1st cycle at Genesis

Hi everyone
I'm Sprinkle and am new on here. I returned on Thursday after my first IVF PGD at Genesis via Paul Rainsbury.
I had an interesting experience that started so so promising but has left me very confused and upset. I'm 30 years old and all my scans and bloods for this cycle were all perfect in showing great follicle growth and ovarian reserves. I had my last London scan on the Monday and they told me I would be ready for my ovulation injection on the Weds, Dr Savvas scanned me on the Weds and was very excited and said I was definitely ready and my uterus and fertility seemed 'excellent'. He started telling us that I should do my ovulaltion shot that evening for EC on Friday, he called his secretary to book me in and suddenly he changed his mind and made it the Saturday and told me to continue my injections for one more night. (The Friday we later found out was a bank holiday and the clinic was closed). 16 eggs were retrieved on the Sat (again he said that was 'optimum') and after the op he was talking incredibly optimistically. It then all went wrong.

Only 1 of my eggs made it to blast and the ones that fertilised split and developed very slowly and were no good. i'm 30 years old and have 2 healthy kids (aged 1.5 and 2.5) who were conceived easily. I had no reason to believe that my eggs have suddenly deteriorated to that of someone 10years older than me overnight, so I'm concerned that the extra day of injections had an adverse effect on my eggs and has left me in this situation. Is this possible? Dr Savvas had been fantastic up until the phone call after my EC, and at our meeting after the ET he didn't even look me in the eye when we were talking and was incredibly harsh towards me and left me so so upset.

I'm 2dp5dt and feeling incredibly pessimistic and plan on going back for the 2nd cycle I've paid for as soon as I can.

Hi

I didn't think genesis worked with rainsbury anymore?
The girls here have gone independitely to savvas for treatment.

You never really know how the embryos will develop and a number of things could influence this!

I have very young children and it still took me 3 cycles to get a Bfp

I stimmed for 2 days extra after savvas instructions and all was fine.

I don't think the fact it was a bank holiday would matter as I've known him opening clinic to scan people when he's been closed for annual holidays!!

Yes, they 100% still work together as we just got back 2 days ago...

I hope it didn't matter the extra day but I'm just trying to understand what turned this cycle from so promising from everyones point of view to a huge disappointment. I have pre-paid for 2 cycles so will hope I have a better 2nd experience if this one proves to fail.

Congrats on your BFP

Thankyou

How good was the embryo? Did he say how he thought it would go?

He said it was very good but with only one he could only give a 30% chance

How far apart from each other were your cycles?

30% is still a chance of success xx

I cycled in oct 10, then April 11 and then sept/oct 11.

I'm not sure what to say about the timing but I am happy that you got a transfer! You only need one. Thanks for posting!

Sorry to hear about your bad experience! Can Dr Rainsbury offer you any advice on why it may have gone wrong? When are you supposed to do a pregnancy test? Good luck I really hope its a sticky one for you.

Thank you for reading. Dr Rainsbury is waiting to hear directly from Dr Savvas to go over the details with me. I've had a few days to relax about it now and I know there is that 30% chance but if it doesn't happen I want to get straight back in and cycle again. Im not entirely sure when he told me to test as I was too overwhelmed with disappointment when he was talking about it, but will get more info from Rainsbury tomorrow xx

A transfer is a transfer and you have a good chance. It would be good to find out what type of embryo it was you transferred, nevertheless, still good. Best wishes on poas !!

Hi there, first off congratulations on being PUPO, that is awesome considering you only got one to blast stage.

I have only ever heard good things about Dr Savaas, unfortunately I went into this thinking because I was fertile, had 3 children erc... It would be easy, but my first cycle ended pretty much when not one egg fertilised, this was the one thing I was not expecting.

I do not think that the extra day of stims made your eggs bad, the doctors are very good at knowing when you should trigger and things can change day by day, so although when you were in London he may have thought the progression would be good but it may have slowed or something.

I am older than you, at 35, but again never thought that 9 of 10 embryos tested would come back abnormal!

Please update us on your PUPO status, I really hope this one sticks, if you had FISH done, the. 30 percent chance is pretty much what they give you, but you are young and you have this on your side.

Good luck!

well I hope Rainsbury can shed some more light on what happened, but who knows you could be pregnant now and this all be irrelevant, I have read of plently of people being successful with only one. I'm not sure when you are officially supposed to test, I'm sure when I'm in the situation I will be doing it every day I have zero self control like that! Best of luck and as others have said please keep us updated!

