Second baby - keep trying or IVF

[KS2305]

I’d really love some advice from anyone who has been in a similar position because I’m going round in circles with this at the moment!

I’m 38 now and have a little girl, who is nearly 2.5. I got pregnant at 35 and had a c section at 36. I fell pregnant literally within a month of trying, so I think I went into trying for a second baby assuming it would happen fairly easily again but it hasn’t!

We’ve now been trying for a while and I’m starting to panic a bit. I’ve had a HyCoSy which was clear, and I’ve done 2 months of Clomid. My AMH has come back at 4.5, which I know is very low, and although I know AMH doesn’t necessarily tell you whether you can get pregnant naturally, it has really scared me and made me feel like I don’t have
time to keep trying.

My husband also has 1% morphology, so I’m wondering whether that could be contributing and whether ICSI would make sense if we went down the IVF route.

I know there is nothing wrong with having one child – I could absolutely have a lovely life with just her. But I really do want another baby, and I think I would always wonder whether we should have tried harder while we still had the chance.

At the same time, IVF feels like a huge step when I’ve already managed to conceive naturally before. Part of me thinks I’m panicking and should just give it more time, and another part is thinking im nearly 40 will low ovarian reserve, why am I waiting?

So I think I’m looking for advice from people who’ve actually been through this.

Would you carry on trying naturally for a bit longer, or would you go straight to private IVF/ICSI?
And if you did go private, I’d LOVE recommendations for clinics in London/South East that you had a really good experience with, particularly ones that aren’t absolutely eye-watering in price.

I’ve been looking at places but it’s really hard to work out what is actually good value when you start adding everything on.

I’d especially love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar position.

I’m obviously not looking for medical advice – more
real world experiences and any advice/routes to explore.

If you have been trying longer then 6 months and exhausted all option for concieving naturally then my only advice is dont wait any longer , make your appointments at an ivf clinic as there are wait times so you can still continue to try naturally while waiting for treatment. In my opinion, its better to get the ball rolling into ivf while still trying naturally then waiting for it to be too late.

How long have you been trying?

@RibenaCocktail- 8 months but I did have 2 months break as I was finding it all a little overwhelming but 2 months with clomid

I would say, do both. It takes time to sign up with a clinic, get a feel for the doctors, go through all of their tests etc. in terms of choosing a clinic, the popular advice is very Idealistic. My advice would be choose somewhere conveniently located - you need a lot of appointments, you can be kept waiting a while, the scans etc can take a while and you can't just schedule appointments for days that are convenient to you it just depends how quickly you respond to meds. With that in mind it's much less stressful when you have work and childcare commitments to have somewhere that's relatively close to you.

We tried for about a year (had two missed miscarriages in that time) then went for IVF privately with Kings in London. They were very good and everyone was nice. Pricing was transparent.