Success stories: Is there any hope for a 30 something?

Pigglywink · February 2017

Hi everyone I'm looking for a glimmer of hope from other people in a similar situation.

I am 31 years of age and back in early 2015 I was pregnant with my first but sadly after 21 weeks, an infection and possible weak cervix my son was born stillborn.

After trying naturally for almost 8 months after that we went to see a fertility specialist and 2 IUIs and 4 IVF cycles later I've had no success. I've been on the lowest dose of fertility drugs to the highest and have also had surgery to remove endometriosis (which I didn't know I had because I never had any symptoms).

My thyroid levels are fine, but between 2014 to October last year my AMH has dropped rapidly from a normal 28 to a low for my age 6. The quality of my eggs has been very poor each time I've gone in for IVF, the first two times I didn't even get to go to embryo transfer and then finally when I did make it to transfer I was told that the eggs were still very poor quality due to high fragmentation. I average about 4 eggs per cycle and whilst my eggs get fertilized no problems after about day 3 they stop developing or become delayed.

I've also tried acupuncture, Chinese herbs and have started Co-enzyme Q10.

To top it off I went and saw a new specialist who is the head of the clinic and one would think he has substantial experience in the field, but he pretty much said whilst he was happy to continue IVF, given my history he didn't think it would necessarily result in any better quality eggs and that my husband and I may need to discuss the option of donor eggs at some point on our journey.

I feel like my window of opportunity is closing in as my mother started the process to menopause relatively early and coupled with my low AMH I feel like it might be just around the corner for me.

I've decided to take a break from the IVF (the emotional roller coaster has not been fun) just for a few months, but has anyone been through anything similar and come out the other end with beautiful bubs?

brela11 · February 2017

Im sorry you are going through this and although I don't have a similar experience as you, I wanted to share a book I read recently that made me wish I had made these changes long ago... its called It Starts with an gg. If you haven't yet, I'd consider it worth the read and trying to help improve your egg quality. Only you and yh can decide if donor eggs are the step you want to go next. Good luck on your journey!

Cinnamonn · September 2017

HI @Pigglywink
31 is super young, you'll have all the kids you want. My only advise would be to go from IVF to FET, so you have time to do the screening of the embryos for genetical abnormalities, usually that is the major reason for unsuccessful IVFs. Good Luck to you!

Alyeena · September 2017

I'm sorry for all you're going through. My experience is not the same as yours so unfortunately I don't have advice to give.

The decision to move on to donor eggs is a really personal one and it cannot be easy. If you do decide to go this route your window of opportunity is definitely not ending because you are still really young so you definitely have time to think about it. Is it something you would consider at all?

KDR1979 · September 2017

Your lab uses different ranges for AMH. In Ohio, a low AMH is under ~1.2/1.4

Our main diagnosis was abnormal sperm morphology. I was 30 when we did our first IVF and almost 32 when we finally got pregnant with our twins. My RE said my eggs were good quality but he did think we always got a "low number of eggs for my age." Before my final fresh IVF, I did take DHEA 25mg three times daily (& now they also add CoQ10 400mg daily) for 3months BEFORE the last IVF. We'll never know if that is why we finally got pregnant with our twins. Our RE also did assisted hatching and a day 3 transfer on our successful cycle. A lot of our transfers were of "good quality" blastocysts but we never had a viable pregnancy on a blast transfer.

Good luck to you!

Success stories: Is there any hope for a 30 something?

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