IVF patient success stories

35 year old female, let’s call her Mrs. A, and 36 year old male, obviously Mr. B. They had previously tried 2 IUI cycles and one IVF cycle with a Day 3 embryo transfer almost 5 years back and gave up on the treatment, thinking that if it has to happen, it will happen.

However, after 5 years of waiting they seriously pondered over the situation and thought it is best to consult another IVF specialist and get serious treatment until they have a result.

Assessment of ovarian reserve on Mrs. A showed declining ovarian reserve with a very low AMH of 0.54. Husband had a normal semen report. The couple was counseled about their treatment choices, with details about the expected success rate for IUI as well as IVF. Finally, after a lot of deliberation, they decided to go for an IVF cycle.

Ovarian stimulation was planned for Mrs. A. Her response to the ovarian stimulation was just about OK, with only three follicles attaining proper size. On the day of trigger, Mrs. A had two follicles only. We were skeptical about the number of mature oocytes we would be able to retrieve with such poor response to stimulation, however on the day of OPU we retrieved two mature oocytes and one immature oocyte.

Thankfully both oocytes fertilized and the embryos were cultured till Day 5. One of the oocytes formed a beautiful blastocyst and it was cryopreserved for FET. An FET cycle was planned and the embryo transfer went on smoothly. The patient conceived with a bHCG value of 435. She is currently in her second trimester.

Inspiring patient stories help one choose hope over despair. Patients often need to hear these to know that they are not alone, and there are many who have a much more difficult situation.

It is not every day that a young female who seemingly looks normal and healthy walks alone into a fertility clinic. That day, Ms. A walked in wishing to consult our Reproductive Medicine Specialist for fertility preservation.

Ms. A was diagnosed with breast cancer, thankfully caught on time, and was due to undergo chemotherapy as soon as possible. Also thankfully, Ms. A and her oncologist were aware of the possibility of fertility preservation before starting chemotherapy.

This was her only chance to preserve her eggs (oocytes), because after her sessions of radiation and chemotherapy, she most likely would not have the capability to produce any healthy oocytes. So yes, this was her ONLY chance to preserve her future chances of having her own genetic child.

She was started on a random start IVF stimulation protocol and an ovum pickup was scheduled. We were able to harvest 27 oocytes, 25 of them mature. All her oocytes were vitrified for future use.

We are sure that she will be able to use her oocytes whenever she wishes to conceive.

He was very tall, almost 6 feet 3 inches, and displayed all the classical characteristics of Klinefelter syndrome (a genetic disorder that affects approximately 1 in 650 newborn boys). With a previously diagnosed azoospermia and one failed TESA behind him, he arrived at our clinic and just said that he wished to try again, and asked what we could do differently.

Since he was young and had a borderline FSH, we advised him to undergo Micro TESE, because if there are sperm, the chances of finding them in Micro TESE are much higher than in regular TESA. The patient wasn’t very well off, but they were very clear that they wanted to give the procedure one more shot.

His wife had normal ovarian reserve for her age and she underwent ovarian stimulation for IVF. Ovum pickup and Micro TESE were planned on one morning for both.

ICSI with Micro TESE is one of the busiest days for any embryologist. So was that day! At times, if we get lucky, we are able to find sperm in the first few biopsy sites within half an hour, but that day we found sperm at the eighth biopsy site, almost 50 minutes into the procedure. One hurdle crossed!

Ovum pickup followed and we harvested a good 18 mature oocytes. ICSI was done at an optimal time interval and embryos were cultured till Day 5. Five good blastocysts were cryopreserved for later transfer.

After about a month and a half, a frozen embryo transfer was planned. One single good grade blastocyst was transferred to the patient.

She got a positive bHCG with a value of 923 and currently is in her third trimester.

Our next patient is a regular working woman who just couldn’t find time to undergo serious fertility treatment. Both IT professionals, the wife 39 years old and the husband 43 years old, they used the Covid lockdown to their benefit and finally decided to approach a fertility specialist.

Both patients had absolutely normal health and the basic fertility workup revealed an expected poor ovarian reserve, and the husband had borderline oligozoospermia. With an AMH of just 0.3 and an AFC of 1, the patient was explained her chances of IVF success and prepared for a possible IVF failure.

The patient chose hope and decided to try with her own oocytes, which we completely supported because it is every woman’s right to try with her own oocytes first. After an uneventful ovarian stimulation, the patient produced one oocyte cumulus complex.

Now the ball was in our embryologist’s court. After optimal incubation of the oocyte, ICSI was performed with utmost care. The oocyte fertilized and produced a beautiful Day 3 embryo showing signs of compaction. It was vitrified and eventually the patient was transferred one good Day 3 embryo during her next cycle. The protocol chosen was the Freeze All IVF protocol.

After 14 days of wait, the bHCG test confirmed a positive pregnancy. Nine months went by with no major complaints and finally she delivered a healthy baby in July 2021.

This case was typical, still remember the couple very clearly, young and stressed! They came to us with one failed IVF cycle. It was a typical case of unexplained infertility, none of their reports suggested anything abnormal. Usually such cases are easy to treat, so we took the normal routine IVF cycle preparation and had fair confidence that we would be able to deliver a result soon. BUT we were taken by surprise on the day of ovum pickup.

To our surprise, all the oocytes showcased a rare genetic mutation. This results in an oocyte with a missing perivitelline space (PVS) and fragile zona. In layman’s language, such oocytes, even if they fertilize, will not result in a pregnancy. We cultured the fertilized oocytes till blastocyst, and as expected, they failed to blastulate to a grade that was good enough for pregnancy.

The couple was counseled about the genetic disorder and explained about the option of gamete replacement. They gave consent for donor oocytes and their IVF with donor oocyte cycle was eventually planned. The couple conceived in their first embryo transfer attempt.

Every patient teaches you something. The day we told them about the genetic disorder, the husband had only one question… “why didn’t the previous doctor tell this to me before?” This could have saved them from another failed attempt!

Saved the best for the last!! This one will stay in our memories for a long long time!

Amidst the Covid lockdown #1, we got a call from a patient from Hyderabad. She explained that she had undergone 3 IVF cycles, 5 failed embryo transfers and had about 4 embryos frozen at a local centre, and she wanted to know if we could help her.

We discussed her case over phone at length and the couple decided to undergo surrogacy with us. We patiently waited for things to open up. Soon, by the end of September 2020, the lockdown was lifted and cross state travel was allowed. We immediately made special arrangements to bring the frozen embryo straws in a dry shipper to Indore. After 61 hrs of travel time, the embryos safely arrived at our clinic.

Meanwhile, preparations were made to prepare the endometrium of the chosen surrogate at our clinic. An FET cycle was planned on the surrogate, after completing all the legal formalities with the surrogate mother. It is easier to warm embryos that you have frozen yourself at your centre, but this was a straw from some other centre, so we were very very skeptical. To our delight, the embryos warmed perfectly and one of them was transferred to the surrogate. After 14 brutal days of waiting, the results were out. The bHCG test was positive. Moment of joy for everyone around.

The entire pregnancy was followed very closely due to Covid and due to many unknowns of pregnancy during Covid times. Another lockdown followed while the surrogate mother was in her second trimester. Again very anxious times for everyone.