Chances are slim at age 41 but trying to be positive

[Stayingpositive2025]

I’ve been on Overleap for a week. Scan yesterday showed 7 follicles. 6 at nearly 10mm and 1 at 11mm. Got another scan next week which will hopefully result in trigger injection for egg collection.
I’m only getting one round due to my age (41). Trying to not worry about things but it’s difficult to not feel anxious. Keep telling myself it only takes one good egg!

7 follicles is a good number. Hopefully a good embryo can be made out of them and one is a sticky bean. I think stay positive, there are woman our ages still having babies from their own eggs. You won't know unless you try. I wish you all the best of luck.

@Miraclemuma03 Thanks for your reply. I read a post on here where a woman had 20 collected so I was a bit worried…

@Stayingpositive2025 it's positive that they're growing as a cohort and you don't have a dominant follicle striding ahead. That increases the chance of them all being in mature size range at trigger.

Numbers and quality don't correlate - someone with 20 eggs can end up with zero blastocysts and someone with 7 could end up with 7. The typical attrition though is 30-50% of fertilised eggs make it to day 5/ 6.

Good luck!

@sirensong I have 6 around 10mm and 1 at just over 11. The nurse said they will probably have to sacrifice the 11.

@Stayingpositive2025 why? If they're 1mm apart that sounds like total nonsense.

@sirensong It’s my first (and only) time so maybe I got it wrong. I’m sure nurse said something about sacrificing it if the gap gets bigger. I’ll find out tomorrow…
Trying to take one appointment at a time.

My clinic nurse said they measure the follicles to monitor and ensure a reasonable amount are the right size to likely to contain a mature egg so they can plan the trigger shot and retrieval procedure accordingly. She said in reality, on the retrieval day, they drain every enlarged follicle. So when they say ‘sacrifice’ the big one, it’s that it might over ripen in the place of 2-3 others maturing, they will still collect them all, and expose them to the sperm.

It’s a numbers game, taking the stims for one more day may cause the one most mature to be over ripen, but mean you have more eggs from the bulk number slightly behind it maturing.

@AlmostTime Yes, that sounds right. I’m so nervous about this week.
I hope your journey is successful too.

@AlmostTime Sure, I get the principle of sacrificing the lead, there's just absolutely no reason currently to think that will be required here. I've personally had everything between 14mm and 22mm at trigger come back as mature. As things stand it's a pretty strange thing for the nurse to have mentioned - it only happens when there's a much wider gap (eg. one follicle is already at 20 and the majority of the others are at 10).

A positive scan today! 8 follicles at a good size so collection on Friday for transfer on Wednesday.

Ace

Good luck

Thats great news. Good luck for egg collection.

5 eggs retrieved from 8 follicles. They seemed happy with that. We will know tomorrow how many fertilised.
No pain from egg retrieval but I am quite sleepy.

Sending all the luck

Thats amazing news! One more step completed.

Two eggs have fertilised. One has partially and might still but sounded unlikely.
The two that have might make it to transfer on Wednesday, might not. Just a waiting game…

I remember ' embryo watching week' well

Look after yourself - be kind to yourself

@worldwidetravel2017 I feel a bit deflated even though I had set my expectations realistically so was not thinking we’d have more.

Its tricky .

I will be giving birth to my 1st @ 39..

Ideally id of liked 2 children

But - tricky due to age

@worldwidetravel2017 I feel fitter and stronger than I did at 31 because I look after myself better now.
I’m finding the constant reminders of my aging body difficult to accept. My husband is 9 years younger so I couldn’t have been with him when he was 22! Just got to live with the reality of how things are, I suppose.
Hope all goes smoothly for you 🙂

I hope your two embryos make it for a transfer. I was 40 in July, I was hoping to be pregnant by now with our very last baby buy its not happening so far. Im currently waiting for day 1 of my period to start so I can do a FET. I have 1 embryo left and im praying it will be a sticky bean.

Good luck lovely ❤️

Transfer today with only embryo we have…graded 4AB so that’s positive. Worst thing about today was holding my wee in!
Now for the two week wait…

Good luck in your 2ww. Fingers are xd for a positive.

@Stayingpositive2025 good luck for your TWW. It’s a long two weeks so be kind to yourself. I’m also proud to be in the 40+ club and agree with you, I feel so much healthier now than when I was late 20s and early 30s. Age is just a number. I’m currently 16 weeks (17 tomorrow) with my first transfer from my second cycle. It can be done. Sending you all the positive thoughts x