u/rebelmissalex

I had my son at 40. Before that at age 39, I had a MMC at 10 weeks . My friend who is my age recently had a MMC at 11 weeks after 4 excellent ultrasounds with strong heartbeats at 6,7,8,9 weeks.

I am 42.5 years old and 7 weeks pregnant. I will deliver this baby just after I turn 43. I have had two ultrasounds so far at 6w4d and 7 weeks. First ultrasound baby measured exactly as they should with a heartbeat of 124. And then at 7 weeks, heartbeat of 132, also measuring exactly as they should.

I tracked my HCG levels every 48 hours from 12dpo to 28dpo and they initially tripled and then once they got over 11,000 they slowed to 50 and then 91 hours for doubling time. Which apparently is normal. My last one was 31,000. Everything seems to be progressing perfectly.

I am already having extreme fatigue, thirst, nausea, and occasional vomiting. Since four weeks. But the “funny” thing is with my pregnancy with my son, I had zero symptoms until 10 weeks. And with my MMC I was super symptomatic from 3w2d onward. So symptoms don’t even reassure me.

But I am terrified that the NIPT is going to reveal bad news. Because everything I read says that excellent early HCG rises and excellent early ultrasounds do lower the overall miscarriage risk but they do not rule out chromosome issues obviously. So babies with certain trisomies can progress normally until, let’s say, 11 weeks, and then issues are revealed or heartbeats stop.

I am grateful to live in Canada and to have a wonderful, supportive family doctor and OB who are following this pregnancy closely. I am healthy with no medical issues.
But I just wish I felt more confident. I understand where my worries come from. I’ve lived it. My best friend, like I mentioned, recently lived it too.

I was so excited when I got my positive test after only trying for four months . But then I started reading Reddit and going online (which, I know, big mistake), and it seems my baby is destined to have a chromosome abnormality or medical issues simply because of my age.

Thank you for allowing me to vent. I will be getting more ultrasounds at 8 weeks, 9 weeks, 10 weeks and 12 weeks, and the NIPT done after 9 weeks, but I guess I’m just looking for positive stories because right now I just feel overwhelmed and scared. And many posts I see on here saying I’m 42/43 and pregnant! Ended in late first trimester or early second trimester losses. Maybe the successful ones aren’t posting updates? I don’t know. Anyway, thanks for listening.

Hi everyone, I want to preface this by saying I know that symptoms or no symptoms or strength of symptoms does not correlate to a healthy pregnancy.

I’m just struggling these days, even though my hCG has been tripling from 12dp0 to 24dpo so far every 48 hours.

In late 2022 I had a missed miscarriage at 11 weeks. Before I got a positive test at 9dpo, I was nauseous, I started breaking out with acne on my face. My breast were extremely sore. The main thing was my hair became super greasy. A couple hours after showering, my hair would seem like I’d put oil in it or something. This was all from 9dpo. It’s what encouraged me to test early on.
Obviously, that pregnancy ended in a loss.

After my HCG went down to zero, we conceived our son a couple months later. With that pregnancy, I had zero symptoms until 10 weeks, and even after that I just had low lying nausea, and a couple episodes of vomiting per week throughout the entire pregnancy. No sore breast, no acne, no greasy hair ever.

Fast-forward to now, I am five weeks pregnant. My breasts are extremely sore, my hair is extremely greasy. My face has broken out.

As mentioned, my hCG is tripling every 48 hours. I’ve been tracking it for two weeks. However, I cannot help but make comparisons to my missed miscarriage pregnancy.

I know that every pregnancy is different, and who knows, maybe this time it’s a girl and maybe with my missed miscarriage it was a girl and that’s why the symptoms are so similar.

But I can’t help but make the connection and I’m just so worried that this will end a missed miscarriage.

What worries me most is that I am 42.5 years old. I know I had a successful pregnancy at 40, which was not too long ago, but I just feel like it is too good to be true and that even with my excellent hCG levels, and, even with excellent early ultrasounds, even if a heartbeat is detected early on, I feel like until we get the genetic testing back around 11 weeks, and I have my 12 week NT scan, I’m just not going to relax.

I know many of you can relate. I also was anxious during the first trimester with our son, and that turned out well. But the symptoms that I’m having now have just brought up so many memories of my missed miscarriage pregnancy and how intense those symptoms were from the beginning, and how exactly the same the symptoms are now.

I know even an early ultrasound with a heartbeat doesn’t mean anything because I’ve had that before and then the heartbeat stopped, and a few of my friends have dealt with the same thing, so I know I have no choice but to just trust the process and keep moving forward from milestone to milestone and take each one as a win, but it’s hard not to compare.

Thank you for listening.

Hi everyone.
I am 42.5 years old so I guess higher risk for abnormalities ? Did anyone here have tripling HCG levels early on and everything turned out okay?
Alternatively, did anyone have tripling HCG levels and it ended in a loss?

My Reddit searches turned up quite a few posts with this scenario and all of them ended in a late first trimester loss so I’m sort of spiralling. At first I was so focused on doubling but now I’m worried because they are rising super fast.

With my son they doubled early on. With my MMC I only did two HCG levels at 16 and 18dpo and those levels went from 93 to 416 so they also rose fast. Unfortunately I didn’t test beyond that. Even so my level at 18dpo right now is much higher.

We only had sex July 12 around 11pm so I know my dates are not off. That was the day of my LH peak. So I likely ovulated July 13 or at the very earliest July 12.

These levels were all taken exactly 48 hours apart

12dpo - 61.90
14dpo - 193
16dpo - 571
18dpo - 1850

I go back tomorrow for more bloodwork (20dpo). I am followed closely because of my age. But I understand sometimes too much info can also be a bad thing.

Thank you for your time.

Early HCG Results

Hi everyone, I’m 42.5 years old, I had my son a few days before I turned 40. I am now pregnant again. My positive test was 9dpo and today I am 17dpo

Here are my HCG levels so far
12dpo - 61.90
14dpo - 193
16dpo - 571

Before my son, I had a missed miscarriage, with two hCG results at the beginning, 14dpo (93) and 16dpo (416). I didn’t do anymore because my family doctor at the time said the initial levels looked great. And then I ended up having the missed miscarriage at 11 weeks.

With my healthy son, 14dpo my HCG was 100 14dpo, 16dpo 315, 18dpo 700…. Etc. etc. I continued up until 24dpo until my viability scan.

So while I know that early hCG levels don’t guarantee a successful pregnancy, I’m just wondering if anyone has hCG levels from this early on and is having a successful pregnancy?

It is so nerve-racking. It’s really brought me back to my pregnancy with my son and how anxious I was, even though I knew that I couldn’t control the outcome. With my missed miscarriage, I was blissfully ignorant.

I am sure of my dates. We only had sex one time this month because my toddler brought home a cold from daycare and shared it with us. It was the day of my LH surge, and based on cycle monitoring in the past, I always ovulate the morning after my positive LH test. Which means I know today I am for sure 17 days post ovulation.

Thank you all for your time

UPDATE: HCG tripling every 48 hours.

Hi everyone, I’m 42.5 years old, I had my son a few days before I turned 40. I am now pregnant again. My positive test was 9dpo and today I am 17dpo

Here are my HCG levels so far
12dpo - 61.90
14dpo - 193
16dpo - 571
18dpo - 1850

Before my son, I had a missed miscarriage, with two hCG results at the beginning, 14dpo (93) and 16dpo (416). I didn’t do anymore because my family doctor at the time said the initial levels looked great. And then I ended up having the missed miscarriage at 11 weeks.

With my healthy son, 14dpo my HCG was 100, 16dpo 315, 18dpo 700…. Etc. etc. I continued up until 24dpo until my viability scan.

So while I know that early hCG levels don’t guarantee a successful pregnancy, I’m just wondering if anyone has hCG levels from this early on and is having a successful pregnancy?

It is so nerve-racking. It’s really brought me back to my pregnancy with my son and how anxious I was, even though I knew that I couldn’t control the outcome. With my missed miscarriage, I was blissfully ignorant.

I am sure of my dates. We only had sex one time this month because my toddler brought home a cold from daycare and shared it with us. It was the day of my LH surge, and based on cycle monitoring in the past, I always ovulate the morning after my positive LH test. Which means I know today I am for sure 17 days post ovulation.

Thank you all for your time

Hi everyone!

In May I went through a cycle of IVF and didn’t even make it to egg retrieval because only one out of my 10 follicles responded to the medications. That cycle was converted to IUI, but that failed. My husband sperm sample also showed 0% morphology and 14% motility. With a lower than normal count.

Without fertility clinic interventions, I conceived our son quickly at 39 and delivered him at 40.

I was supposed to contact the fertility clinic on my next cycle day one, which would be in a few days, to begin another IVF cycle, but yesterday, at nine days post ovulation, I got a positive pregnancy test. Because of our toddler being sick this month and passing the cold along to us, we only had sex one time since my last period. I’m 42.5 years old.

I understand there’s a huge risk of miscarriage at this age so I am very guarded, but the fact that I could even get pregnant when we were told that IVF would be our only route to success because of my husband’s sperm and my age, was quite a pleasant surprise.

UPDATE to my last post IVF converted to IUI (which I copied below): So today my IUI was a disaster. My husband did his sperm analysis last month. He had a high sperm count of 153 million. Motility of 32%. Good morphology, greater than the 4% cutoff

Today his sperm post wash had 14% progressive motility and his post wash count was only 0.4 million (400,000). They just said oh we like to see above 1 million so his numbers are low. But they didn’t mention cancelling or that I shouldn’t proceed at all. So they just said OK let’s get ready.

He didn’t do anything differently over the last month. He doesn’t drink, no smoking. He has been taking his Ubiquinol for five months now. Nothing changed health or lifestyle wise in the last month to explain these numbers

It’s only after the procedure that I googled all of this and I realized that most clinics don’t even proceed with IUI if under 1 million, especially if prior sperm analysis were positive by a huge margin. Like the numbers today were so abysmal.

Plus they told us that he could ejaculate when I did the trigger shot which was at 36 hours before the IUI. I feel like all of this has led to a disastrous outcome. He should have abstained for 3-4 days like last time. It’s like, what did I pay for? I should’ve just done timed intercourse and saved myself the money.

I just can’t believe that they didn’t explain any of this at the time and ask if I wanted to proceed. If I knew that having less than 1 million post wash basically put your level of success to zero, I never would’ve gone through with it.

We are back to timed intercourse on our own after this. That’s how I got pregnant over two years ago, blissfully unaware of any of this, with our son, so maybe all hope isn’t lost. But honestly, this is just a bunch of bad news, one after the other. From the failed IVF cycle to this whole thing.

————————

Hello everyone. I am 42 years old and I conceived our son quickly, without medical intervention, at 39 and delivered at 40. Now we want to try for a sibling. Our government provides one free IVF cycle so I started that a couple weeks ago. Well, only one follicle grew. They put me on a pretty aggressive stim protocol, hoping that it would provide great results but ultimately, I think it worked against me and just flooded my follicles with too much FSH

But the follicle that is growing grew right on track, and was responsive from the very beginning of IVF stimulation, and it is now a good size, 23 mm today. There were just no other follicles that wanted to join in. I know that I could repeat IVF out-of-pocket, and maybe go after that golden embryo but honestly, IVF just wasn’t for me.

So here I am, an IVF to IUI convert!

I’m taking my trigger shot tonight, Tuesday, and my IUI will be on Thursday morning. Right now, my progesterone is 1.9 and my LH is 9 mIU/L. Estrogen is 1783Pmol/L. My lining is 11 mm.

I have no health conditions.

Anyway, I don’t really know what I’m asking for, or why I’m posting. I guess if anyone has any information that’s helpful to know, I’m all ears!

I think IUI gets a bad rap, but I do have two friends that were successful with it, both at 42 years old. This was just recently. And it was their first try. I don’t expect to replicate that result, but I will give it my best shot (pun intended)!

