Ask Our Doctors – Archive
Our Medical Directors are outstanding physicians that you will find to be very personable and compassionate, who take care to ensure that you have the most cutting-edge fertility treatments at your disposal. This is your outlet to ask your questions to the doctors.
Hello Dr. Sher,
Bless you and your team for the work you do. I am 43 and have had 4 failed IVF cycles following failed Clomid. I am very healthy and eat very well. My only health issues are uterine fibroids (on the outside of uterus) and transient back issues. My first cycle was Gonal F and Menopur and then transferred to a low responder protocol with high dose HCG and Gonal F. I also have used the Schmidt protocol to build up my uterine lining. The only noted fertility issue per my clinic is low ovarian reserve and my age. I would add they always struggle with retrievals and transfers due to shape/angle of my uterus but did not note this as a potential cause for my infertility. There are no reported issues with my 45 year old husband’s sperm. Our first 4 IVF cycles yielded no real viable embryos. We did transfer a few poor quality embryos but none resulted in a pregnancy. We did move forward with donor eggs which resulted in 5 embryos. Day 5: 2 A/B Full Blast (these are the two we have had transferred so far); Day 6: 1 A/A Hatching Blast and 1 B/B expanded Blast Day 7: B/A Expanded Blast. Based on some of your responses do you have a take on the quality of these embryos? I had asked my doctor why our Day 5 embryos were the best quality since our Day 6 was A/A hatching, but he insisted the Day 5 embryos were our best shot. The first one we transferred resulted in a pregnancy but in week 6 we suffered a miscarriage, they found a sac but no embryo upon ultrasound. The second transfer did not even result in a pregnancy? Unless there was something inherently wrong with both of these embryos that they claim were very high quality, it appears that there is something still that needs to be addressed. After our miscarriage I asked about systemic enzyme therapy to help reduce the chances of my body rejecting the embryo and they poo-pooed this and instead recommended an endometrial scratch for this last cycle. This clearly did not work. Any insights? My heart goes out to each and every women on this site. Prayers to you all and you and your team, Dr. Sher!
Hi. So i am expecting after a successful IVF session. Its my 7th week. My age is 37. I am expecting twins with beta hcg of 96,000. I have a history of abdominal surgeries where the 1st surgery was performed when i was 14 to remove appendix. Same year another laprotomy was done to remove congenital membrane around my large intestine. 16 years laters 3rd surgery was done as some part of that membrane was not removed and it was filled with non toxic fluid. My last laprotomy was done in 2017 in May to tie fallopian tubes due to hydrosalpinx releasing fluid in uterus that caused my previous IVFs and IUIs to fail.
Recently i have notice that my intestines are becoming too gassy and i feel wound like pain if wind is accumulated. I was constipated in initial days and was pushing hard to pass stool but a week ago my doc prescribed milk of magnesia to help me pass stool easily that i am taking 1 teaspoon daily at bed time. In the morning although i dont have to push anymore, the moment i am done with passing stool the same terrible pain starts and i have to sit down to relax myself. It takes an hour for me to settle down and start my routine again. What exactly is causing these pains?. I hope its not hernia. Thanks for help.
Almost certainly this is likely to be due to bowel adhesions.
Geoff Sher
Dr Sher My mom just sent me this post. My husband and I have been trying IVF for quite sometime. December 2017 has three eggs and two transferred. Unfortunately not take. Then did a failed IUI. Then had another IVF yesterday where Inhad several follicles without being on any fertility meds. This past Thursday I was advised two were at 14 and one at 10 and the others smaller. They told me to do 225 gonal
F when I got home and again Friday Am. They all grew more. They triggered me Friday and retrieval Sunday. I was told on Friday we should retrieve 3 -4 eggs. Heart breaking news after retrieval ZERO were retrieved. We are heart broken and I’m at a loss. I know I would be a dark horse because I’m in my late 40’s. I’m having a hard time thinking on a donor egg. My grandmother gave natural birth at age 50 and my gut tells me Inhave one strong egg left in me. I’m devastated heart broken. My family calls me the baby whisperer and I’m the only girl in a large Italian family that still did not conceive. Where are you located? Would love to meet you…
What are the chances of a 47xy trisomy 20 surviving? What are the health risks?
In my opinion, about 15%!
Geoff Sher
Dear Dr. Sher,
I hope you are doing very well. Base on you decades of practice I would like to know whether you think it is really true that once HCG crosses the 6000 mIU threshold, the doubling time decreases ( and can actually take up to 96h?). I had perfect doubling times up until 7ooo. Since, my betas are doubling at 72h, so every three days. Had an US yesterday at 6.3weeks and saw an embryo matching to the day, with a HB of 117. However, I found an article by JH Check stating that even with confirmed viability at 8weeks, 70% went of to miscarry in the second trimester, when suboptimal hcg rise was detected during the “early first trimester”. Would that be a suboptimal rise? how is “early first trimester” defines? Thank you so much! I know I cant really change much but I am anxious after the sillbirth of my daughter at 36w last October and an early miscarriage in march.
Hi Maria.
Respectfully,
The rise in hCG usually does slow down after it gets to 5,000-6,000. This is no indication of the future course of the pregnancy.
Geoff Sher