IVF @ Lister fertility for 40+ women

[Aady]

Anybody would like to share experiences with Lister fertility London for undergoing IVF. I am 40+ and thinking to start IVF treatment.

Hi @Aady I was also considering Lister and had a long talk with a friend who went there the other day. I will wait to hear if someone has something first hand to share but happy to tell what my friend said to me. I am currently at ARGC.

Hi I have just finished a round at Lister. I am doing x3 rounds of embryo banking with PGS testing. This was my 4th round of IVF and I was very impressed with them from start to finish. They also got me the most eggs and blasts I’ve had - I have low AMH and am a poor responder.

(I am not 40 but unfortunately my ovaries think I am!!)

I would be interested to hear how you got on at ARGC too @Janefx40 I was considering them alongside lister

@Pinkrabbits1 what are your stats and how many eggs got retrieved each time ? I’m thinking of different approaches if my latest doesn’t work as this time I was on highest dose stims . As I have an egg quality issue , wondering if that won’t help but needed to try full throttle for first attempt .
I’m with Argc , I don’t know how I’ve done yet but they retrieved 7 eggs and 6 fertilised in one cycle. I am 40 , af 7, amh low , was 5.8 last year . It’s intense at argc because they monitor you daily but you feel like you’re in safe hands and they know what they’re doing so you can just focus on trying to relax ! It felt very organised during the process and staff were all lovely .

@Sunshinelove8 i think I was talking to you before on this - I am a serial name changer which is confusing ( I am pink rabbits above) so apologies for this. My AMH is 8.

My history is as follows: IVF1 5 eggs retrieved 4 mature and fertilised no blasts
IVF2 7 eggs retrieved , 4 mature and fertilised, no blasts. IVF3 (now on DHEA plus lots of lifestyle changes) 9 eggs retrieved, 4 mature and fertilised, 2 fertilised abnormally discarded 2 day 6 blasts 5BA 4AA. IVF4 13 eggs retrieved, 10 mature, 8 fertilised 3 day 5 blasts x2 3AA x1 5AA

For me I only got blasts once I went on DHEA plus maximum dose of menopur (it’s more natural than gonal f) for my last best round the consultant added in Letrozole for 5 days again to help my own hormones work for me.

So I am contrary to other women who find they do better on a lower dose of Stims. On DHEA max dose menopur and letrozole I actually had a normal round - stim for 10 days, normal number of eggs collected and normal outcome with day 5 blasts.

To be honest your first cycle sounds pretty good! Are you waiting to hear how many made it to blast? What kind of supplements are you on?

Hi @ForeverAintEnough I’m basically taking everything in the book ‘ it starts With the egg’ I took dhea for three weeks but it messed my cycle up and my progesterone was very elevated during my period . So I’m not sure it suits me . I only took 25mg a day so not much !
I’ve had three mmc at 8-9 weeks in just over a year so I’m doing ivf with pgs to try and find a normal embryo . I get my day 5 results Thursday and have asked the lab not to update me in the meantime as I find it stressful and a bit pointless as need to get to at least day 5. My dh sperm is fab , the doctors were very excited about how good it was so it’s my eggs that are the issue at 40. I’m not expecting success really just a miracle!

@Sunshinelove8 I actually had some consults with a fertility nutritionist who tailored my supplements. I had a terrible round on ubiquinol and she said to come off it as it was likely revving up my system so she put me on other supplements instead so that could be something to bear in mind if you’re doing another round.

With 6 in the running hopefully you will get 2 blasts and then 50% chance for one normal. Fingers crossed and it’s great you have no male issues complicating things.

We have bad sperm issues which was initially the reason for doing ivf but I’ve turned out to be a disaster too so I’ve never been pregnant naturally and have only had one ivf transfer which was negative. I’m sorry to hear about your miscarriages. Hopefully the PGS approach will work for you. Are you doing any lining or immunity tests before transfer?

@ForeverAintEnough that’s interesting, I’ve been on ubiquinol for ages ! Would be interested in who your nutritionist is . Unfortunately if I only get two 5 day blasts , at my age, it’s going to be rare to find a normal. Think only 1/10 is normal at 40 . I read just now one lady had 8 Blasts and all abnormal :/ also given my track record of recurrent mcs I guess that’s showing a lot of abnormals already . Sigh .. feels like a needle in a haystack x

The clinic said my lining is good each time I’ve been scanned and I had immunes which showed slight elevation of nk cells but nothing crazy high . My last failed pg I had intralipids but it still failed , guess it was chromosome issue . How’s your lining and are you testing immunes? X

Hi all @Pinkrabbits1 you asked about ARGC but I think @Sunshinelove8 has that covered. ARGC do have really good stats for ages 40-42 tho I am 43.5.

My only beef with ARGC is the intensity of drugs. They leave no stone unturned which helps prevent the basic reasons many cycles fail but that means you end up taking drugs that may be unnecessary for you. So I was on 4 x cyclogest plus 3 injections of progesterone a day last time when I know I have been successfully pregnant on just 2 cyclogest. So it ends up taking a lot out of you.

My friend at the lister was tested once for immunes and treated based on that. ARGC test you every 3 weeks. Important if you have recurrent miscarriage but if you don't...it's a lot.

I'm really tempted by the Lister as a bit of a halfway house. A great clinic but less intensity. But for me the location would just make things harder so I think it's a no go

Hi all, I contacted Lister yesterday to request an appointment with dr. James as a new patient. No reply :( I am 40. They asked me for DOB, shall I assume they don’t want to deal with me due to my age or does it take them a while to come back? Do you know other way to book an appointment with that doctor there? Thank you 🙏 will be great to hear your success as well :)

@K8dferXdder hi , I’m actually sunshine8 above, weird to see my old posts! I stuck with argc and got one pgs normal embryo the round I’m talking about above, which is now frozen. I then did a fresh cycle and had my baby last year
I can’t comment on lister but I was looking at that and CRGH, both good clinics
Good luck!

Congratulations @Oooahhooo 🥳 that’s really positive!

Hey all! I know this is an old post but wanted to see how those of you at the Lister got on with your IVF cycles! @Pinkrabbits1 I am in a very similar position to you - very low ovarian reserve (despite being 33!) and no luck with TTC naturally so far. I had an initial consultation with Dr James Nicopoullos last week and he seemed to know his stuff. He recommend IVF with embryo banking, has anyone had any luck at the lister with low AMH/AFC? Or any other clinic recs for those of us with DOR?