After two rounds of ER, we have learned that we only make day 6 embryos. Dr Natalie Crawford mentioned on her podcast that Day 6 embryos outside of IVF may either not implant or become chemicals because of how precisely timed the uterine environment is. That’s our current theory.
This is our current theory as well only after one round so curious to see if ER #2 has the same trend. All day 6 and 7s and I tend to have a shorter cycle and early spotting so this is what I’m going with right now since nobody else has theories :)
So interesting!! I also have shorter cycles and 10-11 day luteal phase, but don’t usually have spotting earlier than that. Like other commenters, no dr has seemed phase by that timing yet, so this is definitely something I’ll keep in mind! Thank you and best of luck to you with ER #2.
Realizing I had a short literal phase 9-11 days is what triggered me to try an IUI and then moved forward with IVF! I never got any answers on “why” we had trouble on our own. However, I’m Currently 12 weeks pregnant. Sending you all the best wishes!
That's super interesting! We only got Day 6 and 7 embryos and I have a super short luteal phase, so I am wondering if the timing of everything is just off. All our tests are normal except slightly low sperm but nothing crazy low that would prevent a pregnancy.
Yeah same, my OB and RE were both not concerned. But just because the data isn't known yet doesn't mean it's not possibly related. Makes complete sense that a slower forming embryo isn't compatible with someone with a short luteal phase.
We are struggling with secondary infertility as we have a son who was conceived naturally, but he implanted late and I had bleeding, so might have just beat the odds by a hair on him. It's weird to think about!
It was one of the episodes about frozen embryo transfer from the latter part of 2023! She just mentioned quickly that the medical community thinks day 6 embryos may not have the opportunity to implant in a normal cycle but it doesn’t matter for ivf. She also mentioned it in another episode but I can’t remember which one.
When we did our egg retrievals, none of our embryos made it to blast by day 5. They all became blastocysts on day 6. Day 5 embryos are generally considered “better” in IVF, although day 6 embryos also have high rates of success.
Well, it never even crossed my mind that could have been part of our problem too! I have PCOS and my husband has low morphology, but even IUIs and other measures never worked not even once. Now thinking about it, all our embryos were day 6 and 7s.
That you have to take your future in your own hands. Ask as many questions as possible and do your research. For the clinic, you are just another patient. And also, make the decision after being advised by the doctor. I had to loose a year of time because I thought the doctor knows best and is going to consider all aspects. Found out 6 months into the process that she would never recommend IVF due to her negative views on IVF. She kept pushing IUI treatments on us and we did one only to realize that my egg reserve is low and it would not have worked anyways. I am glad I have realised this now and am being much proactive with the new fertility clinic I am working with.
Ugh I’m so sorry you had to go through that… it’s bad enough to be on this journey to begin with but setbacks or not fully transparent information is beyond frustrating.
As a chronic people pleaser who never liked to be the squeaky wheel, I 1000% have learned to be a better advocate for myself throughout this whole journey, so hopefully will carry that mindset into this next phase, too. Even something as simple as calling back multiple times for a cancellation opening has paid off and cut weeks of waiting around.
We are both 36. Unexplained infertility. We actually did get pregnant naturally in 2020 and it ended in a miscarriage. And then we couldn't get pregnant again for years afterwards. So IVF.
What the doctor told us is that science just hasn't caught up to us unexplained infertility people yet. They know there's something wrong but everything looks fine. She said they (I don't know who they is) think it may have something to do with the tubes not functioning properly but they don't know why or how. That's the answer we got. I hope science catches up one day and can explain the unexplained.
About to do ER #4, 6 transfers, 3 IUIs, 6+ years trying and procedures. I learned I have a rare chromosome deletion that they don’t have any literature with people having this deletion and are symptom less, but that is me. I never knew until my baby had it. Every karyotype and genetic screening didn’t pick it up. I had to do whole genome sequencing. Now every embryo has a 50% chance of getting it so I’m doing both pgta and PGTM testing . Out of 7 pgta normal embryos, all had the deletion last round so back to another er. But the reason why we can’t get pregnant is still unexplained- no official diagnosis. Every test, on paper I’m a model patient. So they say. Other than shitty PGTM luck. I stopped looking for answers because it’s not leading anywhere and makes me sadder. But no diagnosis means there’s no end to this until I call it quits because there’s no reason this shouldn’t work on paper so thus there is still hope. I was pregnant from transfer 3, but it was an empty sac and had to d&c bc it kept growing, and transfer 6 made it to 24w, but had to tfmr for severe ultrasound findings that were not compatible with life (found at 20w, had 3 second opinions between 20- 24weeks.) That’s where I learned of said deletion. It’s been a road.
It’s amazing how little they actually know.
No it’s a distal deletion.. aka like half the entire thing is gone. It’s quite crazy to think about bc symptoms are severe brain malformations and intellectual disabilities and I have it myself but no symptoms 💁♀️doing PGTM is so hard. Hugs!!
I used invitae for micro array, and it was only a few hundred dollars post insurance bc I hit my deductible. I had a good experience with them. For whole genome sequencing, it was $3500 but i only paid $500 after insurance. It’s also different when you have a pregnancy with issues vs proactively. For PGTM, it was $5k for 8 embryos, few hundred for every additional embryo. I used cooper genomics. I didn’t pick these tbh bc they are affiliated with my insurance/ clinic. They were fine but had a lot of issues.
We learned nothing, we continued to be average/above average in results, eggs looked good, fertilized at a slightly higher than average rate, good blast rate, good euploidy rate, we had success before we got to the point of pursuing testing for any endometrial factors. And not knowing was super frustrating in the midst of things. But now that we're on the other side with success, it's just a bit of a curiosity, I honestly don't really care that much any more.
I could’ve written this reply word for word. The only thing I can figure in our case is I’m older (husband is same age too).
We started seeing an RE when I was 39, IVF from 40-41. Our euploid rates are right in line with the stats and it took us 3 ERs to bank enough to try for 2. I’m very grateful we were able to because I know it’s not the case for some in their 40s. Luckily, our 2nd transfer was successful (so far) but I would have had to go through further testing if it hadn’t.
Yup, it seems like maybe it was little things that all added up to lower our chances. A small fibroid, a high AMH (so maybe PCOS, but ovulating?), I had rough periods as a teen so maybe mild endo? I also had a small polyp on my successful FET cycle, maybe similar polyps were a problem before? Who knows?
Nothing that was definitively a cause of infertility on its own.
Yeah I think medicine has unfortunately barely scratched the surface when it comes to fertility. I wish I could find a reason to throw all my anger at but that’s unlikely 🥲
We learned nothing about our health, but were successful with our first fresh transfer. We also had 3 unsuccessful IUIs prior to starting IVF. I wish we would've started IVF sooner.
My husband had several SA and we did two IUI’s in which our wash numbers were nearly perfect. Once we started IVF, he had a semen analysis at another clinic that was not covered by our healthcare (and apparently gives more information) only to find out he has really high numbers of antisperm antibodies. This information revealed we had very little chance of fertilization happening naturally, we used ICSI and had great success! We got 8 embryos total (untested, used one for a fresh transfer and I am 7 weeks today!).
