I'm 42 and am in the 2ww of my first IVF round. When we started the process we were told by all clinics that it would be very difficult due to my age. Then we went through egg collection and fertilisation and got the lovely surprise to get 5 blastocysts, 4 of which are top grade. We thought we might have a chance after all. I was then advised to do pgs which after much hesitation I decided not to do because it remains unproven. I then transferred 2 embryos and at 9dpt it looks like on my way to a bfn.
Is there anybody else having a similar experience?
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Dogpark
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Hello hun. Well that is an amazing number of blastocysts!! I’m not far behind you in age and I am using my own eggs. Waiting to start 3rd go. My sister in law is 45 and used own eggs and is now due on the 10th June!!
Hi Emma great to hear some good news of older women getting pregnant, I have been through 3 cycles so wishing you all the best for your third round out of interest have these been fresh or frozen cycles?
Hi, I’m 40 and on my fourth cycle with IVF. I haven’t had any genetic testing. We decided against it. But they do think our unexplained infertility is most likely genetic issue due to my age. I have had NK cell tests and had my womb checked. All normal. If no luck this time I think we’ll go to DE.
5 blastos is amazing. Did you have 2 blastos transferred and froze the rest? When is your OTD? It’s easy to feel like it’s over when it’s actually not.
I’m 42 also, I have had a 5 day blastocyst transferred using my own eggs and I have a positive test result! I know as we age the success rates dip, but so many of my friends are having babies in their forties without assistance, that I don’t dwell on the numbers thrown at us.
Thank you Emma, Gemmy and Shola, this is great to hear from you.
Best of luck to all 3 of you! As for the BFN question, I know it's not over until it's over, but I have been using a first response early result test yesterday (day 9) and it was BFN. I think that I should be starting to see a faint line or something at this stage. Plus I don't really have any symptoms. My OTD is on Monday, I will be waiting until Sunday to retest and see.
gemmy999 Yes I transferred 2 and froze the rest. If this doesn't work out, I think I'll do another round of collection or two before transferring again possibly when I'm 43, given that it feels like past 42 things are more or less over.
Emmaxxx That's amazing for your sister in law, what did she do? Did she use PGS?
@gemmy999 I also looked at PGS and decided against it for this round, I'm wondering if I should reconsider it. Why did you decide against it?
Shola76 This is amazing, congrats! How many weeks along are you?
We were advised that genetic testing wasn’t right for us. For me, with poor egg response we’d have to get a blasto (we’ve only ever had one) and have that tested which would use a cycle without transfer. I believe they can test and still transfer but the quality isn’t then very good due to testing. We didn’t think the use of a cycle was worth it for us. If the results came back as a genetic issue we’d go to DE anyway. So we may as well have that as our next step. Hope that makes sense. Tc, xx
Best of luck for this cycle I can relate to how the drugs affect you my third cycle that ended recently really affected me as the dosage was put up to the maximum and I knew about it couldn’t stop crying think a mixture of the hormones and disappointed it didn’t work. A hard process to go through but well done for putting yourself out there and doing a 4th round you are being really resilient, just be kind to yourself and don’t lose hope x
Thanks Hidden I can imagine how difficult it must have felt to not get a lot of embryos while trying. When I started the process, I was told to expect that due to my age and was surprised it wasn't the case. Your advantage here is that, theoretically, you should need a lot less embryos than a 42 year old person to achieve success, given that your embryos are higher quality. Hang in there! At the end of the day, we're all battling with the same potential outcome which is no children of our own. This is very unfair and I wish I knew how to better cope with this.
Hey, I was 38 the last time that we did OE treatment. We got a few 3 blastocysts over 2 cycles but sadly no BFP and decided to move onto DE as we got told we only had around a 5% chance of success with my OE. It sounds like your cycle has gone really well to get 4 blastocysts. Wishing you all the best.xx
Im still working on it! I see you have seen some of my older posts so you'll know we lost a pregnancy back in February but getting started again soon, should be heading out to Athens in around a months time to do our next transfer! There's just no guarantees in any of this but our chances have gone from virtually zero to much higher so much better odds.xx
Hi I’m 41 this year and doing my first round now - egg collection early next week. Presuming we have blastos to test, we are having genetic testing. The clinic prefers a freeze all cycle anyway so we wouldn’t expect transfer in the same cycle regardless of testing. I really wouldn’t get too hung up on age. It’s drummed into us how important it is (yes, we get it!) but plenty of people get pregnant in their 40’s. Keeping everything crossed for you xx
Thanks hifer, sounds like we might be with the same clinic (I don't know of a lot of other clinics defaulting to freeze all rounds and PGS. What made you decide on PGS? I'll be thinking of you next week for egg collection.
