Success over 40 years old?

[OnRoundEleven]

Dear All

I wish you well with your journeys.

I would be grateful to hear stories from women over 40 years, who have had success please.

My story is that my husband and I started trying for a child in 2009. We had 3 natural miscarriages before 2017, when we started with our first IVF clinic. An embryo implanted in our first round in 2018, but at 14 weeks, we found it failed the Downs, Edwards and Patau test, and the pregnancy ended at 17 weeks.

In our seventh round in 2022, we used PGT-A tested embryos and went on to have our precious son. Since then, I've done three more cycles using PGT-A eggs, and none have implanted.

I've received a negative pregnancy test result today - in my tenth round of IVF. I'm 43 years old. I am feeling so very tired, but I desperately want a sibling for my son. I just don't know what to think or feel.

For this last round, we've had a hysteroscopy, had a thick lining, had intralipids and took steroids to suppress the immune system, take oral and vaginal probiotics (although didn't do the ERA, EMA, Alice test), took clexane, progesterone (prontogest and cyclogest), and used PGT-A 5BB embryo. I'm not sure what more to do, and wonder if my age is the deciding factor?... but in my heart, I don't want to give up on our dream. I don't know what to do.

Thanks for any support

[Beclp]

I have x egg taken out at 43.5 and transferred at 44. It was my last embryo

If it didn’t work I would have moved to donor embryo but I was lucky 🍀

I truely feel we all have some good ones left but it does come down to how much you can endure emotionally and physically and financially.

Have you any embryos left to transfer ?

[OnRoundEleven in reply to Beclp]

Thank you so much for the encouraging reply, and congratulations. I'm really pleased for you.

We do have one last PGT-A tested embryo left. It was from the same collection cycle as the other ones that haven't implanted. Hopefully it will work better.

[Beclp in reply to OnRoundEleven]

That’s great news 🙏 you just never know

I really didn’t have much hope as it was my worst graded embryo and I’d never had one positive after 7 embryos

She wasn’t tested but for some reason it worked.

I took a break and started taking some oral probiotics and I don’t know if it was that that worked or it was just meant to be ?

There’s no answers sometimes

[Kitkat10]

hi, I’m sorry you are going through this, it’s a tough time. I started IVF when I was 39 due to MFI. We used a sperm donor and my son was born when I was 41 after 3 cycles. Like you, I desperately wanted a sibling for him so I had another egg collection aged 42 and got 3 ‘top quality embryos’ but they were untested. Resulted in 2 BFN and 1 mmc. I was running out of resilience (and money) so I switched to DE and my first transfer worked. My daughter was born 3 months before I turned 44.

I felt exactly as you do , I really wanted a sibling for my son but I knew that my age was against me. My daughter is everything I dreamt of, I rarely think about the DE part and I wouldn’t change anything about her. It was a tough decision but I was determined not to give up and not to put my own feelings ahead of the desire to give my son a sibling. It sounds like you have done everything you can to have a successful outcome. I wish you all the luck in your path forwards. Donor eggs may be worth considering and I hope I haven’t been insensitive in talking about it, I know it’s a very personal decision. Just wanted to share my experience from the over 40 team xx

[OnRoundEleven in reply to Kitkat10]

Thank you for the idea. A close friend from a maternity group conceived a child with a donor egg through IVF, and you can see everyday what immense joy her little girl brings her. It is certainly something I'd consider.

I'm also wondering if I should consider using a surrogate with our last embryo, but I'm not sure which option is best. Being PGT-A tested makes me wonder if it's my womb that is the problem, not the embryo.

I am so thrilled for you that you achieved your dream. Thank you for this encouragement. Stories like yours make me determined to carry on. Thank you.