Hi.

I have been in a very similar situation, unfortunately. I'm guessing that you are afflicted with PCOS like me to be hyperstimulating so often?

I did a total of three full stim cycles with ICSI. The first two saw me get OHSS quite badly. The second one had me in hospital for a week and off work for over a month. I stubbornly rode out the first one at home and I know I probably shouldn't have.

My first cycle gave us 26 eggs. 15 of those fertilised and 4 made it to blastocyst. Two were transferred and both miscarried. The other two failed to thaw.

Second cycle saw us with 32 eggs. 20 of those fertilised (we used ICSI with polscope this time) and 7 made it to blastocyst. I got two transfers from that batch - one miscarriage and a BFN. The other 5 embryos failed to thaw.

As you can see - the stats are not good. My FS said that the thawing problems were down to the OHSS and bad egg quality, but he also said that my only hope of getting pregnant was with a frozen blastocyst, and my one year old son is the result of a fresh day three transfer.

Which brings me to stim cycle number three - this time I was put on a VERY strict diet and exercise program from the moment we started down regulating. I still had daily blood tests once we started puregon injections and I took ketoconazole tablets while on puregon as well (my FS used this drug and others to help stop my ovaries being "leaky" while recovering from OHSS on previous occasions, it was used this time as a preventative measure). We managed to keep things mostly under control - my one slip with the diet nearly lost us the whole cycle and they took me to EPU a little earlier to help avoid getting OHSS this time. We got 20 eggs, but only 12 were mature and due to some unknown problem only three of those fertilised, even with ICSI. Due to low numbers it was decided that we would not grow to blastocyst but would transfer and freeze at day three. One of those embryos is now the 12 month old baby sleeping in the next room and the other two are still sitting in the freezer. I did actually get a mild case of OHSS on that cycle - but it was just before my blood test and was a result of the embryo successfully implanting.

I'd be asking what sort of measures your clinic can put in place to help prevent OHSS again... but I can also fully understand the absolute terror at putting yourself into that position - I barely had the guts to start on cycle number three, I think you're amazing for having got through five cycles with OHSS! I don't think it's something you can truly understand until you have been there.

While I don't have a great deal of faith in embryos defrosting, I know that I've only dealt with frozen blastocysts. I have no idea whether early embryos are more likely to defrost or not. In some ways, being a less complicated structure they may do better, but in other ways - less cells so they could be more greatly impacted if some cells die in the thawing process. However, I think I would be prepared to give them a go. I think it would be worth trying at least, before you take on the expense of a donor cycle.

I hope all of this has helped a little.

BW