From the Research
I strongly recommend scheduling a follow-up consultation with your fertility specialist to discuss what happened and plan next steps, as IVF failures are common and success rates vary depending on factors like age and underlying fertility issues. It's essential to understand that IVF failures can occur due to various reasons, including embryo quality, implantation issues, uterine receptivity, or other factors that your doctor can help identify 1.
Factors Affecting IVF Success
Some studies suggest that factors like maternal age, semen parameters, and stimulation regimens can impact IVF outcomes 2. For example, advancing maternal and paternal age can negatively affect pregnancy rates, while high sperm DNA fragmentation may not consistently impact pregnancy rates in IUI cycles.
Next Steps
Your doctor may suggest modifications to your protocol for future attempts, which could include:
- Adjusting medication dosages (such as Gonal-F, Menopur, or Follistim)
- Changing the timing of progesterone supplementation (typically 50-100mg injections or 200mg vaginal suppositories)
- Considering additional treatments like endometrial scratching or immunotherapy
- Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) to screen embryos before transfer
Emotional Support
It's crucial to acknowledge the psychological impact of IVF failure, which can be significant. Consider joining a support group for additional emotional support during this challenging time. Many patients require multiple IVF cycles before achieving success, and each failed cycle provides valuable information that can help optimize future attempts 3.
Recurrent Implantation Failure
If you've experienced recurrent implantation failure, it's essential to determine the underlying cause, which can be related to immunology, thrombophilias, endometrial receptivity, microbiome, anatomical abnormalities, male factors, or embryo aneuploidy 1. Individualized treatment aimed at the primary cause seems to be an effective method for increasing the implantation rate.