Hello everyone. I am 42 years old and I conceived our son quickly, without medical intervention, at 39 and delivered at 40. Now we want to try for a sibling. Our government provides one free IVF cycle so I started that a couple weeks ago. Well, only one follicle grew. They put me on a pretty aggressive stim protocol, hoping that it would provide great results but ultimately, I think it worked against me and just flooded my follicles with too much FSH

But the follicle that is growing grew right on track, and was responsive from the very beginning of IVF stimulation, and it is now a good size, 23 mm today. There were just no other follicles that wanted to join in. I know that I could repeat IVF out-of-pocket, and maybe go after that golden embryo but honestly, IVF just wasn’t for me.

So here I am, an IVF to IUI convert!

I’m taking my trigger shot tonight, Tuesday, and my IUI will be on Thursday morning. Right now, my progesterone is 1.9 and my LH is 9 mIU/L. Estrogen is 1783Pmol/L. My lining is 11 mm.

I have no health conditions.

Anyway, I don’t really know what I’m asking for, or why I’m posting. I guess if anyone has any information that’s helpful to know, I’m all ears!

I think IUI gets a bad rap, but I do have two friends that were successful with it, both at 42 years old. This was just recently. And it was their first try. I don’t expect to replicate that result, but I will give it my best shot (pun intended)!

Okay so I posted before about no response to Pergoveris .
I primed with estrace 4 mg from cycle day 20 until cycle day two of this cycle (so seven days).

Today is Stims day 10. AFC 9. AMH 0.6 (4.9 pmol/L)

My last monitoring appointment was as stims day 7. Up until then, they’ve only ever seen growth of one follicle (they don’t measure under 10mm). On stims day 7 it was 12mm and today , stims day 10, it is 22 mm, three days later.

So when I spoke to the nurse, when I was at the clinic this morning, she said that because only one follicle responded still, the doctor will be in touch regarding time to intercourse or IUI.

So I was trying to make a decision between that and then suddenly the doctor called me just now and said that I actually have three responding follicles now: 22mm, 12mm and 11mm.

The Clinic is recommending another day of 450IU pergoveris and 250mcg Ganirelix.

Is this a good idea or should I convert to IUI?
My thought process is maybe the other follicles were quieted by the Estrace and now they are waking up. And now that the 22mm is mature maybe it’s not sucking up all the growth hormone anymore and giving others a chance.

It is my first cycle so I have no idea what to do. I do trust my doctor and she’s saying to do the meds one more day.
I don’t know, I guess I just need reassurance from random Redditors

Okay so I posted before about no response to Pergoveris .
I primed with estrace 4 mg from cycle day 20 until cycle day two of this cycle (so seven days).

Today is Stims day 10. AFC 9. AMH 0.6 (4.9 pmol/L)

My last monitoring appointment was as stims day 7. Up until then, they’ve only ever seen growth of one follicle (they don’t measure under 10mm). On stims day 7 it was 12mm and today , stims day 10, it is 22 mm, three days later.

So when I spoke to the nurse, when I was at the clinic this morning, she said that because only one follicle responded still, the doctor will be in touch regarding time to intercourse or IUI.

So I was trying to make a decision between that and then suddenly the doctor called me just now and said that I actually have three responding follicles now: 22mm, 12mm and 11mm.

The Clinic is recommending another day of 450IU pergoveris and 250mcg Ganirelix.

Is this a good idea or should I convert to IUI?
My thought process is maybe the other follicles were quieted by the Estrace and now they are waking up. And now that the 22mm is mature maybe it’s not sucking up all the growth hormone anymore and giving others a chance.

It is my first cycle so I have no idea what to do. I do trust my doctor and she’s saying to do the meds one more day.
I don’t know, I guess I just need reassurance from random Redditors

UPDATE: so the nurse told me it was only the one follicle growing (the same one we’ve been tracking since day 4) but the doctor called me a few hours later and said actually two follicles on my right ovary have popped up (12mm) and my estrogen level has tripled, indicating increasing follicular activity.

So she wants me to stim an extra day and return tomorrow for an ultrasound and bloodwork. Just when I think I’m done, they pull me back in! Lol

So we’ll see what tomorrow brings

——————-

Well after 11 days of Pergoveris 450IU (with an AFC 9) only one follicle grew. Today it is 22mm. My lining is 9mm. Tomorrow is my normal ovulation day (I ovulate the same cycle day every month) so basically this follicle/egg would’ve grown anyway without me spending $8000 on meds lol. My body just did what it always does normally.

