r/40Plus_IVF

Hi everyone. I am 44 and will be starting IVF next month. I have an AMH of 0.6, all other hormone levels are solid for my age, and I currently ovulate monthly but typically early on CD10. My husband and I have conceived many times over the past few years of off and on trying but I have chemical pregnancies within the first week.

I just changed positions and my new company is offering three full IVF cycles with ER, PGT-A testing, and FET. I know the chances of an euploid are slim at my age and I am a realist. I am considering donor eggs if mine fail to yield any solid embryos.

For those that have and are using donor eggs, can you share your experiences? How did you feel about it? I have been blessed with three children from my first marriage in my 20s and understand my age plays a HUGE factor in all this. My current husband and I have been together for almost 13 years and my youngest child will be 17 soon. He’s helped me raise my children like they were his own and I would love to experience the start to finish with him with our own child. If you’ve read this far, thank you.

I’m almost 41 and I just did my first ER: 16 eggs, 14 mature, 13 fertilized, 2 blasts, 0 euploid.

I know my next retrieval could yield a euploid but I’m feeling defeated after the last 1.5years…career upheaval/trying to build a whole new career from scratch, miscarriage, etc etc…I’m experiencing depression like I’ve never experienced before. I’m totally safe, but it’s the kind where I can’t bring myself to do anything.at.all. It’s been going on for longer than I’d like to admit. I can hardly leave the house and everything feels so hard even showering is a whole thing/too much effort.

Work and relationship are suffering in big ways. I’m going to get a therapist (even though talk therapy has never done much for me) but I guess I’m more or less looking to feel seen and heard by someone who has been here before and who has come out the other side….Can anyone relate? It just feels so lonely.

I just went through my second round of stims (I’ll be 42 in a couple of months, never been pregnant), and wow… it was rough! This round was much harder than the first one.

My protocol was:

• Cetrotide 0.25 mg AM
• Clomid 150 mg PM
• Gonal-F 300 IU PM
• Menopur 300 IU PM

So I was doing double the Menopur compared to my first round, and the worst part for me was definitely the addition of Clomid. It made my brain feel completely fried and useless 😵‍💫

A few things that seemed to help me:

🥥 Coconut water — especially at the beginning of stims. It made me feel noticeably more normal.

🥥 The little coconut smoothies from Trader Joe’s — honestly, lifesavers for me. I don’t know what it is about coconut water, but it sure gave my brain some relief that plain water or electrolytes just couldn’t. I started having one before my evening meds, and it became part of my routine.

🥝 Golden kiwis, eaten with the skin — I felt like these helped a lot too.

🍽️ Eating most of my calories earlier in the day instead of at dinner also seemed to help me sleep and rest better at night.

Anyway, this round took a LOT of life force to complete. My first round resulted in only 6 eggs retrieved, with just 1 mature egg. So I was honestly pretty nervous going into this second round. But the results were much better than my first round: 11 eggs retrieved → 8 mature → 5 doing well today, Day 1.

And I was absolutely elated to learn that my one egg from the first round thawed well and made it to Day 1 too. So we currently have 6 embryos in the running. 

We still have a long way to go — Day 5 report next, and then PGT-A — so I know this is far from over. But I wanted to share the good news with all of you because I know how much hope I get from reading other people’s success stories.

Hopefully this post can help someone else going through a rough stimulation cycle, too.

Thank you for reading, and for sharing your journeys.

TW: positive test/ possible chemical pregnancy

I am 42 years old. I transferred a high level segmental mosaic embryo ( day 4 grade 4 AA) last Tuesday. I broke the cardinal rule of the TWW and started testing 5dpt. I tested positive, but since then have not had the best line progression. Later in the day, the tests seem darker, but I don’t want to get my hopes up at this point. This was my only embryo from this egg retrieval that I can use. I had a chemical last October after never being able to naturally get pregnant my whole life (had my first baby through IVF)- so familiar with the heartbreak of a chemical pregnancy.

I left a really difficult marriage that required me to move out of state. I am just so sad as he decided partway through our marriage he didn’t want more children and I stayed with him for the sake of my family and now I don’t have him. I can probably find a clinic here (on the east coast and can easily travel to Philly or NYC), but love my doctor and clinic where I am now and after this transfer it really won’t be feasible to travel back and forth.

I think I just needed to write this out. Not really sure what I am looking for. I appreciate it if you made it this far in reading this. I am so grateful for my daughter, but really would have loved to have more children so just grieving a lot of things.

I just finished my 6th round and found out that we got a euploid. I also have an LLM on ice.

I have had two failed euploid FETs. The first was fully medicated -- my early beta was low (40) and second was lower (32). The second was a modified natural and failed to implant. Clear hysteroscopies both times.

I have an almost 4 yo who I conceived without assistance. It was a natural delivery with no complications. I'm 41 now.

My doctor doesnt recommend testing but says we can do lupron suppression empirically if I want. I'm doing acupuncture and red light therapy because my lining has hovered around 7 mm even with tamoxifen.

What else should I consider?

I’m 41 and I’ve had 3 retrievals, 1 euploid, 1 failed FET over the last two years. My last retrieval in May resulted in 0 mature eggs, and the one in March only gave aneuploids. The 0 mature eggs was pretty devastating. Before IVF, I tried all of the other timing things and I even had major surgery to remove a large fibroid from my unicornuate uterus in 2017.

I have never been pregnant.

I was planning a final retrieval for September but suddenly my insurance has denied all pre-authorization stating that I haven’t been infertile long enough (weird since I’ve already had two retrievals this year). I’m thinking of appealing the decision on my end as well but I’m also so so so tired.

The thought of stopping makes me unmeasurably sad, but the thought of stopping also sounds like sweet relief. I want a child so so badly, but when can I honor my body and mind and accept that this process has utterly exhausted me and it’s time for me to decide my life and well being matter too? How much more time and energy can I expend fighting insurance and my biology?

When is it enough?

I had my first egg retrieval yesterday. I only had two promising looking follicles but somehow they got three mature eggs. Today, though, I learned that only one fertilized successfully. Only time will tell how it works out.
I want to do more cycles to get more viable embryos but the odds don’t look good I am 43 with a rock bottom AMH so I don’t have high hopes or a lot of time but I don’t even know how our one opportunity will play out.
How does everybody move forward from frustration and disappointment?

I'm potentially going into my third and absolute final round of IVF and I'm hoping to hear your experiences.

I have severe endometriosis adenomyosis. I had specialist excision surgery to remove all of my endometriosis in February. Along with removal of endometriosis, I also lost both of my fallopian tubes. Surgeon had no choice but to do a bilateral salpingectomy as both of my fallopian tubes were far too damaged to be fixed.

The clinic I'm with have always known that I have endometriosis but haven't ever suggested any suppression or frozen transfer before. What they're hoping to do now is full cycle to retrieve my eggs and use the ICSI method to fertalise. They then want me to be on some form of suppression for 2 to 3 months before a frozen transfer. Has this worked for anyone before? They believe my last embryo fail to implant due to inflammation from all the drugs. I'm really gutted they didn't think to do this in the first place! Here's what I've had done before

1st Round (NHS) in late 2024/early 2025

- Down regulation for 1 month

- Max dose stims

- 3 eggs

- 1 fertalised & became a high quality blasto

- Although implanted, became a loss at 8 weeks

2nd Round - June 2026

- Shorter protocol, milder dose of stims

- 2 eggs

- 2 fertalised

- 1 blasto, even better quality

- Failed to implant entirely

Any hope, guidance, positive experiences would be great to hear.

I’m 41 and about to start my third IVF round. I currently have one euploid embryo and would really love to bank another before moving forward with transfer.
Last round, I did fertility acupuncture and also used Omnitrope, so it’s hard to know if either made any difference. I’m planning to do acupuncture again this cycle, but I’m curious about other people’s experiences.
For those of you who did acupuncture during IVF, especially around age 40–42:

Did you notice any improvement in egg quality, blast rate, or euploid results?

