# Any IVFers in their mid-40's



## SmileyStar

Hi All,
We finally broke down and went to the fertility clinic last year and found out via US that DW's fibroids prevented any kind of treatment. After a successful myomectomy and recovery, we went back to the fertility clinic last month. Our doctor had a OMG moment during the US, DW's ovaries are in excellent condition with lots of follies and he is making an exception and offering us a stimulated cycle vs a Natural cycle. We got the results of our bloods and SA back today, all good. So we will be doing Stimulated IVF in April. Doc thinks he can get around a dozen eggs. :happydance:


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## vermeil

That sounds great! You can do it :happydance:

I had my first (and so far only) IVF at 40, I had 22 eggs retrieved. The doctor kept muttering 'this is quite exceptional... ' as she did the procedure. Of those 9 fertilized, 6 matured. I am told this is really good. I did get pregnant on that first transfert but only reached 7 weeks. I have my second transfer in two weeks!

You might get more replies in the assisted conception section - Good luck ! Fingers crossed for you and your wife!


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## SmileyStar

vermeil said:


> That sounds great! You can do it :happydance:
> 
> I had my first (and so far only) IVF at 40, I had 22 eggs retrieved. The doctor kept muttering 'this is quite exceptional... ' as she did the procedure. Of those 9 fertilized, 6 matured. I am told this is really good. I did get pregnant on that first transfert but only reached 7 weeks. I have my second transfer in two weeks!
> 
> You might get more replies in the assisted conception section - Good luck ! Fingers crossed for you and your wife!

I hope we get as many that mature! How are the fertility drugs, besides expensive? Lots of :dust:


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## SmileyStar

It looks like we are back to square one, looking for a fertility clinic. We got a 'Regret to inform you but I can no longer be your physician' letter today. Took my breathe away. :cry: Letter was dated 2 days after our appointment. How horrible, even worse no explanation whatsoever. What happened...


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## SmileyStar

Crisis averted! Spent all morning down at the clinic and on the phone. I'm not a 100% sure, but it does look like the administrator portion of the clinic did not agree with the doctor on taking on our case, because of age. We will likely miss our April cycle, but we have an appointment next week to reestablish us as patients. For those that don't know the Americans with disabilities act (ADA) does protect women from discrimination on the basis of age at fertility clinics. We didn't have to go that route, thankfully.


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## Bravemom

Hi Hun!im so sorry :( that sucks <3 ,I'm not doing ivf but I'm 45 turning 46 soon ,been trying for seven years and had multiple losses ,fixed for you :hugs::hugs::hugs:


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## vermeil

Wow SmileyStay, you go man! I'm glad you called them and sorted it out. That`s just insane that they would do that - it sounds like they were just trying to get rid of you. How very rude. I think some clinics don`t want to mess up their stats so they refuse older patients. What nonesense!

As for the fertility drugs for the IVF, they would have been 3000$ but they 'only' cost me 800$ - many of the medications have to be covered by law. The fertility treatments themselves are all free here. They gave me mild headaches and made me a bit more moody, nothing else. Though by the end I was feeling really bloated. The egg retrieval was a breeze, barely felt anything and it lasted 20 minutes. The transfer is even easier. 

Best of luck to you two!


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## SmileyStar

Officially patients again :happydance: It was the "stimulated" IVF that caused the uproar. We have our mock next week. Egg retrieval next month.


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## SmileyStar

The Mock went well. DW didn't like having the full bladder, but at least the Doc didn't get sprayed. :haha: We also had our cycle review, are ordering meds , and awaiting the :witch: which should be the 28th. :yipee:


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## vermeil

I`m cheering for you! woo hoo!


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## Maplesugar

Hope things continue to go well! :happydance:


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## SmileyStar

We received our box full of meds today. :happydance: DW has to do an ekg and we have to schedule for the nurse to visit to lay out the meds and do the shot training. We have about 10 days left till :witch: shows up and we start the process. :yipee:


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## SmileyStar

:witch: showed up yesterday. Today DW has her first appointment and we get instructions this afternoon for the meds. :yipee:


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## Blythe

i will be following:thumbup:


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## Katniss1

I had my first IVF when I was 30 and it went very successful as a result we got twins ( boy and girl). I am 41 now and last year my husband and I have decided to have another baby , we went through IVF cycle in November 2012 , I got a good response to the stimulating drugs and produced 14 mature eggs, 4 of them went up to 6 days in culture and turns into blastocysts. Our doctor was very excited but we did PGD and results turned to be very sad- all four of them had severe genetic problems. We repeated our luck in January 2013 and again, great response to the drugs but the blasocysts are genetically abnormal. My husband wants to try one more attempt but I feel very discouraged.


