Trying for a baby (12+ M/not straightforward)

FairyElephant_2

Hi Toniq - thanks for that. I'm with BCRM in Bristol. Used to be private clinic but merged with the local NHS Fertility Clinic last year (for the worse I think as far as the private patients are concerned!). They do have a very good track record and also do a lot of research, but if this cycle doesn't give me a baby (I can't say doesn't 'work', as I had previous 'success' but one was ectopic and one MC) then we can afford to try one more so may look at going somewhere different for it.
It's useful to know what happens at other clinics, if only as a discussion point with my consultant!
FE

epsilondraconis

On the topic of clinics, I don't suppose anyone has any thoughts on whether Oxford is a reasonable IVF clinic for private patients? I've heard / read mixed reviews and was wondering whether our £5k for ICSI would be better spent elsewhere.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: The other clinic we were thinking of was Bath...

liloandstitch

Hi epsilondraconis I use a clinic at Wimbledon, London which I find to be excellent. You can look at success rates etc on a web site - which I would tell you if my brain would tell me which name it is - its the governing body one? Oh help that wasnt much use was it!! Hopefully someone else will remember, or I will when I get back from school run.

Lilo

epsilondraconis

Hi Lilo, thanks. I guess you meant:

http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide/

Oxford seems to perform quite well when looking at the statistics. I suppose that I was hoping that Oxford would come out fairly poorly as we would then be able to attribute a portion of the failure to the clinic. After having 9 eggs and ICSI, and then find that none of them fertilise, I was hoping that maybe we would have more success by changing clinics; however that may not be the case.

Hmmm, back to the drawing board it seems...

FairyElephant_2

Thanks for that link epsilon....I've just found that my clinic (BCRM) has a fairly good success rate in ICSI at my age - 18%, but the Oxford one has 23%, so def. worth looking into if we need to do it another time.

epsilondraconis

FairyElephant wrote: »

Thanks for that link epsilon....I've just found that my clinic (BCRM) has a fairly good success rate in ICSI at my age - 18%, but the Oxford one has 23%, so def. worth looking into if we need to do it another time.

It's thanks to Lilo - I must confess that I didn't realise that the success rates were published on a government website and so easily accessible. It was only when she mentioned it that I did a google search.

I guess it just leaves me feeling even more depressed that the Oxford success rates seem to be pretty good and yet our ICSI results were so bad. I think it summed it up when we were in the meeting with the consultant and they said that its very rare they see none of the eggs fertilise when everything seemed fine and when using ICSI. They recommended trying IVF once more; however if the results were the same, they said that we should focus on egg donation or adoption. Oh well, maybe I should try convincing myself that I never wanted to be a dad anyway

FairyElephant_2

epsilondraconis wrote: »

Oh well, maybe I should try convincing myself that I never wanted to be a dad anyway

Awww - don't despair Epsilon - sometimes there doesn't seem to be 'rhyme or reason' with IVF! I know it sounds corny, but there is always hope, and I don't think they would be willing to let you try again if there was no chance at all.

The first time around I had loads of eggs, and even some embies to freeze - the second time I had less follies but more viable eggs(!?!) lots of which fertilised, but none suitable for freezing at all..... My DH has reduced quantities of sperm, plus antisperm antibodies, so the fact that they get any at all to fertilise my eggs with is a blessing!

toniq

epsilondraconis don't beat urself up, IF has many many causes and accepting u have a problem and seeking help is a major step forward, Our last Ivf + icsi, we had 20 eggs 9 embryos , 2 put in at days 3 and 1 frozen blasto.
but yet with this cyle 18 months later
21 eggs,18 embryos, 2 put in at day 5 and 6 frozen blastos

every cycle will be different, hope fully if u try again with icsi u might see a different result, if not egg donation isn't a bad road to go down, don't give up, maybe even seek a more specialist clinic?
we made major lifestyle changes in the 18 months between our attempts, and we had also had false starts to ivfs, so this last cycle we never expected to get day 5 let alone have any frozen xxx

hang in there xxxx

epsilondraconis

Thanks for the words of encouragement. The problem is that I /we never really stop thinking about it - even to the point of not going to certain places because there are lots of people with their kids. I prefer to just stay in the house.

Anyway, its encouraging that all isn't lost (not just yet anyway). I guess we need to try to stay positive and hopefully having a positive mindset will help things. We'll probably be doing IVF again in August time and just have to see what happens. Hopefully there will be a lot of good news to report on this thread between now and then anyway which will be good. We've got our fingers crossed for everyone.

liloandstitch

Well put toniq. Im glad I pointed you in the right direction with the website, I still couldnt remember so glad you found it!!!!

Did they have any theories as to why you didnt fertilise? Was it egg quality - in which case would you be better not force growing the embryos? I dont know if your clinic does it but mine does 'natural' IVF where you work with the natural cycle, and the natural produced follicle is harvested and the egg is fertilised (using ICSI if necessary) this is a lot more gentle and for various reasons this is the only way we proceed now, and suits me as I can only have one embryo put in at a time anyway. If you want any more info I can point you to the website (I have no connection with them other than using them and am posting this for help only)

Lilo