Freezing eggs or ivf?

[NellieBee]

Hi everyone,

We’re at the stage where we need to make a decision and just don’t know what to do. I’m 41 and have AMH of 18 and the clinic said my womb etc all looks great. However, we are absolutely skint and ivf will ruin us. We could just about scrimp one cycle together.

Should we...

A) do the one cycle and try again when we’ve saved up for another (will take about a year- the consultant said my odds go down significantly each year)

B) get the eggs out now and freeze them til next year when we could afford a couple of cycles in one go.


Thanks for any advice. Money worries are doing my head in, I feel so positive but the lack of money is causing sleepless nights.

[Zest11]

Personally I wouldn't wait despite your great AMH. You also may get embryos to freeze now and you wouldn't need "a few cycles."

[Zest11]

Sorry so I meant go with IVF.

[LillyLeaf]

Are you eligible for NHS treatment? I would just do a full cycle with a transfer asap. If the first fresh transfer doesn't work you might have frozen embryos and a FET is cheaper. Any chance of getting a loan? not entirely sensible but I wouldn't waste anytime.

[NellieBee]

Not eligible for IVF. Poor choices have lead to us having no disposable income (only about 5k saved). However we will have paid off significant debt in April and then be more financially free. However then I’ll be 42.5...

[NellieBee]

Bump x

[Violet180]

Hi NellieBee

You are in a VERY similar position to me.
My AMH was 16.5. I was told Womb etc everything looked great.
I have no disposable income due to poor choices :)
And I am 40 years old.

Only difference is that my work provided me with IVF under the insurance so could afford 2 rounds of freeze all cycles and PGS testing.

My results may help you to decide.
I did well all through my first round but ultimately had 3 embryos for testing and all ended up being Aneuploid. So no success.

I think it is very likely you would need more than 1 round of IVF for any success at our age. They say approx 3 rounds.

Therefore I would personally choose to do the egg freezing while you can get some better quality eggs. They say it is all about the egg quality and not the age of the mum....just the egg age.

[AliceAbsolum]

Eggs don't freeze amazingly well, I'd say do a cycle ASAP and see where you are after that.

[Persipan]

If you especially don't want to do a full cycle right now, I'd say you'd maximise your chances if you freeze embryos rather than eggs - they generally have a better success rate. But I'd also question whether egg freezing would be all that much cheaper than IVF? The expensive bits are generally the stim meds and the retrieval, which you'd have to do anyway.

[JeNeBaguetteRien]

I wouldn't bother freezing eggs and would do a cycle of IVF, see how you respond.
Has a clinic actually proposed egg freezing as an option?
If you do IVF you may get lucky and have embryos to freeze, frozen embryo transfers are cheaper than full IVF cycles.
You could have a fresh transfer from your first round if you want.
I'm not ignoring the cost which is crap, but if your credit rating is okay you might be able to get a zero % on purchases card, or plug away at your debt for a few months but I'd be reluctant to wait a year if there's any way to avoid that.

Violet180 💐 sorry your treatment didn't work out.

[Violet180]

Thanks JeNeBaguetteRien

I am currently waiting on PGS results from 4 embryos from second cycle. Maybe 5 if the last one makes it on day 6 tomorow.

[JeNeBaguetteRien]

So hoping for good news for you Violet and willing on number 5!

[NellieBee]

Thank you for the replies so far and best of luck Violet.

I hate that it's all about money- trying to remember we have a lovely life and a 9 year old already but this really feels like last chance for us.