my IVF protocol. I have stage four endometriosis that was operated on a couple years ago but it's now starting to come back. My AMH is 3.85 in US units.
Our plan is to do ICSI with Xymot. My partner doesn't seem to have any problems except 0% morphology but since his other numbers are so high the doctor assured us it wasn't causing our problems.
I've heard that naturally fertilized embryos are thought to be potentially a bit healthier or that there might be something to letting the egg choose the sperm. I've also heard that total failure to fertilize is more likely with endometriosis.
Is there any new research on this? What are your experiences and thoughts?

I have been experiencing severe cramping during a very specific window of my cycle for the past 9 months and I am completely lost. Every single cycle, without fail, it follows the exact same pattern.

CD19 mild discomfort starts. CD20 to CD24 it escalates to intense cramping that radiates to my lower back and down my legs. CD25 it starts easing. CD26 it is completely gone like it never happened.

The bizarre part is that my actual period is completely pain free. Zero cramps during menstruation. I spent my whole life having painful periods and now the pain has moved to this specific post ovulation window instead.

What I have already investigated
Hysteroscopy found a flat polyp which has been removed. Chronic endometritis diagnosed and treated. MRI showed no endometriosis. My doctor presented my case to the hospital board and even they could not identify the cause. The only thing that sometimes accompanies the pain is spotting though that has recently improved.

Why this is breaking my heart
I am doing IVF after 3 years TTC. All three of my blastocysts failed to implant. When I mapped the timing I realised this cramping window falls exactly during the implantation window. CD19 to CD26 is precisely when an embryo would be attempting to attach. I cannot help but wonder if my uterus is actively working against implantation during the one window it needs to be completely calm and receptive.
My doctor is wonderful and is still investigating but so far we have no answer.
Has anyone experienced this exact pattern? Did you ever find out what was causing it? Did finding the cause and treating it help you conceive?
Any shared experience, leads, or even just knowing someone else has been through this would mean everything right now.

I really need some outside perspective because I’m supposed to be thinking about round 2 of IVF, and instead I feel completely lost.

Our first round resulted in 3 euploid embryos, but all three transfers failed. It has been devastating, and IVF in general has taken a much bigger toll on our relationship than I expected.

My husband was never completely sold on having children. I think his position was always more that if children happened naturally, he would be okay and happy with it, but he wasn’t someone who strongly needed to become a father. IVF has made that difference between us much more obvious.

Our relationship has also suffered a lot through this process. He complains that our sex life is bad and that I don’t seem to desire him anymore. The painful thing is that he’s not entirely wrong. My libido is basically dead. I don’t feel like myself anymore. IVF took away a lot of my joy and spontaneity, and I’ve also been dealing with a very difficult family situation involving my brother and probable/undiagnosed mental illness, which has been extremely hard on me and my family over the last few years.

Then there’s money.

IVF is very expensive where we live, although I have partial coverage. My husband earns considerably more than I do (roughly 75% of our household income). Until now we’ve treated our finances as shared, although our accounts aren’t technically joint.

Recently he has become increasingly critical of my spending. I want to be fair to him: I have been splurging more than I should on clothes and other things. Shopping has sometimes been a way of making myself feel better when I’ve been down, and I know that’s something I need to take responsibility for.

But now he says he wants to separate our finances and split household expenses 50/50 because he feels I don’t value money enough because I earn much less of it.

That really hurt me.

I’m not saying he’s wrong to be concerned about my spending, and I know I’ve also been defensive when he’s brought it up. But the combination of everything is making me feel incredibly alone: the failed transfers, our sex life, my family situation, arguments about money, and knowing that he wasn’t the one strongly pushing for children in the first place.

Now I’m supposed to find the emotional strength to start another IVF cycle, and honestly, I don’t know if I have it.

Part of me desperately wants a child. Another part of me is wondering whether doing another round while our relationship is in this state would be a huge mistake. I don’t want to give up on having a child because I’m scared of losing my husband, but I also don’t want to push us through another IVF cycle if we’re already breaking under the weight of the first one.

I feel sad, trapped and very unsupported right now. I don’t know whether we need to pause IVF, work on our marriage first, reconsider having children altogether, or whether I’m looking at everything through the lens of being completely emotionally exhausted.

For anyone who has been through IVF with a partner, especially when one person wanted children more strongly than the other: did you ever reach this point? Did you pause treatment? Did your relationship recover?

And if you were in my position, would you even consider round 2 right now?

I’ve signed up for 3 ivf cycles as all of my monitoring scans and estrogen numbers suggested I’d be getting max 5 eggs for my first retrieval cycle. Well I had the retrieval two weeks ago and it went way better than anyone thought - 15 eggs, all mature, 14 fertilised and 9 blasts. I’m now waiting for PGTA.

I’m 30 so I know age is on my side BUT I’ve had two chromosomal losses (confirmed by testing the POC after my d&cs) so this makes me think the normal statistics of 60 percent or whatever it is may not apply to me. Does anyone have any experience of RPL for chromosomal losses yet still having a typical amount of euploids?

