44 years old. What are my chances?

[Anonymous]

i'm 41 and did two IVFs this year. NEG. i did transfer 6 embryos in total. at 44 (even at 41!), I think donor egg would be the way to go. but i'm happy with my 1 perfect boy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had my first child just before I turned 43 and my second just before 45. Both naturally conceived. It's definitely possible. Also have two friends who did IVF at 46. And there's Halle Berry too. It's definitely possible, but obviously trying sooner rather than later is recommended.

The personal anecdotes are helpful, but celebrities are not good examples. You never truly know if they used their own eggs.

Also, I bet Halle Berry has enough money to pay someone else to do most of the work...

[Anonymous]

OP, I am on the latter half of 43 myself and I am going to do one IVF cycle again. My DD was born on my second IVF cycle three years ago. The odds are against me and my numbers don't look great but I am still going to try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had my first child just before I turned 43 and my second just before 45. Both naturally conceived. It's definitely possible. Also have two friends who did IVF at 46. And there's Halle Berry too. It's definitely possible, but obviously trying sooner rather than later is recommended.

The personal anecdotes are helpful, but celebrities are not good examples. You never truly know if they used their own eggs.

Also, I bet Halle Berry has enough money to pay someone else to do most of the work...

What work? I tend to believe her. She seems genuinely surprised.

[Anonymous]

Agree!! Believe Halle for her seemingly genuine surprise. Not all older celebs seek fertlity treatments ... Although of course many do.... I tend to believe Halle.

[Anonymous]

Even though the odds are against me, I hold on to the hope that my grandmother got pregnant naturally at 45. Yea, times have changed but I am still going forward. As long as Dr. F will do the procedure, I want to try.

[Anonymous]

I worked with DF, never ONCE got the DE talk...it was always, "we have to find a good one in there somewhere" approach.

BUT...I stimmed like a champion...the day before my 42nd birthday we retrieved something like 16 eggs...had 11 fertilize nicely, had 7 five day embryos to freeze...6 looked good after thaw...and two are crazy 4 year olds running around my house right now.

I think that Dr. G and Dr. D know who to tell to move forward, and who to tell to look at different options. I know that after me, Dr. D really changed his opinion about the ability of older women to work with their own eggs. I know he talked to another patient who wasn't successful, and asked her to think about trying again. And I know with NCIVF...they are trying with more and more women who are older. Sometimes, all one really needs is a try. You move forward after each try, in the way that you can 'think' to move forward.

I don't think there is a one size fits all approach to anything in medicine...especially in something so emotional as fertility treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked with DF, never ONCE got the DE talk...it was always, "we have to find a good one in there somewhere" approach.

BUT...I stimmed like a champion...the day before my 42nd birthday we retrieved something like 16 eggs...had 11 fertilize nicely, had 7 five day embryos to freeze...6 looked good after thaw...and two are crazy 4 year olds running around my house right now.

I think that Dr. G and Dr. D know who to tell to move forward, and who to tell to look at different options. I know that after me, Dr. D really changed his opinion about the ability of older women to work with their own eggs. I know he talked to another patient who wasn't successful, and asked her to think about trying again. And I know with NCIVF...they are trying with more and more women who are older. Sometimes, all one really needs is a try. You move forward after each try, in the way that you can 'think' to move forward.

I don't think there is a one size fits all approach to anything in medicine...especially in something so emotional as fertility treatment.

Did you try for four years on your own before doing IVF? It's not all about age, but history of fertility is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had my first child just before I turned 43 and my second just before 45. Both naturally conceived. It's definitely possible. Also have two friends who did IVF at 46. And there's Halle Berry too. It's definitely possible, but obviously trying sooner rather than later is recommended.

The personal anecdotes are helpful, but celebrities are not good examples. You never truly know if they used their own eggs.

Also, I bet Halle Berry has enough money to pay someone else to do most of the work...

What work? I tend to believe her. She seems genuinely surprised.

I don't mean this in a mean way - but I assumed her "surprise" was that the DE worked. I just find it hard to believe she conceived at 46. Although I do know one person that happened to. I guess anything is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had my first child just before I turned 43 and my second just before 45. Both naturally conceived. It's definitely possible. Also have two friends who did IVF at 46. And there's Halle Berry too. It's definitely possible, but obviously trying sooner rather than later is recommended.

The personal anecdotes are helpful, but celebrities are not good examples. You never truly know if they used their own eggs.

Also, I bet Halle Berry has enough money to pay someone else to do most of the work...

What work? I tend to believe her. She seems genuinely surprised.

I don't mean this in a mean way - but I assumed her "surprise" was that the DE worked. I just find it hard to believe she conceived at 46. Although I do know one person that happened to. I guess anything is possible.[/quot

I agree because that is exactly what I did. I was surprised that something actually worked so felt very comfortable saying. Only diff btwn me and Halle is lots of money and I was under 40 at the time. Oh, and I am not nearly as attractive as her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though the odds are against me, I hold on to the hope that my grandmother got pregnant naturally at 45. Yea, times have changed but I am still going forward. As long as Dr. F will do the procedure, I want to try.

Not to be a downer, but most women who conceive on their own at 45 and up, had multiple children beforehand. Their fertility is preserved because they spent so much time pregnant. My great aunt got pregnant on her own at 48--with her 9th child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though the odds are against me, I hold on to the hope that my grandmother got pregnant naturally at 45. Yea, times have changed but I am still going forward. As long as Dr. F will do the procedure, I want to try.

My grandmother also got pregnant naturally at 45. It was her 3rd child and there was a twenty year gap between kids. My mom got pregnant naturally at 40 (5th kid). I got pregnant on my first try with IVF at 41. At 43, I tried again with two more IVF cycles. Each time I stimmed like a champ and had about 90% fertilization each time. No luck. I moved on to DE. It was the right choice for me.

[Anonymous]

Had healthy baby at 40. Couldn't conceive another naturally.

Tried Clomid with monitored IUI. Then moved to IVF at 43.

I had the best possible test results for hormones and "plumbing" a woman at 43 could ask for. DH has great sperm.

Made great quantity of eggs (21) with 18 fertilizing. They transferred 3 great embryos. Results = No Pregnancy.

Go straight to donor eggs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had my first child just before I turned 43 and my second just before 45. Both naturally conceived. It's definitely possible. Also have two friends who did IVF at 46. And there's Halle Berry too. It's definitely possible, but obviously trying sooner rather than later is recommended.

The personal anecdotes are helpful, but celebrities are not good examples. You never truly know if they used their own eggs.

Also, I bet Halle Berry has enough money to pay someone else to do most of the work...

What work? I tend to believe her. She seems genuinely surprised.

The work of raising the child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had healthy baby at 40. Couldn't conceive another naturally.

Tried Clomid with monitored IUI. Then moved to IVF at 43.

I had the best possible test results for hormones and "plumbing" a woman at 43 could ask for. DH has great sperm.

Made great quantity of eggs (21) with 18 fertilizing. They transferred 3 great embryos. Results = No Pregnancy.

Go straight to donor eggs.

Yep. This and the other stories like this are similar to what I experienced when trying for my second child. I kept getting pregnant easily on my own, but I always miscarried. I went to donor eggs and got pregnant on the first try, and I carried to term. No regrets.

I just want to say, gently, that I'd heard from many people in the same boat that they wish they'd gone to donor eggs sooner. I'm glad I took their advice and didn't spend more time trying with my own eggs.