SIL's IVF - how many eggs needed for success?

[VicariouslyBroody]

hello my sil is having her second round of IVF and I'm really anxious about it. Obviously nowhere near as anxious as she is, which is why I don't feel I can ask the questions that I'd like as to the procedures and success rates.
In her first round they only got a few eggs out and none fertilised. This time they got 4 and they're doing ICSI. Apparently her husband's sperm is amazingly good which is encouraging and galling, given that you don't exactly need millions of the little blighters.
I'm trying to read up about it, but from what I can see 4 is a bit rubbish (she's in her late thirties). Is it the more the merrier or has she still got a chance of success? If they do fertilise, what are the odds of actually implanting. The 2ww must be agonising as well as boring (has been advised to take it v easy).
And any advice on what to say if it doesn't work too would be great.
thanks so much, VB

[peanuthead]

Hi Vicarious
I haven't had IVF but was on my way to it - it's not about quantity it's about quality and after all it only takes one egg to make a baby! 4 isn't ideal but it's 4 more than none.
Hopefully someone esle will know more about it than me and answer you properly. There's also a website called fertility friends which is a bit twee (well excrucuatingly twee...) but the women there know everything...
Fingers crossed for her.

[LatenightOwl]

Hi Vicarious,
I did IVF in March (BFN)and Im 45. The consultant focused on the quality and although we had 6 eggs only one fertilised and it was classed as a grade A (ie - the cells were perfect - visually - and were dividing at the expected rate or faster). As peanut said it only takes one to have a baby and for us implantation didnt work. This could have been to other parts of the egg quality that were poor. The consultant would have given your SIL the odds before she started, based on age, issues to hand etc. I was given 1% but as the one egg was good the consultant has encouraged us to try one more time and put our odds up to 20%. The 2ww is hell and reading posts from ladies who get a BFP the next 10 weeks are just as bad. Another great site is IVF world dot com and I used this site on a regular basis especially during the 2ww. IVF hurts not just pyschologically but also physically - Best of luck to your SIL -

[TheApprentice]

Hi.

I've just joined Mumsnet and this is my first message!

Just wanted to reiterate that its the quality of the eggs which is important rather than the quantity.

I had IVF a year ago and produced 12 eggs which is good for my age (39). However, only 2 of them fertilised into embryos of a good enough quality for implantation. (One of them is now my DS , born in January )

However, I have a friend who only produced 2 eggs but both fertilised into grade 1 embryos and she is now the mother of lovely twins!

The thing with IVF is that there are so many factors which can impact on its success that you never really know what your odds are. There's a lot of luck involved.

Wishing ATB to your SIL.

[TenaLady]

Welcome Apprentice

[Ladymuck]

Basically the more eggs you have, then the more you have for possible fertilisation, and then you have more going through to grow.

Not every egg will fertilise, and even those which do will not necessarily then go on to produce good quality embryos.

When you are going through treatment you tend to focus on the immediate next stage. So you start off being focussed on how many follicles you have and whether they are growing, then it becomes the number of eggs, she will now be looking to see the number of fertilised eggs and then in the next day or so it will be seeing how the embryos are growing. If you have more embryos then you have a better choice when you choose which to put back in the womb.

There isn't a hard and fast rule as to how many will fertilise etc. When I was going through treatment (now many years ago) the rule of thumb my clinic used was that you could expect 50-75% of eggs to fertilise and of those 75% should make it to a reasonable number of cells 2 days later.

[TheApprentice]

Thanks TenaLady

[VicariouslyBroody]

oh how annoying, I've just written a long message and it seems to have disappeared. What it said was
a) thanks for all this very useful insight into the horrific process (with hopefully a good end, though sorry Owl that it wasn't for you).
b) great news re. SIL. Three of the four eggs fertilised and were "very good" so hopefully grade A or 1 or whatever. The implantation process also went "very well" and they'll know wednesday week.
Thank you so much again, VB