About to start first IVF cycle age 40 - any tips, hints, success stories pleaseeee? 🙏🏻

[SKC111]

I turned 40 recently and have purchased a 3 cycle package with Access Fertility’s refund program. We have been ttc 1 year, my partner has children already so we are not eligible for funding. His sperm sample showed he had 1% Morphology, he has a very stressful job. Otherwise all good. My AMH is 10 & AFC is 21. I have been taking supplement for a year and have reduced drinking and eat healthy. I have a history of recurrent thrush and have never been pregnant. I have raynauds otherwise very healthy and active. I’m just waiting my my period to arrive then our ivf journey to begin. I’d love to hear some hints, tips, over 40 success stories. Thanks in advance 🙏🏻

[Rainbow2023]

Welcome to the world of IVF! I was 40 (and 10 months) when I had my first ever cycle, which was NHS funded. Although we got a good number of eggs and embryos, after two transfers we were unsuccessful.

Then in Aug last year we started a new round of embryo batching - 3 back to back cycles. 3 months prior to this I started on DHEA (25mg x 3 times a day). I also had weekly acupuncture during my prep and stims months. For my final 2 rounds we add a growth hormone, Zomacton will appeared to increased the number of eggs collected.

We ended up doing 4 back to back cycles in the end and got 3 good quality embryos, all PGT-A tested (which I’d recommend at our age). I am currently almost 13 weeks pregnant with an embryo from our first batching cycle (aged 41).

Sending you lots of baby dust and positivity for your journey x

[Shwet_16 in reply to Rainbow2023]

Hello, congratulations! Can I check if you started DHEA on doctor’s advise? Did you regularly monitor your DHEA levels?

[Rainbow2023 in reply to Shwet_16]

Thank you ☺️ Yes absolutely DHEA was recommended by consultant plus it’s a prescription drug so there’s no way of getting it hold of it otherwise. No monitoring of levels though, I did ask but our clinic don’t check. I ended up taking it for 5 months in total. All the best x

[happypupp in reply to Rainbow2023]

Bear in mind DHEA helps women with low AFC and AMH to increase egg quantity so for the OP it may not be the right supplement. Check whether you have PCOS in which case you would want to take myo-inositol instead.

[SKC111 in reply to Rainbow2023]

Firstly, congratulations!!!!! It’s such a joy to hear of your success. I had never heard of embryo batching (I just had to google it) What made you decide to take that route? I started taking DHEA which I bought from America. I didn’t feel myself and very down as a side effect so stopped. I didn’t consult my Doctor so it’s my own fault. Following your advice I will ask the clinic when I go to test my blood and I’ll follow their advice, so thanks! I also need to research a bit more about PGTA testing. To be honest the additional cost is the main reason we haven’t opted to use it. Zomacton is a new one to me so I’ll be looking this up too. Your reply has really brightened my day, thank you dearly. Wishing you, a happy and heathly pregnancy which you fully deserve ✨

[Nakijo in reply to Rainbow2023]

Congrats Rainbow. You did the 4 back to back rounds in how many months period? What was your AMH level?

[Rainbow2023 in reply to Nakijo]

Sorry typo in my above post, we did 4 cycles in total (1 x NHS and 3 x private) and 3 were back to back from Sept-Dec. My AMH was tested in July before starting the batching cycles and was 5.8

[Gempuddleduck]

I definitely recommend acupuncture too! Lots of love and luck! Xx

[SKC111 in reply to Gempuddleduck]

Thanks Gempuddleduck I’ll look into a fertility specialist acupuncturist near me thanks 🙏🏻

[happypupp]

Started IVF at 43, pregnant at 44 and now 15w. More details on my cycles in my profile - I have had regular acupuncture sessions over many years and throughout the IVF journey.AMH 16.5pmol/L a year ago when it begam, AFC was between 11-15. I was a good responder and the high dose antagonist protocol followed by PGT-A worked well for me.

We had 3 x freeze-all egg collection almost every other cycle (resulting in some hair loss) then 2 x euploid FET in the frame of about one year.

The key for us may have been to work on egg quality (Vitamin D, omega-3, NAC, alpha-lipoic acid, vitamin E, vitamin C, COQ10 and Mediterranean diet) and sperm quality.

Husband had 0.5% morphology so he refrained from sauna and changed bike saddles, took lycopene and other sperm quality supplements, and it improved to 1%. Fertilisation rate was high despite the morphology without ICSI but tried 50:50 in the first round. We worked on regular ejaculation too, it apparently helps sperm turnover so the lifestyle changes reflect in sperm quality.

