IVF Success for 38+

[diannakey]

I am 38+ and I am scheduled for IVF next month. For some reasons I have had to put off having a child till I was 35. We now regret to have putting off the pregnancy and think that should have thought of it earlier. However, after trying and putting in a lot of effort, 6 failed IUIs and 2 failed IVF cycles with my ovaries and meeting so many infertility professionals, we even ended up using donor eggs but no results, I don’t know what the problem is. I was feeling really positive and excited in my first attempt and now I am depressed and also read elsewhere that chances of success after the age of 36 drops dramatically and now I just feel so scared that it is too late. I have been unable to conceive till now. Have any of you had a successful IVF at 38 or older? I feel I need some reassurance from some ladies that have had positive outcomes at this age or older. Please share your experiences so that I can at least know where I stand. Thanks in advance.

[stefanyross1]

6.Great news and don’t worry. I have seen woman far older than you conceiving through IVF. You must have gone through numerous tests already but here is a suggestion. Look into PGS NGS. It improves the chances of successful IVF pregnancy in couples where prior IVF failures have remained unexplained. The chances of a woman conceiving increases manifold, especially if she is 35 and older. PGS is Preimplantation genetic screening which determines the chromosomal status of an embryo by screening all 23 chromosome pairs prior to transfer in an IVF cycle. It is appropriate for couples pursuing IVF due to a history of infertility or recurrent pregnancy loss because a major cause of IVF failure is embryos with an abnormal number of chromosomes. PGS is very useful as it allows the specialist to selectively transfers the embryo, the one with normal no. of chromosomes, diminishes several reproductive challenges associated with the maternal age, leads to greater implantation rates and improved IVF outcomes, enables single embryo transfer with higher chances of success, thus reducing multiple births and the complications that can result from it. Talk to your specialist about this and best of luck to you.

[evadoyle90]

I have a couple of friends who have been surrogate mothers and both of them have had the same experience as you. The IPs had promised to “keep in touch” but had “simply disappeared” (as you say) after the baby had been delivered. There can be many reasons for this. As the person above said that it’s their baby and their family, and it is up to IPs to keep in touch or not after the birth of the baby. I think that IPs say so because they feel that’s what surrogate mothers want to hear. Or maybe the relationship soured at some stage and they were waiting for the baby to arrive before cutting off all ties. Also IP have several concerns before, during and after they have a baby through surrogacy. Some, but not all, have a great relationship with their surrogate and worry how she is going to react once the baby is born. Not all relationships between the IPs and surrogate will be amazing, sometimes there is never that connection, other times, it might be extraordinary when you are pregnant, but once you’ve given birth, not so much. In my opinion, you never really know how it’s going to go. You write it on your profile and discuss it during the match meeting in the hope that everyone is being honest.

[Gia_9 in reply to evadoyle90]

Well while I can probably understand how the surrogates feel on their part... it's almost undeniable that any couple who's been suggested donor conception or have to go through surrogacy dread the feeling of the child not belonging to them. I think you can get a glimpse of this in any discussion involving donor conception ever better. Whenever I engaged in any such post there are 2 things I clearly noticed that actually, the women are never willing to even try if they are to go for it. First will be the donor or the surrogate claiming the child to be their's and secondly as a repercussion of this claim the child growing up in resentment for the IP. Sometimes they even go abroad to cover up the whole surrogacy story back home and wouldn't risk it being disclosed to friends and family. So it's only expected that most of the IPs no matter what they promise will break-up any contact of the baby with the assisted donor or surrogate in long run. I can't really say they are wrong in not keeping up to their words of staying in contact.

[nancy_diggs]

Do not worry on this score. Like 1 I too have seen women over 35 in fact over 40 conceiving through IVF. It is a tough journey but you need to be determined and I am sorry for you losses. But please never give up hopes. It is a biological fact that female fertility declines with age, however the technology has advanced and the chances for conceiving and giving birth to a healthy baby for women your age or more has increased manyfold. I will share with you a successful journey of my friend, she started her IVF at 38. It took 9 fresh cycles to help conceive with her daughter at age 40. She also had a low ovarian reserve though, and grade 4 endometriosis, which probably made things more difficult. She then subsequently went on to have a son at age 42, however he was from a frozen embryo created from 39yo eggs. So that’s it, you needn’t worry there are chances that you will get the good news as well. Also, as long as our hormonal tests are great and your ovarian reserve is still good and strong your chances are pretty good. Good luck to you, everything will be just fine.