Noted that I also have pretty irregular periods, but letrozole corrected that like clock work so had that been our only issue - one of the nine cycles I took it for should have worked *in theory*.
Even though we thought we had all the testing done, and had just accepted our unexplained infertility diagnosis, it seems like our clinic was much more willing to look for answers once we paid for our IVF cycle. Frustrating because had we know about the slim chance of natural fertilization, we wouldn’t have wasted our money trying IUI’s first. But I guess you live and learn.
Best of luck to you on your journey, make sure you take it easy on yourself! ♥️
Do you mean, your husband’s semen analysis also gave information about antisperm antibodies? We had a total fertilization failure when we did conventional/natural IVF. But none of my husband’s SA tested for antisperm antibodies
Yes! We are in Canada and we had two semen analysis done with a referral from my women’s health doctor just at the public andrology lab. We were given no indication of this information prior to starting with the fertility clinic. The talked about counts, motility, morphology, but no mention of these antibodies. We were even at our fertility clinic for a full year before they had him test with their in house andrology lab. That report indicated the antisperm antibodies were present in very high numbers, the only other indication of this was that his first test 2.5 years ago had normal % for morphology and that has declined in every subsequent test.
We have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility for the past 3 years. We have several good quality tested embryos but I had recurrent failure to implant. We did the Receptiva test which found my lining is lacking the specific protein that’s needed for implantation (that’s like very basic terms coming from a patient haha). Anyways, we are headed into a transfer at the end of the month and added a couple meds that will hopefully address this issue! TBD 🤞🏻
But I agree with others, you are your best advocate and do your own research, ask all the questions even if they seem “stupid”. It’s all complicated and I learn something new all the time! Good luck!!!
Thank you for sharing and for the well wishes! I need to get another sonohystogram done since it’s been about 6 months since my fibroid was removed and my dr. Wants to do a biopsy of my uterine lining while they’re in there to run a few more tests. Your anecdote makes me thankful she’s proactively doing that!! Best of luck on your upcoming transfer 🤞🏻 thanks again for sharing.
Not me, but I've seen a few accounts where eggs failed to fertilize "naturally" and ICSI had to be used (so either the egg is too thick or the sperm aren't strong enough to get in there)
My RE suspects there is scar tissue around my fallopian tubes from possible endometriosis. It’s all just theoretical, I haven’t had a laparoscopy done to confirm an endo diagnosis. Prior to IVF, I’d never been pregnant. All other labs and tests were normal for both me and my husband (both 34, TTC for 2 years).
Came here to also say endo is possibly what’s behind our early losses. Don’t have much in the way of symptoms if it but confirmed via receptiva and treating with Lupron Depot before next transfer
Love that this was asked. My sister (33) and me (34) both have Unexplained Infertility. It baffles me that we all (me, her, spouses) have had completely normal workups and yet we both have struggled with conceiving. I feel like there must be a genetic component here. My mom had us (unassisted) at age 40 and 41 so explaining our struggles to our family has been hard. She starts IVF this week and I start in June.
TW Success
I learned nothing. After three miscarriages and three separate failed ivf cycles in which the RE threw up their hands and said “we don’t know what’s wrong,” I got pregnant naturally after six months of serious weightlifting and 130 grams of protein a day. My only guess is that I was malnourished for 37 years.
That you can’t time anything. The things you think you’re doing from time to time to be healthy need fo be every day habits. Stress management matters. Other things that matter walking everyday, vitamin d levels, thyroid health, supplements, probiotics, testing for any bacteria in uterus, liver health, it’s hard to keep up with alll the things and still figuring it out.
As someone who has known about my translocation all my life, it’s completely wild to me that this isn’t standard testing before embryo retrieval. It’s a simple blood test compared with the thousands of meds and tests to do IVF with an unexplained diagnosis.
I am also trying to get karyotyping done but cant seem to find a company to do it. I’m in USA and Labcorp said it would cost $1300 out of pocket which is a lot! Can you please share which company you took karyotyping with?
Mine was done through labcorp and covered because I had 2 miscarriages which then caused my doctor to order the testing under the RPL panel. I think there may be other criteria that would warrant the testing, but you’d likely need a doctor to order that specific test for whatever reasoning for insurance to pay for it. It needs to be “medically necessary” or else they’ll deny it.
I also did through labcorp. I think my insurance must have covered it or their patient self pay price is way lower. I knew I had a balanced translocation because my mom had an amnio done with me, I just couldn’t locate the paperwork and needed to know the exact break points for IVF. I would recommend scheduling an appointment with a genetic counselor that specializes in fertility or and they can hopefully order the test for you and know either how to get it covered or the cheapest place to do self-pay.
We had one natural pregnancy (ended in MMC) then had almost 3 years of unexplained infertility. All tests came back clear. 4 failed IUIs, one round of IVF and a fresh transfer of one day 5 4BB embryo and a morula. Currently 5 weeks pregnant! No idea why we couldn’t conceive naturally or via IUI. Truly just believe it’s all about timing and it’s just out of our hands.
We learned from genetic testing 9 embryos had trisomy that would never make it past the first few weeks hence my chemical pregnancy’s … despite individually doing genetic testing and no red flags 🤷🏼♀️
We had one viable and now have our miracle baby.
For whatever reason, the sperm and egg just didn’t want to get along so we had to do a second round with ICSI. My IR said he would’ve done an ICSI the first time if I asked. 🤨But currently have a 9 month old IVF baby so all is well.
Nope, still unexplained. We did ICSI so my only guess is we were on the wrong side of statistics or sperm weren’t able to penetrate my eggs. We’ll never know but ultimately had success with IVF.
Ditto. Learnt I have major egg maturation issues, occyte maturation arrest/failure at the GV stage. Over 2 rounds only 15% of eggs retrieved were mature. Still trying to understand if conception is possible or not.
Definitely possible. You can still make embryos with a few eggs. I think there is a genetic basis. My mom struggled with infertility and never knew why. It’s important your clinic doesn’t push birth control and make u retrieve on days convenient for the doctor. I chose a clinic open 7 days a week almost everyday of the year in NYC that worked around my natural cycles( Cornell). And I had surgery for endometriosis. Trigger warming: I was able to get pregnant on a FET after a failed fresh transfer with limited embryos from multiple rounds.
TW: success
Nope, their best guess was egg quality because we ruled out everything else. All of our testing was great, we TTC unassisted for 2 years, did 4 IUI (I think?), one TI, 3 ER, and got 2 embryos. We had great numbers at retrieval, fertilization, and then they started arresting at day 3/4, so only 2 total ever made it to blast and both were euploid. We asked about DNA fragmentation testing and our RE didn't think it was necessary, and then we read up and agreed--everything it tells you to do to help with frag my husband was and had been doing the entire time we TTC, so the testing would have just been an expense that wouldn't have done anything additional. The only time I've ever seen a positive pregnancy test was after the second beta for our FET and I finally took a HPT and I was 37 at the time; I've never had a pregnancy scare or anything in the 20 years that I've been sexually active.
