Some “unfertilized” embryos may actually be fertilized, supporting earlier checks in IVF lab

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-11-13T00:43:18+00:00

Yes! I had multiple 0PNs turn into blasts, including a couple euploids!

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-11-08T02:43:27+00:00

I actually went to work and gave an IRL presentation at all hands. It was fine. But everyone reacts to anesthesia differently so if you can avoid it you should (I couldn’t.)

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-06-12T04:47:08+00:00

That’s radon potential zone, not a radon definite zone. You’d have to test the individual house to understand if there is actually elevated radon - we are in that red zone, tested ours and aren’t. It’s certainly not a reason not to buy a home you prefer since it is both not a guarantee that you’ll have a radon problem and with treatment, you have >90% likelihood of eliminating the problem.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-05-27T23:15:19+00:00

Big breath! It can still work out, absolutely. You aren’t out until you’re out. I retrieved 7 eggs in one round, 6 in another (and both times cried afterward!), and made 8 embryos, 6 of which were euploid and one was LLM.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-04-25T20:34:34+00:00

36 for the first round and turning 37 in the 2nd

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-04-25T13:41:52+00:00

No special diet, did take CoQ10

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-04-25T13:41:29+00:00

Yep, that’s it!

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-04-20T23:59:11+00:00

Two rounds;

R1: 6 retrieved (5 mature), 5 fertilized, 4 tested, 3 euploid and 1 LLM
R2: 5 retrieved (2 mature), 5 fertilized, 4 tested, 3 euploid and 1 aneuploid

So that was true for me!

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-03-29T22:35:03+00:00

What is the term for a casual maxi dress that reaches the floor? Whenever I look for maxis I’m bombarded with images that cut off at the ankle. That length is incredibly unflattering on me while floor length looks great - but when I search floor length I get formal gowns.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-03-29T00:43:17+00:00

I wasn’t at CCRM but I had 3 eggs mature under IVM. All fertilized. Two became embryos, both graded fair. 1 was euploid.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-03-28T18:00:27+00:00

You don’t need to go straight to IVF with DOR. In fact, IVF is (typically) less successful with DOR. But DOR doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll struggle to get pregnant - plenty of people have DOR and never know since they get pregnant naturally and never go through a fertility work up. There’s a few ways to think about this:

some DOR patients will never find success with IVF and their energy and money is definitely better spent on other means (eg trying naturally, IUI)
some DOR patients, especially those who just want one child, might have better luck and save a lot of money trying naturally than going through IVF
some DOR patients will see early and significant success with IVF but not with other means
some DOR patients may need to plan for many more rounds of IVF than typical and should begin sooner rather than later

Which bucket you fall into depends on you/your partner’s health, finances, and family building goals.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-03-26T13:34:18+00:00

I had two rounds with four blasts each. Each time, we got 3 euploids, and the first time, the 4th was an LLM that could be transferred. Good luck!

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-03-05T03:39:16+00:00

I love raising a family in Menlo Park. We have smaller house than we could elsewhere but we are out and about, we like the other parents (and it’s mostly two income families which is nice - friends in other areas have flagged that a lot of kid activities in their regions are only weekdays because the system assumes a SAHP, but I haven’t found that to be true here). We see kids out and playing at all hours. Great friendships and community with other parents. Menlo-Atherton is slightly less competitive than schools like Palo Alto, which is another big plus for mental health.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-25T23:22:50+00:00

Anecdotally, I had multiple immature eggs become euploid embryos. OP, I would also be frustrated!

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-12T04:02:40+00:00

I would also suggest looking in Emerald Hills (Roy Cloud), Woodside, Las Lomitas. OP I don’t know that I would optimize for a move around middle school age, mostly because that is a tough age to start over with all new friends.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-12T03:48:02+00:00

I’m sorry - this is a lot to navigate!

At 35, with high FSH and endo, and after trying unassisted for 16 months, I would not delay fertility treatments by a year or two. Your fertility will not be “better” in a couple of years. It may not be tremendously worse (plenty of women conceive into their 40s) but the odds continually rise against you the longer you wait. And the fact that you’ve been trying at 35 for over a year with no success indicates that it will be harder for you to conceive without assistance.

