IVF success in Europe? Should i jump straight to a donor?

[sp3112]

Hi everyone - great to read all your stories.

I'm 35, AMH of 4 (0.5 on the american scale) and only 7 follicles. I've been told IVF might not work. Im going private as the NHS waitlist is simply too long given the results but the costs are almost double what they are in somewhere like Poland. If i go to Poland it means I'll get twice as many cycles for the same amount of money. Any advice?

Also are my chances so low that I should just go straight to egg donation?

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experience - I'm feeling so deflated and down on myself.

[Cinderella5]

Its hard to know what to do. Ive seen some girls with low AMH achieve pregnancy though the chances are a bit reduced as with a lower AMH and in your mid thirties it is expected that the number and quality of eggs may be reduced. IVF itself is a bit of a gamble and it wont work for everyone as we all know. We did a few cycles due to NHS funding and were unsuccesful (AMH 7.19 and 38). We've since moved onto donor eggs to improve our chances as we are paying and went abroad to Greece in the thinking that we could afford more treatment over there as opposed to here. My first cycle has failed but heading for a frozen transfer soon. Obviously no guarantees either way but great that you are open to using OE or DE. Best of luck with your decision.xx

[anna0908]

I had similar numbers amh of 5 at 36 and follicle count of 4. You can read my story by clicking onto my profile. I did respond to the drugs with those numbers and got 4 blastocysts on 1 cycle - our consultant felt we were unlucky not to have been successful as he said age was most predicting factor of success, just that we might not get so many eggs off in a cycle. We weren't successful and had planned donor eggs until I had a surprise natural conception! I felt I needed to give my body a chance first or I would have always wondered 'what if'. I would say decision has to be based on your own feelings around this and finances obviously come in to it regarding number if cycles you can afford. In short, your chances are reduced but still reasonable! I know there are lots of people on here who can pm you about clinics they've attended abroad and are happy with experience. I know it's hard having such news around your chances but I have seen others have success with ivf with much lower numbers than us! And donor eggs will give you a really good chance if you go down that route. Best wishes for whatever you decide xx

[Blondyboo]

i had an AMH of 4 and had an NHS go using my eggs. It wasnt good and as expected i didnt respond well and only got 1 egg out of me that didnt even fertlize. We were told we would have a 5% chance of IVF working with my own eggs. So we went straight onto DE and went on the waiting list for NHS for our second try. 3 years later we are still waiting on that list but got fed up with waiting and went to Cyprus for treatment with DE. on our third try there we got our BFP and currently pregnant with a little boy due july

for me going abroad and DE was our best decision. Its cheaper. less stressful better treatment and you get a holiday to boot! x

[Smang]

I think this is a hard decision because I’ve seen women with low AMH go on to conceive. For myself, my AMH was 1, and high FSH I was given a 6% chance and conceiving naturally was 10%. So we opted to keep trying naturally and have recently (last few months) decided to go down the donor egg route because ultimately we wanted the best possibly chance of having a child.

Here is what we did before going down donor egg route. We would monitor our ovulation and I had scans done to see if any follicles were going each month, and based on the scan the doctor would tell us when to BD based on his estimated guess. This is more cost effective and also helps to see if you are ovulating and if have any follicles. We tried this process for about a year, as it was about £60 per scan.

After about a year and a half is when we decided to go down the donor egg route. Unfortunately our first attempt failed and we are now getting ready for a frozen cycle. So praying this one will stick.

It’s an emotional process, for me I just felt and still do at times so let down by my body. I desperately want to have child and desperately want to be able to have a child for my DH. For me it came down to what gave me the best odds of having a child, no matter what journey I have to take to get there.

Just take your time and digest everything and together you and your spouse will make the best decision for the two of you. Wishing you the best of luck wherever this journey takes you xx

[ClarabGlasgow in reply to Smang]

Hi smang would you mind letting me know how you arranged this monthly scan & whether it’s a normal thing that fertility clinics offer? I have only had a follicle count during 2 cycles and it was quite varied so not quite sure where I stand but £60 for another sounds very appealing. I also read about another lady on here who had low amh and her clinic monitored her on day 3 each month and started short protocol on a month that had a relatively high number of follies. She did have a bfp eventually. Well done on making the decision for donor eggs. It is something i have started to consider recently . All the best wishes for a positive outcome for you. Like you say when you want something enough you have to try every avenue x

[Smang in reply to ClarabGlasgow]

Hi ClaranGlasgow, I will pop you a DM because I don’t think we are allowed to mention names on here. But basically I’m working with a clinic abroad, and I do the scans in London. Initially were priced at £100 but because I was going frequently, we “negotiated” a price of £60. This place only does scans, various ones and then they would send the results directly to my clinic in Athens. The doctor there would advise me accordingly.

I did initially go to a private gynecologist here in London, but the cost of the private gynecologist and the scans began adding up. I then went to Athens to get a consult done and we created a plan, initially try naturally and then eventually donor eggs if all else failed.

I also use them now for my endometrial line scans during the last transfer and the one coming up shortly.

I gather you live in Glasgow? So London might be a bit too far, but basically you can work with any private gynecologist or even an NHS one (if they are willing), and get the scans done privately. Find a private clinic or place that does scans and see if you can negotiate a price. Even if you pay full price it’s £100 (well here in London it is).

I will send you a DM

[Dunla]

Hiya, my AMH was similar to yours when we started IVF and decreased quite a bit more over the course of a number of years and treatment cycles. Sadly I have never managed to achieve pregnancy. I’ve had four rounds of IVF with my own eggs and just had a 5th cycle with donor eggs which sadly didn’t work out either. My husband and I were chatting last night and agreed that if we knew then how poorly I would respond to IVF we might have gone directly to donor eggs as we have invested so much time, emotion and money into failed self funded cycles . Then again, hind sight is a wonderful thing.

I do wish you the very best of luck with your decision xx

[Hidden]

It’s really hard to decide. My AMH to my complete shock was much lower than yours. It took me time to get my head round donor eggs but after time realised that even if I produced eggs the quality would not be good meaning higher risks of IVF not working and if it did work higher risks of abnormalities with baby. We felt at our age better to go straight for donor eggs improving the chances significantly.

We are with INVICTA Poland and on first transfer got pregnant. Miscarried but just been informed of extra checks to have done so fingers crossed it works second time.

Depending on where you are in UK there are a few tips for going to Poland. You will need bloods and scans done in UK. day 2 and 10 after period. Day 3/6/10 after transfer then weekly until ten weeks. Make sure you have somewhere here that can do that. Also make sure you have enough of all drugscwhen you go because unless you have someone in the UK to prescribe it may be hard. Clinic have been brilliant and very knowledgeable. Good luck with your choices xxx