To ask how many rounds of IVF you had?

[Jamon]

About to start my first round, age 33. Trying to work out the balance between hoping it will work and accepting it might not.

If you went through IVF, how many rounds did you have?

2 full rounds. 3 transfers. Successful on 3rd transfer from fresh embryos. Two embryos transferred each time. Dd born when I was 37. Unexplained infertility.

It never fails to amaze me how many people go through this. You’re all frigging amazing.

Thank you to those saying it’s worth it.

I’ll go back and check my thyroid result on my last blood test. A few people have mentioned that.

1 round at the age of 42 resulting in twins. No reason for infertility other than age.

Good luck OP

I was 39 when I went through my final ivf round. Perfect sperm but I have damaged tubes.
1st round short protocol 5 eggs retrieved, 2 b & c grade embryos made it to day 3 (after a bit of a delay getting started) and transferred. BFN
2nd round short protocol 7 eggs retrieved and 2 a grade embryos transferred. Both took but lost one at 7 weeks. The one who survived is currently napping on me.
Before the second round I read 'It starts with the egg and I attribute that book to my successful outcome. I took dhea and co q10 for 6 weeks prior and i felt it really boosted my aged eggs.
We were very lucky to have 3 rounds on ivf available to us on the nhs. However our trust stopped our ivf clinic doing ivf after my 2nd round so I think it was my last. Thankfully it worked.
Good luck, it's quite a rollercoaster

Re your thyroid test
The normal TSH range for daily living is 0.5-5, but the normal range for conception is 0.5-2.5
If your TSH is above 2.5, you will struggle to get pregnant. If your TSH is above 3.5, you have a 70-80% chance of miscarrying
But a staggering number of GPs will just brush you off as being 'in normal range'

Equally, if you have Hashimotos, it can indicate other autoimmune issues such as elevated Natural Killer (NK) cells, which will prevent a pregnancy.
Again, finding GPs who will acknowledge, let alone treat this, is very rare, but there are IVF clinics who will tailor the treatment if they know you have these issues.

I had 5 cycles. All unsuccessful between 2014-2016. In hindsight maybe a clinic change was needed

Also to throw my hat into the thyroid discussion. I was on levothyroxine prior to my successful round to get my tsh level to sub 2.5 from a base of around 3.5-4. That might also have improved my chances quite alot

Reading this with interest - I'm 40 and on the doctors advice will be going for IVF in January if we don't have success by then. But I'm worried about the cost - my age and our finances mean we can't afford to do it multiple times. If we have 10k to spend, will that be a realistic figure? I've looked at clinic websites but with all the extra tests and procedures I imagine you have, I guess the cost just goes up and up...

You should be able to get 2 cycles for £10k

That sounds more promising than I thought :-)

3 in total
1st worked - ds is now 15
2nd and 3rd failed.
All ICSI - plus a failed frozen embryo transfer between 1st and 2nd.

4 cycles. First IVF cycle I got OHSS on the day I was to transfer so cycle cancelled and everything frozen. Operation to drain ovaries then 5 months recovery.

Then FET1 - failed.
FET 2 success! Twins 😊
FET 3 four years later, success, my youngest.

Worth it all! Very best of luck

34 years old - 1 ICSI cycle, successful. Have a frosty will be using soon for number 2.
Fingers crossed.
Good luck to you

We were unexplained, 1 successful round of ICSI and we chose to implant 2 blasts which resulted in 1 baby. I was 37 and we had been trying for almost 4 years. Thinking of going again next year.

Thanks for continued sharing and TSH advice

The cost is terrifying. We get one free NHS cycle and if we get frosties we get one free frozen transfer. After that we start doing paying. It can be more cost effective to go overseas - there is more about this on the infertility boards if anyone’s interested.

Good luck to anyone else going through this. You’ve all got my upmost respect - it’s absolutely brutal.

1st one (ICSI) at 39 (paid for the NHS) when I was successful, then two failed attempts afterwards, again ICSI (paid for by us). Now out of frozen eggs and time (I'm now 48).

We got no free cycles, postcode lottery, so you're doing better than many. Trouble is the NHS cycles can be very basic and may not therefore be as effective as a cycle with all bells and whistles. Plus the waiting list us long and age us obviously a factor. I would go ahead with a private cycle while you wait for nhs

I'd had two ectopic pregnancies and had lost both of my tubes.

It worked first time for us we were so lucky as the odds were much much lower then, DS is now 25

I hope this will give you hope rather than sound like bragging but we were successful with our first round of icsi. Male and female factor infertility had been trying for 7 years before being referred. I was 30. My healthy twins are now 5. I NEVER thought I would be here today saying those words.

I would always recommend getting your embryos screened for chromosome trisomies such as Down's, Edwards and Pataus'. Some people have unbalanced translocations and so the implanted embryos won't be viable and it will save a lot of miscarriage heartache. One of my friends had IVF as she had very bad endometriosis. She had 6 viable embryos but upon screening 5 of them tested positive for trisomy 21. The 6th embryo was implanted and is now a gorgeous baby girl.

I have never had IVF but had a lot of miscarriages and never bothered with the nuchal etc which is my choice but for other people they would want to abort if they knew they were having a Down's baby so it would save them the heartache if you know what I mean.

Good luck with everything Op I hope you hit the jackpot first time x

Best of luck OP!

We were an "unexplained" case too. We had one cycle of IVF and it worked! I was 32.

Haven't tried any more.

6 transfers for my DS, now five - included three outright fails, an ectopic and either an early miscarriage or a self resolving ectopic (my IF is mostly through tubal factors).

I'm 11 weeks pregnant at the moment, having had one missed miscarriage at 9 weeks and one failed FET trying for #2, so far. I don't think I can put myself through anymore if this pregnancy doesn't have a happy ending.

Good luck OP.

One IVF (ICSI)
Failed but ended up with 10 frozen embryos so did 4-5 FET after that, one embryo each time. No success, tried one with 2 embryos -> twins!

We got no free cycles as we were living in Belgium and dh was paying Ni in the Uk and I wasn’t working as we’d just moved there. We were seen at the university hospital and they gave us some of the drugs free as they were reaching expiry. Apparently they do (or did) that for cases such as ours - ie the expats or people coming from abroad for treatment. That saved us around £1k.

Apart from a few gynalogical appointments, we funded everything else and it’s eye wateringly expensive. Even the cost of a bed was mega bucks. I ended up with a twisted ovary after the first cycle. This was incredibly painful when I had my period and I didn’t produce many good eggs from that side on the second cycle. Dd is 9. Good luck!

#1 NHS IVF failed
#2 NHS IVF abandoned
#3 NHS IVF failed
All of these I produced very few eggs

#4 donor egg IVF - stillbirth at 40 weeks

#5 donor egg IVF - a bouncing heathy baby boy