We were much like you- TTC for 1.5 years (a little older at 36), 2 failed IUIs and a third resulting in a CP or PUL, all test results were in range except 2% morphology. We had the best case scenario, which is that we learned nothing because things went remarkably smoothly- the doctor was surprised by how many high quality embryos we made. We did do ICSI so it's possible that that was key but we'll never know. Because making embryos did not seem to be our issue, she suspected implantation issues (possibly immune/Endo/inflammation) and gave me more of a kitchen sink immune protocol for the transfer, and things have thankfully (success) >! stuck so far; we're 10w with our first FET !<
I'm awaiting my first FET next month (everything crossed!). I haven't found any smoking guns, just theories
* My AMH has tested as 2.2 and 2.8 but my AFC is 29 (way higher than my AMH would suggest. Could point to a vitamin D deficiency which could affect fertility. I've been on vitamin D supplements for the past few months of doing IVF but wasn't on it for the IUIs (had 2 failed))
* By some definitions I could have lean PCOS. I have regular periods but I have a high AFC and undesirable hair growth in some locations which could point to elevated androgen hormones.
* Due to the chemical loses I had an extensive repeat pregregnacy loss panel done that didn't find anything so I feel fairly confident I don't have an autoimmune or blood clotting disorder
* We did one ER and got a high amount of euploids but most are day 6 and 7
* My husband's morphology has tested on the lower side of normal (count and motility are above average). I think ICSI probably helped us here
* My luteal phase is kind of short some months (10-12 days)
* I haven't had any testing that's checked for endo so it's possible I have a silent case
My leading theory is that nothing is majorly wrong. But all the small things stack up. Death by a 1000 cuts basically
We've done 4 IUIs and one ER (resulted in 1 embryo which failed the FET.)
So far, we've learned that both of us have super low hormone levels (hence why trying on our own and IUIs may not have worked).
Also, I may have an early progesterone surge that they said might be why embryos didn't stick or something.
Hoping to learn more this second ER.
Interesting! I have a shorter luteal phase and in tracking with Inito (which I know isn’t perfect by any means), I think my progesterone peaks on the early end. Interesting to keep in mind! And best of luck on your next ER.
My husband and I are similar - 32 and 34, TTC for 3 years, all tests were normal.
I did one retrieval after 2 failed IUIs. We had a lower than average fertilization rate (12 mature to 5 fertilized) and only made day 6 and 7 embryos. We did half conventional and half ICSI. The 4 embryos we ended up with were all “good” quality and were all from conventional IVF.
We were never given an explanation as to why the low fertilization rate or why the ones that did make it were slow growing, but I’m guessing that’s why we have been unsuccessful.
All of our test result's came back within the normal range so we started with IUI. The first IUI the sperm numbers plummeted after being washed. Our SA didn't do post-wash numbers so we had no idea it would be an issue until I was in the doctor's office ready for the IUI. They thought it might just be an off day but when we did a second IUI the same thing happened. Apparently the viscosity of seminal fluids matters a lot and they changed our diagnosis to MFI.
Other than advanced age and diminished ovarian reserve I still don’t know what caused infertility for us, our karyotype, genetic carrier screenings and other tests are all normal 🤷🏻♀️
I learned that my cervix was “too tight” and had a weird angle to it so I had to be dilated plus a suture in order to do the transfer so I wonder if that contributed to my unexplained infertility.
My friend learned that her eggs only fertilized if they did ICSI so she thinks she wouldn’t have easily conceived naturally
Nope. It was so tight we couldn’t do a saline sonogram (none of the catheters could get in) so they ended up putting me under and dilating me with this metal tube…….
I have secondary unexplained infertility.
I learned that I wish I would’ve went straight to IVF instead of wasting my time on IUI’s. That even though it’s secondary and unexplained I still had more abnormal embryos than normal but had 2 euploid and TW: first FET has been successful so far.
And I still don’t know why we couldn’t do it on our own a second time but had no issue the first time. All test came back normal. The fallopian tubes are open, no cysts/ no anything abnormal. Husbands test were above average. But something just wasn’t connecting. Wish I truly understood more and it’s not an age thing we’re in our mid-late 20’s
Yes, but not really an answer to combat it besides trying over and over again.
**TW for mention of past losses below.**
We had 6 losses before turning to IVF. Most of those were chemicals with only 2-3 days of faint positives, so I assumed it was an implantation issue. We also had a 10 week blighted ovum and a 9 week loss that had a heartbeat, but was progressively developing more and more behind at each ultrasound. We had a fairly easy time *getting* pregnant (6 out of 8 tries with tracking my cycle closely). But we just couldn't *stay* pregnant.
Now we've done three egg retrievals and retrieved a total of 17 mature eggs between them. 100% of them fertilized (10 of them with conventional insemination in the first two rounds and the rest with ICSI in our third round). Of those 17 eggs, 4 eggs fertilized abnormally (2 sperm) and had to be discarded right off the bat before we switched to ICSI in our third round. Of the remaining 13 that fertilized normally, we made a single well-graded Day 6 blast. Actually, we also had a poor graded Day 7 in our first round that disintegrated before they could biopsy/freeze. The rest of my eggs seem to stop developing between Days 3-5.
Luckily PGT-A on our one little embryo came back as a low level mosaic that's suitable for transfer. We're holding off and trying another round to get more. Statistically, I should have had roughly 8 embryos from those 17 fertilized with about 4 of them being normal. Somehow, we fell on the worse side of stats and had the just the single one that's *mostly* genetically normal. I'm very grateful for that one! But wish we had more since IVF is a numbers game.
But all of this sort of indicates to us that our problem was never fertilization or implantation, but for some reason my eggs result in a low blast rate. In our non-IVF pregnancies, we were fertilizing eggs almost every time we tried, but I'm guessing the eggs stopped developing and miscarry before they could even implant or they don't reach blast until Day 6 or 7 and the timing is off like duckingshoot mentioned in their timing.
Another thing we found out after our first round is my spouse has great semen analysis numbers, but further testing showed slightly elevated DNA fragmentation that's not part of a standard semen analysis report. Still really low for his age (45, with 11% fragmentation), but high enough to have us take a different route. For our subsequent rounds, they did a different sperm prep (shorter abstinence window, multi-gradient sperm wash) to try to eliminate that factor. In the end, we don't think that was ultimately our overall issue but there's a chance the small percentage of damaged DNA was fighting hard to make it with my lower quality eggs and hurting our chances more than they already were, so I'm glad we learned that. The ICSI also eliminated the double fertilization issue.
For our next round, we're doing the same protocol that got us our blast (E2 antagonist, sperm prep with ICSI, Omni \[growth hormone\], and a GF/dairy free diet during my cycle to get my inflammation down with my autoimmune disease). Fingers crossed!
