Hello, I would be grateful for some honest advice on here. I have been trying to conceive since August 2020. I am a single women and tried two rounds of IUI in London as i was a poor responder. I then went to Athens (on recommendation) and had my first ever round of IVF. We were only getting one at a time. I did 3 rounds of IVF and successful got 2 embryos frozen at DAY 3 (clinic only freezes at day 3). I then had two more trips to Athens but my Estrodiol was not going up so we abandoned the cycle. On my last trip to Athens Feb 2022 we had both Day 3 embryos transferred and on saturday 12th March i had a negative result.
My friend told me to monitor my estradiol and progesterone during the 2ww to alter the meds if needed. I did and my progesterone was fine but my estradiol kept decreasing.
day of transfer Mon it was 140 Ng
on the wednesday it was 188ng
on the saturday it was 88ng
and on the following wed it went down again to 68ng.
i was also on estrogen tablets but i guess the decline meant the embroys never implanted.
My AMH is low at 2.56 and my estradiol has always fluctuated. i think every 3rd cycle i get a good reading.
I was wondering what advice you would give me? I dont think i am ready to give up hope yet with my OWN eggs but i also think am i fooling myself.
I have about another 7K left to give it one more shot and i was thinking of trying another great clinic in Athens i've heard so much about.
Your honest feedback would be most welcome.
xx
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Rumi40
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Oh I forgot to mention i stopped all the meds last saturday and still haven't had my period. How long after a FET failed transfer do you normally get your period? its been 4 days so far and still nothing. My progesterone was high last wednesday at 50 and would i need to wait for that to come down before i bleed. Sorry for all the questions.
As a poor responder over 40, you may need 12+ IUI cycles to have a good shot at getting a healthy egg. If you can't do that, then I would definitely go the Donor Egg route.
Yeah, it's a lot. I did a mix of IVF, then IUI and finally at home IUI kits once money ran out. It took me at least 12 cycles to get lucky. I already had donor egg embryos ready to go, when I found out I got pregnant on literally my last try.
Hi there,I am in a similar situation as you. I am 42 and none of my 2 previous Ivf cycles worked Due to the egg quality. I visited another Clinic and the Doc honest answer was that according to their statistics, my amh and medical history I would need 6 Ivf rounds to have 1 healthy embryo. 6 back to back cycles, banking embryos and PGT. I am debating if I should me gave up with my own egg and probably the best for my mental health would be to try DE.
Hi, thanks for your message. I was just wondering is it safe to have 6 back to back cycles. I did three last year in Athens back to back but my ovaries sure did hurt. I know we would need more rounds then the average person due to our age etc hence why i went to Greece. Last year i did three rounds for only 5000 euro including 3 vials of donor sperm. its so much cheaper. i will probably go back again this year to try again. x
I'm also 42 going on 43, and have been trying to conceive through IVF as a single women.
I've done two rounds, the first was with eggs that I froze at age 39, with no success. The second round I did in November and got 4 eggs, 2 embryos which were transferred at day 2.
I had an honest conversation with the clinic about my chances going forward and they said they would fully support me TTC with own eggs but that realistically my chances were less than 10% per cycle. That's obviously based on my numbers so not necessarily the same for you, although I think it is in line with average success rates for our age. From what I can gather iui has lower success rates per cycle though so I'd be realistic that for a good chance of success with iui it might take 10+ cycles.
I decided to do one final try with own eggs but at the same time I've also started the process with a donor. I'm doing both own egg cycle and donor process through a clinic in Cape Town.
As an aside, I've been taking a supplement called Nuchido Time+ which might have some benefit for ovary repair. It's a drug that's been around a long time but only relatively recently has been studied in regards to fertility, plenty of mice studies but no official Human trials as yet, although the company behind that supplement have started some local trials with IVF clinics. Need to take it for minimum 3 months before starting egg collection to give best chance. I'm also on a cocktail of supplements as recommended in the book It Starts with the Egg, including dhea and coq10.
