Do my stats / case warrant breaking up with my “one size fits all” clinic in favor of one with a more tailored approach?
TW - success
Hi everyone, 35f here.
I started trying to conceive at 30, and after 2 years with no positives, did my first retrieval with a large IVF practice. They diagnosed us with unexplained infertility after running the usual gamut of tests.
However, I’ve known forever something is off with me. I have had irregular periods my entire life, and no gyno has ever been that concerned or tried to figure out why. As a high school and college runner, they all just told me I worked out too much. I was never underweight, and the irregularity was even in middle school before I started running. I would get my period every 6-8 months. In my 30s that finally started regulating to once every 40-50 days.
Some gynos told me I had PCOS, but my IVF doctor said I didn’t.
I raised the possibility of endometriosis, but my IVF doctor said it was unlikely with my symptoms. My mom and aunt both had severe endometriosis that required surgeries.
My ovarian reserve is low, but not DOR.
Anyway, my first retrieval was a standard and successful protocol at age 32 yielding 16 eggs, 6 embryos, and 3 euploids. My first embryo transfer was successful and resulted in the birth of my daughter.
At age 34 I went back for my frozen embryos, and unfortunately both transfers were failures.
At 35 I did my second egg retrieval and my results were much worse: only 7 eggs, 2 of which became day 7 embryos. One was a failed fresh transfer so unsure whether it was euploid. The second day 7 WAS euploid, which I transferred, and that too was a failure.
So now I’ve had 4 failed transfers in a row, 3 of which were euploid. Outside of the one successful transfer for my daughter, I have never had another positive pregnancy test despite a cumulative 3-4 years of cycle monitoring (when not actively in an ivf cycle).
My ivf doctor’s take is basically… sure, we can do other tests that are invasive and time consuming. But at the end of the day, the thing that’s most likely to lead to pregnancy is to just keep doing transfers. And my body has proven itself capable of getting pregnant at least once.
They recommend I just do a third retrieval and keep doing transfers until it works.
The alternative would be to possibly waste months researching and onboarding with a new clinic, exploring other tests including possibly endo laparoscopy and whatever else, and then doing another retrieval and transfer months down the line. With lowish ovarian reserve, I’m sensitive about wasting the time.
What are your thoughts?
Posted Nov 1, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC