Torn between IVF and Mini IVF - any advice?

[suzylee73]

Hi,

I'm 41 and have just had a failed round of IVF. Out of 12 eggs only one made it to day 5 but sadly it didn't implant.
I am not ready to give in just yet but the thought of injecting all those drugs again make my ovaries cry. Has anyone had mild IVF? It sounds perfect in theory and so much cheaper.
Or maybe at 41 I should be looking at donor eggs?
Brutal truths appreciated and welcome :)

[eurochick]

Hi. I did 2 rounds of natural IVF and 2 rounds of mild stimulation. I got BFPs on the first and fourth rounds (but miscarried the first time).

I moved to mild because I think it is a numbers game for many of us, and as you get older fewer eggs are chromosomally normal, so if you are only get one (on a natural cycle) it could take a lot of goes to get the good egg.

I found natural a lot easier practically and emotionally, but ultimately it was mild stimulation that did the trick for me.

[suzylee73]

I'm thinking quality is better than quantity? But then again how much quality is left at 41?
Congrats on your 4th time lucky :)

[eurochick]

I think you need a balance between quality and quantity. The jury seems to be out on whether high levels of drugs affect quality, but I find it difficult to see how an organ that is supposed to produce one egg at a time can produce 20 without quality being affected to some extent.

Over my 4 rounds I got 10 mature eggs (one on each natural round and four on each mild round). Out of those 10, 7 fertilised. Of those 7, 2 developed abnormally. The other 5 all went back at day 2/3. 3 didn't implant, one did but mc'd and one did and seems to have stuck. I was 37 when I did those cycles, so due to age there must have been a proportion of abnormal eggs in there, which is why I say it is a numbers game. At 41, you might need several rounds to hit the golden egg. It's a question for you whether you would prefer more rounds with few or no drugs or use some drugs and try to play the numbers. The idea of pumping myself full of hormones freaks me out, which I why I started out with natural. I moved to adding in some drugs because I found IVF pretty gruelling and needed not to do endless cycles for the sake of my sanity. In fact, we were planning to call it a day after 5 cycles as we felt that was enough for us.

I would say that by getting 12 eggs at 41, you don't seem to have ovarian reserve issues. That is a good response. :)

[ceara]

I had one mild cycle at 38 and got 13 eggs (the clinic aim for around 6 or 7 as the optimum though). 4 made it to blast. I had a single embryo transferred after the fresh cycle but sadly that ended in a very early miscarriage. I then had a frostie transferred, with a successful outcome.

As euro says, with mild IVF it is all about striking an optimal balance between quantity and quality. 12 eggs at 41 sounds great, by the way, really encouraging.

In terms of going through it, obviously EC and ET are the same and you still have to get your head around injecting during the stimulation phase but for me the saving grace was no down-regging. I had to down-reg for my frozen cycle and found it hard both physically - buserelin and me didn't like each other - and emotionally as switching the ovaries off seems so counter intuitive.