Are you in London? Our clinic thinks genetic testing is pretty important (especially for someone my age!). The risks of anything going wrong during testing are incredibly small if stats are to be believed. The risks of embryos not being viable though increase as you get older. I didn’t want to go through all the stress, the medication and everything else to have a non viable embryo put back and therefore we would never have a chance. For me, the testing gives the best possible chance of a positive result. If it doesn’t work out, I will feel that I tried everything to make it work xx
Hi hifer yes I'm in London, is this the clinic in Great Portland Street? They've advised PGS to me too and decided against it for the first round. I have been hesitant because other leading UK clinics have advised against it. There are also articles such as these that made me question this approach:
I am tempted to do PGS in case of BFN this time around, as I don't see myself go through many rounds. It would be great if there were a clinic that would let me transfer abnormal embryos in case that's all I get after a few rounds. That could be another tool to prioritise the order in which to transfer embryos, not necessarily discard them!
No I’m in London Bridge. Feel free to DM me if you would like more details. PGS is our first step. We’ll have to see next week what sort of blastos we end up with. Some clinics may allow you to put back an ‘abnormal embryo’ here (mine may even I’m not sure. It’s worth an ask) I take your point. Think my clinic will do the testing and then review what we have and take it from there. What’s assisted hatching? That’s different from ICSI? X
You lot give me hope, I’m 40 and just starting at fertility clinic. You sound so positive about your journeys so far and that’s exactly what us newbies need. Fingers crossed for you all, especially you, Dogpark.
Best of luck Wannabemammy you never know how it will go before you go through your first round. Clinics tend to paint a very bleak picture to 40+ patients and you might be positively surprised.
Hi. We all have to be positive and you will be too. It’s a long and hard journey but with its very highs and very lows but we are all there for each other. Welcome to the journey xxx
Hi Dogpark, you sound like you have had a really good first cycle with some great results. , I am 42 and have had 3 failed cycles all very different cycles first one I had 7 eggs 6 injected 3 fertilised and 2 nearly at blastocysts so day 5 transfer for 2 of them the third wasn’t good enough to freeze. 2nd cycle 7 eggs, 6 injected none fertilised 3rd cycle 13 eggs, 11 injected 8 fertilised all really good quality and got to blastocyst had 1 transferred and had 4 frozen, unfortunately negative. We are going for a FET in July as the hormones really affected me this time as my dosage was increased up to maximum and boy did I know it!!!! I also have 1 fresh cycle left as we paid for a multi cycle just want to give my body a rest from all hormones and they say frozen is as good if not better. Why do you think your cycle has not worked? As my consultant says do not lose hope until you have that pregnancy test In your hand. That said easier said that done hey. Wishing you the best of luck. Btw what is pgs is that the testing for abnormal chromosomes? x
Hi Hidden Sorry to hear, I was also on maximum meds for my first cycle (425 I think). The stimulation was ok, then the egg collection was super painful and left me exhausted, then I went for an FET and am taking a ton of progesterone which is also tiring me.
I think my cycle hasn't worked because I think that by the time I did my test I should have seen a faint line or something. I'll see on Sunday/Monday, this is excruciating.
PGS is the genetic testing of abnormal chromosomes indeed. Did they offer you to do this? I think it might help minimise the number of transfers to go through, but it remains unproven.
Also, great to hear about other 42 year olds cycling!! Go 1976!
When is your OTD ? I would wait until then as hard as this is as some of the medication you have taken could show an incorrect result look at the positives no bleed so don’t rule out a positive at this stage. No didn’t get offered PGS but think that is because I am private but through my local NHS and they and the private hospital tend not to recommend lots of add ons unless they think it is proven to help and necessary. The only extras I had was ICSI (due to boyfriends low sperm count and mobility) and the embryoscope. Although I may well look at having the no cells test in the future if my next cycle fails.
Yes 1976 best year 👍 I do try and keep positive about being successful as all I hear is less chance due to my age but at the same time I would like to hope that luck is on my side and from looking at the other comments from your post from lovely ladies around our age success can happen. Make sure you are doing lots of nice things to keep your mind off things ahead of your otd. Xx
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