How often did you go during stims?

Did you continue before/after retrieval?

If you also used Omnitrope, do you feel like one helped more than the other?

Did you have a later retrieval that turned out better than your earlier rounds?

I know it can be impossible to know what actually makes the difference from cycle to cycle, but I’d love to hear experiences, especially any positive stories from women 41+. 🤞🥚💕

I’m 40 and this was my first IVF attempt. We did two egg retrievals to bank embryos, and 3 embryos were sent for PGT-A. I got the results today, and unfortunately, all 3 came back aneuploid. I’m absolutely devastated.
I feel so hopeless right now that even the thought of trying again scares me. I just needed to share this with people who understand.
I truly hope things are going better for all of you. Sending love.

We first went through IVF when I was 36 (2 blasts, untested, 1 transfer and had successful pregnancy)

We did FET earlier this year with the other embryo which failed.

We have just gone through another retrieval (better response than when I was 36) - 5 were sent off for PGT-A. All came back aneuploid.

My protocol was short
Pergoveris 300iu
Fyremadel 0.25mg
Zivafert 10,000iu

We have a consultation in September (2 months after retrieval!) where we want to discuss banking, any changes in protocol, anything else we can change….genetic counselling?

I ideally want to do 3 collections in a row…does anyone have any experience in this?

Also any advise on what to ask my clinic about what we could change and why? Our clinic isn’t very consultative.

Would you consider genetic counselling based on that one retrieval?

Has anyone added anything to their protocol that they feel made a difference? I know a lot of these questions are subjective. Or would you consider a second opinion?

My AMH is 6 pmol/L…last collection we retrieved 11 eggs (10 mature, 9 fertilised, 5 blasts) (40 y/o)

Sorry for the ramble I’m just considering next steps and hoping for opinions and what you’d do next.

Edit: I am so thankful and grateful to those who replied your words got me up and out and in the cab to work now. This is such a safe space. Thank you … thank you.

—-
I had an EFT planned and work asked me to travel.

I considered resigning. Its a high stress job and I banked a good number of embryos although all untested and was wondering if I can keep up with both but the job market is beyond bad so I didn’t quit.

Instead I fit in another ER (on Thursday) and traveled Saturday .

Anyway I got an update yesterday and its not my a good round… I was at the our international/ head office , and pretended to care and made it through the day.

I came back to the hotel and sobbed for an hour yesterday then pulled myself together and saw a friend who lives in this city and felt ok.

Right now its morning where I am… I am in the hotel room bed now and all I can think is. I don’t care. I don’t want to discuss the strategy for our annual event. I don’t want to talk about the new platform we will launch. I feel frozen I can’t move. I don’t care.

I don’t fucking care about increasing shareholder value.

I just want to quit and focus on fertility. My flight back is Thursday my husband says not to make any rash decisions because of the hormone drop.

I can do a year and a half on my own savings but the job market is bad and this company is not bad. Its just me.

If my own embryos don’t work I would have to travel for a doner.

Im just broken from this process .

I dont know what I am looking for here but I have never woken up in a hotel room frozen before.

Im going to have a coffee and wash my face but I really do not know if I have it in me to make it out of the door.

I wish I didn’t accept and quit before coming. Quitting while here with meetings with seniors is so weird and awkward, and I am trying to move but so far I can’t …

Hi everyone 🌸

I’m 43 and hoping to hear from anyone who has had similar results and gone on to have successful IVF using their own eggs.

My latest results are:

• AMH: 0.24 ng/mL

• FSH: 6.5

• LH: 5.1

• Oestradiol: 220 pmol/L

I know my age and low AMH make things more difficult, but I’m not ready to give up on using my own eggs yet.

Has anyone had similar results at around my age and had success with IVF without using donor eggs? How many cycles did it take? I've already done 4 rounds of IVF with no success.

