IVF at 41 ?

[Lifesforloving1]

? Am I eligible for IVF at 41 ? If so how much rounds will I get ? Am I at higher risk of a miscarriage ?

[EnglishRain]

It depends on your local area for NHS IVF. The criteria is different everywhere. 42 is the cut off where I am, but it's a long process to get to the referral and approval process.

[lboogy]

What @EnglishRain said. Plus you need to have a bmi or under 30 and don't smoke. You'd better get yourself to the gp for a referral as I believe you've either only got a few months left if the cut off is 42 or you've missed the boat if it's 40

[EarlGreyT]

The answer to your first 2 questions depends on your CCG’s infertility policy. It could be anything from 0 to 3 rounds. Unfortunately quite a few CCGs have an age cut off as 40 though.

I’m afraid the answer to your last question is yes. There is a slightly increased risk of miscarriage with an IVF pregnancy and unfortunately the risk of miscarriage for pregnancy in women over 40 is about 50%.

[Elouera]

Check the website for the country/area you live in. Mine allows 3 rounds before age 30, but only 1 round from age 40-41 with 42 being the cut off.

I'm going through all this myself now at the same age. As long as treatment is started before 42 (even if egg harvesting hasnt taken place) I still qualify apparently. I've also lost 10kg to qualify.

[Elouera]

3 rounds before age 40 it should read.

[L4321]

I've just done this and am hopefully just out the other end of this at 41. I started at 39 having waited 8 months on the NHS. My NHS rounds went terribly as they provide the bare minimum. There needs to be a degree of urgency and planning when it comes to someone of 39-42 and a service that manages you as they would a 28 year old is failing you as time is not on your side. I had two miscarriages due to chromosomal defects and one BFN with the NHS accompanied by some very patronising lectures. In my case whilst I has producing 7-8 blastocysts per cycle in reality only 1-2 were in with a chance of waiting. Every transfer with the NHS was a case of lucky dip. I regret waiting on them or putting my faith in them. The emphasis was always on cost saving as oppose to doing the right thing for me.
Private treatment has been realistic, tailored to my needs and geared towards optimising a positive outcome. In the end what has worked for me is two banking rounds with PGS testing and ERA testing to optimise embryo selection and endometrium preparation. Whilst it is early days, I have just gotten my first positive test with a known normal embryo and have 3 spare normal embryos out of 16 tested should anything else go wrong.
Sorry if I sound negative but I think its important to be realistic and on reflection much of the information I received in the early days was not realistic to my situation.

[LexCake]

I had one unsuccessful round of IVF funded by the NHS when I was 42. In my area, I was only entitled to one round at that age. That round was at a private clinic. I paid privately to have a further round at the same clinic which was successful (I’m typing this with my left had whilst feeding DD with my right!).

As someone pointed out, the NHS process is really slow. Honestly, given that I ended up paying in the end, I wish I’d just gone private from the start and saved the waiting and additional heartache. I realise I’m very fortunate in being Able to afford it and my parents helped with that. It feels like every month counts. And it wasn’t as expensive as I’d feared. I had some financial deal with Access Fertility. That actually included another round which we didn’t need.

I hope that helps and best of luck.

[Wesstywoo]

There are other critera as well as age (smoking/existing DCs of your partner for example) - I wasn't eligible in my area at 36 and that was due to my AMH level, not my age. You should be able to get a copy of the criteria from your local CCG. Good luck x