QuestionHello and thank you for your time in responding to these questions.
I am 33 years old, husband 40. Our diagnosis is unexplained infertility. I have slight PCOS. My body fat is 23-24%. We have been trying for 4 years, 3 of which have been assisted with meds. There is a very very slight male factor, our RE does not think this is the reason and I have endometriosis diagnosed at stage 1 or 2. I did a lap 2 years ago and had a sonohystogram 4 months ago, all was normal. We just did our 1st IVF and it failed. I produced 11 eggs, 3 were done with IVF and the rest with ICSI. 8 continued to grow 6 of which were Grade 1, one was starting to compact and 2 transferred back in. Our RE was very careful with the transfer, but had a hard time getting through the cervix, he said it was almost like there was a type of stenosis and it caused slight bleeding. He went through 3 or 4 catheters to be safe and ended up implanting higher up so to stay away from the "disruption". He said failure could be the embryos were abnormal or implantation failure d/t endometrium. O.K but this doesn't give me much and I'm not sure if it's EVER going to work. I am very worried and we don't have a lot of time d/t my husband's age and not wanting to have kids at age 45...can you perhaps help with more clarification? Thanks so very much,
CANADA
AnswerHello Christy from Canada,
Of course I cannot tell you specifically what did not work. That is not possible. However, I think that the difficulty with transfer could have had a major impact on the failure. Studies have shown that the embryo transfer is the critical step in IVF. If you have great embryos but do not get them into the uterus appropriately, then it will fail.
Other than that, IVF is still just a chance and not a sure thing. The last two steps of the process that your body goes through to achieve pregnancy are "natural" steps and we do not have the technology to make them happen. For that reason, IVF is not 100%. In my practice, a patient your age has a 73% chance of pregnancy per IVF cycle, but only 60% get pregnant in their first try. The remainder will require 2-3 tries. The good news is that almost 100% will be pregnant by 3 attempts so you have to keep trying. Keep in mind that IVF is just like trying naturally. We are only helping nature, not taking it over. Because of that, just like a woman will try for pregnancy over several months when trying naturally, you have to expect that IVF may take several tries as well.
Sorry for the delay in my response. I was away and did not have internet acess.
Good luck,
Edward J. Ramirez, M.D., FACOG
Executive Medical Director
The Fertility and Gynecology Center
Monterey Bay IVF Program
www.montereybayivf.com
Monterey, California, U.S.A.
for additional information check out my blog at http://womenshealthandfertility.blogspot.com check me out on twitter with me at @montereybayivf