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## SmileyStar

Congratulations on your twins and I'm sorry to hear you received such terrible news. :flower: Did they say what the abnormality is?


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## SmileyStar

We are on day 2 of follistim and lupron. We have our U/S on day 4 and receive our next instructions for meds. DW is taking 250 in the AM and 200 in the PM of follistim and 20 in the AM and 20 in the PM of Lupron.


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## Katniss1

SmileyStar, thank you very much. The results were: blastocyst# 1 - one extra chromosome 6 male; #2) one extra chromosome 19 and XXY  male; #3) one missing chromosome 10 and one extra chromosome 20 -male; #4) one extra chromosome 19 and XXY -male.
The doctor's conclusion is simple- I am old, after 40 there is a high risk of having genetic abnormalties.
Wishing you all luck with IVF. Stimulating drugs are not so bad.


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## SmileyStar

3 follicles on the left ovary and the right ovary is hiding. We have our next U/S on Sunday morning. Same dosage till Sunday.


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## SmileyStar

Our doctor called yesterday to have us come in for an ultrasound today. Apparently the other doctor did a poor job with the ultrasound. We have more than 9 follicles and they are between 9 and 8 mm. We continue meds for three more days and go in for monitoring and he will be doing our U/S. :happydance:


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## vermeil

that`s great news! Keep us posted! Thinking of you two :hugs:


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## Maplesugar

Yaayyy! Great news! I am following too.


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## SmileyStar

9 follicles will be likely be candidates for egg retrieval. :happydance: Doc said that of those 9 he thinks we'll have 6 good ones and the egg retrieval will be on Mother's day or Monday. We are still stimming until Thursday when we go back for another scan. The follies are averaging around 14- 13mm each. We also don't have to worry about being cancelled. He's pretty happy with our progress and so are we. :yipee:


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## SmileyStar

E2 861 and Progesterone .3 :wohoo:
Doc was hoping to see E2 >600.


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## SmileyStar

E2 1186 Prof .3. 

We are getting closer to trigger day. We go back tomorrow morning for monitoring. Hopefully we won't need to order another cartridge tomorrow.


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## Ceilani

Looking good, Smiley!! I'm rooting for you guys!! :happydance:

:dust: :dust: :dust:


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## SmileyStar

We stim today and back tomorrow morning. Should get go ahead for trigger tomorrow. We didn't order more meds. E2 1486 Prog .5 

Only side effects have been, DW's boobs are achy and nauseous is the morning. And DW lost 10 lbs, she's happy about that.:thumbup:

Hoping that the increase in Prog means eggs are almost ready to trigger. Prog over 1.7 on trigger day decreases chances of a live birth. After some research, I think it may mean the eggs are in danger of being over mature when retrieved if the levels are too high in addition to making the uterine lining hostile to implantation. :coffee:


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## SmileyStar

We trigger tonight at 11:15. Egg retrieval on Monday at 11:15. :wohoo: Will be POAS, just to look at the positives. :haha:


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## Maplesugar

Thinking of you guys for ER today. Hoping it goes well.


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## Blythe

all the very best....i have everything crossed all goes well :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

They were able to retrieve 8 eggs, 4 are good quality. Tomorrow we should find out how many embryos we have. They are fertilizing the 4 with ICSI. Looks like we will be doing a day 3 transfer on Thursday. :wohoo: GO EMBRYOS! You can do it!


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## Butterfly67

Good luck smiley, I am just about to do IVF with donor eggs - I am 45 :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

That's awesome Butterfly. :dust:



Butterfly67 said:


> Good luck smiley, I am just about to do IVF with donor eggs - I am 45 :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

Fertilization report from this morning: 2 growing embryos, 1 fertilizing, and 1 hadn't been fertilized yet. I'd visit them, if I could. We get our embryos back on Thursday. :yipee:


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## Butterfly67

Great news smiley :thumbup::happydance:


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## SmileyStar

If you have to get the progesterone in oil shot in the bum use an ice pack. My DW hasn't felt any of them so far. We kept the ice packs that shipped with the meds and used those. Some labs have EmbryoScope incubators that allow the lab to see the embryos all the time without taking them out of the incubator. I don't think our clinics lab has that, so we'll recommend it when we go in for transfer, it's safer for the embryos.

