Success stories when doctors did not have hope

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I began trying for my first baby at age 42. Elevated FSH (16.4), low AMH (0.15) AFC never higher than 5. Severe DOR diagnosis, given less than 2% chance of conceiving with own eggs, got the donor egg IVF speech. I conceived on my 4th round of IUI, my son was 5 in early December. Hope is out there. If interested I've written blogs about how I took charge of my fertility that I'd be happy to share. xo

This is interesting because I've been TTC for 5 years with way better numbers than you and also younger and I have not had a single positive pregnancy test. This is also with doing IUIs and IVF. I eat mainly organic, exercise, do yoga, and have a low stress lifestyle. All tests normal other than low AMH (.60). Also had a lap, didn't help.

Sorry to hear this. I hope it works out for you. You mention a lap... Do you have endometriosis? How many IVF cycles have you gone through? What do your doctors think is going on?

[Anonymous]

Sketchy fertility treatments have become a huge money making scam that bankrupts couples and ruins marriages. Try to find joy in life without a baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Success stories when doctors did not have hope. I am in a situation like that. Any success stories will help

OP - do you mean like if you don't do any treatments, if anyone was successful if Drs gave up on hope? Or doing alternatives?
For me DE did it, but only on a third fresh donor cycle, and 2nd FET, so it was a long and expensive road.

[Anonymous]

Hi I’m 12/17 23:24.

23:38 feel free to post an email address where I can send you more info.

12/18 8:06 I believe this is because this journey is about so much more than the numbers. If it were just numbers all the people with great numbers would get pregnant and people like he with crap numbers don’t. And this is just not the case. I see it with my clients all the time. Sounds like you’re off to a great start with all the healthy lifestyle habits you’re embracing.

Fertility isn’t black and white. There’s a huge gray area and that’s where magic can happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi I’m 12/17 23:24.

23:38 feel free to post an email address where I can send you more info.

12/18 8:06 I believe this is because this journey is about so much more than the numbers. If it were just numbers all the people with great numbers would get pregnant and people like he with crap numbers don’t. And this is just not the case. I see it with my clients all the time. Sounds like you’re off to a great start with all the healthy lifestyle habits you’re embracing.

Fertility isn’t black and white. There’s a huge gray area and that’s where magic can happen.

Or where unethical people try to make money off desperate women with snake oil and other bogus treatments.

[Anonymous]

I have Premature Ovarian Failure. Basically early menopause (I was 32 when diagnosed). Drs gave me a 1% chance of conceiving. I opted to go staright to DE and now have wonderful DCs via donor egg.

[Anonymous]

My wife lost three babies and had a few failed IVF cycles between our first and second child. By the third miscarriage, followed by a BFN IVF cycle, our entire family thought we were insane for sticking to the path. Hell, I kind of thought she was insane for sticking to it. But then, lo and behold, she got pregnant and it stuck. He's about to be one.

If your doctors are telling you that you can't get pregnant, my opinion is that you're talking to the wrong doctors. However, my wife's success was as much about her doing research and advocating for herself as much as it was about the treatment, in my opinion. We switched clinics and sought immune treatment before having our rainbow baby, and she also made significant changes to her diet, supplement intake, and did acupuncture regularly.

[Anonymous]

Dr told me donor eggs or adopt at 37. Severe DOR. Tried natural cycle IVF, and it worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife lost three babies and had a few failed IVF cycles between our first and second child. By the third miscarriage, followed by a BFN IVF cycle, our entire family thought we were insane for sticking to the path. Hell, I kind of thought she was insane for sticking to it. But then, lo and behold, she got pregnant and it stuck. He's about to be one.

If your doctors are telling you that you can't get pregnant, my opinion is that you're talking to the wrong doctors. However, my wife's success was as much about her doing research and advocating for herself as much as it was about the treatment, in my opinion. We switched clinics and sought immune treatment before having our rainbow baby, and she also made significant changes to her diet, supplement intake, and did acupuncture regularly.

Can you share more details of your wife’s experience. Did she get pregnant through IVF? What diet changes did she make, and which supplements did she take? Which clinic did you all go to, and what type of immune treatment did she receive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr told me donor eggs or adopt at 37. Severe DOR. Tried natural cycle IVF, and it worked.

Had you tried other IVF cycles prior to your successful natural IVF cycle?

