IVF - What would you do?

[ivfq]

Just typed this all out once and lost it so apologies if I miss anything!

Background is I'm 40, DP is 41, no children. Been TTC for over 2 years, on the NHS IVF waiting list since September last year. Investigations shown I have high AMH (29) and AFC (14) for my age. However DP has v low sperm motility.

We were advised that the NHS waiting list was over a year so we decided to pay for a round of private treatment while we were waiting. This was partly successful in that we got 3 good embryos, one of which was transferred and resulted in a pregnancy, but sadly this ended in a MMC at 8 weeks last month.

We've since come to the top of the NHS wait list and just had an appointment with our consultant who advised that we can start our NHS round in January/February.

We also recently spoke to our private consultant who advised they would be happy to carry out another FET with one of the 2 remaining embryos in January/February.

Now we're just trying to decide which way to go. My first thought was to go ahead with the NHS round to hopefully get some more embryos and give us more options going forward. But then we could go for the private option and if it was successful that could save us a lot of time and stress. But if it wasn't successful we'd be back to square one and need to wait months to start our NHS treatment. Obviously we're not getting any younger so want to avoid any delays that we possibly can....

Apologies for the long post, hopefully I've covered everything and it makes sense. Would really welcome anyone's thoughts on what they'd do in our situation?

Thanks in advance xx

Really sorry to hear about your MMC😥

What is the age cutoff for starting an NHS IVF cycle in your area (it’s usually 40-42 and they seem to be strict about it)? And are you still eligible for NHS cycle(s) having had one private cycle? Personally I would take the NHS round while it’s on offer as you’ll then hopefully have more embryos (& more options) going forward. Almost like you’re doing embryo banking which I seem to read a lot about on here.

Hi, thanks for your response.

We're entitled to one NHS cycle here at over 40, then the cutoff is 42.

And yes we're still eligible even though we've had private treatment already. Apparently if we'd had the private treatment at the local hospital we wouldn't be eligible for NHS treatment afterwards, but luckily we'd gone with a different provider so it's not a problem thankfully.

Thanks, yes I think that's the approach we're leaning towards too but just checking I wasn't being silly not just going for the FET straight away. We'd actually expected them to tell us we needed to use up any embryos in storage before starting NHS treatment so it was a bit of a surprise today when the consultant said that wasn't an issue, just means we need to make a decision now!

Embryo banking is what I was thinking about, although it just sounds so transactional and almost grabby!

Hi, I’d definitely pick the NHS route, I’m younger 34 but low AMH 3.3pmol and had a similar choice a couple of years ago. We had 2 embryos frozen privately and then switched to NHS when we got to the top of the list. Honestly I think it’s better to just get as many embryos ASAP given age (similar issue to my AMH). Good luck!

Hi

I’m really sorry to hear about your MMC. I would definitely go for the NHS IVF round. As your embryos in storage are untested you can’t be certain they are euploid, personally I would want more embryos given your age. I hope that doesn’t sound harsh, it’s really not meant to. I myself was 37 and needed two rounds of IVF with a total of 29 eggs to get my one live birth. I wish you every success

Thanks both, it's good to hear that you would both go with the NHS round too.

And don't worry, I know the odds are against us at this age but we can only give it a shot and see how we get on! Thanks for your best wishes ❤️

Definitely go the NHS route, the more embryos you have, the best chances.

Good luck!

Agree with others, definitely make use of your NHS round. As you know, statistically it is harder to conceive a viable pregnancy as you get older and IVF really is a numbers game for the most part - the more embryos you have the better. Best of luck.