I just had my first ivf consultation Thursday and despite having amazing egg reserve ( AMH 18.3) and the consultant counting 20 follicles he said our best chance is donor egg due to downs and Edwards killing my last two babies ( Our first baby wasn't tested). We have no children and have lost 3 in a row over the last 3 years.Has anyone my age had a successful ivf with their own eggs.
I'm going to pay for the genetic testing but I am so scared I won't get one good embryo.
I have never had ivf and I have very limited money and I'm running out of time.
Hi, I’m so sorry to hear about your babies. I’m also 44. I had my first IVF cycle in May, which unfortunately wasn’t successful (despite getting 13 fertilised eggs). Like you, my AMH/AFC is quite good for my age - so I’m going to give it another go at the end of this month. Feel free to DM me xx
Thank you for sharing that, at this point I feel like I can barely stand anymore loss but also I don't want to just give up because my mental health had taken a kicking.I'm sorry it didn't work for you and I hope the next round is successful x
Hello, I am so sorry it has been such a traumatic struggle for you and your husband these past few years. I am 44 and lost four babies between 41 and 43, two of which were due to confirmed chromosomal abnormalities, no cause was identified for the first two as we did not have any cytogenetic testing done at the time. It is secondary infertility in our case. We only chose to try IVF for our final attempt as it would allow us to PGT-A test any embryos prior to transfer. My protocol details are in my profile, however in a nutshell, I took DHEA and a range of other supplements for about three months prior to my first egg collection (we did two back to back) in a bid to improve egg quality. During the stimulation phase I was also on human growth hormone Zomacton both times and Melatonin during my second cycle. We had no euploid embryos from our first cycle (from nine fertilised eggs we achieved 2 Day 5 blastocysts), however our second cycle was exceeding expectations/stats for my age where we got 2 euploid embryos out of 3 Day 5/6 blastocysts (and we only had those 3 fertilised eggs in that second round on Day 1). My consultant maintained throughout that we got very lucky, she had only given us a 3-5% chance of success at the beginning of our journey. I am currently 14 weeks pregnant and praying that all will remain well for the next twenty odd weeks. Achieving a healthy pregnancy at our age via IVF is not impossible and believing that it would work kept me going through the gruelling process but it helps to stay realistic. We always had a Plan B in our heads in case it didn't work with our own gametes which also helped to keep us going, but I needed to try with my own eggs for closure before exploring other options like adoption. Wishing you the best of luck and tons of strength! x
Thank you so much! I am very fortunate to have a really supportive manager, he's been very understanding when I went through our losses and it gave me the confidence to be completely transparent about our IVF journey. The past few years have taken a toll on my productivity at work and I've barely scraped through at times in terms of perfomance but he's always had my back which made a huge difference. The company I work for doesn't have a fertility policy as such yet but is currently working on one which is encouraging, it may be worth speaking to your People Team, they should be treating everything you say confidentially. I was allowed to exceed my general holiday allowance for procedures that required a longer recovery period to avoid any absence counting towards sick leave or having to take unpaid leave, I know not every company is that flexible. I am glad I asked and openly explored options with my company. x
I'm so glad you've been well supported at work and thank you for your advice.Sadly my work is not so good and after a very traumatic loss last year (3rd baby) a consultant found half of my 2nd baby had been left inside me from the year before.
As a result of this I decided to cremate the two lots of the baby's remains together to let's say put them back together and 2 weeks after the funeral my work told me my phased return "couldn't go on forever ".
I house homeless people the majority of which are single women and kids as well as lots of drug taking pregnant women so as you can imagine it is extremely difficult for me to do this nowadays.
I will consider using leave to cover the appointments as much as possible so as to not arouse suspicion x
Oh this is heartbreaking, and I am so sorry your work acted with such lack of tact and compassion. I understand why it's hard to be confronted on a regular basis with women who on the surface don't appear to treasure the miracle that's happening to them, is there anyone at work who you could confide in? Is it possible to be assigned to only those cases that you'd find easier to wholeheartedly support, even temporarily? Or could you try and positively influence and help those ladies with addictions as they find themselves on a whole new path to motherhood? We often can't immediately appreciate what's led them to have fallen pregnant, there may have been abuse or they see becoming a mother as a chance to get their lives back on track and the support organisations such as yours can give them is such a lifeline and can make all the difference. I know you know all this better than most, I see you, it can be so challenging to look outside of our own troubles when we're trying so hard to cope with our grief while trying to keep up with life that inevitably keeps getting on with things around us. You have a plan with IVF and that is fantastic, it's a way forward and I so hope your dream of finally bringing home your baby will come true. xx
Thank you, I have asked after every loss to be redeployed bit yo no avail.
I completely understand the complexity of each client but as you point out when your in the thick of it your mental resilience is gone.
