The Over 40 Crowd

[Gaile]

Thank You Ladies

I have really enjoyed reading your postings. I'm absorbing so much good information. BevT & Kat, how many embryos transfered on your first cycle? I'm thinking of 4 or 5. My DH says no more than 4.

[Kat]

Hi Gaile
I haven't really had a choice when it comes to number of embryos to transfer - my first DE cycle we had 2 transferred - we only had 3 and one was not good enough. That was in Spain and I think they would have transferred all 3 if they had been good quality. They gave me a 60% chance of success and I did get pg but only for a very short time.
Second DE cycle was in the UK and they won't transfer more than 2 anyway. I'm sure it used to be 3 but they def said only 2. We have 3 in the freezer and if we went ahead with FET and if all 3 were good to be transferred we could still only have 2 which means I think one would have to be left to perish.
It's so difficult to know what is the best number, I know of someone who has twins on the way from DE, she is 44. Then there's me (nearly 42) who had 2 transferred and then negative. It's a gamble but I think if I had a choice I would go for 3 or 4 knowing my history.
That probably didn't help you, sorry, there are no clear answers, it's whatever feels right for you - your Doctor will probably advise depending on how many you get at the time and whether you have any to freeze as well.
Love
Kat xx

[teachertam]

Welcome Gaile: I am the proud mama of 4 month old Andrew James.

I added Andrew's birth weight. I will add his 4 month weight after his doctor's appt. next week. When I weighed him myself, he weighed 18 lbs!!

Hello to everyone else.


Sucessful Mummies Given Birth:

Bev-baby William ( Wills) born 23rd January 07 DE
Birth weight???????????? 21wks old 15lbs 2 oz

Tammy- baby Andrew born 28th Feb 07 natural preg.
Birth weight 8 lb 7 oz

Yasmina -baby Eloise born ??????
Birth weight??????????

Anna -baby Matthew born 23rd March 07 DE
Birth weight???????



June

Kat- On holday in Singapore
Sonia- holiday to italy
Jen- Away visiting friends in Glasgow 24th -2nd july

July

12th Jen- gettng kitchen tiled/house painted
Kim- news on ED shared cycle


August

3rd Jen- 1st appointment @ Im Barcelona for DE

September

Kim - ED cycle

October

November[/quote]

[alisonclare]

Hi I'm Alison, I'm wondering if I can join the over 40's crowd? I'm new to all of this so hope this is the right place! We did first ivf when I was 40 and produced a huge number of great embryos but with no results. Second fresh cycle last March completely disasterous with no fertilisation so didn't even get to 2ww. Now beginning to think about egg donation and looking into clinics abroad. It seems that Barcelona and Valencia get mentioned as highly recommended. I'd love to hear from anyone who has any experience or advice. I'm in the UK.

[Kat]

Hi Alison, welcome to the boards, you're definitely in the right place. I wouldn't have got through all this without the people on here, believe me.

My overseas DE experience is of IM in Barcelona, they were brilliant and I did get pg but it was sadly only short lived. Feel free to ask any questions you like. I found them very easy to deal with, all by email and they speak excellent English so no worries there. Not sure which is your nearest airport - Bristol? - we went easyjet from Gatwick to Barcelona and it is really cheap if you can book in advance. I also found Barcelona a really comfortable place to be, if that makes any sense, never felt threatened in any way and we found the metro really easy to use too.

Are you on any waiting lists in the UK? We were on the list for 2 years before we got to ET this last time (negative) so that's why we went to Barcelona while we waited.

Like I said, ask any questions you like and I will try to answer. Anna is our IM success story, Matthew born in March, and Bev has William from her tmt at Isida in Kiev, so they will be able to give you their feedback too.

Love
Kat xx

[AMck]

Hi Ladies

Kat, good to see you had a fab time in Singapore. I went there a couple of years ago and had a blast too. Any more thoughts about your frosties?

Alison, welcome. As Kat says I went to IM and now have Matthew through donor egg treatment. We got a BFP on our second transfer. I can echo Kats view of Barcelona. The whole experience was very professional and sympathetic to our needs. We chose IM as it was a short flight from here and on the recommendation of my GP. I would say if you are thinking about treatment abroad, talk to your GP. You will need support here and somewhere to have scans. Oh, and get hold of your medical notes from your clinic regarding your previous cycles, it will help. Good luck, feel free to pm me if you have anymore questions.

How are all the other over 40 lovelies?

Successful Mummies Given Birth:


Bev-baby William ( Wills) born 23rd January 07 DE
Birth weight???????????? 21wks old 15lbs 2 oz

Tammy- baby Andrew born 28th Feb 07 natural preg.
Birth weight 8 lb 7 oz

Yasmina -baby Eloise born ??????
Birth weight??????????