[Kellywilson]

I have turned 41 and have had a very successful IVF procedure. Doctors elsewhere had initially put my chances at 40% and I had thought that was great considering my age. But embryologists work with fresh genetic material instead of frozen eggs and that increases the possibility of conceiving. Here I will share with you my success story, we transferred two fresh five day embryos and one took....so far so good! We did not do PGS testing. I had 11 eggs retrieved, eight were mature and only four fertilized. We transferred two and had two frozen for later use in case.... I don't know the name of my protocol, but I was on BCP for five or six weeks and then started Lupron shots. Then stimming was Lupron, Gonal F and Menopur. All throughout my IVF I kept reminding myself that it was quality not quantity that was important. Very positive experience. Wishing you the best of luck

[Nickeybella]

Hello 3. Even an assurance of 40% chance of conceiving at 41 is really great. You must be very optimistic now after procedure. I am 37+ and about 3 months ago had an AFC of 15 which is good. Do not know my FSH or AMH yet. Also, I have one of my friends who is over 40 and got pregnant with IVF, she had been trying for several years, but doing ART for the past 2 years. She did several IUIs and got pregnant on the second fresh IVF cycle she is 43. She used DHEA for most of her cycles and I do believe it helped her. I know many FS don't feel that it's worth taking, but it can't hurt and I think it did help.

As she told me, she took blackmores pregnancy multi, CoQ10, DHEA, berrocca, and folic acid. Probably others but I've forgotten.

It was a numbers game for her, really. You just have to reassess after each cycle and decide which was worse - stopping trying and accepting no children or going through another cycle. I guess she was lucky to have some "success" in that she had a chemical on her first cycle and miscarriages on 3rd and 8th. This just reassured that she could get pregnant, just had to get the right embryo. And I do wonder whether the accumulation of drugs played a part as well. However, all the best to you

[Alessia]

I haven't done IVF so I cannot say for sure... Yet I can tell you about cases that I have seen. I know a lady who had her IVF while she was 39! Even more amazing she had her 40th birthday during her pregnancy. Surprisingly enough the whole thing went just fine and it was amazing to see. Her happiness could be heard from kilometers away. She is a neighbor of mine, she is now 52! So I think you shouldn't worry to much. Maybe realistically speaking you have lower chances. That doesn't neccesarely mean no chances at all. So please try to remain positive and keep working hard. I would highly recommend that you do acupuncture! You will thank me for this if you didn't knew already! Not only does it help improve your chances for IVF success but it also helps you out with your everyday life. I have done it a few times it is really relaxing and it makes you feel pretty good.

[lily96]

Not all relationships between the IPs and surrogate will be amazing, sometimes there is never that connection, other times, it might be extraordinary when you are pregnant, but once you've given birth, not so much. In my opinion, you never really know how it’s going to go. You must be very optimistic now after procedure. I am 37+ and about 3 months ago had an AFC of 15 which is good. You will thank me for this if you didn't knew already! Not only does it help improve your chances for IVF success but it also helps you out with your everyday life. I have done it a few times it is really relaxing. You must visit clinic in Ukraine to complete this process.

[karinacollin]

Hi there, how do you do. Of course the age matters allot. This is really a good factor. The condition you told about yourself was that you are not really comfortable with these processes. Your body is really not accepting these. Conception at this age is not something that is call a wonder. It's just normal. Everything is going to be good for you. Please consult some good doctor. Try to take good diet and you'll be fine and conceive soon. Don't worry just try to keep your mind calm. Everything is going to be fine. I hope I helped you.

[juliacurio]