1 more day til embryo transfer! :wohoo:


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## SmileyStar

Two embryos are going strong on day 3 (a 7 and an 8 cell.). Transfer was cancelled today. doc just couldn't get the catheter in because of the swollen ovaries. :dohh: He gave us the option of trying some more advanced techniques or let the embryos grow til day 5 then freeze. We opted for the freeze. Embryos are back in the incubator and hoping the assisted hatching helps them out. Praying for our Embryos to thrive. Today is disappointing, but we still have our embryos. We are stopping all meds and waiting for :witch: to show up and a call on Saturday to know that our embryos are blasts and ready to freeze. :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

1 embryo frozen and one embryo is still growing, but wasn't ready to be frozen today, so we'll get a call tomorrow after they freeze the second embryo. [-o&lt; So proud of our embryos!! :happydance:


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## SmileyStar

End result is 1 Frostie. Our second embryo wasn't frozen due to quality. Seems kinds stupid to me to not freeze the second one because the embryologist thinks it may not survive the freeze and thaw...


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## flashy09

When do you unthaw the frozen one and implant it? Good luck!


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## SmileyStar

We had our day 2 monitoring today for the FET cycle and DW is to start 2mg of estradiol twice a day. Trigger should be around the 3rd (Natural O day) with transfer 5 days later. Early next week we will go for a cervical dilation with sedation to hopefully make the transfer easier. The clinic is covering the FET cycle. :thumbup: 



flashy09 said:


> When do you unthaw the frozen one and implant it? Good luck!


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## Blythe

yes GL...please keep us updated. I hope the next couple of weeks up to the 3rd go like clockwork.:thumbup:


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## vermeil

Go go smileystar! I know how disapointing cancelled cycles are but if you take a step back, fets actually have better success rates (once you eliminate thawing issues) because the uterus is not on overdrive from all of the drugs.

My first ivf cycle I had ovarian hyper stimulation (ohss) - basically ovaries are just TOO stimulated. I was so tired and swollen from all the drugs. Doctor said he might cancel the cycle - then decided to go ahead anyway. I was soooo happy. But it resulted in a chemical.

First fet after that, I felt relaxed and in much better health. poof pregnancy again. Only nine weeks so far but still I`ve already gotten farther. Now I wish they *had* cancelled that ivf, I would have saved two embryos. Oh well. Sometimes I feel this whole ttc thing is more art than science :wacko:

Good luck!! Thinking of you guys lots :flower:


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## SmileyStar

We will have a great story of overcoming adversity when we finally get a bfp. :thumbup: We went to the appt today, he was able to get the catheter in there but, he advised us to go to another doctor at a gynecological and pelvic surgery center to get dilated and hysteroscopy done. They weren't able to do the dilation because the drugs they could give my DW, at their clinic, were not strong enough. The Doc called the other doc and got us in tomorrow. We will have to wait another cycle, and successfully pass a mock in order to unthaw our embryo. But it's better than losing our embryo because they thawed it out but can't get it in. So for now our frostie will stay on ice.


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## Butterfly67

Wow you are definitely going through the wringer there but yes great story nce you get your bfp :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

We'll find out this morning, if our appointment is a consult or the dilation. I would think it is a consult. If this doesn't work we'll have to find a doc that can do a transmyometrial transfer. It'll be like finding a needle in a haystack.



Butterfly67 said:


> Wow you are definitely going through the wringer there but yes great story nce you get your bfp :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

So we have our outpatient procedure set up for next week on the 6th. Doc said that the dilation should be good for 3 months. Since he will be in there he is going to look around and make sure the lining looks good and will take care of any new fibroids if he sees them. He seems pretty good.


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## SmileyStar

So they did a D&C, Cervicoplasty, resected some fibroids, removed scar tissue, and cut adhesions. So I guess it looked like a war zone in there. Not a friendly place for embryos. DW has a catheter in her uterus to keep it open, which will be removed on Tuesday. It explains why we haven't seen any chemical pregnancies in more than a year since the myomectomy. Based on Dr. Google it looks like we have to wait for a 2nd period in order to do the FET. The things we do for our little Frostie. Would be awesome if we can get pregnant naturally before the FET. :thumbup:


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## Rebe67cca

had our cycle review, are ordering meds


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## Maplesugar

Hope FET goes well. :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

Meds aren't too bad, except estrogen, the moodiness is horrible. Good Luck! :dust:


Rebe67cca said:


> had our cycle review, are ordering meds


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## SmileyStar

We are just twiddling our thumbs til the :witch: shows up, sometime in July. No AF this cycle cause of the procedure, but should be ovulating this weekend. We will be :sex: just in case the adhesions were the cause of infertility. :thumbup:



Maplesugar said:


> Hope FET goes well. :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

DW didn't skip a period after the procedure...so we had a mock today. An unsuccessful mock. Our RE does not think the Dr. that performed the D&C, cervicoplasty, hysteroscopy, actually made it into the uterus. Not a joke, actually never left the cervical canal. Next stop for us is an MRI of the uterus to confirm that the endometrium that can be seen in the ultrasound is actually the lining of the uterus, since the catheter won't go in there. 