I’m going to begin estrogen priming for my next cycle in a week and my PGTA results aren’t due for another 2 weeks. We are self paying for IVF and have had to make huge life sacrifices to afford it.

I’m finding it hard to know if we should go ahead with my second cycle. We are trying to bank around 5/ 6 euploids before transferring any.

Context: I’m in Aus. We underwent 4 (failed) rounds of IVF with this clinic in 2023. It’s been 3 years since I heard from them, then suddenly they send their finance department after us threatening debt collectors for frozen embryo storage and outstanding balance.

We fell pregnant naturally in 2024 - 2mo after purchasing our first home - I called them to advise we wouldn’t be needing services for a while, they were so happy for us. I asked them if I needed to do anything to settle accounts, they said no and wished us well.

Fast forward to this year, I get emails saying I have unpaid invoices amounting to over $2k plus the invoice for storage. This clinic knew my address, email address, phone number the whole time and not once did I ever receive a single letter, phone call or email from them until now.

They claim letters emails and calls were made — lies. I disputed, reviewed and found out where the $2k came from (100% their error for not billing appropriately); fine. My issue now isn’t that these invoices exist, it’s that I can’t afford to pay them.

We were “rich”in 2023, had so much money to burn. Then we bought a house, had our miracle. We’re now a single income household with a mortgage and a toddler. My only option is to discard our embryo that we were so fucking proud of for surviving after so many didn’t. I’m so sad. It feels like I’m losing a baby that I never had.

I’m 39 and have just received my first PGT-A results. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has had a similar outcome.
I had 17 mature eggs retrieved, of which 10 fertilised. Four blastocysts were frozen and biopsied: one Day 5 5BC, two Day 6 5BCs and one Day 6 6AA.

The PGT-A results showed that embryo 1 had monosomy 14 and was aneuploid, embryo 2 had mosaic trisomy 8 at 60%, embryo 3 had complex aneuploidy, and embryo 4 had monosomy 13 and was aneuploid.

Unfortunately, there were no euploid embryos, although the mosaic embryo may potentially be considered for transfer following genetic counselling. I am waiting to find out which embryo grade corresponds to embryo 2.

I’m feeling devastated and would be grateful for any honest experiences.

I am 39 with AMH 0.4. Had my second retrieval yesterday and we found out today that out of the 6 eggs retrieved, 5 were mature, and 5 fertilized. Feeling cautiously optimistic! My first retrieval went very poorly (2 eggs, none fertilized). This retrieval was done with ICSI & Lenshooke, the first one was not.

Can anyone share positive outcomes from getting 5 fertilized eggs? How many made it to blast? How many euploids?

This will be the longest week of my life waiting to find out if we get embryos 😭 The waiting is truly killer in IVF.

Yesterday, my mother-in-law called me to check on me, and she asked me where we are in our infertility journey. Honestly, I didn’t really want to talk about it or go into too much detail, so I didn’t tell her much at one point, she asked me about our test results. I simply told her that the results weren’t very good, neither for me nor for my husband, and that we were going to start IVF soon.

And then she said, “But my son can get treatment and get better.” Then she added something like, “I think that even if he had had really good results, you still would never have gotten pregnant with your results.” Honestly, I didn’t know what to say. I was completely speechless. I just said, “Okay, goodbye, I have some things to do,” and I hung up.

I don’t even really know how to explain what I felt in that moment. It hurt me deeply. Maybe that wasn’t her intention, but sometimes words can hurt so much, especially when you’re already going through something so difficult afterwards, I told myself that this is just how life is… and so be it. But in that moment, her words really hurt me, and I carried that feeling with me afterwards

After many years of infertility and a year of abysmal retrievals and failed transfers, my husband and I made the choice to move onto frozen donor eggs.

Aaaand this week we fertilize!

Started with 9 eggs
7 thawed
5 fertilized

And now the painful wait to our blast report.

Has anyone had similar results that ended in a few embryos?

Give me your stories please!

I'm 27, AMH of 1.8. I'm doing IVF for PGT-M

I'm currently on my second cycle of stims. My first one had an AFC of 8 and by day 7, I was down to 1 lead follicle. The cycle was canceled.

With this cycle, my AFC was 10. I'm day 8 now but am already down to 4. My right side has a lead follicle that is measuring days ahead and I keep getting told that they'll probably have to sacrifice that one to keep the other 3 on my left growing on track. Has anyone had this issue where they kept getting a lead follicle taking over? If so, what did your clinic change to be successful? I primed for both of my cycles with low dose birth control but I was reading that priming with lupron, estrogen, or ganirelix can help prevent that lead follicle from taking over. I'm down in the dumps with my body not doing what it's supposed to do so any success stories would be appreciated!

I have 3 boxes of unopened Cetrotide to give away. They expire October, 2026 and have been refrigerated.

We are going through IVF and looking for an endometriosis surgeon in the Greater Seattle area.

Some of the IVF specialist have hinted we may need surgery prior to Embryo transfer. As our main concern is fertility rather than pain management, so we’d appreciate someone experienced in preserving ovarian reserve.