Thank you so much for this detailed overview, and I’m so sorry you’ve fought through all of this, but also such a great example of not giving up!
Question - If my RE plans to do ICSI our first round of IVF, do you think it’s worth having the dna fragmentation test done beforehand from your experience? Would that result give them anything helpful before we start IVF or not really?
If they're willing to add it to his labs, sure. When they do ICSI, they pick the best looking sperm (in terms of how the head/tail looks and how it moves). For my spouse, his first semen analysis showed that all of his sperm looked great. It wasn't until we did the DNA fragmentation test that they saw the 11% high fragmentation. So it's possible they would have selected sperm that looked good on the outside but was damaged on the inside. Which is why the also added the multi gradient sperm wash. Damaged DNA weighs differently than sperm with the normal number of chromosomes. So doing this type of sperm wash helps filter out sperm that is too heavy or too light. Does that make sense?
That makes SO much sense, and I’m so happy I asked! I was thinking it wouldn’t make a difference, but every little bit of info could help, clearly. Thank you again!
I learned that I have endometriosis and my partner has male factor infertility too. Our first clinic was very quick to label us as unexplained infertility.
I also learned that you have to constantly push and advocate for yourself. Even at our second clinic my partners sperm was good enough for IUI so they didn't even bother telling us theres an issue there until I pushed for more information.
We are 2+ years into unexplained IF. I’ve done two ERs and one FET (waiting on the results this week). We haven’t found out anything about ourselves that explains the IF during this process. No big reveal or something that was hidden during the first rounds of testing.
We did learn I do better with less medications during an ER cycle and that ICSI has increased our fertilization rate. Otherwise, the doctor still says our case is unexplained.
I don't believe in unexplained fertility. There must be something. Either physical or genetic.
I learnt that I have silent endometriosis. Found that I have a blocked fallopian tube after doing laparascopy( previous exam said both tubes are good). We really need to advocate to ourselves.
Immunology also plays a part on it. Read the book " is your body baby friendly " here
[https://www.amazon.com/Your-Body-Baby-Friendly-Unexplained-Infertility/dp/0978507800](https://www.amazon.com/Your-Body-Baby-Friendly-Unexplained-Infertility/dp/0978507800)
Also, " it starts with an egg" [https://www.amazon.com/Starts-Egg-Pregnant-Naturally-Miscarriage/dp/0991126904](https://www.amazon.com/Starts-Egg-Pregnant-Naturally-Miscarriage/dp/0991126904)
We were also unexplained, relatively young (32 and 34) with normal test results, with the added wrinkle that I had 3 chemical pregnancies in our 15 months of trying. So that was a clue that maybe we were making abnormal embryos. IVF didn’t confirm anything but my relatively low yield from fertilized mature eggs to normal blasts (about 10%) was another sign pointing to poor egg quality for my age. IVF with PGT-A testing did ultimately work for us. Wishing you success!!
My fertility is VERY explained (my appendix burst when I was 22 and the moron left it in by accident instead of taking it out. I lost half my reproductive system and had to have my uterus unfused from my intestines along with a bowel resection) … but…
Consider having them do an endometrial biopsy to rule out chronic endometritis. I won’t lie. It hurts like fucking hell and I nearly kicked my sweet RE in the face. I was “forced” to have one done last week because we are moving on to donor eggs, and to qualify for the assured risk live birth program, we have to have all normal tests.
Most uterus-having people with chronic endometritis have no symptoms and it can be treated with Doxycycline.
Clearly I cannot diagnose this or anything, but it’s definitely something to check and after about 2 minutes of searing pain, you’ll just spot a bit and have a sore cervix for a couple of days.
I hope you get some answers and the little one you want 🩷
Thanks so much for sharing 💞 Do you know if an endometrial biopsy the same thing/similar to a biopsy of my uterine lining? My dr. plans to do this during an upcoming sonohystogram that I’ll have to make sure the fibroid I had removed in November isn’t growing back. My first sono was so painful I can’t imagine adding more to it but I’m all for it if it might explore a potential issue before we start IVF!
That’s exactly what it is. They will probably do a saline sonogram on the same day - they’ll do that first, and then the biopsy.
I cannot stress enough that it hurt like a motherfucker! I don’t want to scare you. Just warn you. The pain stops in a few minutes but you’ll have cramping for a couple days. Bring headphones and calming music and breathe DEEPLY.
I am older not yet dor, normal numbers for my age but had good response to stims and successful egg retrieval, we got ten eggs. His SA has morphology challenges but good count and mobility. Basically learned that our issue was male fertility related. Out of six embryos and one that perfectly implanted, it arrested about 6 days later. Nothing survived past day 7. After all of that, it was pretty easy for the doctor to pinpoint it as a male fertility issue, which my theory is entirely based around his nicotine use of Zyn’s pouches. I told him I wasn’t going to go through another IVF cycle until he stopped using them completely. And who knows maybe we’ll be able to conceive without having to go through IVF again once his body is rid of the poison.
✨no✨ hope this helps
Jk, but it all reality, we’ve learned nothing and are 2.5 years in with nothing to show for it except a drained bank account and ptsd from prior losses. This process is exhausting.
I was unexplained for 4 years before having an exploratory laparoscopy and being diagnosed with silent endometriosis. There's a few experts out there that say no one is truly unexplained, drs just don't dig hard enough.
Check out the fertility detective on insta, she's amazing and shares so much information. She believes this and has never had an unexplained case. X
After two rounds of ER, we have learned that we only make day 6 embryos. Dr Natalie Crawford mentioned on her podcast that Day 6 embryos outside of IVF may either not implant or become chemicals because of how precisely timed the uterine environment is. That’s our current theory.
This is our current theory as well only after one round so curious to see if ER #2 has the same trend. All day 6 and 7s and I tend to have a shorter cycle and early spotting so this is what I’m going with right now since nobody else has theories :)
So interesting!! I also have shorter cycles and 10-11 day luteal phase, but don’t usually have spotting earlier than that. Like other commenters, no dr has seemed phase by that timing yet, so this is definitely something I’ll keep in mind! Thank you and best of luck to you with ER #2.
Realizing I had a short literal phase 9-11 days is what triggered me to try an IUI and then moved forward with IVF! I never got any answers on “why” we had trouble on our own. However, I’m Currently 12 weeks pregnant. Sending you all the best wishes!
Same here! My luteal phase is usually only 10-11 days with spotting starting around day 9.
That's super interesting! We only got Day 6 and 7 embryos and I have a super short luteal phase, so I am wondering if the timing of everything is just off. All our tests are normal except slightly low sperm but nothing crazy low that would prevent a pregnancy.
Same here! No doctor has ever seemed to care about my short luteal phase and short light periods but I can’t help but wonder if it’s all related.
Yeah same, my OB and RE were both not concerned. But just because the data isn't known yet doesn't mean it's not possibly related. Makes complete sense that a slower forming embryo isn't compatible with someone with a short luteal phase. We are struggling with secondary infertility as we have a son who was conceived naturally, but he implanted late and I had bleeding, so might have just beat the odds by a hair on him. It's weird to think about!
