TTC at 42 - advice needed please

[gonenative]

Hi all

I’m new to this chat and wanted to pick your brains about something.

I’m 42 and my partner is 34, we have been TTC for the last year with no success so went to the GP a couple of months ago to ask what our options are.

She was very dismissive and said because of my age all they can do is blood tests and that we would have to go to a fertility clinic to get our results.

Money is pretty tight at the moment and we would struggle to pay for even an initial consultation at a clinic so wondered if we can actually just get our results from the GP and interpret them ourselves?

I have had texts from the surgery saying all my results are “normal” ( whatever that means!) and a nurse friend said they are obligated to tell us their findings - has anyone had any experience of this or similar? Would be great to hear your thoughts.

A fertility check will really help to check your egg reserve. I think this will be around £500.

I don’t want to worry you but realistically you have another year. If you can scrape together the money for ivf do it. When you look at the published fees these exclude a lot so I’d work on the basis of £7/8k for one round ( yes a lot).

I’m 41 and 12 weeks ( and a lot poorer) as a result of ivf and then a fet.

Good luck

Thanks for responding Surrey and congratulations on getting pregnant!

I have been given mixed messages about egg reserve tests - what do you think the benefit is of having one done? I understand that my egg supply is likely dwindling and that time is of the essence...

I wondered why you said I have realistically another year - is 43 a cut off point of some sort? I have two children and have had three natural pregnancies so am wondering if this may improve my chances?

Obviously I know there are no hard and fast rules about any of this but it would be good to hear more of your thoughts

Thanks again

Rose

Gonenative- tests are not necessarily going to tell you if you can conceive naturally. I recently had terrible, terrible fertility results and from what I've read would have been refused IVF...yet I'm 6 weeks pregnant. I'm a year older than you. It is pot luck and the biggest fear at our age is miscarriage, which is a whole other story. Personally, I think having regular periods is a better indication than test results. Having not many eggs left does not mean you can't conceive. Having said that, fertility really drops after 42 and then drastically at 45. I can only say what worked for me after nearly a year of trying ..so I recommend you try an intensive course of fertility accupuncture and fertility reflexology, and take Ubiquinol (a supplement). None of this is cheap but at our age it has to be a case of throwing everything at it. I'd do that for 6 months, time TTC as carefully as you can and in the meantime you need to think carefully about whether you want to proceed to IVF if you're still not hitting any luck. I know budget is a huge consideration but over on the over 40s board there are a few women who were lucky with IVF and would say it was worth the cost. Good luck!

I've just turned 42.

I had a miscarriage last year at 12 weeks.

Been ttc since New Years and with a few other issues going on in my body I fear it's just not going to happen again for us

By law you are allowed to see the results of your blood tests from the GP. Just call the surgery and ask them to print out your results.
It is actually really important as a lot of the areas they accept as normal could still show an issue when ttc. For example Thyroid TSH level 'normal' is up to 4 but for ttc you want it between 1 and 2 ideally.