IVF after the age of 39

[felicitysurrey]

Hello all!
I'm a health psychology researcher at the University of Surrey, I'm looking to have an informal chat with anyone who has had IVF treatment after the age of 39. The aim of the research is to better understand your experiences, and how you feel that your age did or did not affect the process.
If you would like to share your experience, please get in touch!
Felicity

Hello
I had an IVF round at the age of 31 and retrieved 10 eggs (only 1 ovary). This cycle failed.
I then had 2 further cycles at the age of 39 & 40 and retrieved 1 egg then 3 eggs. Again both failed.
Now age 40 I'm about to cycle again and this will be my last attempt with my own eggs.

It's true age does make a huge difference and it's heartbreaking!

Have had four cycles, starting in January this year when I was 40.

For all cycles we genetically screened the embryos.

Cycle 1 - 11 eggs retrieved, no healthy embryos - probably because we leapt right in with no prep whatsoever.
Cycle 2 - 11 eggs retrieved, five made it to screening, only one healthy embryo transferred. Failed.
Cycle 3 - 20 eggs retrieved, tested 12, froze 9. Only one healthy embryo transferred. Failed.
Cycle 4 - Frozen egg cycle. One healthy embryo transferred. Positive pregnancy.

As much for the benefit of others who might post here - the things that made the difference for me:

1. Acupuncture - from 11 eggs to 20 eggs the very next cycle
2. the ERA test - found we were transferring on the wrong day (day 5) when I needed a day 4 transfer - in all likelihood the reason my other two healthy embryos failed to implant.

My advice - if you're planning on doing genetic screening (it was a nonnegotiable for us) or even just making the huge investment that IVF demands, I would ABSOLUTELY recommend doing the ERA test first, before going ahead with a cycle. If I was doing it all over again, I wish I had done it earlier, and not wasted two perfectly healthy embryos that were very hard to come by.

I should add - for the purposes of your research!

For me, age has been more or less immaterial to the process or my experience of the process. Other than the fact that I've been very aware from the beginning that most people my age do not have successful experiences. Since the first failure, I've been going about it like a puzzle to be solved - couldn't ever quite consign myself to the very likely possibility that I just happen to be in the 85% of women for whom IVF doesn't work.

Have been very disappointed after each transfer failure, particularly bc the embryos were healthy. So we went through each successive tool in the bag of tricks with the doc - like throwing everything against the wall and seeing which one sticks.

I'm lucky not to be affected by the meds - found that part pretty straightforward. Egg collection isn't a cake walk but you get used to it. Nor have I felt totally heartbroken - only because I've been naive enough to think that I just needed to move to the next thing to solve the puzzle. For some, and perhaps even for me, there is no solution. And that is, definitively, heartbreaking.

The thing that I have found the most difficult is the tediousness of the whole process. We've spent all year in a holding pattern, not being able to plan, drink, holiday, save money - a whole raft of normal life stuff. I'm a person who likes to live life and be happy, not stuck in some suspended reality. I have huge, huge admiration for people, including friends of mine, who have gone through many more cycles than me.

I would say this - everybody has their own threshold. And you know when you've reached yours only when that moment arrives.

alifemoreordinary im on the IVF waiting list and can I ask you what a ERA test is?

Broodypsycho - it's called the Endometrial Receptivity Array - it's relatively new I think and I'm not sure how conclusive the research is. It tests the receptivity of the lining. Apparently there's a very short window of receptivity for an embryo to implant. Something like 30% of women need a day other than a day 5 transfer, which to me would seem a number significant enough to warrant investigation ahead of any cycle (and frankly, financial investment), esp for an over-40 woman who'll have little luck in getting a precious healthy embryo in the first place.

Normal protocol is to give it to women after 2-3 IVF failures/losses. Not sure whether you can get it on the NHS. I live elsewhere now, where there's only private care, so you pay through the nose for everything anyway.

If I'd known about it at the beginning, I would have paid for it to be done in advance of any IVF investment, even if it confirmed a day 5 transfer. But that's just my personal opinion. Given the emotional and financial cost of a failed cycle, especially above the age of 40, the information itself is worth its weight in gold.

There are other tricks to try, none of which worked for me but have done for others I believe - hysteroscopy (all clear), intralipids, endometrial scratch.

Hope that helps.

Agree with era. I had two done after cycle 4 failed

Showed I needed extra day of progynova tho ended up having an extra weeks worth of drugs as was away on holiday. Lining looked ok and 4&5 were fet

And 5 worked. Currently 24w and 43yrs

Was it a surprise I took more drugs or wouid have happened anyway

era testing

Can be done at clinic near you if they do it and then sent to igenomix - they send a courier

Worth the extra cost. So you do a fake fet then they take a scrape of lining when embryo would have gone in