Please help me, I has egg retrieval yesterday and emrbyo transfer schduled on wednesday. The % of fertilized eggs are low. I am sad and scared. 4 embryos out of 16 retrieved eggs. Will they last until day 5...

Hi Ladies,
I am going through my first IVF cycle. I got pregnant earlier last year on my first IUI, but had an ectopic. I tried 5 cycles of IUI after that but didn't get pregnant. So we are trying IVF now.
I had egg retrieval on friday. 16 eggs were retrieved.
Today the doctor called (day 1), and said that 8 eggs were mature and 4 of them fertilized.
First of all, the doctor saw about 12 follicles larger than 18mm 2 days before the retrieval. So I don't understand why only 8 out of 16 eggs are mature. (To be precise, there were two 21s, one 20, six 19s, 3 18s and several other 15s and 15s....at the morning ultrasound exactly two days before the retrieval, I did my HCG that night, and had retrieval 36 hours after)

So, should the doctor have waited one or two more days? Is 8 mature out of 16 eggs low or normal? Why did it happen that way?

My second question and I think even more importantly: 4 fertilization out of 8 mature eggs. They used ICSI on all of them (It is the clinic's standard procedure to use ICSI)....I read the fertilization rates are normally around 60-70% and with ICSI usually around 80%...mine is 50%....What does this mean ladies? Please help, why do people have low fertilization rates?
Husband's count and motility is normal, morphology low, but don't think it matters with ICSI...

I am going to talk to the doctor again on monday (day 3 of embryos)....He has planned a day 5 transfer (that is his standard procedure)....
I don't know how many out of the 4 are going to be okay...

I feel disappointed, sad and scared. WIll I ever have kids. WHat's wrong with me that my egg fertilization rates were at 50%?

[nylena]

hi,I understand your frustration,ivf is not a relaxing procedure-I've been there-and it's normal to have so many questions,in fact you should ask as many as you can to your doc,he's the only one to give you reliable answers...I think it's quite often that fertilized eggs are much less than those retrieved,but 4 embryos is a very good number,my best friend managed to have only one embryo and got pg !Remember all you need is a good-viable embryo.Don't stress too much and good luck with transfer!SSBD!

[Helen72]

50% fertilization with ICSI is kind of low.  You should talk to your embryologist about that.  For us they said that some of the embryos fertilized abnormally.  We got bfp so I never went back for follow up questions but you should definitely ask about that.

Whether 4 embryos is enough depends on embryo quality.  A friend of mine had 3 embryos out of 4 going to blast stage while we had 3 barely surviving embryos out of 9.  There is no way of knowing how good your embryos are before day 3.  

I am sorry you are so frustrated with ivf.  It was the same for me but I got my bfp despite the low odds.
Good luck!

[Jenny5]

Ivf is not an easy road and even though they retrieve  many eggs not all of them are good quality.I had my first ivf last summer and had 12 eggs retrieved. 9 were mature and fertilized but only 5 made it to day 3 and only 3 made it to day 5. i also was frustrated and scared cause i didn't knew if was gonna have any to transfer. When i asked my Re why everyday i had embryos that were stopping he said that there quality is not good but he was not sure about. it din't work for me cause none of them took. This time he wil change they procedure and do the Antigon protocol.he says that when one procedure doesn't work it doesn't make sense to do the same. My husband has no problems and problably that is why i m/c 3 times. i only had 2 embryos in the end and out of 12 eggs for me that was bad.
You don't need many embryos but good ones. Talk to your doctor but there are things not even them know.Good luck

[babywanted556]

I got 13 follicles, 10 mature, 8 fertilized/ICSI.
Transfer all 8, at 6.5 week still no sac in uterus and expect the ectopic pregnancy.  Will see tomorrow.
In your case, the rate is a bit low.  Quality is what you should look at.  I hope you get BFP this month then you don't have to worry about it no more.  Best wish.

[kelkel329]

IVF is the most emotionally rocky road! I had a successful IVF 3 years ago and now have a perfect 2 year-old son. I did have 29 eggs retrieved (and had extremely bad OHSS) Only 18 fertilized because the other 11 were not mature. Of those, we only ended up with three good blasts. They put back 2 in a day 5 transfer and I got pregnant with my son.

I am now 7 days post a 3-day transfer and this time it didn't go so well. They dialed down the hormones and got 18 eggs. 12 were mature and 6 fertilized. On day 2, the embryologist and my doc recommended a day 3 transfer because I had 1 good, 1 average and 1 poor. They wanted to put back 3 but my husband said no, so they put back 2. Now, I'm waiting, but certain it was a failed attempt.

I cannot answer all of your questions because I am still learning, but I urge you to hang in there. Do the best you can through this cycle. It takes 1 good embryo to make a perfect baby! If this cycle doesn't go well, then go get your questions answered before you start a new cycle. Good luck!

[kazah]

Hi there.  It is good news that you have some fertilised.  I did my first IVF in December, but unfortunately didn't respond too well to the medication.  I only had three eggs retrieved and none fertilised.  One thing though that the doctor recommended was for me to have a check for ovarian reserve.  They did a blood test, testing FSH and AMH.  Apparently the AMH is a better indicator of ovarian reserve.  So, maybe this may be something to ask your doctor.  Good luck with it! :)