Both sperm and egg take months to get to the stage where they are recruited so start working on them asap while you do any other fertility workup.

If you haven't had your thyroid panel done, as NHS only does TSH, it'd be worth paying for the full test to see any need for anti-inflammatory diet.

[SKC111 in reply to happypupp]

Thank you so much for sharing your story! I have just followed you, congratulations! Some really helpful tips! My partner will be delighted about the regular ejaculation you had a similar result with morphology, it’s good to hear it worked without ICIS we haven’t purchased this but have said we will use if needed. I have made dietary changes and taking supplements, I will research the ones I’m not on. Thank you again 🙏🏻 all the best X x x

[happypupp in reply to SKC111]

Glad you found my story useful! ICSI has become a standard for any male factor but we were skeptical and wanted less intervention so in our first EC we used ICSI with 4 eggs and conventional IVF with 5. 3 and 4 eggs were fertilised respectively and resulted in 1:1 blastocysts. The morphology was 0.5% in that cycle - the results confirmed ICSI made no difference in our case. It's good to go ahead and try one cycle then tweak in 2nd cycle onwards. Since you're only 40 and have a good AFC/AMH, take your time to see if you can improve egg/sperm quality as "the whole of spermatogenesis is estimated to consume approximately 64 days" and it "takes ~290 days for a recruited primordial follicle to grow to a fully-grown secondary follicle." There is no need to rush like me!

Forgotten to say I took melatonin 3mg in 2-4 weeks leading up to each EC.

I chose my supplements based on the information in the It Starts With The Egg book.

This leaflet by a Dr of Ecological Medicine has good information too.

drjerrythompson.co.uk/leafl...

[SKC111 in reply to happypupp]

Thanks for the reply, it’s interesting to hear the results didn’t change with ICIS vs IVF. Like you we would rather less intervention. I can’t say anyone has ever said your only 40 but I did read joys of later motherhood which helped changed my mindset from rush to get it right! Thanks for sharing the link an interesting read. I changed my water filter a few months back and avoid plastic products. I have some melatonin so will start using this regularly. You have some excellent knowledge, thanks for sharing xxxx

[happypupp in reply to SKC111]

Haha, by "your only 40" I meant you still have 3 years before you reach the age I started my IVF journey at! I wouldn't say it if your AMH was low But it'd be good to check and confirm that you don't have PCOS . Whether your AMH was in pmol/L (it would then be normal for your age) or ng/ml (if so, you may well have PCOS!) would make a big difference.

alifehealth.com/blog/unders...

[Exercise4Calm]

What supplements are you taking? We both took fertility medications months prior to treatment.

Also highly recommend cq10 for both of you for as long as possible before treatment.

Vitamin E after transfer for 2 weeks.

I also did lots of the old wives tales, pomegranate juice, Brazil nuts, pineapple core. You name it I did it. And we were successful.

Also did acupuncture in the months leading up to egg collection and before and after transfer which I would definitely recommend. However make sure you get someone who specialises in fertility.

Good luck

[SKC111 in reply to Exercise4Calm]

Thank you for the reply! I have been taking coq10 and recently changed to ubinqinol, selenium, vit d, pregna-plan multi vit included folic acid and recently iron, as of yesterday following a recommendation I’ve added cod liver oil. For the last month we have been eating salads for lunch and lots veg. I also have a flaxseed/goji berry, chia seed homemade mix on my breakfast. I’ll look to add Brazil nuts! I hadn’t heard about vit E after transfer so thank you! I really appreciate your response x x x x

[Exercise4Calm in reply to SKC111]

Oh yes I did vitamin D and omega 3 as well, had such a concoction going on I cannot remember everything. I think for my partner they recomended vitamin C too.

You're welcome.

[SKC111 in reply to Exercise4Calm]

I know that feeling I had to check my pill pot 😂 thanks again x x x

[monkee641]

Hi there, I was 40 when we had our first round of ICSI IVF. It was our one and only NHS funded round. 11 eggs were collected and 9 fertilised, 3 made it to day 5 and we had 2 put back. 1 stuck, which resulted in our beautiful 9 month old daughter (getting emotional as I write this). We were very very lucky to have only needed one round, and very blessed with our amazing baby girl.

I wish you all the best with your journey x x

[SKC111 in reply to monkee641]

Aww honestly this is an amazing story and journey thanks for sharing, it gives me so much hope! Out of interest what was your AMH & AFC? Congratulations xxx

[monkee641 in reply to SKC111]

Hi there, I’m sorry I can’t for the life of me find the paperwork detailing my levels, and honestly can’t remember them. But I do know they were really healthy levels and my AMH was over average for my age.

