39 and about to start IVF process on next cycle

[Legallyblonde39]

Hi ladies, I was just looking to hear some success stories of ivf on nhs at my age. After years of meeting the wrong guy and concentrating on career, I started my ttc journey 2 years ago with my amazing partner. In that time I've had 3 chemical pregnancies, 2 miscarriages at 6 and 7 weeks. I was due to start ivf in January but fell pregnant in December which was my second miscarriage. After being told to keep trying naturally in February (eve of my 39th birthday), I insisted on starting the ivf ASAP and we start the process in 2 weeks with the NHS. My AMH is 10. My boyfriend had a very slightly low motility which he has been taking supplements for. Any nhs success stories on ivf at 39? I'm taking supplements/cutting out alcohol and have been doing acupuncture in preparation. Just need a little hope... Thanks in advance!

[CAS2]

Hello. I had my third round of IVF at 39 which resulted in my little boy. Now currently 6 weeks from my FET at 42. I had an AMH of 8. I took loads of vits too (so Vit B complex, D, Omega 3, Ubiquionol, and both Vit E and L'argenine (the last 2 during the cycle only). The consultant also recommended DHEA and Melatonin to help with egg quality, which I took before the cycle. He also nailed the protocol bang on on the third cycle.

It's not an easy process and a bit of a rollercoaster. One thing I learnt is not to be too hard on yourself. During my third cycle I had the odd glass of wine and relaxed a bit and that one worked!

Good luck xx

[Legallyblonde39 in reply to CAS2]

Hi thank you so much this is really helpful and inspiring. Yeah I'm taking all those apart from the melatonin. I couldn't find that on amazon. Is that something you can get at somewhere else like Holland and Barratt? I had a couple of glasses of wine last weekend to celebrate finally getting a start date. Can I ask how many follicles you had at scan and how many eggs? Best of luck for your FET xx

[CAS2 in reply to Legallyblonde39]

I got my DHEA and Melatonin from Biovea.com (recommended by my consultant). Hmm I have quite a lot of follicles (apparently they don't match my AMH levels!). My first 2 rounds we got 11 eggs I think, only 2 blasts and none worked. On the third round I was stimmed longer, on a higher dose and will a longer trigger shot as my consultant realised I need very big follicles to have mature eggs. We got 20 eggs that round, and some frozen ones too. x

[Legallyblonde39 in reply to CAS2]

Great thanks! I've just realised that's the site I got my dhea from. Will have a look Xx

[Zebedee1971]

Hi, so firstly congrats on meeting a good 'un. I struggled meeting my other half too: we met at 33, started trying at 36 and only just - after 3 years of miscarriages, failed ivf rounds and general disappointments and heartbreak- got pregnant with our first. Currently 28 weeks pregnant, at 39 years old.

So not to steer you away from ivf BUT there are a couple of things that stood out that screamed familiarity with my own fertility history.

1. Your amh is pretty good for 39. 10 is a healthy number.

2. You've had a lot of natural conceptions for your age, which means you CAN conceive (many who have ivf don't get this far so you're already in a good position).

3. You've had a lot of early miscarriages/chemicals... All before 7 weeks (same as me) - I had miscarriages at 7 and 5 weeks, then chemicals.

So here's my input/advice (should you wish to take it) -

Ivf will only do the job that your body is already doing. You CAN conceive (your fertility history proves this) so ivf will only take one of your eggs and fertilise it (something you've already managed many times in 2 years) then pop it back in... What's to say it will take this time? Why would ivf make an embryo stick around when they haven't previously? The quality of your eggs won't be better (your body naturally selects the best eggs every month, so actually the egg quality could be worse? Maybe.)

So I would say it isn't ivf you need, it's testing around implantation, and if I were you I'd be going down the recurrent miscarriage route- Really, you need to know why all your pregnancies ended so early and why your embryos don't 'stick.' Ivf consultants always spin the 'it's the embryo quality' line, and they will do this with you too, because of your age. But my experience is that yes, it can sometimes be this, but often there are other factors at play.

For me, it was nk cells. Not sure how much you know about this but if you have high nk cells, your body can attack the embryo at implantation stage, which means that even healthy embryos can terminate early as the environment is hostile... I had nk cell testing last February and it worked for me- I got pregnant naturally (twice in two months), first a chemical then with the baby I'm carrying now.

Nk cell testing isn't cheap but if we'd have had this done before ivf we would have avoided 3 rounds of ivf, two of which were private and cost us over £15,000, money which we didn't actually need to spend because - like you - we were able to conceive naturally without ivf. Its just, for us, the little ones never lasted more than 7 weeks. There are other tests you can get done, I think I've seen ERA/ EMMA mentioned... Maybe someone else on here might be able to add some info about other implantation tests you can get done....