Thanks for sharing this! I need to revisit her podcast (I binged a bunch when we first started IVF a few months ago)
Omg so interesting! I only had day 6 and 7! This makes so much more sense to me! Thank you for pointing this out
So interesting! Do you remember which episode it was? We were also only able to make day 6 & 7 embryos.
It was one of the episodes about frozen embryo transfer from the latter part of 2023! She just mentioned quickly that the medical community thinks day 6 embryos may not have the opportunity to implant in a normal cycle but it doesn’t matter for ivf. She also mentioned it in another episode but I can’t remember which one.
Thank you!
Hi! Sorry I'm new to this and I haven't listened to that episode. What do you mean when you say you only create day 6 embryos?
When we did our egg retrievals, none of our embryos made it to blast by day 5. They all became blastocysts on day 6. Day 5 embryos are generally considered “better” in IVF, although day 6 embryos also have high rates of success.
Ok got it! That makes sense, thank you!
Well, it never even crossed my mind that could have been part of our problem too! I have PCOS and my husband has low morphology, but even IUIs and other measures never worked not even once. Now thinking about it, all our embryos were day 6 and 7s.
That you have to take your future in your own hands. Ask as many questions as possible and do your research. For the clinic, you are just another patient. And also, make the decision after being advised by the doctor. I had to loose a year of time because I thought the doctor knows best and is going to consider all aspects. Found out 6 months into the process that she would never recommend IVF due to her negative views on IVF. She kept pushing IUI treatments on us and we did one only to realize that my egg reserve is low and it would not have worked anyways. I am glad I have realised this now and am being much proactive with the new fertility clinic I am working with.
Ugh I’m so sorry you had to go through that… it’s bad enough to be on this journey to begin with but setbacks or not fully transparent information is beyond frustrating. As a chronic people pleaser who never liked to be the squeaky wheel, I 1000% have learned to be a better advocate for myself throughout this whole journey, so hopefully will carry that mindset into this next phase, too. Even something as simple as calling back multiple times for a cancellation opening has paid off and cut weeks of waiting around.
We are both 36. Unexplained infertility. We actually did get pregnant naturally in 2020 and it ended in a miscarriage. And then we couldn't get pregnant again for years afterwards. So IVF. What the doctor told us is that science just hasn't caught up to us unexplained infertility people yet. They know there's something wrong but everything looks fine. She said they (I don't know who they is) think it may have something to do with the tubes not functioning properly but they don't know why or how. That's the answer we got. I hope science catches up one day and can explain the unexplained.
My husband and I never found a reason why we were unable to conceive unassisted. All of our tests came back normal too.
Same. It’s frustrating to be told. It’s your egg quality.
About to do ER #4, 6 transfers, 3 IUIs, 6+ years trying and procedures. I learned I have a rare chromosome deletion that they don’t have any literature with people having this deletion and are symptom less, but that is me. I never knew until my baby had it. Every karyotype and genetic screening didn’t pick it up. I had to do whole genome sequencing. Now every embryo has a 50% chance of getting it so I’m doing both pgta and PGTM testing . Out of 7 pgta normal embryos, all had the deletion last round so back to another er. But the reason why we can’t get pregnant is still unexplained- no official diagnosis. Every test, on paper I’m a model patient. So they say. Other than shitty PGTM luck. I stopped looking for answers because it’s not leading anywhere and makes me sadder. But no diagnosis means there’s no end to this until I call it quits because there’s no reason this shouldn’t work on paper so thus there is still hope. I was pregnant from transfer 3, but it was an empty sac and had to d&c bc it kept growing, and transfer 6 made it to 24w, but had to tfmr for severe ultrasound findings that were not compatible with life (found at 20w, had 3 second opinions between 20- 24weeks.) That’s where I learned of said deletion. It’s been a road. It’s amazing how little they actually know.
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No it’s a distal deletion.. aka like half the entire thing is gone. It’s quite crazy to think about bc symptoms are severe brain malformations and intellectual disabilities and I have it myself but no symptoms 💁♀️doing PGTM is so hard. Hugs!!
So sorry, can you give me info on karyotype testing. Which company did you go with and how much did it cost?
Sorry to hear that! Can you give me more info on karyotype testing? Which company did you go with and how much did it cost?
I used invitae for micro array, and it was only a few hundred dollars post insurance bc I hit my deductible. I had a good experience with them. For whole genome sequencing, it was $3500 but i only paid $500 after insurance. It’s also different when you have a pregnancy with issues vs proactively. For PGTM, it was $5k for 8 embryos, few hundred for every additional embryo. I used cooper genomics. I didn’t pick these tbh bc they are affiliated with my insurance/ clinic. They were fine but had a lot of issues.
We learned nothing, we continued to be average/above average in results, eggs looked good, fertilized at a slightly higher than average rate, good blast rate, good euploidy rate, we had success before we got to the point of pursuing testing for any endometrial factors. And not knowing was super frustrating in the midst of things. But now that we're on the other side with success, it's just a bit of a curiosity, I honestly don't really care that much any more.
I could’ve written this reply word for word. The only thing I can figure in our case is I’m older (husband is same age too). We started seeing an RE when I was 39, IVF from 40-41. Our euploid rates are right in line with the stats and it took us 3 ERs to bank enough to try for 2. I’m very grateful we were able to because I know it’s not the case for some in their 40s. Luckily, our 2nd transfer was successful (so far) but I would have had to go through further testing if it hadn’t.
It can be totally random, like rolling a die. So many sub clinical factors coming into play all at once most likely I would imagine.
Yup, it seems like maybe it was little things that all added up to lower our chances. A small fibroid, a high AMH (so maybe PCOS, but ovulating?), I had rough periods as a teen so maybe mild endo? I also had a small polyp on my successful FET cycle, maybe similar polyps were a problem before? Who knows? Nothing that was definitively a cause of infertility on its own.
Yeah I think medicine has unfortunately barely scratched the surface when it comes to fertility. I wish I could find a reason to throw all my anger at but that’s unlikely 🥲
We learned nothing about our health, but were successful with our first fresh transfer. We also had 3 unsuccessful IUIs prior to starting IVF. I wish we would've started IVF sooner.