So now I’m waiting for instructions on when to take my trigger shot. Oh and my toddler woke up with Hand foot Mouth today. Good times.

Wish me luck 🤣

TW: living child

Hello, I just turned 42 years old. I have a two year old conceived spontaneously. I delivered at 40. I have no medical complications. No medical history. I’m healthy. All bloodwork normal. Normal SIS. Everything looked great. My cycles are completely regular, I ovulate on the exact same cycle day every single month. And my period comes the same day every cycle like clockwork.

We wanted a second child and were offered one free government funded IVF cycle so we decided to start there due to my age, rather than trying on our own first.

My AMH is 0.8ng/mL (4.9 pmol/L) AFC 9

I primed with Estrace starting cycle day 20, 4 mg per day. And stopped CD2.

My baseline estrogen, FSH, progesterone and LH were all excellent.

My doctor put me on Pergoveris, the highest dose, 450IU per day starting on cycle day three.

By Stims day 5, only one follicle was seen above 10 mm. My clinic does not measure anything under 10 mm.

I started Ganirelix Stims day 6, 250mcg

I went in today, Stims day 7. The same follicle has grown for 13 mm. No other follicles were seen.

So I have ONE growing follicle.

It’s funny because the clinic predicts that by the time this follicle grows, it will mature on the exact same day of my normal LH surge every month. So obviously I’m on medication to prevent ovulation, but after being on Pergoveris , the highest dose, I essentially have the exact same response in my body as I would during my completely natural cycle. Absolutely no response to the stimulation medication at all.

So of course, we’ve had the discussion about cancelling the cycle, but my doctor said she would like to see me on Stims day 10 because it’s still early, and my estrogen has suddenly doubled in the last two days when before the rise was much less, indicating that maybe other follicles are waking up.

Estrogen levels :
After Estrace 155 pmol/L → 42 pg/mL
CD 2 229 pmol/L → 62 pg/mL
Stims day 5 - 322 pmol/L → 88 pg/mL
Stims day 7 (today) - 614 pmol/L → 167 pg/mL

I mean, from what I have have read on the Internet, this is a completely failed cycle. My body is doing exactly what it does every single month on its own, despite the high dose of Pergoveris.

So I’m going back for bloodwork and ultrasound on Stims day 10 and if then there are no follicles over 10 mm, we are going to convert to IUI or timed intercourse

It’s incredible to spend $7000 on medication that my body essentially ignored. I’m very lucky that this cycle was free. But because of that we will also not be doing any further cycles.

My body seems to want to support one egg a month. So I’m just going to take advantage of that on our own . Obviously egg quality is not on my side. I did have a missed miscarriage before conceiving our son. But I also know it only takes one egg so I’m just going to give myself a deadline of beginning of next year to try on our own and hope it happens.

I just don’t want to waste more time and physical and mental energy that can potentially take away from my time and energy with my son. He is my priority.

My doctor mentioned that getting a euploid at my age would be the biggest obstacle. I never thought that I wouldn’t even make it to an egg retrieval!

It’s also very strange to me that she’s telling me that it’s still early and because my estrogen is rising that there could be potential. But even if some more follicles do pop up over 10 mm, if there’s a big gap between them and the lead follicle that is already developing, then it won’t matter anyway.

Anyway, I don’t know why I shared this. I guess to vent, but also kind of to laugh at the whole situation because obviously my body wants to do what it always does, regardless of any medical intervention.

I didn’t expect a bunch of eggs, but I thought maybe we could retrieve maybe five? But if my body is only going to respond with one egg, then IVF is not for me. Yes I know I can change up protocols and all that other stuff, but I just have a feeling that my body is not going to respond to IVF stim medications. Maybe I could get a marginally better result with another try, but to me that isn’t worth it at this point.

Edit: converted cm to mm

Hello! I am 42 years old, healthy, no medical issues. AFC 9 (2 on the left, 7 on the right) two months ago and then AFC 8 (4 on the right, 4 on the left this month). AMH 0.6 ng/mL (4.8 pmol/L) I have one living child conceived spontaneously at 39.5 (I gave birth at 40).