Hi there, its very sad what Im reading. But I can say that I would trust Savvas 100%!!!! He worked for me on a day off and even brought in an anesthetist on his day off for me, as transfer wouldnt go well in the morning (this was all on my first cycle). I have 4 healthy boys,miss a pill and Im pregnant so we thought one cycle and we would have our bfp.Our egg's and em's were perfect but still it didnt work. This way is very different and we learnt the hard way. I also think maybe Savvas couldnt look you in the eye because he felt bad-he is such a nice man. He is known as a God on the island. You say you paid for 2 cycles? Rainsbury is very good at taking the pennies but for that personal touch you really need to go straight to cy and see Savvas. Half the price too!!! He also does things quite differently to Rainsbury. Please feel free to pm me and dont give up hope. X

Hi sorry for butting into your thread Sprinkle - I came from the IG website which is now not working. I was following five gorgeous babies and rugbyteam so it is nice to see them on here! I am going to Genesis in May and had my blood tests done today (day 2) - I have my scan on friday. It is very interesting to read here about your experience and I do hope it works for you. Fingers crossed :-) I am very nervous about going and was even nervous having the bloods done today as I felt bad being in a fertility clinic when I have two children at home. The guilt! But I still feel I am doing the right thing and get great comfort reading other people's stories. I will get my blood test results on Friday but have to wait for AMH results for three weeks. I will then start taking the pill to help work out my travel dates. So far Savvs has been very good to me - and patient - as I have asked a lot of crazy questions. I am worried about the money involved and really praying this works. Like you I am young - 33 - but from reading people's experiences this is a positive but far from a guarantee.
My journey started officially today with my blood tests - wish me luck :-) I will keep you posted

Everyone is so kind, caring and supportive... Thank you! We haven't shared what we are doing with anyone so it's definitely good to talk. I'm still waiting for an update via Rainsbury, after handing over that amount of money it would be nice to hear something sooner as opposed to being made to wait! Up until the day after my egg collection I really can't fault either Rainsbury or Savvas, both were very much in great communication with me and each other. It's just the chain of events after which went wrong.

I think next Monday Is supposed to be testing day... Although I'm desperately trying to mentally stop myself buying an early test and using it on Friday morning.

Thinking of you on the start of your journey cape grace. Can I ask where you are planning to stay?

Thank you everyone for caring and reading xx

When/will you test?

It's over. Period started this morning. I wasn't expecting it to work this time but inside there was always that tiny bit of hope and my husband and I are very sad it hasn't worked. I've already told Rainsbury and Savvas that I want to start again as soon as possible. But I'm scared to have a repeat of this cycle and if so... Then that's it as no other options for us xx

sprinkle I'm so so very sorry to hear this....I know how you feel because I was in the same position like you.....with me everything looked fine but in the end the embryos developed poor.....I was so sad....i had 2 to transfer but in the end it was a bfn. I will go in a few months to try again. I can't blaim dr Savvas. He was all the time very patient to me and he was also really in shock with my results. If you really know him you would know he is an honoust man. I really believe that.......im trying to email him for a few days now but my email is coming back...I think something is wrong with his email address so don't stress about that! Hugs!

Sorry to hear this Sprinkle. How soon can you go back again?Did you get anymore feedback?

Im so sorry,I do know how you are feeling.If I were you I'd give it 3 months before you return (min).Give your body time to get strong again and your mind too!! You might find things different a second time-I do believe we learn alot from a first cycle. Thinking of you, try and rest.X

5g how are you doing? How are your babies? Are they growing well?

Really sorry it's not worked for you this time. I was hoping your little one had stuck. Give it a few months for your body to get over this cycle then fingers crossed for your 2nd cycle. Hopefully you will have a better experience next time. Molly. X x

Sorry to hear your BFN, I know it hurts real bad. It took me 3 cycles with Savvas I am now 23weeks pregnant with twins. So dont give up. I went direct to Savvas all 3 times and I really think this is the best option. Can you not ask Savvas to cut Paul out and have all your monitoring done in Cyprus????