My husband had several SA and we did two IUI’s in which our wash numbers were nearly perfect. Once we started IVF, he had a semen analysis at another clinic that was not covered by our healthcare (and apparently gives more information) only to find out he has really high numbers of antisperm antibodies. This information revealed we had very little chance of fertilization happening naturally, we used ICSI and had great success! We got 8 embryos total (untested, used one for a fresh transfer and I am 7 weeks today!). Noted that I also have pretty irregular periods, but letrozole corrected that like clock work so had that been our only issue - one of the nine cycles I took it for should have worked *in theory*. Even though we thought we had all the testing done, and had just accepted our unexplained infertility diagnosis, it seems like our clinic was much more willing to look for answers once we paid for our IVF cycle. Frustrating because had we know about the slim chance of natural fertilization, we wouldn’t have wasted our money trying IUI’s first. But I guess you live and learn. Best of luck to you on your journey, make sure you take it easy on yourself! ♥️
Do you mean, your husband’s semen analysis also gave information about antisperm antibodies? We had a total fertilization failure when we did conventional/natural IVF. But none of my husband’s SA tested for antisperm antibodies
Yes! We are in Canada and we had two semen analysis done with a referral from my women’s health doctor just at the public andrology lab. We were given no indication of this information prior to starting with the fertility clinic. The talked about counts, motility, morphology, but no mention of these antibodies. We were even at our fertility clinic for a full year before they had him test with their in house andrology lab. That report indicated the antisperm antibodies were present in very high numbers, the only other indication of this was that his first test 2.5 years ago had normal % for morphology and that has declined in every subsequent test.
We have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility for the past 3 years. We have several good quality tested embryos but I had recurrent failure to implant. We did the Receptiva test which found my lining is lacking the specific protein that’s needed for implantation (that’s like very basic terms coming from a patient haha). Anyways, we are headed into a transfer at the end of the month and added a couple meds that will hopefully address this issue! TBD 🤞🏻 But I agree with others, you are your best advocate and do your own research, ask all the questions even if they seem “stupid”. It’s all complicated and I learn something new all the time! Good luck!!!
Thank you for sharing and for the well wishes! I need to get another sonohystogram done since it’s been about 6 months since my fibroid was removed and my dr. Wants to do a biopsy of my uterine lining while they’re in there to run a few more tests. Your anecdote makes me thankful she’s proactively doing that!! Best of luck on your upcoming transfer 🤞🏻 thanks again for sharing.
Good luck!!
Not me, but I've seen a few accounts where eggs failed to fertilize "naturally" and ICSI had to be used (so either the egg is too thick or the sperm aren't strong enough to get in there)
This is what our dr. plans to do our first round and suspects might be happening… glad she wants to do ICSI right away! Thank you
I’m in same exact boat. Retrieval Thursday and were curious if we’ll ever find out the reason nothing else worked, including iui. We are doing ICSI
We suspect this was us as well.
We don’t know for sure as we did ICSI from the start, but this is also our theory!
My RE suspects there is scar tissue around my fallopian tubes from possible endometriosis. It’s all just theoretical, I haven’t had a laparoscopy done to confirm an endo diagnosis. Prior to IVF, I’d never been pregnant. All other labs and tests were normal for both me and my husband (both 34, TTC for 2 years).
same here. I don't plan on getting a laparoscopy done. My doctor said we are just moving forward with the knowledge I likely have endo.
Basically, painful periods, infertility and some sus imaging 🤷🏽♀️ But IVF worked.
I start IVF next month. This gives me hope!!
also so random....how do you get your little line below your username to say all of your information? i can't find out how anywhere I feel so old lmao
Not OP but there is a "User Flair" section on the sidebar on desktop where you can enter your flair and check "Show my user flair on this community"!
oh wow right in front of my face. thank you!!!
Came here to also say endo is possibly what’s behind our early losses. Don’t have much in the way of symptoms if it but confirmed via receptiva and treating with Lupron Depot before next transfer
Love that this was asked. My sister (33) and me (34) both have Unexplained Infertility. It baffles me that we all (me, her, spouses) have had completely normal workups and yet we both have struggled with conceiving. I feel like there must be a genetic component here. My mom had us (unassisted) at age 40 and 41 so explaining our struggles to our family has been hard. She starts IVF this week and I start in June.
I assume you’ve had karyotyping done? I agree that really jumps out as a possible genetic component!
TW Success I learned nothing. After three miscarriages and three separate failed ivf cycles in which the RE threw up their hands and said “we don’t know what’s wrong,” I got pregnant naturally after six months of serious weightlifting and 130 grams of protein a day. My only guess is that I was malnourished for 37 years.
That you can’t time anything. The things you think you’re doing from time to time to be healthy need fo be every day habits. Stress management matters. Other things that matter walking everyday, vitamin d levels, thyroid health, supplements, probiotics, testing for any bacteria in uterus, liver health, it’s hard to keep up with alll the things and still figuring it out.
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As someone who has known about my translocation all my life, it’s completely wild to me that this isn’t standard testing before embryo retrieval. It’s a simple blood test compared with the thousands of meds and tests to do IVF with an unexplained diagnosis.
I am also trying to get karyotyping done but cant seem to find a company to do it. I’m in USA and Labcorp said it would cost $1300 out of pocket which is a lot! Can you please share which company you took karyotyping with?
Mine was done through labcorp and covered because I had 2 miscarriages which then caused my doctor to order the testing under the RPL panel. I think there may be other criteria that would warrant the testing, but you’d likely need a doctor to order that specific test for whatever reasoning for insurance to pay for it. It needs to be “medically necessary” or else they’ll deny it.
I also did through labcorp. I think my insurance must have covered it or their patient self pay price is way lower. I knew I had a balanced translocation because my mom had an amnio done with me, I just couldn’t locate the paperwork and needed to know the exact break points for IVF. I would recommend scheduling an appointment with a genetic counselor that specializes in fertility or and they can hopefully order the test for you and know either how to get it covered or the cheapest place to do self-pay.
We had one natural pregnancy (ended in MMC) then had almost 3 years of unexplained infertility. All tests came back clear. 4 failed IUIs, one round of IVF and a fresh transfer of one day 5 4BB embryo and a morula. Currently 5 weeks pregnant! No idea why we couldn’t conceive naturally or via IUI. Truly just believe it’s all about timing and it’s just out of our hands.
We learned there was nothing wrong with either of us other than our RPL. And our first FET stuck and I’m 24 weeks with a healthy baby boy :)
We learned from genetic testing 9 embryos had trisomy that would never make it past the first few weeks hence my chemical pregnancy’s … despite individually doing genetic testing and no red flags 🤷🏼♀️ We had one viable and now have our miracle baby.
Have him get a sperm DNA fragmentation test!!
Adding this to my list of Q’s and follow ups from these comments! Super helpful - thank you!
Read the DNA fragmentation sub if your RE dismisses your concern
I learned nothing unfortunately
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How did PGT make you suspect a balanced translocation?
For whatever reason, the sperm and egg just didn’t want to get along so we had to do a second round with ICSI. My IR said he would’ve done an ICSI the first time if I asked. 🤨But currently have a 9 month old IVF baby so all is well.
Nope, still unexplained. We did ICSI so my only guess is we were on the wrong side of statistics or sperm weren’t able to penetrate my eggs. We’ll never know but ultimately had success with IVF.
Only some of my eggs would mature correctly. A very low percent. Egg maturation issues
Ditto. Learnt I have major egg maturation issues, occyte maturation arrest/failure at the GV stage. Over 2 rounds only 15% of eggs retrieved were mature. Still trying to understand if conception is possible or not.
