49 using donor eggs

[barefootcook]

What are the chances of this working? My cousin is desperate for a child. She is now a few weeks pregnant using donor eggs. What are the chances of this pregnancy reaching full term given that she is 49 and has had one miscarriage using donor eggs already? She is keen to have some up to date statistics.

Firstly, congrats to your cousin. Secondly, it's lovely that you're looking out for her.

I can tell you about my experience.

Started IVF 2 decades ago. Underwent MANY cycles using my own eggs which all failed. (Chemical pregs, didn't stick, cycles cancelled, miscarriage....the lot)

The ONLY pregnancy that went to full term was when I was 3 months away from turning 40 was by donor egg (& sperm owing to DH having issues too).

As with all of these scenarios, it is 50:50. Every step of IVF as well as a 'natural' pregnancy is 50/50 at proving ti be productive.

The bonus for your cousin is that the egg would have come from a younger woman & been screened for a hell of lot of diseases etc & been given a clean bill of health. This is the best you can ask for.

If, as your cousin is saying, she is a few weeks pregnant, I can only imagine that her chances of reaching full term are the same as any woman. She has overcome the hardest challenges.

Hopefully you can put the worries aside & enjoy this much longed for & wanted child.

Thanks for your message Daisies. It is very early and possibly because of her age she is feeling pretty rough. I guess 50:50 is reasonable odds. She is concerned that the baby won't feel like her own. Did you feel like that at all?

This was already posted?

You have to have a lot of counselling & affectively 'be approved' by the therapist/councillor before you can be considered to be a recipient of DE. You have discussions on how open you'd be with the child about how he/she was conceived.

People, Dd's grandparents, even I forget she is donor. We have a book from The Donor Conception Network to read to DD at the appropriate time & it's only when I see it that it reminds me.

I have come across a few posts of ladies, aged 40 and older, who have undergone ivf with de at overseas clinics and gave birth to a healthy baby. Some ladies combined ivf de with PGD to maximize their chances of getting a problem- free pregnancy. Good luck to yr cousin

As far as I am aware, your cousin's chances of having a successful full term pregnancy with donor eggs are broadly as good as a younger woman's with her own eggs provided there are no other underlying reasons making miscarriage more likely.

Being 49 isn't of itself a risk factor for miscarriage as far as I am aware (although I think it is a slight risk factor for other things like pre-eclampsia maybe?). The higher risks for older women having miscarriages is generally down to the deteriorating quality of their eggs, a problem removed by using donor eggs.

So your cousin's chances are good - I hope she is still doing well (as I see it has been a few weeks since your first post).

Oh, and with regard to feeling rough, age may not help but I am not sure it is necessarily the reason for that. Exhaustion and sickness etc can be just as bad, or worse, for younger women. It is down to the individual pregnancy.

And she shouldn't worry about the baby not feeling like hers. Once she has carried it for nine months and held it in her arms, she will feel completely like it is hers. The problem is more likely to be remembering it is a donor baby and therefore to tell it about its origins as it grows up!

maybe she just had a lot of stress that resulted in m/c

Ffs. Absolute bullshit. Stress does not cause miscarriage.

I became pregnant at 49 with donor egg and sperm. I am reasonably fit and healthy and that helped me get back into shape after the birth of my son and also has helped me to maintain the energy and resilience needed to bring up a fairly energetic boy single handed.
I think with all pregnancies the first trimester is possibly the most vulnerable to miscarriage. However as someone has already said the viability of eggs coming from a donor who is younger increases the the chances of pregnancy and the birth of a baby. If you want specifics on the data you could access it by googling.
I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to have had a child. In the ideal world I would have conceived in a relationship but that didn't happen. I feel enormous love and cherish my son deeply and wish your cousin well.

After many years of conceiving naturally but ultimately miscarrying due to poor quality eggs we went down the egg donor route with my husband's sperm. We were successful on the first cycle (fresh) and our son was born just before I turned 46. When my son was 10 months old we had a frozen cycle as we had 2 frozen embryos and again it was successful and our daughter was born when I was 47. Both pregnancies were absolutely fine - I was monitored quite closely because there is a history if pre eclampsia in my family but there were no issues. I was and still am quite fit/healthy. Having two under two is hard work (I have older step children too) - is this because of my age? Maybe....the lack of sleep is killer.

I never forget they are donor conceived babies but it doesn't make them feel any less my children. They are both amazing and I feel very privileged to have them in life .

Congratulations to your cousin (and to you becoming an auntie) and wishing her all the best of luck.