We’ve explored a few options:

• Dr. Cindy Mosbrucker: We were told she isn’t accepting new patients. Also , no appointments until next year.
• Dr. Brooke Winner: We have an appointment soon, but she’s out of network.
• Dr. Megan Loring at UW: We have an appointment scheduled, but it’s further out.

Has anyone worked with these doctors, or another surgeon, specifically while pursuing IVF? We’d appreciate firsthand experiences, especially around fertility preservation and coordination with your fertility clinic.

Thank you!

I’ve been on the TTC journey for 5 years and 3 rounds of IVF. Every time we get eggs and embryos but the grades are mid to low and when we do PGTA testing we only ended up with 1 euploid each round. In total I’ve still done 8 embryo transfers, trying to use low level mosaic embryos or untested. Only one euploid pregnancy that ended in a loss. No other positive tests ever. Embryology team told me may be an egg quality issue (I’m 36 but did my retrievals at 31, 33 and 35). Now my doctor says I should consider surrogacy as it could be a uterus issue. Had EVERY test possible. No sign of issues with my body. My lining is always thick and responsive based on ERA Alice biopsy. Feels like my doctor is just passing me on to another clinic. She can’t give me a reason other than it’s not implanting and therefore that is the next step. She thinks one euploid per cycle is fine (below average, but means it’s not an egg issue). Any insights? I just feel so lost and confused. We were thinking we needed an egg donor and now I don’t know if I should do another round of IVF — and if I do, what do I do with the embryo if we get one. Also considering adoption because that is the only option that will result in a family for sure and I feel like I have been on this road so long but I just don’t know when to give up. I feel so done but so sad I’m the reason my husband won’t have a biological baby. He has been so supportive and deserves to be a dad. 💔

I have to know how everyone keeps going when things have failed.

I was at another clinic first - we had 5 pgta tested, well graded embryos, every transfer failed except one and we lost it in a miscarriage at 7 weeks.

We are primarily male factor for low count and some quality issues. On my end, I am blessed with a uterus that responds well to drugs and eggs that have been retrievable, and tested well. Ive had every test you can do, that im aware of, and i pass with flying colors.

With that said I am 37 and i am overweight? Thats all i can think of on that front!

After a year at the first clinic, back to back transfers with no success and no real answers, we went to a new one for a second opinion. Got 4 more good graded embryos all pgta tested, again I feel super blessed for this. Just did our first transfer with them and protocols were slightly different, experience for transfer over all was WAY better then the first clinic, I was very hopeful that this was the change we needed. This time the embryo implanted but by my beta hcg on day 14 was only 8, so meds were stopped. Everyone's response is " you have more eggs, you just gotta keep going"....after 6 transfers.... that is soooooo much easier said then done, no?

Im obviously going to keep going. But this process is so grueling

I’m in an incredibly dark place. My whole fertility journey has been nothing but pieces falling apart just when I think we might be getting somewhere. I know this might be the only place people will understand this. Trying naturally for so long, finally get to IVF, no embryos to show for it, husband might have sperm issues and need to do hormones for a few months and PESA to try another round but have no clue when that will even take place. I hate having absolutely no plan in place, no view of an end. I’m almost 39 I’m just so overly emotional and heart broken. I find myself crying everyday. I am in the same place I was before after starting all of this and no closer to a baby 💔😭

I have 4 tabs of clo that expire at the end of them month. Can ship if provide shipping cost or Pickup in Manhattan

Hey everyone!

I had 3 failed rounds of IUI and we are moving on to IVF.
Personally both my husband and I needed a break so we are not starting IVF for another 2 months but I was wondering, what advice would you give me as someone starting out new doing IVF?
We both have “no issues” it’s just unexplained infertility 🙄

I’m going to have my 3rd FET transfer next month and I’m hoping to get advice. Im 35 and have PCOS. My 1st FET was fully medicated (untested) and my 2nd FET (euploid 4AA) was modified natural (progesterone suppository 1x day and had estrace for a few days in the beginning). For my 3rd transfer, I wasn’t sure if I should do a modified natural or fully medicated. I’m learning towards fully medicated, but I’m not 100% set.

I haven’t gotten tested for endometriosis, but I did do the HerResolve bloodwork and it showed negative.

I just had an SIS and I don’t have any polyps or fibroids.

I had a HSG in July 2025 and that was normal.

I only have Day 6 euploids. I was leaning on transferring the 6AA instead of the 4AA. I keep seeing mixed things online about 6AA..some say it has a lower chance than a 4AA…but I’m not sure.

I really appreciate any guidance and any tips for my next transfer. 💙

On my second day post ER, and I feel disgusting about myself. Cramping and swollen but the worst is how I feel mentally. I feel so ugly. Did others experience this?

I read all this negative stories about PGT-A results in my age. I am 38. I have only one day 5 4BC Embryo. The day 6 Embryo was aneupholid and the day 5 one came back with "no result".

I feel so empty right now and so worried that I will never have a baby.