Back after Failed IVF

Hi Atomic and everyone! I'm not sure where to start after being gone for 9 months or so. I gave girl swaying a go last year and could not get pregnant. After months and months, we finally met with a fertility doctor, found out my AMH is just over 1 and moved on to IVF. I've just completed my first round of IVF and it was not successful (meaning no blasts at the end). I think we're giving up on the IVF idea but I'd still like to try naturally for awhile. I'm not sure if there's any hope for me, but I feel like my numbers aren't THAT bad so I'm not sure why I'm having so much trouble after conceiving two boys on the first try.

What is the next best course of action? I'm on a super healthy diet and supplements (CoQ-10, DHEA, Vitamin E, prenatals, DHA) and have doing acupuncture for five months now. I did Chinese herbs for a few months before starting IVF. I feel like I can't cut out the healthy diet and supps or I might never get pregnant. I can probably get Clomid again.

Any advice is really appreciated!

Hi again April, I had answered you via PM but I wanted to repost my reply out here in case anyone else had similar questions.

I'm so sorry to hear you haven't conceived and that IVF didn't work out. I agree with your assessment, your numbers are not terrible and I don't see any reason why you haven't conceived. Do be aware that in many cases, the first round of IVF is a wash (even for people with ideal AMH) as our bodies don't always respond to certain protocols. The doctors may be able to tweak your medications to give you a better response in future months if you did decide to proceed.

What Chinese herbs? I really strongly advise against doing Chinese herbs for ANY reason, especially with IVF. They have hormonal effects which in many, many cases are not beneficial and actually may have hurt your chances of success.

What prenatals were you on? Some of them have additional herbs and megadose nutrients that are worse than nothing, and may have contributed to your poor response.

Were you tested for your DHEA levels before taking it and while taking it to ensure your levels did not go up too far?? If your DHEA was in normal range, you can actually wreck your egg quality taking it without needing to. DHEA can raise your testosterone sky high, giving you a kind of drug-induced PCOS, and that can be awful for your egg quality

I would also have you come off the Vitamin E, as excess Vitamin E during pregnancy may cause birth defects and since it's fat soluble, it may stay present in the system longer than people realize. I have literally never seen Vit. E help people conceive (in fact quite the opposite) regardless of what some claim, it actually may inhibit cell division (which is not what you want when TTC, of course) and affects the endometrium, and no one really knows if that is beneficial or detrimental to pregnancy chances. I'd wean off the extra Vit. E and just stick with the amount in your prenatal.

What kind of healthy diet are you following? Some diets are better than others - for example many people go vegetarian or vegan, thinking it's healthy, but then the excess carbs can mess up their egg quality. We may be able to adjust that so it's both beneficial for pink and good for egg quality. I have a diet that both improves egg quality and sways pink that we should switch to!

I would have you try to use Letrozole (Femara) instead of Clomid. Clomid can raise FSH and that would in turn be harmful to egg quality.

Hello April,

So sorry to hear about your failed cycle. It's good that you're trying naturally again. The advice atomic gives re vitamins and supplements is really good. It's best to stick with what your doctor prescribed. I had 3 failed IUIs and I failed IVF after finally deciding on donor egg. Let's hope there would be no need for you and that you'd conceive naturally. Were you NHS? Otherwise going private also has its advantages. Do keep us updated?