If you still decide to do ivf then that's obviously your choice but if I were you I'd have other tests done first. After 2 or 3 failed rounds, you'll start to look into this stuff anyway. And you'd have wasted your nhs ivf rounds.

Obviously, I speak from my own personal experiences.. I understand if you still want to go down the ivf route, but thought I'd give you my advice based on the 3 years of heartbreak we went through... Heartbreak we didn't need to go through because the solution was so simple and we just needed steering in the right direction to find it xx

[Legallyblonde39 in reply to Zebedee1971]

Hi there. What a journey you've been on but delighted to hear of your pregnancy! Congratulations!

Yup I hear you. I've had some testing for recurrent miscarriages and all the tests came back fine apart from one which is slightly low. The doctor thought it was because I had back to back chemical pregnancies so said to come back for fresh tests after two clear periods. I was supposed to go back in January but fell pregnant. So I am due to get my fresh miscarriage tests next week on my next period. I should have the tests back before I start the nasal sprays. I had genetic testing on my baby tissue in January and it was chromosome abnormalities. I think I'm trying not to waste time. Obviously if something comes back before the ivf actually starts that will need to be looked at but from what the doctor said if the test comes back low again then it's an easy fix with progesterone?

I just feel like time is not on my side but I'm reassured by all these stories xx

[Zebedee1971 in reply to Legallyblonde39]

Well that's reassuring then, maybe it is just getting the right egg/sperm?Your amh is good, I wouldn't worry too much about time, you still have good enough egg reserves to make a go of this. Its just annoying that it takes so much time. Hopefully your ivf cycle will flag up something simple, like maybe your lining isn't quite right for implantation, which is easily fixed . Good luck x

[Legallyblonde39 in reply to Zebedee1971]

Thanks🥰

[Poop84 in reply to Zebedee1971]

hi Zebedee1971 I hope you don't mind me asking but what treatment for nk cells did you have ( protocol wise) intralipids ivig or steroids?

I have nk cell issues but want to try naturally too as i conceived naturally a few mths ago but miscarried.

[Zebedee1971 in reply to Poop84]

Hiya. For both my pregnancies I took aspirin in the morning, then I took steroids for 12 or 16 weeks, and intralipids. I think I had an intralipid from ovulation, then every 4 weeks until 16 weeks. For my first pregnancy I took humira too but only had one dose as I had an allergic reaction and had a rash all over my body. Oh, I also took hydroxychloroquine. I feel like the hydroxy was the thing that worked for me, personally... but I can't know for sure because with my second pregnancy I only ever tried with the drugs, we didnt even consider not taking the drugs as I didn't want to go through miscarriages again, definitely wanted to leave that chapter in the past. It was easier just to load myself up with steroids etc and keeps my fingers crossed!

Both my boys were natural conceptions, we did have 3 ivf cycles prior to having nk cell treatment, with no luck... before that I had loads of early miscarriages, all around weeks 5-7, then as soon as I took the drugs I got pregnant straightaway, both times. I'm very lucky, i've only ever had 2 heartbeats and both made it to full term, but i needed drugs to get to that point. None of my natural pregnancies made it that far, sadly. So I'm living proof that it does work I was treated by doctor hassan shehata at crp clinic. I hope that's useful and gives you hope xx

[Poop84 in reply to Zebedee1971]

thank you lovely that's very helpful. And thanks for sharing this with me means a lot ❤️🙏🏼xx

[Poop84 in reply to Zebedee1971]

This is interesting as I fell naturally pregnant the first in like 4 years with aspirin that I prescribed myself! Sadly had a MC though but it worked enough to help me with some implantation for 2 weeks

[Zebedee1971 in reply to Poop84]

Just make sure it's 'Baby aspirin' so the lowest dose, think it's 75mg ... but yeah, it does help. Maybe it makes the lining less thick and better for implantation? The body is a mystery. There are so many things that need to be right for pregnancy to happen. But we're so lucky there are medical professionals out there who dedicate their lives to this. I'm so sad you're going through what I had to endure, it's so tough isn't it? I still get a lump in my throat when I think about how bad it was. The only thing I can say really is that as soon as I gave up all hope (and I mean ALL hope), I got a lovely thick line on a pregnancy test... and everything changed. It really does only take 1. Sending Internet hugs your way, and a bit of baby dust too xxx

[Poop84 in reply to Zebedee1971]

thank you we have a handful of pgs normal embryos but they're so precious so need to have everything right before we use them.