Poor blastocyst development across 4 retrievals — what to do next?
Hello!
37F, husband early 40s. Two years TTC, 4 IUIs failed, 4 egg retrievals, 1 transfer resulting in chemical pregnancy. Looking for advice on next steps.
Across all retrievals: good ovarian response (15 mature eggs most recently), excellent fertilization rates (14/15 fertilized this cycle), but consistently poor blastocyst development. This cycle only 2 made it to blast out of 14 fertilized.
To date we have had 2 euploid embryos total — all day 7s. Husband had low testosterone, treated with Clomid for 3 months prior to most recent retrieval. No DNA fragmentation. All my testing has come back normal.
I tried to optimize each cycle — nutrition, supplements including prenatal, CoQ10, NAC, NR, krill oil, vitamin D. Husband on Clomid. Same protocol as previous cycles but slower estradiol rise this cycle.
We have one day 7 5AA euploid for transfer.
I've had a second opinion who said they would do the same protocol my current RE is using. I had a third opinion and this dr said I'm running out of time and I should try day 3 fresh transfer.
Questions for the community:
- Has anyone had a similar pattern of good fertilization but poor blast development and found a solution?
- Is there anything we haven't tried that you would suggest?
Thank you! ❤️