Only just started meds a week ago, scan yesterday showed 7 follicles worth measuring and maybe 2 or 3 others too small to count. So far so good.... But the pressure is off knowing I have donor eggs as a backup which makes a big difference to how I feel, it's much less stressful and emotional than previous cycle so far (I may be speaking too soon on that though... Might not feel that way in a week!).
wow missmf, it seems like the Nuchido Time + is working. thats amazing news. May i ask why last time they transferred at Day 2? Mine was Day 3 as the clinic doesn't really go to Day 5. Sitting back now, I wonder if i let an embryo get to Day 5 i would have a better chance and not have to go through this heartache. I will probably try another clinic in Athens that i trust and once again is cheaper than London. I bet Cape Town is fairly cheap as well. Oh and yes ive been on DHEA and Coq10 on and off for 2 years now. I haven't had my AMH tested again but 2 years ago it was 2.56. I wish we all get our dream of motherhood x
Hi, just responding to the day 3 vs day 5 wonder. In my 2nd cycle, they transferred 3 Day 3 embryos and none made it and we blamed ourselves thinking that if we waited till Day 5 we may have had better chances.
In the next 3rd cycle, we transferred 2 (one Day 5 and one Day 6) and both didn't make it again (first cycle was Day 5 too and failed), so honestly I don't think that it would have made any difference for me. I suspect my quality that was hindering my success (I got the egg fertilised when I was 42 and transferred at 43). My AMH when I started was around 11 which was good for my age but I still didn't get results.
I have been on this site for 1-2 years and I feel there are a lot of silent members so its hard to gauge how many are really successful over 40s.
I feel the main disadvantage unfortunately is age even if our health condition is fairly good. Based on stats, I've been advised even at the start of my journey that my chances are 10% and while I am a big believer in science, I can't accept the fact that I may not get a chance to have my own so I've tried again and again and failed.
Basically IVF/ICSI is like the luck of the draw,you never know when you will get lucky and very few have unlimited supply of funds to keep trying and trying. The Dr has no control over your egg quality despite the fees being so high for this field. My Dr also mentioned that the effects of continuous IVF and the possibility if it can cause further problems down the line (like cancer) are not studied well as most participants tend to do not more than 6 rounds.
Donor egg is something I'm considering but its hard for me to accept, so have got a few recommendations and am trying to come to terms with this. To your question on honest advise, no one will ever know which month is going to be your lucky month and it's very hard I know, as the same thought is playing in my mind over and over again.
I don't have a definite answer but nevertheless wish you the very best. If not this website being an outlet for me, I think this journey would be 10x harder for me.
Hiya, wow an AMH of 11 is outstanding. Sorry to hear it didn't work for you either at Day 3 or Day 5. i guess it really doesn't make a difference. My friend also told me the risk of possible cancer with IVF. thankfully i have being doing natural cycles and only in one cycle we used clomid and of course i trigger all three times. However the amount of drugs you are on for a medicated FET. i may just give it one more go at a new clinic in Athens which is outstanding. i did visit there on my last visit to check it out and its the nicest sincere clinic I've come across ever. I hope all goes well for you too hun xx
Thanks I never did natural cycles.. maybe I'll give it a go with a natural cycle.. do you mind pm'ing me the details of the clinic in Athens. Thank you & good luck! xx
Yes hopefully it's working! But there can be huge variation of follicles between cycles so no way to know if it's the supplement that's made a difference.
The clinic said that the only reason to grow embryos is if you have more than you want to transfer, as by growing them it's easier to grade them. I only had 2 embryos so they thought best to transfer them both asap as they have a better chance of survival in the uterus than in test tube.
thanks a million. I think my doc thought the same to get the embryos back in the uterus by Day 3. x
Have you considered getting a second opinion? I was told by my clinic at 43 that I was highly unlikely to get pregnant with my own eggs and even if I did the risk of miscarriage was high due to egg quality. I decided to get a second opinion and just paid for one consultation with a different clinic who said exactly the same based on my history. That for me made the decision for me x
Hi Daisy, thanks for your advice. its strange as in the UK i was told to move to DE but in Greece they are so much in favour of using your own eggs until your options run out. they keep saying I'm young but im like my eggs aren't lol. x
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