Dr. Umma Salma

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Infertility Treatment Methods

IVF Failures

A failed IVF cycle can be devastating for the patient. It can be emotionally, financially and psychologically draining for the patient. It feels like the end of the world. At my Gynecology and Fertility center or in my chamber I do understand the situation as many patients with previous failed IVF cycles come to us for second opinion. We specialize in catering to IVF failure patients and giving them best chances of conception.

What next?

Don’t give up. It is not the end of the world. Even a failed IVF cycle can tell me what went wrong and how can I improve our chances next time, what do we do which is different from previous cycle? Hence it is imperative to keep all our records of IVF- what drugs were used for stimulation, were there any problems encountered in follicular growth? Do keep the embryology records like number of eggs retrieved, the grade or the quality of embryos transferred. Was it a day 3 or a day 5 (blastocyst) transfer? It is imperative that after a failure you meet your IVF consultant to discuss regarding the reasons for failure and any further steps needed to improve your chances of success.

Why did my IVF cycle fail?

There can be multiple reasons for failure of an IVF cycle. It can be an issue with –

  • Eggs: if the number of eggs retrieved are low less than 5, or the quality of eggs is poorer there is abnormal morphology of eggs, it might result in failure of an IVF cycle.

  • Sperms: If there is issue with morphology of sperms or there is an infection in semen, we might see poor fertilization rates (a smaller number of eggs and sperms join to form embryos).

  • Poor quality of embryos.

  • Uterine issues like thin endometrium, uterine adhesions or polyps, adenomyotic uterus

  • Unexplained if everything was fine great embryos, great endometrium but still pregnancy doesn’t happen So in nutshell if there is an issue with the seed (embryo) or the soil, there might be failure of an IVF cycle.

How do we plan our treatment further?

IVF is a man-made science which can never guarantee 100% success. Even in the best prognosis patients we do see failures. It is essential to reflect and try to understand what went wrong. However, as it is not an exact science don’t lose hope and stop trying because IVF as a treatment has the highest success rate and has the best potential to give you your child. But if you lose hope and don’t try, you might lose your precious reproductive years.