Anna -baby Matthew born 23rd March 07 DE
Birth weight 7lb 60zs

June

Kat- On holiday in Singapore
Sonia- holiday to italy
Jen- Away visiting friends in Glasgow 24th -2nd july

July

12th Jen- getting kitchen tiled/house painted
Kim- news on ED shared cycle


August

3rd Jen- 1st appointment @ Im Barcelona for DE

September

Kim - ED cycle

October

November[/quote]

Hope every had a good weekend. The weather in England is rubbish at the moment, it's June and all we have is rain, rain and more rain Probably because Wimbledon is starting tomorrow!

Matthew is fine, we took him to see his Granny today and he was perfect, all smiles

Bye for now,
Hugs
Anna x

[BevT]

Hi everyone, just a quickie (again - sorry still v.busy) to update Wills' entry on our list.

Welcome Alison, as Kat said we have William from our first DE cycle which was at Isida in Kiev. He was born in January, he is now 5 months old and the light of our lives. As with the girls who had treatment at IM, we cannot fault our treatment at Isida, very professional, English speaking co-ordinator, no waiting lists, and quite affordable (less than IVF in UK, even with travel and accommodation). I can send you contact details if you are interested. As Anna said, speak to your GP because you will need their support. I got very little from mine but still managed to struggle through under the care of my consultant. Any help I can offer, please just ask.

Kat, glad you had a great holiday with your sister. How's the weight holding out? Still losing?

Tammy, your latest pic of Andrew shows he is indeed growing into a big boy. Bless him. Have you started him on baby rice yet? We are planning to start Wills at beginning of July when DH is on holiday for the summer.

Anna, do you have any pics of Matthew you can post? Would love to see the little man.

Hi to everyone else on here, sorry no time for any more personals.

Bev xxx


Successful Mummies Given Birth:


Bev-baby William ( Wills) born 23rd January 07 DE
Birth weight 5lb 12 oz's - 21wks old 15lbs 2 oz

Tammy- baby Andrew born 28th Feb 07 natural preg.
Birth weight 8 lb 7 oz

Yasmina -baby Eloise born ??????
Birth weight??????????

Anna -baby Matthew born 23rd March 07 DE
Birth weight 7lb 60zs

June

Kat- On holiday in Singapore
Sonia- holiday to italy
Jen- Away visiting friends in Glasgow 24th -2nd july

July

12th Jen- getting kitchen tiled/house painted
Kim- news on ED shared cycle


August

3rd Jen- 1st appointment @ Im Barcelona for DE

September

Kim - ED cycle

October

November[/quote]

[BevT]

Sorry, meant to answer Gaile's question about number of embies transferred. We had 4 put back, but I have a "poor obstetric history" so they call it!! We also lost our first little girl (natural pg) 4 yrs ago at 32 weeks (born still) so the embryologist was very mindful and sympathetic to our wishes. The policy has changed a bit now at Isida though, they are less willing to transfer more than 2 or 3. I think you can sign a "disclaimer" for more, agreeing to a reduction if more than 2 take. We just held our breath for the first few weeks, hoping that all 4 had not taken, and were quite relieved when we discovered only one in there. A tiny bit of me was disappointed not to have twins as our family would have been complete in one hit but in hind-sight I'm not sure if I could have coped with a twin pregnancy, let alone 2 new babies to look after. Hope that helps.

Bev xxx

[teachertam]

Alison: Welcome to our "Over 40" thread.

Bev: I have not started Andrew on cereal yet. I'm going to ask the dr. about that during his 4 month check-up on Thursday. He is still feeding
about every 2 hours during the day. He has started rolling over from his back to his tummy. He moves his knees also and it seems that he wants to crawl! He just smiles, laughs and giggles a lot. He really has a neat personality. I have to begin teaching my summer semester today. DH is coming home from work early to watch my little boy. I'm going to really miss him. I have not been away from him for more than 2-3 hours at a time. Do you give Wills a Vitamin D supplement?? I read in a book that breast fed babies do not get enough Vitamin D in the breast milk and that you should be supplementing with Vitamin D during first few months. I will ask the Dr. about that as well.

Hello to everyone else.

Regards,
Tammy

[Gaile]

Thanks BevT
That was very helpful. My Dr. said I could have up to 6 transfers. My DH seems to think if we have 6 transfer, we will have 6 babies. I know this is not a fact buy reading so many articles. I am a little nervous about the whole thing. Having twins would be wonderful but 6 babies is out of the question. But what ever God bless me with I will be satisfied. I go to the doctor next week to began my mock cycle. Wish me luck that everything works out for the good.

GYD

[Catharine]

Hi All-
I've been away much of the last two months as I've found and begun a new job.

