3 replies to this topic

[Jacks18]

Hi everyone,

 

I am 41 years old, first experience with IVF. I have one child who was conceived without fertility treatments 4 years ago, and since then have gotten pregnant twice, but both pregnancies ended in miscarriage. My diagnostic testing showed very low AMH, and we decided to try IVF.

 

I am currently on day 10 of treatment, and it looks like my body has produced only one (!) decent follicle. My  doctor has given me the option of converting this cycle into a natural cycle or doing IUI and or proceeding with IVF with the best scenario being retrieving one egg. The Dr. said that normally he would suggest converting to IUI,and if unsuccessful, considering another cycle of IVF in the future hoping for better results. However, there's no guarantee the next cycle would be any better and with my age and AMH, time is an issue.

 

Has anyone been in this situation or have any insight or suggestions?

 

We went into this knowing the chances of success were slim, but it is still disappointing to get these results.

[returnable]

My thought would be to convert to an IUI. It is highly unlikely that at this stage of stims that any more follicles will develop enough to be mature at retrieval. At your age, with just one egg (potentially) retrieved, the chances of that one being fertilized, then making to day 5 is low. Try one or two more times with stim cycles and see if you have better results. I did two IVFs when I was 41 and if I only had one follicle I would have decided on that.

[ThirdTimesACharm79]

I think your RE suggestion is a good idea. The retrieval is a pretty big process for one egg. My clinic refuses to do retrieval for anything less than 6 follicles. They usually stop the process by day 7 if they don't see more than 5 follicles growing.

[mommydream]

I'm 42 and started IVF in March of this year. I did one round and got no results (1 egg only).  The RE converted me to an IUI after I agreed. I spent 3 months improving my health, doing acupuncture and working with a naturopath. The 2nd round of IVF (with new protocol) resulted in 7 eggs with 5 retrieved and 3 fertilized and frozen.  My left ovary is apparently hard to access for retrieval which was not known before the retrieval.  Due to my age, I signed up for "batching" and moved forward with the 3rd round of IVF in October - November. I got 2- 3 follicles in my left ovary (nothing on the right) and because the RE can't access it, we agreed to convert to IUI.  I'm moving forward with gwith the 3 zygotes I have on ice in January.  

 

My point is never waste a good egg especially when that was stimulated so much ....do the IUI and if you can continue with IVF consider changing the protocol and taking a short break to incorporate alternative therapies to improve your body's health and success of your eggs. Besides the IUI may turn out what you wanted - pregnant. It didn't work for me, but it may for you.  

 

Good luck! I'm sure my baby is in one of those frozen miracles