Starting IVF at 40

[March2023CH]

My gynaecologist has said he will refer me to fertility specialist and urgent referral so I'm hoping I get an appt soon. Partner sperm is good. All my scans blood tests and hsg all good. My amh is 23.7pmol/l which I have heard is very good for a 40 year old. I had one misscarrige and had to have d&c got pregnant that time first time try this was 2 years ago. My main concern with the IVF is all the time off work in only new to my job in march this year. I have used chat gpt and it says there could be a two week period where U need to visit the clinic every 2 days. I work almost 2 hours away from this clinic so it means half days or full days off work. IVF hasn't even started yet and I'm already stressed

Hi, good news that you're going to get started as it can take longer at this age. I had my son at 40 from IVF. It took 2 cycles. I didn't find it that difficult but yes there was a week when closer monitoring was needed however employers should show awareness and understanding of this and hopefully you won't need too much time off. I know it's easily said but try to keep hold of that bigger picture, manage your stress and see this as the opportunity it is. Wishing you all the best with treatment.

My advice to you at 40 - would be to pgta test

Its common for mang eggs/ embryos to be abnormal due to age

4 of my 6 embryos were abnormal due to age
Pgta can reduce miscarriage risk - & save time - weve avoided transfering the 4 abnormal ones

Im.38

Not sure what your job is. But my clinic was 2 hours away from home and my work was a 1 hour 15 commute away so the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. It is doable though! I ensured my output was great so I could take the time away/made up some time in the evenings if necessary.

@March2023CH I think if you don’t do it you’ll end up with regret - in the grand scheme of it, yes jobs are important but in the corporate world your role can disappear at any stage and we are essentially ‘numbers on a spreadsheet’
maybe you could look at having scans near by and blood tests - folks that attend clinics abroad do this successfully.
I also try to get an early appointment and then bring my laptop - if my hubby drives I’m logged in in the car or I might go and work in a cafe beside the clinic and then drive back when less traffic. It can be done and hopefully you work somewhere with flex x

Hello OP I totally feel your stress, it’s hard juggling it all especially if you are that far away from the clinic. First I think you need to get more information from your clinic in terms of what protocol you would follow. I’m 39 and I’ve just completed a short protocol with fresh transfer. I only had to go in the clinic for two monitoring scans (cycle day 10 and 12), egg collection day 14 and transfer day 19- so 4 times in total. I carried on working the first week of stims then took off the following week when I knew I’d have the scans and egg collection. Luckily my egg collection was on a Friday so I had the weekend to recover- I needed this as did not feel great and couldn’t have worked in the days following, although with my first ivf cycle I was absolutely fine as are many people. I then went back to work for a couple days then took a half day for the transfer. My understanding is that with PGA testing, you would have a ‘freeze all’ cycle and the transfer would then be the following cycle since the results can take a few weeks to come back.

Personally, my job is quite stressful and I just wanted a week off from it all so I could focus on this, and not worry about rushing around. I also work from home mostly which made it easier. Try not to stress too much until you have your plan. I would definitely advise taking time off during the crucial bit but you def don’t need two full weeks. Best of luck to you

Thanks for all your replies I hope to get an appointment soon but I think I will go private as NHS will take too long. I'm wondering would a fertility clinic offer me medication or iui while I wait for an appointment for IVF

If you go private, you shouldn’t wait for an appointment. The schedule will be around your cycle, so IUI wouldn’t be any quicker to be honest.

Hey , how often you attend depends on your individual circumstances. Usually you only need 2 monitoring scans, then collection and transfer. You'll only need to visit more often if there's a reason they need to monitor you , or your follicles more closely

@Btowngirl I think it really depends on your clinic. I'm currently going through private ivf and it's been quite a wait. 3 / 4 months wait before starting treatment

Wow really, that’s crazy! I think I might of looked for an alternative clinic if they didn’t have availability, although I appreciate that’s personal/not always possible/it might be highly rated causing longer wait times.

@Btowngirl The other clinic we were interested in ( we don't have alot of options around here) would really only have been a months less wait but would have cost us an extra £700 for treatment. Alot of clinics 'batch' womens cycles. I'm guessing thats the secret to keeping the cost slightly down but as a result it means its slower. I'm at the stage now , weve done all the bloods, consents ect and I'm currently waiting for my period to start , then I have to take a pill so they can sync everyone up and then I'll start on my next cycle which apparently will be around 30th July time. Yeah, it's really crap that we cant just get started on this bleed. Especially at this age ,it just fills you with anxiety. I did ivf at an nhs clinic back in 2023 for our nhs funded round and it was same , they batched everyone up there aswell. Very fustrating

Wow I’ve never heard of batching! My wife & I have had 4 rounds between us and never had to alter our cycles to be batched. Neither have any of our friends who have had fertility treatment. I’m confused how it would cut costs when they have added expense of regulating everyone’s cycles? You learn something new every day hey!

@Btowngirl I think the way it works is when they batch women up and sync their cycles, some of the staff are only there at certain times as opposed to everyday which helps cut the cost to them. I guess the same way locum doctors way, they are just there when needed but it's always the same staff so I'm guessing it's part time work for them.
When I did my first ultrasound with them, they had a mix up and weren't expecting me that day , so they didn't have the heating on in the ultrasound room that day , another potential way to save money and they also had to rally one of the nurses to do my scan since they werent expecting to. I think this clinic employ only one embryologist at a time aswell to monitor the lab as when my partner had his semen analysis we also had to book another appointment as they couldn't fulfil it on that day ( another mix up ) as the embryologist was busy with transfers that day so there wasn't another there available to check his sample.
I really don't like the syncing cycles but I have heard it seems to be quite common in some clinics . I guess they just want to make it easier for themselves . I think they might only take on a certain amount of women each month and that's why I can't start this cycle as june is already booked out. If I don't start my period by end of this week that knocks me out aswell for having July treatment and means I'd have to stay on the pill until end aug/ sep for the next available treatment schedule

@VioIetMoon thanks so much for taking the time to explain it to me! I guess in those respects it does make sense as a cost saving measure, hopefully the reduction is passed down to the families paying for treatment. It sounds like we had quite an opposite experience with ours, they had good availability for extra scans when follicles were on the cusp of being big enough for example. I wonder if the cost difference was massive though! Also i appreciate geographically you said you don’t have much choice either. It almost feels like more pressure on your cycle if it means you have such a deadline this week to make the July wave! Good luck to you, hope AF comes before the weekend 🤞