Having my consultation with Paul on Saturday to go through a few things. Have a long list of questions to raise!! Will update more after that. We have paid Paul directly for 2 cycles so it's not an option I cutting him out to go through Savvas directly. Hope all the lovely pregnant ladies are feeling well and good luck to everyone else on their journey xx

Did Paul do your monitoring over here??? Even though you have paid could you not ask for this to be done by Savvas and stay in Cyprus a few days longer???
Hope your consultation goes well hun xxxxx

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Having spoken to Paul Rainsbury this morning he said it is unlikely the 24hr delay made a difference but it is possible. Both him and Savvas believe it was just a total coincidence as to what happened. Savvas said he had no explanation and had never seen such a result in a 30year old, whereas Rainsbury said he had a long, long time ago, and in those cases it was coincidence. I hope and pray thats all it was. Meanwhile he has agreed I can start on my next cycle (towards end of Feb hopefully) so I will be back at Genesis in March xx

Best wishes sprinkle. This journey is def not for the faint hearted,congratulate yourself on your first cycle. Its a brave thing you did.

Very sorry to read your results. I'm 40 and we got fewer eggs than expected and I (along with the wonderful advice of everyone here!!!) changed MY course I wanted to take. My dr wanted me to do a 24 panel aCGH at Genesis (we did a 5 panel FISH 2 years ago, got my 2 boys, 1 hatching, 1 not, resulted in m/c of the 1 at 12 weeks). I was lucky to have it take first shot, but I NEVER saw the m/c coming! I was devastated. I wanted to cycle right away too, but I wasn't in a good place mentally or financially at the time. I left my job, waited a year, got mentally and physically healthy and tried again. It hurts, but you become stronger for it!
Of course being older worked against us. My dr. changed up my meds this round assuring me of up to 15 eggs. We got 3 less than last time and even fewer embies. Better results with them this time, though. My dr. made me wait 2 extra days to trigger which flew me into a panic too. I really got the feeling this time around that the entire clinic was in it for the money. I didn't receive the same level of care that I did the first cycle, I had to make call after call to get results and next course of action, NO ONE called me to let me know, talk about getting p'd off! So I can relate to you feeling like you got less than quality care.

We decided if this round doesn't take, we're switching clinics. There was too great a push to use Genesis with very little test results to be offered. At least now I know if my little boys don't take after a second FISH panel it's on me, it was my decision to change procedure, and I fully accept that. IF they/he does/do take, then I am going to think twice about recommending them. A friend of mine has been using the same doctor, and she's had 5 consecutive BFN with very poor procedure choices (they've actually had to refund her money since they made a few bad calls!)

Good luck with cycle 2, I'm hoping that you've gotta get through the first cycle to get your baby the second cycle! :)

Sprinkle, sorry to hear about your bfn. I went through Paul Rainsbury as well and paid up front for two cycles. After having a bfn with Paul and going to genesis I really did not want to go through Paul for the second attempt even though I had paid for it. So i spoke with Savvas to see if he could do the meds and monitoring etc in Cypus but still get the money from Paul Rainsbury since they work together and yes they did come up with some agreement. Rainsbury sent the meds and i went to Cyprus for 2 weeks where i got constant monitoring and better care directly from Savvas since he was calling the shots this time and not Rainsbury where he was only reading from email scans. Hope your decision is the right one. I would also wait possibly for 2 normal menstrual cycles before going down this journey again. Your body needs to adjust before more treatment.
Good luck

Tinksmagic did you go to Cyprus? I think you talk about another Genesis clinic.......

I think she may be. There is one in Cyprus under Dr Savvas (excellent) and i do believe there is on in the USA and i know nothing about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Desperate

I think she may be. There is one in Cyprus under Dr Savvas (excellent) and i do believe there is on in the USA and i know nothing about it.

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No, she is referring to a lab where they do PGD called Genesis here in the States. Not the clinic.

Thank you nuthinbutpink that was what I was thinking ;).

Hi desperate i was wondering how things are all going? I'm going back on the 12th of march so fingers crossed this time, I am now truly despererate!

Sorry to jump in but I was wondering if someone might tell me who is all heading to Genesis within the next few months? As this is the clinic I am interested in I am keen to follow those who are cycling there soon. Thank you

There is a sticky in the Member forums. If they see this post, perhaps they will PM you.

ETA- I just checked the thread and so far, there are 5 scheduled to go!

Hey Secretly Sad, I am just jumping in to say become a member, there are lots of girls at the moment going through Cyprus as well as the states. In the private section there are cycle stickies where you can read up on everyones present and past cycles. It is well worth the money as a lot of people wont actually post out here because it isn't private.