[Anonymous]

First conceived in about 5 months at 37. Tried for two years for second, from 39-41. Had IUI and NIVF at two different clinics. Did not respond much to meds for IUI. Given 3-4% chance and told unlikely fertility treatments would help. Devasted. Also had miscarriage. Started process of moving on just after turning 41. Pregnant naturally a few months later and delivered one month shy of 42nd birthday. I feel like I have a miracle baby. I still can’t believe it.

[Anonymous]

After 2 MCs in a year at 40 I had the RE work up and it was recommended I not pursue IVF. I think she said “not a good candidate.” Within 6 months I got pregnant again and am now 27 weeks into a healthy pregnancy.

I don’t know if it made a difference but I read it starts with the egg and we made some changes that made sense that were recommended in the book. I also went to acupuncture weekly for months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife lost three babies and had a few failed IVF cycles between our first and second child. By the third miscarriage, followed by a BFN IVF cycle, our entire family thought we were insane for sticking to the path. Hell, I kind of thought she was insane for sticking to it. But then, lo and behold, she got pregnant and it stuck. He's about to be one.

If your doctors are telling you that you can't get pregnant, my opinion is that you're talking to the wrong doctors. However, my wife's success was as much about her doing research and advocating for herself as much as it was about the treatment, in my opinion. We switched clinics and sought immune treatment before having our rainbow baby, and she also made significant changes to her diet, supplement intake, and did acupuncture regularly.

Can you share more details of your wife’s experience. Did she get pregnant through IVF? What diet changes did she make, and which supplements did she take? Which clinic did you all go to, and what type of immune treatment did she receive?

PP here, and sure.

Of note is that we are a same sex couple, and after trying AI and IUI years ago (before our first child) it became clear that DW would always needs to do IVF. At 28, her FSH wasn't great, but she was accepted into an IVF clinical trial in New York and got pregnant with the one embryo that resulted from mini IVF - this was our first son who is now 5.5. When our first child was 16 months, we started working with Shady Grove and did shared risk. DW got pregnant on the first cycle, but we lost the baby due to chromosomal abnormalities. There was one embryo left from that retrieval, which we then had PGS tested and found out it was normal, but that transfer didn't work. Following that we had a few miserable cycles at SG with nothing to show for it. We think their protocol of high dose stims was to blame, and they weren't really willing to make changes. We ended up switching to Dr. Davis at Cornell. DW started doing day 3 fresh transfers with co-culture, and did get pregnant twice on this protocol, but miscarried both. Testing showed both were chromosomally normal. Through all of that time at Cornell, DW made a lot of diet changes (used to be vegetarian but started eating poultry and lots of eggs per her acupuncturist's recommendation) and added a lot of supplements based on her reading of It Starts with the Egg. She also did acupuncture weekly or bi weekly. After the second miscarriage with Cornell she started working with Dr. Braverman, and based on her immune work up with him, she first had a laparoscopy, then she was on neupogen, prednisone, lovenox, baby aspirin, metformin, high dose fish oil - and this was all in addition to the fertility meds. She continued to work with Dr. Davis at Cornell who did her IVF protocol while Dr. Braverman monitored her for the immune protocol. The first cycle on Dr. Braverman's protocol was a BFN, but the second cycle worked. She transferred two embryos frozen on day 1 with that cycle. She also eliminated gluten while working with Dr. Braverman to reduce inflammation.

I attribute her success to both of these doctors, but also to her own determination. It was clear that a low dose stim cycle was best for her, and Dr. Davis saw that. The lab at Cornell is excellent, so I must give credit to them as well.

Part of this is a numbers game. Sometimes you get lucky (like with our first child - one embryo from one retrieval that worked on the first try) and sometimes you don't get lucky. I guess we were just determined to keep going because we wanted to know that we had tried everything possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After 2 MCs in a year at 40 I had the RE work up and it was recommended I not pursue IVF. I think she said “not a good candidate.” Within 6 months I got pregnant again and am now 27 weeks into a healthy pregnancy.

I don’t know if it made a difference but I read it starts with the egg and we made some changes that made sense that were recommended in the book. I also went to acupuncture weekly for months.

What changes from the book did you make?

[Anonymous]

Husband's sperm count was low (like 100 total sperm). We conceived our daughter on IVF-ICSI #2.

Tried for a second baby and after 3 IVF cycles + 2 frozen, 2 miscarriages and BFNs, the doctor recommended donor sperm.

We weren't ready for that, so we switched to CCRM in Lone Tree and got pregnant with b/g twins on the first try. They are healthy toddlers.