I was 31 years old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had my wedding booked and we had plans to start a family, but we had to postpone everything as I needed to start treatment immediately. One of the many stages of my treatment was chemotherapy which I was advised may have an impact on my future fertility. At the time I had to allot of hard decisions to make regarding my cancer treatment and had to put family planning to the back of my mind and press on with treatment. Adjuvant treatment also consisted of a 5-year course of Tamoxifen which would delay my family planning further.Two and a half years into my treatment, I made the tough decision to stop Tamoxifen and try for a baby naturally. After a year and a half of trying unsuccessfully, we went to the GP and saw a consultant. They found that my ovarian reserve had been affected by the chemotherapy treatment and I also had a blocked fallopian tube and suggested that we try conventional IVF. Due to my cancer being an estrogen and progesterone receptive cancer and therefore hormone driven, I was really worried about conventional IVF. I was worried it might reactivate my cancer. So, I started doing some research on the internet and I came across Clinic. I liked Clinic approach from the very start. Their focus on ‘Quality over quantity’, using fewer drugs and working with the woman’s natural cycle really resonated with me. I knew this was a better IVF approach for me.Being an NHS patient, I then had to speak to my consultant and ask if I could have my treatment with instead of another clinic. Thankfully, they agreed.When I came into clinic for my first consultation and scan with the doctor, I could tell straight away he knew what he was talking about. He had done research into my cancer prior to seeing me and created a protocol for Natural Modified IVF with minimal drugs so that the treatment affected my hormones as little as possible. I honestly do not think any other clinic would have paid that level of attention to my specific needs. I was filled with feelings of security and hope. I knew I was in good hands. Although the doctor did also manage my expectations and informed me that my chances were low, I knew that would do everything they could to me.Everything had to be put on hold for such a long time for us; we did start to think that we might never have children, so it was amazing to see a positive pregnancy after my first cycle. We were totally gobsmacked. It was the most amazing feeling, especially because we’d been waiting to start a family for ages.I then went on to have a really healthy pregnancy and amazing labor. Baby Logan really has made our lives complete.Life with a baby has been absolutely great. It can be difficult at times, of course, as he is a really boisterous boy, but we both absolutely love the journey. My partner has been absolutely great through our whole journey.Actually, I already have been. Every single person from reception staff to the nurses and doctors was really empathetic and just absolutely lovely to us.

[Mel77]

Hi! I do understand what you feel, hun. Here's a little background. I'm not new to infertility and fertility treatments. Our story started years ago when after 1.9 years TTC we had to begin consulting docs in order to find out the issues. My dh was ok, his swimmers just perfect. And I was diagnosed on luteal phase deffect. Ladies always say this is not a big deal, and it really is. Adding some progesterone is useless when they give only 10% verdict of conceiving with oe. Because of this we had to turn to egg donation. The decision of using another woman's eggs was not easy. At that time I had another situation by my side. This was my true friend who after 7 years of struggling adopted a child. So I was hesitating.. Though egg donation keeps genetic relation.. Also my favourite quote played the role; When the world says 'give up', hope whispers 'try it one more time'. So we did. It took us 2 shots to conceive beautiful twins. And now when our family seems to be completed I feel 'urgent' to have more babies. Dh is absolutely for the idea. So here we go.. another journey, the same clinic, hopefully the same people..

You shouldn't panic anyway, dear! There are so many options nowadays to achieve pregnancy. And as for your regrets, don't turn to the past. You just had reasons to put off pregnancy and there's nothing bad about this. I mean such were the circumstances. You'd better focus on today's situation. I believe the chances of ivf success are high. You only have to make the right choice with the clinic where to pass it. Waiting for your update and wishing you the best of luck! Hugs xx

[Gia_9]

Hi there, it's alright to put off getting pregnant till you think you're ready for it. I wouldn't consider it any wrong or blame on it for infertility struggles you're having now. I certainly landed upon this post quite late.... so I'm hopeful that you probably found out a solution and on it. Please update! I don't have the experience to share though, I can suggest you things to keep up the hope. Yes, we all know that with age the reproductive viability gets diminished and more years put into trying means more deteriorations. It's strange though that they still do not have a concrete reason to explain your troubled with conceiving. Considering that even the DE+IVF failed, I presume the case isn't to be taken lightly. 38 isn't really to late to give up on hope but yes the success rate is definitely lower compared to <35 or in your 20s. I think you need to find a clinic which specialises in IVF for older women with a good success rate to boost your confidence.

[Mel77]

I just came here to the thread today and realized I've got some more thoughts to share.

I've heard so much about this ''miracle bound'' between a surrogate and a baby she carries. In my opinion this is not on the mental level. But this is inevitably her blood which runs your baby's body. IP should try to be involved in the pregnancy process right along with their surrogate. This can mean going with her to doctor appointments. Spending some time together away from the hospital. This is also helpful for bonding after childbirth. IP shouldn't be afraid to talk to the baby. A big part of mother and baby connection is the baby hearing the mother’s voice in vitro!! Throughout the surrogacy process, let your baby hear your voice as much as possible. I believe the more physical contact you have with your baby after he or she is born, the stronger your bond will be.

On the whole, bonding with your baby is perhaps one of the most exciting parts of being a new parent. Since much of this initial bonding happens with the child in the womb, IP always wonder if they can achieve the same connection with their child when he or she is born via surrogacy. Though the process will look a little different, there are plenty of ways to bond with the baby during the pregnancy and when you finally come home with your child, surely. Parents' love is almighty. I'm convinced nothing can change it.