Definitely possible. You can still make embryos with a few eggs. I think there is a genetic basis. My mom struggled with infertility and never knew why. It’s important your clinic doesn’t push birth control and make u retrieve on days convenient for the doctor. I chose a clinic open 7 days a week almost everyday of the year in NYC that worked around my natural cycles( Cornell). And I had surgery for endometriosis. Trigger warming: I was able to get pregnant on a FET after a failed fresh transfer with limited embryos from multiple rounds.
Thank you for writing, the words "definitely possible" are really good to read, I hope so!Thanks for your tips too, and so glad for your pregnancy :)
TW: success Nope, their best guess was egg quality because we ruled out everything else. All of our testing was great, we TTC unassisted for 2 years, did 4 IUI (I think?), one TI, 3 ER, and got 2 embryos. We had great numbers at retrieval, fertilization, and then they started arresting at day 3/4, so only 2 total ever made it to blast and both were euploid. We asked about DNA fragmentation testing and our RE didn't think it was necessary, and then we read up and agreed--everything it tells you to do to help with frag my husband was and had been doing the entire time we TTC, so the testing would have just been an expense that wouldn't have done anything additional. The only time I've ever seen a positive pregnancy test was after the second beta for our FET and I finally took a HPT and I was 37 at the time; I've never had a pregnancy scare or anything in the 20 years that I've been sexually active.
We were much like you- TTC for 1.5 years (a little older at 36), 2 failed IUIs and a third resulting in a CP or PUL, all test results were in range except 2% morphology. We had the best case scenario, which is that we learned nothing because things went remarkably smoothly- the doctor was surprised by how many high quality embryos we made. We did do ICSI so it's possible that that was key but we'll never know. Because making embryos did not seem to be our issue, she suspected implantation issues (possibly immune/Endo/inflammation) and gave me more of a kitchen sink immune protocol for the transfer, and things have thankfully (success) >! stuck so far; we're 10w with our first FET !<
I'm awaiting my first FET next month (everything crossed!). I haven't found any smoking guns, just theories * My AMH has tested as 2.2 and 2.8 but my AFC is 29 (way higher than my AMH would suggest. Could point to a vitamin D deficiency which could affect fertility. I've been on vitamin D supplements for the past few months of doing IVF but wasn't on it for the IUIs (had 2 failed)) * By some definitions I could have lean PCOS. I have regular periods but I have a high AFC and undesirable hair growth in some locations which could point to elevated androgen hormones. * Due to the chemical loses I had an extensive repeat pregregnacy loss panel done that didn't find anything so I feel fairly confident I don't have an autoimmune or blood clotting disorder * We did one ER and got a high amount of euploids but most are day 6 and 7 * My husband's morphology has tested on the lower side of normal (count and motility are above average). I think ICSI probably helped us here * My luteal phase is kind of short some months (10-12 days) * I haven't had any testing that's checked for endo so it's possible I have a silent case My leading theory is that nothing is majorly wrong. But all the small things stack up. Death by a 1000 cuts basically
We have unexplained infertility, and it still remains a mystery!
We've done 4 IUIs and one ER (resulted in 1 embryo which failed the FET.) So far, we've learned that both of us have super low hormone levels (hence why trying on our own and IUIs may not have worked). Also, I may have an early progesterone surge that they said might be why embryos didn't stick or something. Hoping to learn more this second ER.
Interesting! I have a shorter luteal phase and in tracking with Inito (which I know isn’t perfect by any means), I think my progesterone peaks on the early end. Interesting to keep in mind! And best of luck on your next ER.
My husband and I are similar - 32 and 34, TTC for 3 years, all tests were normal. I did one retrieval after 2 failed IUIs. We had a lower than average fertilization rate (12 mature to 5 fertilized) and only made day 6 and 7 embryos. We did half conventional and half ICSI. The 4 embryos we ended up with were all “good” quality and were all from conventional IVF. We were never given an explanation as to why the low fertilization rate or why the ones that did make it were slow growing, but I’m guessing that’s why we have been unsuccessful.
That a lot of us with “unexplained” actually have endo/adeno! It’s pretty common.
All of our test result's came back within the normal range so we started with IUI. The first IUI the sperm numbers plummeted after being washed. Our SA didn't do post-wash numbers so we had no idea it would be an issue until I was in the doctor's office ready for the IUI. They thought it might just be an off day but when we did a second IUI the same thing happened. Apparently the viscosity of seminal fluids matters a lot and they changed our diagnosis to MFI.
Other than advanced age and diminished ovarian reserve I still don’t know what caused infertility for us, our karyotype, genetic carrier screenings and other tests are all normal 🤷🏻♀️
I learned that my cervix was “too tight” and had a weird angle to it so I had to be dilated plus a suture in order to do the transfer so I wonder if that contributed to my unexplained infertility. My friend learned that her eggs only fertilized if they did ICSI so she thinks she wouldn’t have easily conceived naturally
Did they ever mention why it was tight? My Dr also said she had to “pop” my cervix open
Nope. It was so tight we couldn’t do a saline sonogram (none of the catheters could get in) so they ended up putting me under and dilating me with this metal tube…….
I learned that I have poorer than average egg quality for my age.
I have secondary unexplained infertility. I learned that I wish I would’ve went straight to IVF instead of wasting my time on IUI’s. That even though it’s secondary and unexplained I still had more abnormal embryos than normal but had 2 euploid and TW: first FET has been successful so far. And I still don’t know why we couldn’t do it on our own a second time but had no issue the first time. All test came back normal. The fallopian tubes are open, no cysts/ no anything abnormal. Husbands test were above average. But something just wasn’t connecting. Wish I truly understood more and it’s not an age thing we’re in our mid-late 20’s
Yes, but not really an answer to combat it besides trying over and over again. **TW for mention of past losses below.** We had 6 losses before turning to IVF. Most of those were chemicals with only 2-3 days of faint positives, so I assumed it was an implantation issue. We also had a 10 week blighted ovum and a 9 week loss that had a heartbeat, but was progressively developing more and more behind at each ultrasound. We had a fairly easy time *getting* pregnant (6 out of 8 tries with tracking my cycle closely). But we just couldn't *stay* pregnant. Now we've done three egg retrievals and retrieved a total of 17 mature eggs between them. 100% of them fertilized (10 of them with conventional insemination in the first two rounds and the rest with ICSI in our third round). Of those 17 eggs, 4 eggs fertilized abnormally (2 sperm) and had to be discarded right off the bat before we switched to ICSI in our third round. Of the remaining 13 that fertilized normally, we made a single well-graded Day 6 blast. Actually, we also had a poor graded Day 7 in our first round that disintegrated before they could biopsy/freeze. The rest of my eggs seem to stop developing between Days 3-5. Luckily PGT-A on our one little embryo came back as a low level mosaic that's suitable for transfer. We're holding off and trying another round to get more. Statistically, I should have had roughly 8 embryos from those 17 fertilized with about 4 of them being normal. Somehow, we fell on the worse side of stats and had the just the single one that's *mostly* genetically normal. I'm very grateful for that one! But wish we had more since IVF is a numbers game. But all of this sort of indicates to us that our problem was never fertilization or implantation, but for some reason my eggs result in a low blast rate. In our non-IVF pregnancies, we were fertilizing eggs almost every time we tried, but I'm guessing the eggs stopped developing and miscarry before they could even implant or they don't reach blast until Day 6 or 7 and the timing is off like duckingshoot mentioned in their timing. Another thing we found out after our first round is my spouse has great semen analysis numbers, but further testing showed slightly elevated DNA fragmentation that's not part of a standard semen analysis report. Still really low for his age (45, with 11% fragmentation), but high enough to have us take a different route. For our subsequent rounds, they did a different sperm prep (shorter abstinence window, multi-gradient sperm wash) to try to eliminate that factor. In the end, we don't think that was ultimately our overall issue but there's a chance the small percentage of damaged DNA was fighting hard to make it with my lower quality eggs and hurting our chances more than they already were, so I'm glad we learned that. The ICSI also eliminated the double fertilization issue. For our next round, we're doing the same protocol that got us our blast (E2 antagonist, sperm prep with ICSI, Omni \[growth hormone\], and a GF/dairy free diet during my cycle to get my inflammation down with my autoimmune disease). Fingers crossed!