And thank you so much. I know our journey obviously wasn’t as difficult as it is for some people, and we were extremely lucky. Our little lady is so very precious. You definitely need to have hope and positivity. Everything crossed for your own precious baby x x x

[Nakijo in reply to monkee641]

Hi congrats. Did you PGA test your embryos?

[monkee641 in reply to Nakijo]

Hi there, no we didn’t. We weren’t offered PGA testing. But because of my age, we were high risk for 3 conditions including Down Syndrome. We had further tests to determine if our child would have this. But had already decided, no matter what the outcome, our baby was precious no matter what, and this was simply just to prepare us really x x

[SKC111 in reply to monkee641]

Thanks for the reply. I really hope our journey has a happy ending like yours 👧🏼 I have my baseline scan on Friday then start injections Saturday. Fingers knees and toes crossed 🤞🏼 xxx

[Koala365]

I would recommend reading the book It Starts with The Egg. There's lots of useful advice in there as well as explanations as to studies showing things that have worked etc. Also recommend that if it doesn't work out first time that you get all the tests done then. Don't wait until you have done three failed stim cycles like I did before getting. Also take doctors that tell you that any failure is due to your age with a pinch of salt and demand the tests they would do on a younger woman anyway. Hopefully it won't come to any of this for you but I wish someone had told me this when doing my first cycle but sadly I had to learn all this the hard way!

[SKC111 in reply to Koala365]

Thank you, this is great advice! What tests should I ask for? 🙏🏻

[Eloquentia]

If you haven't already, I recommend reading 'It all starts with the egg'. I found a lot of useful advice there regarding lifestyle changes and food supplements, which I think helped us conceive with IVF. Very best of luck!

[SKC111 in reply to Eloquentia]

I have read the book, it’s brilliant and was very helpful. Thank you Eloquentia X

[Kitkat10]

hi, I started at 39 and the third transfer (when I was 40) was successful and gave me my son. I didn’t take anything special apart from vitamin D and folate as advised by the clinic. I ate a healthy , mainly Mediterranean diet, I’m pescatarian and exercised well.

I had 2 long protocol cycles which didn’t work and 1 short protocol which did. I would say in hindsight, I wish I had been more patient and remembered that numbers aren’t everything. I also had a multi cycle package which I think is good value. Good luck xx

[SKC111 in reply to Kitkat10]

Another lovely success story, can’t thank you enough for sharing. My sprits feel so lifted! Fingers crossed we get a positive outcome following our multi cycle package 🙏🏻 xxx

[IVFat40]

My son is from an egg collected about a week before I turned 41 😊 Like others I found 'it starts with the egg' helpful, and also a fertility nutritionist. If you have any difficulties with your immune system, especially over vigilant, ask to get your natural killer cells tested, if these are high it can result in implantation failure - this happened to me but once I found out it was easily treated with steroids, wish I'd known sooner. I didn't test my embryos.

Wishing you all the very best 😊

[SKC111 in reply to IVFat40]

Aww congratulations, thanks for sharing your beautiful story! Ok thank you I will ask about this test, did you have it at the clinic or Doctors? Out of interest how many rounds did you have and what was your AMH/afc? Thanks againxxxxxx

[IVFat40 in reply to SKC111]

I ended up going to a specialist for the natural killer cells test (uterinebiopsyin my case), but I know some clinics offer it 'in house'. My son was from my third egg collection and sixth transfer, however he was the first transfer after I'd found out I had the problem with NKC and was being treated (steroids from transfer), so I really believe had I known this sooner the process would have been much quicker. Also for my first round I hadn't read anything about diet, supplements etc, by my third round I'd made big changes and had dramatically better results, so in my experience there's a lot we can do to improve ivf success as older Mum's.

[IVFat40 in reply to IVFat40]

I had my AMH tested a while before I actually started ivf, and then spent time doing ivf, so my AMH test was well over a year before the egg collection that created my son, all that said it was 13 I think, but adjusted for the fact I was still on the pill at the time it was probably more like 20, - sorry clear as mud!

[SKC111 in reply to IVFat40]

That’s ok thanks, I was just curious xxx

[SKC111 in reply to IVFat40]

Thanks for the reply! This thread has shown many people have taken multi cycles/transfers to get a BFP, and given me hope and positivity not to give up! I’m going to talk to my clinic about the test, I’ve never been pregnant so personally I feel (self diagnosis) that it’s implantation related as all other tests show no issues. Thank you again 🙏🏻 xxxx