Abrightday and Greenlizard,

Congratulations on both your pregnancies in late 40s!
I have just have 4th failed attempt with donor eggs, I am in my early 40s and in good health. With each transfer doctors advise high chance of successful but so far repeated failure. I am gearing up for 5th atttept with FET but not really feeling positive as to why this time it should be any more successful.
I would be most grateful if you could share your clinic's action plan re medications/procedures etc as I am hoping that my treatment plan can be amended in any way to aid success this time.
Many thanks

Sorry for the delay in replying ShaunTgirl. I did the long protocol for both cycles using Buserelin (Day 21 - I think), Progynova 2mg one a day (Day 1-5) 2 a day (Day 6-9) Day 10 onwards 3 a day and then following transfer Utrogestan 2 x 200mg vaginal capsules twice a day until 12 weeks. We were considering ICSI if we needed it (which we didn't) and we opted to use embryo glue for both cycles - whether this made a difference I have no idea. We also had the embryoscope so they were able to assess how the embryos were progressing.

Our donor provided us with 9 eggs (exclusive recipient) - all 9 fertilised. 2 were transferred for the fresh cycle and both took but I lost one of the twins at 10 weeks. 2 embryos were frozen and transferred on the our FET cycle and one was successful. They were all fairly good quality embryos but I can't remember exactly what their gradings were.

I wish you all the very best of luck - i know how hard it is

Hi, congrats to yr cousin. I would recommend searching for a top IVF clinic (even abroad) that has rich experience in IVD with DE, particularly for ladies who are 45 and older. From what I know, Spain and Cyprus IVF clinics get high success rates. I would also advise to consider PGS NGS to increase her chances. x

Hello Ladies,
This thread has been most helpful. I’m 46 and my husband is 43. We are waiting on a donor at the moment. We hired an agency called Arturi to find us a suitable match. We have been waiting a while and am beginning to think I made a stupid mistake. I paid 2k up front and it’s taking ages. Does anyone have any advice on clinics in London? We are now thinking we should just choose a clinic and get going. I’m confused to which clinic to go to and if I should use them to provide me w donors or if I should look for a donor myself and then go to a clinic for the procedure. Any direction is appreciated. I feel lost.

Any one use donor eggs to provide a sibling ? We have an own egg dd and as I’m now 46 thinking its the best option however worry that any future child will feel different ? Any experiences please ? Thanks so much

Autumgrace I've never come across an agency matching you? What happens then? Do you have to find a clinic? I think you might have been had. We used IVI Alicante in Spain and got two possible matches immediately. My understanding is that normally a good clinic will provide you with a donor. We had been waiting two years with our UK clinic when suddenly they partnered with IVI Alicante so we didn't have to wait at all any more.

Good luck xxx

@ShaunTgirl - have you thought about using another donor? Reason I ask is because I went through two unsuccessful rounds of IVF here in NZ (7 transfers altogether) with a donor and had no luck whatsoever. I was convinced it was me. Then I went to a clinic in Czech Republic and used an anon donor (19 year old) and boom! First time (I now have a gorgeous 1 year old). Docs in NZ and Czech told me it could be a compatability issue between my hubby and first donor - I didn't believe the NZ docs at the time but once I'd been successful with the second I think they were probably right. Not sure what clinic you are using but I thoroughly recommend Reprofit in Brno. Am happy to DM if you want further info. Good luck :-)

Oh sorry, I just noticed this was a year ago, but anyway advice still stands if still no luck....

Hi SJN 71,

Funny how quickly a year can fly by!
My treatment was also at Reprofit in Brno and amazingly not only did my 5th attempt work (2 embryos popped back in) but I ended up with twins, who are now 3 months only!
My 1st 3 attempts were with same donor then for 4th and 5th I had new donor. For 5th and final attempt I had endo scratch, glue and acupuncture but reason I think it worked was I did a natural cycle with very little medication.

That’s my family complete now, do you plan to return to Czech again? Wow I thought trying to get to Brno from UK was a pain let along from NZ!
I hope our posts help some other ladies in what was our sad position...

Wish4another
I have a DS from when youth was on my side.
My new twins (donor eggs) feel no different, I love them just as much as when gave birth to first born son and they 100% feel mine. Maybe it’s because once you are pregnant and feel every kick, every bit of heartburn and swollen ankles (!) it really doesn’t matter. I was a little bit nervous about seeing them for the first time (think had last minute panic that clinic may have used wrong embryos!) but my heart melted as soon as I saw them and had a cuddle!
They both look very much like my DS did as a baby and even now he’s the spitting image of my husband and looks nothing like me!
So if you are still considering DE, I’d say definitely go for it!

Hi,
Anyone recently been to Reprofit Bruno for egg donation? I am 45, have had 2 miscarriages with own eggs, this is our last card and really hoping it works. Just wondering about meds to take etc and any pointers on achieving my miracle baby? We are travelling from NZ so it will be a long haul, but a trip of a lifetime!