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.
Hi Dr. Sher,
I have a quick question…something I’m concerned about. The night before egg retreival I had sexual intercourse with my husband. The next morning at the egg retrival procedure, my doctor couldn’t manage to retrieve many eggs on my right side, even though I had good follicles. In the end, he only managed to get three eggs in total, even though I had about eight good sized follicles. He tried two methods for retrieving the eggs – flushing it out, and another method that I forget what he called it.
My question is: did having sex ten hours before retrival somehow cause my eggs to be irretrievable? Did having sex make the eggs stuck or something, or shift them in such a way that my doctor couldn’t get them out? Your insight is greatly appreciated…
Michelle
Absolutely not! More than likely this was a technical problem in accessing that ovary.
Please call or email Julie Dahan, my patient concierge. She will guide you on how to set up an in-person or Skype consultation with me. You can reach Julie at on her cell phone or via email at any time:
Julie Dahan
•Email: Julied@sherivf.com
•Phone: 702-533-2691
?800-780-7437
Geoff Sher
I also suggest that you access the 4th edition of my book ,”In Vitro Fertilization, the ART of Making Babies”. It is available as a down-load through http://www.Amazon.com or from most bookstores and public libraries.
Geoff Sher
Hi Dr Sher, is it possible to take oral estrogen tablets alongside stimms to help lining growth or will it stop the follicles from growing?
Although it probably will not reduce follicular growth in response to gonadotropins, in the vast majority of cases (except possibly for women with severely diminished ovarian reserve) estrogen priming is redundant, in my opinion.
Geoff Sher
Doctor what would you recommend about this product heal varicocele naturally ? I am new to this and not sure what to do. My friend says he had some benefit.
Sorry, I do not buy this.
Geoff Sher
Hello Doctor,
My wife and I just had a 2nd failed IVF cycle. Here is the details of each cycle:
My wife and I are both 35 years old
First IVF:
Antagonist Protocol
18 eggs retrieved
12 mature
8 fertilized
5 made it to day 3
All 5 arrested by day 5
Doctor indicated the eggs were poor quality
IVF 2:
Lupron Overlap Protocol
16 eggs retrieved
13 mature eggs + 4 eggs that were frozen from 1st IVF
12 eggs fertilized (6 from ejaculated sperm 6 from TESE sperm)
only 1 fertilized with ejaculated sperm made it to blast and FET
1st blood test was 10 HCG and 2nd blood test was 3 HCG
Doctor said the egg quality was poor as well
Sperm quality:
Sperm count: 22.1 million/ml
Motility: 27% rapid 4% slow
Morphology: 6% normal form, 83% abnormal head, 6% abnormal mid piece, 6% abnormal tail
Had two sperm DNA fragmentation tests; first test 45% fragmentation, after antioxidant therapy 2nd test showed 20% fragmentation.
We haven’t had a meeting with our current doctor about the 2nd failed IVF and why we had poor egg quality.
Met with a new RE doctor and based on IVF results (No lab results or our medical files were available) I mentioned above diagnosed my wife with polycystic ovaries, (Not PCOS) Although her sister does have PCOS. His recommendation was for my wife to exercise 30 minutes six days a week for 3 months and loose 5 pounds. This would reduce insulin in her ovaries. After 3 months, we would do the long-lupron protocol with HGH and he would try for maximum stimulation. He said that our case is rare and he sees our case 2-3 times a year and we got a 50% chance of having a good number of good embryos.
Does this sound like an appropriate diagnoses? Should we get a second opinion? What are the possible causes for our poor egg quality?
Age 33 tests results:
TSH: 2.56
FSH: 9.7
LH: 3.1
Prolactin: 20.6
Right ovary: 3.1 x 1.6 x 2.3 cm
Left ovary: 3.5 x 1.7 x 2.4 cm
HSG: Normal
Very respectfully,
I do not think the advice given to improve egg quality is reasonable.
In my opinion, that the problem with egg/embryo quality could largely be due to the protocol(s) used for ovarian stimulation and the implementation thereof. I doubt that sperm quality has anything to do with it. In my opinion a DF! of 20% is adequate and the fact trhat sperm aspiration was needed is probably also not the main issue.
I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.DrGeoffreySherIVF.com. Then go to my Blog and access the “search bar”. Type in the titles of any/all of the articles listed below, one by one. “Click” and you will immediately be taken to those you select. Please also take the time to post any questions or comments with the full expectation that I will (as always) respond promptly.
•Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS) for IVF: Selecting the ideal protocol
•IVF: Factors Affecting Egg/Embryo “competency” during Controlled Ovarian Stimulation(COS)
•The Fundamental Requirements For Achieving Optimal IVF Success
•Ovarian Stimulation for IVF using GnRH Antagonists: Comparing the Agonist/Antagonist Conversion Protocol.(A/ACP) With the“Conventional” Antagonist Aproach
•Human Growth Hormone Administration in IVF: Does it Enhances Egg/Embryo Quality and Outcome?
•The BCP: Does Launching a Cycle of Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS). Coming off the BCP Compromise Response?
•Blastocyst Embryo Transfers Should be the Standard of Care in IVF
•Why did my IVF Fail
•Male Factor Infertility
•Routine Fertilization by Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI): An Argument in FavorHormonal Treatment of Male Infertility
•Testicular Sperm Extraction (TESE) and Testicular Sperm Aspiration (TESA): Surgical Approaches for Accessing Sperm from men who have no sperm in their ejaculates (Azoospermia)
•The Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA): A Measure of the Potential of Sperm to Help Propagate a Viable Pregnancy
Please call or email Julie Dahan, my patient concierge. She will guide you on how to set up an in-person or Skype consultation with me. You can reach Julie at on her cell phone or via email at any time:
Julie Dahan
•Email: Julied@sherivf.com
•Phone: 702-533-2691
?800-780-7437
Geoff Sher
I also suggest that you access the 4th edition of my book ,”In Vitro Fertilization, the ART of Making Babies”. It is available as a down-load through http://www.Amazon.com or from most bookstores and public libraries.
Hi Dr. Sher,
I had my embryo transfer today and we were originally planning on two embryos however ultimately decided on a single embryo transfer due to the high quality of my embryos. I was given a report and it says that for Day 5 I have 3 Grade 1 EX BL, 1 Grade 2 EB, 3 Grade 2 EG BL, 5 Grade 2 EX BL, then 6 Grade 3. I don’t really understand the differences between these grades and what it means for us, can you explain it to me please?
The grading systems used differ from center to center , but in general, Grade 1 or Grade 2 expanded blastocysts are good quality. Unexpanded day 5 embryos…less so and Grade 3’s are usually poorer quality.
Geoff Sher