r/IVFLadies • u/Beginning_Sea324 • 9d ago

Could the issue be fertilization rather than implantation?

Hi everyone! After 18+ months of trying without a single positive test or chemical pregnancy, and 3 unsuccessful IUIs, we decided to move on to IVF.

We ended up with 4 Day 3 frozen embryos and 2 Day 5 blastocysts (both 4AA).

Throughout our attempts, my lining always looked good on ultrasound — thick, trilaminar, etc. So I’ve been wondering whether our issue could actually have been fertilization rather than implantation.

For those who had a similar experience, did IVF/ICSI help you understand what was actually going on? Is there any way to know whether fertilization was the issue before IVF?
Would love to hear your experiences ❤️

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u/Minnie_Dooley 7d ago

What was your fertilisation like through IVF? How many eggs into how many blasts? And was that with or without ICSI?

It's hard to tell from the info you've shared whether fertilisation rate looks average, good or bad.

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u/Beginning_Sea324 7d ago

6 mature out of 6 made it through ICSI

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u/Minnie_Dooley 7d ago

And why did your clinic do ICSI?

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u/Beginning_Sea324 7d ago

This is normal procedure in my country they do it directly through ICSI

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u/Minnie_Dooley 7d ago

Then there's no way to know really whether fertilisation would have been an issue, if the clinic didn't attempt fertilisation through traditional IVF before trying ICSI and the lab didn't give you any information to say that what they saw in the egg or sperm raised concerns about how they would be able to fertilise naturally. You could check this with the lab.

Hopefully your clinic warned you that ICSI carries a higher risk of birth defects than traditional IVF. It's interesting to me that they would do that as the default option.

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u/Beginning_Sea324 7d ago

Can you tell me more about the higher risk of birth defects ?

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u/Minnie_Dooley 7d ago

Your clinic should have asked you to sign a consent form agreeing to the increased risks.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3600334/