Things I added to my cycles over time that worked for me

Big, important reminder: this is MY protocol. It was right for my age, my body, my AMH levels and average number of embryos produced per cycle, my husband’s sperm motility, morphology and count. While each of these have shown promising results for some cohorts of older women (which is why), there are lots of other things to consider for you as an individual. So…please don’t copy this because this suite of add ons may or may not be right for you. Use this as inspiration to learn more by joining The Bourke Euploidy Protocol group on Facebook.

</aside>

HGH (also called Omni in the US and Europe, or Saizen in Asia Pacific).

What is it? A drug you inject that is prescribed by a fertility specialist.

The best approach depends on your age and if you are a normal responder or not. There are some rare cases where it can lead to empty follicles. In most cases, if it doesn’t work, it just doesn’t make a difference. I personally did it 9IU from day three of stim cycle through to my trigger day which ranged from day 11 to day 13 (so 9-11 days of HGH total). It contributed to giving me an extra 1-2 blasts per cycle which was helpful, but was not critical for changing my euploidy rate.

Metformin

What is it? A very common oral drug that can be prescribed by a fertility specialist or general doctor

I do NOT have PCOS and so if you do, you need to consider different dosages of this drug. But in my case, I used a 500mg low dose daily from suggest the 500mg low dose, daily, from the start of my stim cycle through to trigger.

Calcium Ionophore

What is it? It’s an embryology add on that needs to be a discussion between your doctor and the embryology team. It’s applied to your eggs after retrieval and before the eggs are fertilised.

I used ionomycin, but the standard addition that most labs have is called calcimycin.

PICSI (Physiological ICSI or ICSI-HA also called ICSI Hyaluronic Acid)

What is it? This is not the same as ICSI. It’s an embryology add on that needs to be a discussion between your doctor and the embryology team. It’s applied to the sperm prior to their selection as part of the normal ICSI process.

PICSI was the only thing I added in my fifth cycle where my euploids jumped from two in the previous cycle to four in that fifth and final cycle.