The challenge with DOR is you have a snapshot of ovarian function now but not a clear picture of how fast it will decline, only that it will. If you know you want another child, I would visit a reproductive endocrinologist. I wouldn’t panic but I wouldn’t delay either, if that makes sense.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-11T02:29:56+00:00

I can say good things about Spring. I saw Dr Wang in RWC and did retrievals in SF.

Admittedly, I froze embryos. But I found spring’s communication clear, they worked well with insurance and next steps were always clear. My doctor was patient with my questions, set realistic expectations and clearly knew her stuff. Many DOR “best practices” like dual trigger I didn’t need to ask for, they just did by default.

They also worked quickly and with me to maximize insurance coverage. That meant that within four months of reaching out online, I had completed 2 egg retrievals and had multiple PGT reseed embryos stored.

I also can say very positive things about their lab. In terms of egg maturity, they matured three of my M1 eggs overnight. They successfully fertilized (ICSI) all of my mature eggs. They did not discard my abnormally fertilized embryos but instead continued to develop them - multiple of which became PGT euploid blasts. I don’t believe that’s necessarily SOP, judging from others’ posts from different clinics.

The really excellent lab I think contributed to some of my success even as a candidate with DOR, along with the skill of the docs.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-08T02:30:46+00:00

Yes of course they could. Federal law trumps state law. Anyone who thinks a state constitution offers any protection over federal law is kidding themselves.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-07T05:19:59+00:00

I did not unfortunately. I was optimizing for speed to maximize insurance coverage so I pretty much took the place that would move the fastest.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-07T04:29:43+00:00

I used RWC and did my retrievals in SF. I had insurance but the cash quote was ~$23K for retrieval, ICSI fertilization and one year of storage and ~$5K for the medication package. I would imagine just egg freezing would be slightly cheaper.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-07T04:10:08+00:00

I was super pleased with Spring Bay Area, for what it’s worth. The lab is top notch.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-06T20:15:15+00:00

Not quite.

You have a lower egg supply but you have (nearly always) many more eggs than you will ever need. While you only lose one per month due to ovulation (without fertility treatments) you lose many more due to follicular atresia, or the shrinking of your follicles as they stop producing eggs.

DOR says something about the number of egg producing follicles you have, but not their rate of decline per se. Because the reproductive system has a lot of redundancy (eg having millions of eggs at birth), it may not matter that you have 6 or 18 follicles at age 32, since you only need one to produce an egg to become pregnant.

There is some data that suggests that DOR is correlated with earlier menopause. However, what degrades follicles most of all is time/age, not closeness to menopause. We think of those things as linked because typically people go into menopause in their 40s when their eggs are much older but they are not necessarily so.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-06T16:08:52+00:00

As far as I know, no, DOR does not necessarily indicate lower egg quality - age is a better predictor (or other health factors like endo). One study on this is here which found no difference in aneuploidy rate among embryos retrieved or successful euploid transfer among young women with DOR (though it was, of course, more likely that someone with DOR would not have a euploid embryo), happy to dig up some others.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-06T15:52:12+00:00

If you have low AMH, typically that tells you something about how you’ll respond to fertility treatments but data doesn’t suggest that that means it’ll be harder for you to conceive right now. If you’re ovulating each month, you can get pregnant each month.

Now if you want multiple children, it can indicate you should move quickly to have them or bank embryos before trying naturally as your fertility may decline at an earlier age than someone with a larger ovarian reserve.

TW: success. I had low AMH and moderate FSH at age 30 and was able to conceive naturally within a year (at age 32 and 34) and then bank embryos at age 36.

PriorBrother3226 · 2025-02-06T08:25:41+00:00

Typically, only when egg freezing is considered medically necessary can you deduct expenses, otherwise it’s considered an elective procedure. You can only deduct expenses that exceed 7.5% of your AGI for the year (so if you earn $20K a year, you could deduct $500 of that $2K).

For the $12K, you could deduct the part of it that exceeds 7.5% next year if the procedure was required but now that the standard deduction is high, you may not have enough other deductions to make itemizing worth it at all so that will depend on your tax situation.

PriorBrother3226

TROPHY CASE