I see so much has happened since my last post. All the pix are simply gorgeous

Before I get on with my drama. Welcome to the newcomers and Hi to all you lovely ladies I've conversed with over the last 7 months.

So our updates: DH has no known genetic abnormalities with his swimmers. That is there was no detection of microdeletions, no translocations, and yes he is XY. I never had a doubt on that one

For whatever reason he is producing low vol and quality
And as much as I do my little spring chicken dances, they do not seem to reverse time The facts are I'm old and getting older [eggs old and getting older] and the DH is just a poor producer. Conclusion, DH is great candidate for ISCI, while I'm a great candidate for natural or IUI. Too bad we're not on the same page

After some real drama at the clinic, we've been granted the permission to proceed with ISCI #2 in August. The drama is surrounded by ethical issues and as always $$$$. Last phone call they mentioned the French protocol. Does this ring a bell with any ladies? It will be slightly different from my last protocol which was a co-flare. There I produced 17 nice eggs, resulting in 12 ferts. 5 were implanted resulting in BFN. The remainder 7 went to blastocysts. Scared the clinic before the BFN. Since I've had diagnostic surgery to right the catcher's mit and DH had the genetic testing. The new protocol is in an effort to grow the eggs more slowly in the hopes that if any ferts result there will be less fragmentation [this equated to low quality embies].

Fingers crossed this will work.

I'll keep you posted as well as can be done, I've a grant proposal due Aug. 5th.

Take Care. Wishing all you ladies all the best
Catharine

[summerbaby]

hello,
just scrolled down to find this most interesting topic. I am 42 (DH is 48) and am in the midst of our 2nd IVF/ICSI treatment. ER on the 25.06 gave us 12 follicles. Our ET will be on Thursday or Saturday. Our clinic is in Austria. They will transfer at most 3, assuming we have 3 to transfer -- but still more likely only 2.... Last time, there was just 1 --
Wish us luck for this last time - they aren't too fond of treatment on anyone over 43 -- and that will be me in October...

anyone have anything to say about a transfer on day 3 vs. day 5? And why have we been told that transfers only occur on "odd" days -- so, not on day 2 or on day 4...Has anyone else heard about this?

[Gaile]

Hi Amy

I was also told day 3 for the transfer, and day 5 is when they are called
blastocyst embryo, meaning they are further along in development.
Hope this helps.

[children]

Hi all,

I am still alive and lurking whenever I can. Thanks for asking about Eloise, she had her 4 month shots last Friday. She weights 7kg, 25 in. She is 85% in height, 75% for weight, and 50% for head circ. I will put more pics of Eloise soon. She can rollover one side (belly to back) now. We started solid since last 2 weeks, baby cereal, mixed grain from Gerber. She dealt with it little by little, from 1 to 3 to 5 big spoons. Now, she can eat up to 3 oz/day. We have taken her swimming twice already in the last 2 Saturdays, 20 min each time. Today, I called her daycare for 1 or 2 days test-stays before Aug and asked them whether I can bring a potty for Eloise, since she had developed some resistance to pee or poop in diapers. They said they can not start potty training for babies under 1 by regulations, otherwise, their license will be taken away! I told them that I am willing to pay extra to have someone to put her on a potty whenever she whines for no apparent reasons. They finally agree to ask someone who could influence on these "regulations". I would hate it if I will need to go back to change her diapers often again!

Tammy, looking forward to Andrew's news at his 4m checkup.

Bev and Anna, thanks for the updates.

Kat, glad to know that you are back from vacation.

Alison, Gaile, and Amy, welcome.

Jen, thanks for the list and keep us updated. I added Eloise’s info also. Keep going.

All the best to all here!

Yasmina
-------------------------------------
Successful Mummies Given Birth:


Bev-baby William ( Wills) born 23rd January 07 DE
Birth weight 5lb 12 oz's - 21wks old 15lbs 2 oz

Tammy- baby Andrew born 28th Feb 07 natural preg.
Birth weight 8 lb 7 oz

Yasmina -baby Eloise born Feb. 20, 2007.
Birth weight 7 lbs 11ozs.

Anna -baby Matthew born 23rd March 07 DE
Birth weight 7lb 60zs

June

Kat- On holiday in Singapore
Sonia- holiday to italy
Jen- Away visiting friends in Glasgow 24th -2nd july

July

12th Jen- getting kitchen tiled/house painted
Kim- news on ED shared cycle


August

3rd Jen- 1st appointment @ Im Barcelona for DE

September

Kim - ED cycle

October

November[/quote]

[summerbaby]

My transfer will be on Saturday (day 5) -- there are apparently 2 that are developing nicely, according to the doctor --
just keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out this 2nd time around.
Be positive, right? right!

all the best, Amy