My protocol (I don’t know all the fancy lingo):

Luteal phase Estrace priming (4mg/day) until CD2 so that ended up being 7 days

I started Pergoveris 450IU CD 3.

Today, Stims day 6 (CD 8) I start Ganirelix (my LH yesterday was 15 mIU/L (up from 8 mIU/L four days prior). Progesterone is still low. I can’t remember the number but it was appropriate

Yesterday, after 4 Pergoveris doses, there was only one measurable follicle over 10mm (12mm) on my right ovary. It has grown from 8mm. On my left ovary at CD2 there was a 7mm “follicle” but because yesterday it didn’t grow, they are thinking it’s a cyst.

They did not mention measurements under 10mm except the cyst only because it didn’t grow.

So basically I have one follicle at 12mm after four doses of Pergoveris and nothing else above 10m.

My estrogen CD 2 was 230 pmol/L
Estrogen CD 7 (stims day 5) it was 323 pmol/L (88pg/mL)

I know it’s early in Stims (with the last scan I’d only taken
Four doses 450 IU of Pergoveris), but am I already off to a bad start?

I have my next ultrasound on Stims day 8, which I know will tell me more. I just can’t help but worry that either I’m not responding (or I guess best case) I’m a slow responder.

I don’t expect a million eggs. But I did expect more than one follicle over 10mm at this ultrasound.

Does Estrace priming mean it’s more likely more follicles will pop up all at once, as a cohort? Is it worrisome that I have one follicle already ahead of the others?

Is it common to not see much Stims on day 5?

Thank you for your time.

Edit: UPDATE

UPDATE STIMS DAY 7

So I had my ultrasound and still only the one follicle was seen. They don’t measure any follicles under 10mm. Today it was 13mm. So is there slower growth of others? Who knows. I follow up in three days and if no further Follicle growth and if it’s only the one follicle growing then we will convert to IUI

I said what about calling it quits now and they said it’s still “early” but everything I read online suggests otherwise.

It’s just so weird that my body is basically ignoring the Pergoveris medication and proceeding as normal, like every other month when I ovulate. It’s like, okay, here is your one good egg this month, as always lol. Despite being on the highest Pergoveris dose possible.

——————-

Hello! I am 42 years old, healthy, no medical issues. AFC 9 (2 on the left, 7 on the right) two months ago and then AFC 8 (4 on the right, 4 on the left this month). AMH 0.6 ng/mL (4.8 pmol/L) I have one living child conceived spontaneously at 39.5 (I gave birth at 40).

My protocol (I don’t know all the fancy lingo):

Luteal phase Estrace priming (4mg/day) until CD2 so that ended up being 7 days

I started Pergoveris 450IU CD 3.

Today, Stims day 6 (CD 8) I start Ganirelix (my LH yesterday was 15 mIU/L (up from 8 mIU/L four days prior). Progesterone is still low. I can’t remember the number but it was appropriate

Yesterday, after 4 Pergoveris doses, there was only one measurable follicle over 10mm (12mm) on my right ovary. It has grown from 8mm. On my left ovary at CD2 there was a 7mm “follicle” but because yesterday it didn’t grow, they are thinking it’s a cyst.

They did not mention measurements under 10mm except the cyst only because it didn’t grow.

So basically I have one follicle at 12mm after four doses of Pergoveris and nothing else above 10m.

My estrogen CD 2 was 230 pmol/L
Estrogen CD 7 (stims day 5) it was 323 pmol/L (88pg/mL)

I know it’s early in Stims (with the last scan I’d only taken
Four doses 450 IU of Pergoveris), but am I already off to a bad start?

I have my next ultrasound on Stims day 8, which I know will tell me more. I just can’t help but worry that either I’m not responding (or I guess best case) I’m a slow responder.

I don’t expect a million eggs. But I did expect more than one follicle over 10mm at this ultrasound.

Does Estrace priming mean it’s more likely more follicles will pop up all at once, as a cohort? Is it worrisome that I have one follicle already ahead of the others?

Is it common to not see much Stims on day 5?

Thank you for your time.