40 Year Old-Egg Freezing

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon. I am a 40 year old woman who decided to freeze her eggs. I realized age is not on my side, but I still want to fulfill my dream of having biological children one day. I am adopted so I am totally open to adoption, but I would like to have blood relatives. I paid for 3 cycles of egg freezing and while the initial prognosis was promising, I had my first egg retrieval today and only retrieved two eggs. Is there anything you suggest I can do to increase my odds the next two cycles? I am trying to stay positive but it was such a let down. I realize my doctor will likely change my protocol the next two cycles, but I would like to know what worked for others.

[Anonymous]

Read the book, “it starts with the egg” … but honestly, what are you waiting for? I would go ahead and get a sperm donor and freeze embryos or transfer embryos?

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, OP. That’s hard. Would you consider freezing embryos instead? In order words, go ahead and fertilize the eggs you get, let them grow for 5 days, then freeze? Because frozen embryos are more resilient than frozen eggs and because you really don’t know anything about the quality of the eggs you’re getting until you try to use them.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the “what are you waiting for?” poster. I had my daughter at 39. She’s now 4 and I’m 43 and I’m starting to feel my age. Like I’m sore and my back hurts. I wouldn’t recommend waiting, even if you’re a fertile myrtle.

[Anonymous]

I have no choice but to wait. I don’t want to just go with a donor. Please post ideas that may work under my set of circumstances. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

My (quite conservative) RE recommended CoQ10 and vitamin D (but I think that was for when I actually was trying to get pregnant using my frozen eggs). I did three rounds of freezing starting at 40. From the outset my doctor was pretty clear about my chances in terms of likely number of eggs id to ensure decent odds of eventually getting a baby. I think the research on this is evolving quickly but as of about 5 years ago, she estimated that 25 frozen mature eggs would give me 50-60 percent odds.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing. I’ve been taking CoQ10 and vitamin d religiously for months per my doctor’s recommendation. I was also given the same stats as you and truly believed I could achieve it. That’s why today’s results were so discouraging. 💕

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no choice but to wait. I don’t want to just go with a donor. Please post ideas that may work under my set of circumstances. Thank you.

Yeah/ and freezing and then thawing really doesn’t bring down your odds very much given how good current technology is - so stick to your plan and see where three freezing rounds gets you. As for the pros and cons of being an older mom, there’s plenty of pros so I see no reason to rush to donor sperm. That’s a whole new big decision to be made when/if the time comes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for sharing. I’ve been taking CoQ10 and vitamin d religiously for months per my doctor’s recommendation. I was also given the same stats as you and truly believed I could achieve it. That’s why today’s results were so discouraging. 💕

Sorry- that does really suck. Be candid with your doctor. Have a conversation with him/her about what changes in protocol might help or why this round fell short of expectations. Was your follicle count way down from the testing cycle?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the support and encouragement. I was very candid with my doctor. Here’s hoping for better results next time.

[Anonymous]

I initially had 10-11 follicles. It went down to 8. Then it went down to 5 and 4 leading up to the procedure. At extraction, only 2 follicles had eggs.

[Anonymous]

What is the quality like of the 2 eggs, did the Dr say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I initially had 10-11 follicles. It went down to 8. Then it went down to 5 and 4 leading up to the procedure. At extraction, only 2 follicles had eggs.

OP, have you considered adding DHEA as a supplement? It Starts with the Egg gives a good rundown of it. Also, given those numbers, you definitely need to change your protocol (and maybe your doctor, too). Typically, you see the number of eggs retrieved relatively close to your AFC (or even in some cases higher). Some people also suggest doing back to back cycles, because of the cumulative effect of the hormones essentially putting your ovaries into overdrive. FWIW, I froze 19 eggs at 36, and now have a healthy baby from those eggs. Plus this was years ago when the technology was not as good as it is now, so you definitely have hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read the book, “it starts with the egg” … but honestly, what are you waiting for? I would go ahead and get a sperm donor and freeze embryos or transfer embryos?

This. I’d get a sperm donor and freeze embryos. You’ll have much better success when you want kids. Eggs often don’t survive the thawing process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the book, “it starts with the egg” … but honestly, what are you waiting for? I would go ahead and get a sperm donor and freeze embryos or transfer embryos?

This. I’d get a sperm donor and freeze embryos. You’ll have much better success when you want kids. Eggs often don’t survive the thawing process.

This is old info. Google. Marginal difference now with new freezing tech and the difference probs not worth the flex of eggs embryos.