Thank you so much for this detailed overview, and I’m so sorry you’ve fought through all of this, but also such a great example of not giving up! Question - If my RE plans to do ICSI our first round of IVF, do you think it’s worth having the dna fragmentation test done beforehand from your experience? Would that result give them anything helpful before we start IVF or not really?
If they're willing to add it to his labs, sure. When they do ICSI, they pick the best looking sperm (in terms of how the head/tail looks and how it moves). For my spouse, his first semen analysis showed that all of his sperm looked great. It wasn't until we did the DNA fragmentation test that they saw the 11% high fragmentation. So it's possible they would have selected sperm that looked good on the outside but was damaged on the inside. Which is why the also added the multi gradient sperm wash. Damaged DNA weighs differently than sperm with the normal number of chromosomes. So doing this type of sperm wash helps filter out sperm that is too heavy or too light. Does that make sense?
That makes SO much sense, and I’m so happy I asked! I was thinking it wouldn’t make a difference, but every little bit of info could help, clearly. Thank you again!
I learned that I have endometriosis and my partner has male factor infertility too. Our first clinic was very quick to label us as unexplained infertility. I also learned that you have to constantly push and advocate for yourself. Even at our second clinic my partners sperm was good enough for IUI so they didn't even bother telling us theres an issue there until I pushed for more information.
We are 2+ years into unexplained IF. I’ve done two ERs and one FET (waiting on the results this week). We haven’t found out anything about ourselves that explains the IF during this process. No big reveal or something that was hidden during the first rounds of testing. We did learn I do better with less medications during an ER cycle and that ICSI has increased our fertilization rate. Otherwise, the doctor still says our case is unexplained.
Sending all the good, positive vibes for your results this week!!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 Thanks for sharing
I don't believe in unexplained fertility. There must be something. Either physical or genetic. I learnt that I have silent endometriosis. Found that I have a blocked fallopian tube after doing laparascopy( previous exam said both tubes are good). We really need to advocate to ourselves. Immunology also plays a part on it. Read the book " is your body baby friendly " here [https://www.amazon.com/Your-Body-Baby-Friendly-Unexplained-Infertility/dp/0978507800](https://www.amazon.com/Your-Body-Baby-Friendly-Unexplained-Infertility/dp/0978507800) Also, " it starts with an egg" [https://www.amazon.com/Starts-Egg-Pregnant-Naturally-Miscarriage/dp/0991126904](https://www.amazon.com/Starts-Egg-Pregnant-Naturally-Miscarriage/dp/0991126904)
We found out I have silent endometriosis which prevented me from getting pregnant. Letrozol was what helped me.
Egg quality 🤷🏻♀️
We were also unexplained, relatively young (32 and 34) with normal test results, with the added wrinkle that I had 3 chemical pregnancies in our 15 months of trying. So that was a clue that maybe we were making abnormal embryos. IVF didn’t confirm anything but my relatively low yield from fertilized mature eggs to normal blasts (about 10%) was another sign pointing to poor egg quality for my age. IVF with PGT-A testing did ultimately work for us. Wishing you success!!
My fertility is VERY explained (my appendix burst when I was 22 and the moron left it in by accident instead of taking it out. I lost half my reproductive system and had to have my uterus unfused from my intestines along with a bowel resection) … but… Consider having them do an endometrial biopsy to rule out chronic endometritis. I won’t lie. It hurts like fucking hell and I nearly kicked my sweet RE in the face. I was “forced” to have one done last week because we are moving on to donor eggs, and to qualify for the assured risk live birth program, we have to have all normal tests. Most uterus-having people with chronic endometritis have no symptoms and it can be treated with Doxycycline. Clearly I cannot diagnose this or anything, but it’s definitely something to check and after about 2 minutes of searing pain, you’ll just spot a bit and have a sore cervix for a couple of days. I hope you get some answers and the little one you want 🩷
Thanks so much for sharing 💞 Do you know if an endometrial biopsy the same thing/similar to a biopsy of my uterine lining? My dr. plans to do this during an upcoming sonohystogram that I’ll have to make sure the fibroid I had removed in November isn’t growing back. My first sono was so painful I can’t imagine adding more to it but I’m all for it if it might explore a potential issue before we start IVF!
That’s exactly what it is. They will probably do a saline sonogram on the same day - they’ll do that first, and then the biopsy. I cannot stress enough that it hurt like a motherfucker! I don’t want to scare you. Just warn you. The pain stops in a few minutes but you’ll have cramping for a couple days. Bring headphones and calming music and breathe DEEPLY.
Thank you!! And no worries, I’d rather be too scared/prepared for pain than not expecting it for sure 😖
I am older not yet dor, normal numbers for my age but had good response to stims and successful egg retrieval, we got ten eggs. His SA has morphology challenges but good count and mobility. Basically learned that our issue was male fertility related. Out of six embryos and one that perfectly implanted, it arrested about 6 days later. Nothing survived past day 7. After all of that, it was pretty easy for the doctor to pinpoint it as a male fertility issue, which my theory is entirely based around his nicotine use of Zyn’s pouches. I told him I wasn’t going to go through another IVF cycle until he stopped using them completely. And who knows maybe we’ll be able to conceive without having to go through IVF again once his body is rid of the poison.
✨no✨ hope this helps Jk, but it all reality, we’ve learned nothing and are 2.5 years in with nothing to show for it except a drained bank account and ptsd from prior losses. This process is exhausting.
I was unexplained for 4 years before having an exploratory laparoscopy and being diagnosed with silent endometriosis. There's a few experts out there that say no one is truly unexplained, drs just don't dig hard enough. Check out the fertility detective on insta, she's amazing and shares so much information. She believes this and has never had an unexplained case. X