I’d really love to hear your experiences, good or bad. ❤️

Hi all-- I might acquire a BCBS plan through my spouse. The plan seems to have a good fertility coverage, but it has a VERY detailed section on who is eligible on what condition for the ivf services. Apparently the patient should be younger than 44 yo & must meet various criteria of hormone levels (FSH, AMH, and Estradiol are mentioned, and CCCT seems required as well). One of the concerning phrases is that they say patient is eligible if they have more than 5% chance of live birth.

Does anyone know how BCBS (or other similar insurance plans with this approach) would determine the chance of live birth in this case? For context, I'm 43 years old, and had retrieved 11 eggs & 5 blastocysts & 1 low-mosaic embryo from my last cycle which was about a year ago. Miscarried at 7 weeks 2 months ago. I'd like to know what my chances are with BCBS.

Hi fellow 40+!
Some positive news for those of us with low blast conversion. Last year at 41 I did 4 rounds locally and out of 31 or so eggs ended up with 4 just blasts. 1 segmental aneuploid and 3 aneuploid (two rounds were 0 blasts). I was exercising, eating well, supplements etc but in two of the 4 rounds we got 0 blasts. After feeling so discouraged in December and a barrage of medical things (one being we went to prep transfer for our segmental and I was mistakingly told a polyp was atypical hyperplasia and a hysterectomy was on the table) we did a round a week ago at Cornell.

We took a very expensive risk and spent 10 days in the city, cash pay IVF, etc.. out of our 7 eggs retrieved, 4 mature (1 additional was matured with IVM but didn’t fertilize), 3 fertilized and we got 2 blasts today! We decided not to test this round bc at this point I want to at least attempt transfers. I know this outcome isn’t perfect but after two rounds with zero blasts and anxiety like crazy, I am thrilled for now.

My results were drastically better than the 4 rounds prior AND I am now 42.5. AMH also fell from 1.28 to .26 and had me stressing.
Maybe it’s the lab, maybe it is the host of other things we changed but I’ll take it!

Ps. Don’t take all the blame. Turns out my husband had grade 2 vericocele which we corrected and I was put on Metformin. Always be advocating!

Has anyone gotten super sick with a cold and or cough after their transfer? I know our immune systems are lower and the rest of our body is working hard to house these embryo(s) at this point so I get it makes sense to catch something easily ? Maybe?

I have done and tried all the natural remedies at this point, will take any other suggestions!!
just wanted to know if this was normal for anyone else!!! Anything will help at this point 😩

We just did our last ER last month (I’m 45 and the clinic will not take patients once they turn 46). We have one 4AA grade embryo that went for PGTa testing and came back inconclusive. Our doctor told us the options are to re-biopsy which could degrade the embryo and result in transfer failure if Euploid, or to transfer without knowing results. Has anyone gone through this? Any advice (or positive stories) would be helpful as I feel decision fatigue after going through this journey since 2023 with no success (we had two prior transfers that failed).

Edit: we cannot do any more ERs because I turn 46 this month and we only have one other embryo, but it has genetic issues we have to make a decision on.

41 years. AFC 5. Baseline ultrasound today showed 5 follicles. Starting stims tonight. Any success stories with such low AFC? 🤞

Hi! Just wanted to share a positive story. I had a failed transfer last year and decided to do embryo banking before moving ahead with another transfer (have 2 euploids and 1 LLM on ice from eggs I froze when I was 31 and 36).

Started stims in November 2025. After 4 days, 5 follicles were growing and doctor decided to cancel the cycle due to low response (clearly a mistake). Got my period and had several cysts. He put me on BC for 3 weeks and started meds again in early January. Again, doctor cancelled the cycle and said I was in pre menopause and should use donor eggs. I didn’t believe that diagnosis and changed doctor.

Had a retrieval in early June that yielded one low quality aneuploid. Had another ER 2 weeks ago (July 29), made 4 excellent quality blasts and got 2 euploids and 1 LLM. I’m turning 41 next week, so I’m extremely happy with the results.

To all my IFV warriors, you got this!

can anyone recommend a clinic in NYC for PRP?

I was considering the following but open to any suggestions! - or if anyone has any experiences with any of the ones below please let me know! Thanks!

Neway
New Hope
Gen Next