Poor egg quality despite repeated ICSI/IVF

a.dm · January 19, 2026 at 7:53 PM New

Hello everyone,

First of all, our situation. I am 29 and my husband is 38 and we both have no hormonal or health restrictions according to our results at the Kiwu Clinic. We don't smoke or drink and live relatively healthy lives and exercise regularly. We had our first ivf in August. We had 15 eggs, of which only one was mature and fertilized. This was transferred on day 3 and did not implant.

We had our next attempt in October. This time an ICSI, because of the ivf failure in the 1st attempt. The 2nd attempt yielded 11 eggs, of which 6 were mature and 5 could be fertilized. Only one made it to day 5 and the transfer failed again. During this attempt, it became apparent that the development was not optimal. On day 4, the chromosomes did not divide optimally.

Our third attempt was very recent. This time we chose the long protocol. I had already had the Decapeptyl injection in the pre-cycle. This completely suppressed hormone production so that we could achieve uniform growth during stimulation. We stimulated again with 137.5 units of pergoveris for 11 days. This time we had 19 eggs. Of these, 13 were mature and 12 could be fertilized with ICSI. In the end, 4 blastocysts were frozen. We won't do a transfer until the next cycle because of the overstimulation. My doctor said that the quality of the embryos was again only satisfactory (grade 3), but we will still transfer them. Every embryo still has a chance, but the quality makes implantation more difficult. She recommends genetic testing. D we are wondering how much sense it makes, as I have no signs of a genetic disorder. Did you also have problems with egg quality? The biologist observed that the egg wall was too slippery. Any tips and suggestions? Unfortunately, we are unsure and don't know whether this is a good result for us.

Fliege · January 19, 2026 at 8:12 PM New

Roughly speaking, it is said that around a third of all fertilized eggs develop into blastocysts. Since you have 4 out of 12 left, that fits.

If all of them are only of moderate quality and the doctors can see abnormalities in their composition, I would really investigate further.

Regardless of this: every blasto, no matter how poorly graded, has a chance. I am 23 weeks pregnant with a 2CB that nobody gave a chance.

Vida Fertility Institute · January 20, 2026 at 10:03 AM New

Dear a.dm

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Indeed, you need to have more in-depth tests done, on you, your partner and then on the embryos. You may have already done this, but the first thing you should both do is have a karyotype done to check your chromosomes: Just because you're both healthy doesn't mean your karyotype can't have changes. Then I would also have an extended spermiogram done on your partner (I'm assuming you've already had the standard spermiogram). This extended version looks at DNA fragmentation: high fragmentation can lead to problems with embryo cell development. I would also take a close look at your entire medical records, as I could of course be missing something else at the moment. The blastocysts would then also require genetic testing, known as PGD. Even here in Spain, our laboratory carries out this test every day, but in Germany this is unfortunately very complicated/impossible - due to different legislation.

But as Fliege said, all blastocysts deserve a chance and we have seen many C embryos that have resulted in a healthy pregnancy.

You can then either transfer those 4 embryos and consider other options if the transfers don't work, or send them to another country like Spain for genetic testing before transfer. In both cases I would start with the karyotypes: If these are altered, a special PGD to test your alteration should be mandatory to make sure your embryos don't have the same problem.

I hope this helps you further.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Spies

a.dm · January 20, 2026 at 10:41 AM New

Hello Dr. Spies,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I have one more question. Is there anything that can be done if there are genetic disorders? Or is this simply to find out why the quaternity is not the best?
I would do the transfer now in the next cycle to see.

Many thanks and best regards

Vida Fertility Institute · January 20, 2026 at 10:53 AM New

Dear a.dm

In the case of a genetic alteration, we must select an embryo that is not a carrier of the same alteration. Without a PGD test, Mother Nature usually makes a natural selection and unhealthy embryos usually do not develop into a continuing pregnancy (this is why there are so many implantation failures or miscarriages). However, there is always the risk of pregnancy with an unhealthy baby, and besides, the emotional and financial cost of a long process of transferring non-viable embryos is too great for a woman/couple.

My point is: you cannot change your genetic alteration, there is no treatment for it. But you can have your embryos examined and, if available, select a healthy one.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Spies