The first question that arises in a patient’s mind after an IVF failure is ‘Why did my cycle fail?’ A failed IVF cycle is heart wrenching. It is painful because your dreams are shattered, you feel emotionally drained and financially stressed.
Going through multiple miscarriages is painful and depressing too. It drains out the woman’s body both physically and mentally. If you are facing repetitive IVF failures, it is high time to ask your doctor about the problem. The problem may be the quality of embryo, any chromosomal abnormality or something else. Make sure you are confirming the following things for a successful pregnancy.
- Why do you think this cycle failed?
Talk! This solves half of the problems in cases of assisted reproduction. Speak to your doctor about the reasons of IVF failures. Know them; discuss it with your partner. The IVF failure could be due to any XYZ reason which you and your partner should be aware of. Knowing the problem will guide you better in solving the same.
- How do you think I responded to the drugs? What drugs would you recommend for my next cycle?
Ask your doctor how your body is responding to medicines. What is the improvement status and at what rate it is improving.
- How is your Endometrium? If there were any problems what can be done to improve this?
If your Endometrium is not receptive, then even a good quality embryo will fail to implant to the uterus. Your Endometrium must be receptive on the day of implantation for successful pregnancy.
- What was the quality of my eggs? Is there anything we can do to improve this?
Ask your doctor about the quality of your eggs which was fertilized with sperm physically to develop it in the embryo. A poor quality of egg will produce a poor quality embryo which causes IVF failures or miscarriages.
- What was the quality of the sperm? Is there anything that can be done to improve this?
Consult your doctor on how to improve the quality of sperms. Any medical treatment or drugs will help. Speak to your partner and discuss it with your doctor. This extra effort will make the IVF process little less painful for both of you.
- Do you think the protocol used in this cycle was the right one? If not what changes would you recommend for our next cycle?
Know the detailed process your specialist asked you to go for. There could be a miss from anywhere which would cause an IVF failure. The process needs to be monitored very remotely and strictly for better results.
Apart from the above, ask your doctor for the Preimplantation genetic Screening (PGS) with added advantage of MitoScore from IGENOMIX. PGS is a powerful genetic test that may be performed on embryos during IVF treatment to screen for numerical chromosomal abnormalities. Couples who are at increased risk of having aneuploidy embryos (including women with advanced maternal age (35 and above), males with sperm abnormalities (quality and quantity), couples who have faced repetitive implantation failure in IVF, Couple with history of multiple miscarriages etc.) should consider using PGS testing. Employing PGS for aneuploidy screening increases pregnancy rates to 60%.