I'm my case of course I remain professional and empathise but of course the upset of seeing baby after baby adopted or under child protection or worse takes its toll.
I continue to look for work not supporting vulnerable people as after 17 years it's time I put myself first.
Hi Fearfactor. Oh you poor girl having gone through so much. Hopefully you’ve been receiving loads of support too. I speak to lots of successful ladies in their forties using their own eggs which of course is what you would prefer to do. I would be reassured that this time you are going to get your embryos tested first. We have a lot of information around fertility in the workplace so do have a look on our website fertilitynetworkuk.org I shall be thinking of you. Diane
I too had great AMH for my age, mine at 44 years old was 46.6 which the consultant was amazed at and therefore was happy for me to proceed with IVF with my own eggs. I got 16 eggs from this cycle and 11 fertilised but only 2 made it to day 5 blastocysts. Both of these were tested and both abnormal. I did alot of research and speaking to consultants to decide how to proceed after this and was told that whilst with my AMH there is likely to be good eggs still there, that finding them was like looking for a needle in a haystack so virtually all suggested moving to donor eggs. The consultant I was under for the first cycle did say he was happy for me to try again with own eggs and that I could do a 3 cycle package and test any blastocysts together after the 3 cycles but my chances of success were still tiny like 2-3% and I knew if I did those 3 rounds I wouldn’t be able to then move on to donor eggs because financially I couldn’t afford anymore.
So I made the decision to move to donor eggs instead which held a much greater success rate and my first round with donor eggs worked…I’m now 33 weeks pregnant.
I wish you lots of luck in your journey and am happy to answer any questions you might have about the donor process xx
Thank you so much for explaining your journey I am so sorry that your cycle didn't give you a baby that must have been very distressing for you.Congratulations on your pregnancy, its fantastic to hear it worked for you.
I have considered all my options I just don't feel donor eggs is for me.
Thank you for your well wishes, I hope your pregnancy is smooth and healthy x
Hi there, so sorry to hear about your losses. I am currently 43 (turning 44 in 2 months time) and I've been inspired and driven on this rollecoaster of a journey called IVF by my friend's sister's experience. At 43, with good AMH she had 5-6 IVF cycles, testing all of her embryos. She got 2 euploid ones, transferred one at the age of 45 and got pregnant with twins, who are now 4 years old. So yes, it can happen!
Just like you I've got good AMH (tested at 41 and it was 29pmol) and AFC only recently was 37. I found that as soon as I started taking supplements and vitamins I got a euploid embryo. I also currently have 2 untested embryos, which I intend to transfer first and possibly do a few more tests/fix a few other things before transferring the euploid one. If all of this fails, I intend on doing more IVF, as sincerely believe that even though the success rate at this age is low, having 4-5 times more follicles that ordinarily would be the case for someone in their 40s, should give you more chances of success.
Wishing you all the very best with your next cycle!
I’m 43 with amh 23, my partner and I met in 2006 and started trying for a baby straight away but we never once had a natural pregnancy. Didn’t qualify for ivf on nhs as I had a baby when I was 16 and at the time we couldn’t afford private treatment.
We decided to go for it when I hit 40. First round in uk I got 8 eggs, only 2 left on day 5 both very poor quality. BFN. Our consultant told us in our follow up that the quality of my eggs was so poor that there was less than 5% chance of success with my own eggs and we should look at using a donor and recommended north Cyprus as they have good clinics out there.
So I went out and did a tandem cycle. I got 12 eggs this time and 5 still going day 5 but not great quality again, put 3 back, bfn. We got 3 frozen embryos from the donor eggs.
As the number of eggs I was getting increased, and I just wasn’t mentally ready to say goodbye to the chance of having a baby using my own eggs yet I decided to try one last time. My clinic suggested some extra supplements, who knows if they helped, they certainly did no harm. This cycle I got 17 eggs, 2 hatching blasts, an embryo still in the freezer and a beautiful baby boy who is now 5 months old.
I’m just so glad I didn’t give up! I was 42 when I did that last round.
I know our circumstances are different but definitely worth looking at supplements for increased egg health. It was the only thing I did differently that last round. Good luck with whatever you decide to do
Maybe that’s right, maybe it was just a very lucky coincidence for me but unless they’re going to harm you there’s no harm in trying!
I’ve messaged you a list of supplements. There’s information on the internet about each one and the link to egg health I did search them all before I started taking..
Hi there, sorry to jump on here. Congratulations on your little one. Grateful if you could share the list of supplements with me too. Hoping to do a new cycle in the autumn and have just turned 41, so hoping to try new supplements for egg quality too. Many thanks xx
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own eggs or egg donor route CONFUSED and scared 
***Sensitive*** 44 years of age and 14 weeks pregnant with a miracle baby ☺️🌈💫
44 and just failed IVF cycle - no eggs
BFN using donor eggs 
Failed IVF using donor eggs