So for a summary: DW can make good eggs, Embryos can grow, Lining thickness looks good. Uterus is good. but can't put the baby in the uterus.:dohh:


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## SmileyStar

We brought our frostie home today!! :happydance: We had our embryo transfer under general anesthesia today and it was a success. Thank you propofol. We have our beta on November 1st. DW is relaxing this weekend. :dust:


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## Blythe

Great news. I will be keeping everything crossed. Very exciting for you both.


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## helloeveryone

Just been reading all you have been through,good luck and hope the 1st nov comes around quick for you..xxx


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## Butterfly67

Great news, will keep my fingers crossed :happydance:


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## Maplesugar

Good luck. Fx'd!


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## SmileyStar

We are 4dpt 5dt, this morning brown spots. Encouraging sign our embryo is in the process of implanting. Not much else to report except slight twinges. Pretty uneventful so far. :thumbup: :dust:


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## Butterfly67

SmileyStar said:


> We are 4dpt 5dt, this morning brown spots. Encouraging sign our embryo is in the process of implanting. Not much else to report except slight twinges. Pretty uneventful so far. :thumbup: :dust:

I had pretty much the same thing :thumbup: When are you going to test?


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## SmileyStar

I'm trying not to get too excited. As far as testing I'm not sure, we go in for blood work on Friday. We might test on Sunday which might be enough time. DW spotted a few times yesterday and again this morning. Not much at all and it's still brown, so that's good. Some light cramping last night. According to the development cycle for 5day embryos, ours should finish implanting today. We are on estradiol, PIO, and progesterone suppositories. 



Butterfly67 said:


> SmileyStar said:
> 
> 
> We are 4dpt 5dt, this morning brown spots. Encouraging sign our embryo is in the process of implanting. Not much else to report except slight twinges. Pretty uneventful so far. :thumbup: :dust:
> 
> I had pretty much the same thing :thumbup: When are you going to test?Click to expand...


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## vermeil

Thinking of you guys! Wishing you the very best of luck! :hugs: Think of the great tale you'll be able to tell this little one, how very much he/she is wanted.

My own first fet was a success - 32 weeks along now :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

13dpt 5dt today, beta is tomorrow! DW had implantation bleeding (brown spots on 4-5dpt, food cravings started earlier this week. PMS type cramping and moodiness since 11dpt. DW says she feels like she did when she was pregnant before. I told DW she can't buy maternity clothes and baby things until we get the beta results. I'm excited, hopefully I can find a way to keep myself occupied tomorrow, otherwise it will be a long day. :dust:


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## SmileyStar

It's a story for sure. Congratulations on your first FET success. Hopefully we'll get our BFP tomorrow. 



vermeil said:


> Thinking of you guys! Wishing you the very best of luck! :hugs: Think of the great tale you'll be able to tell this little one, how very much he/she is wanted.
> 
> My own first fet was a success - 32 weeks along now :thumbup:


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## Blythe

it all sounds very promising :) i dont know how you have both managed to stay away from testing before the blood test...

i look forward to seeing your update and thank you for keeping us up to date so far


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## Butterfly67

Wow it all does sound good. Fingers crossed :happydance:


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## vermeil

Cheering for you tomorrow! :flower:


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## SmileyStar

The blood has been given. Now we wait. The clinic does call backs between 300pm -430pm eastern time. Happy thoughts!! :thumbup:


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## SmileyStar

:bfn: Don't know what the levels were. I'm waiting for a call back from the nurse.


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## Butterfly67

Oh no smiley I'm so sorry :nope:


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## Blythe

So very sorry to read this news. Thinking of you both :flower:


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## vermeil

awww! *frowns* I thought of you guys all weekend! So sorry to hear that..... Please take good care of yourselves 

:hugs:


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## Maplesugar

Oh no that sucks :hugs:.


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