The Over 40 Crowd

[washingtonda]

Can I please join this thread ????

After being on other threads and just turning the big"4-0" I felt it time to move over the the thread that I could possibly relate more too. I know I'll just have to start picking up on who everybody is and what they are doing but I thought I'd share some of my info and ask as few questions.

DH and I just had a beautiful baby girl on the first try with our own eggs and sperm (IVF/ICSI w/Assisted Hatching) 9/19/08 and are loving it (of course I was 38 at that time). We ended up with 19 eggs, 13 fertizlized, we did a "6" day blast with 2 embryos yet we had none left to freeze (which was very baffling). We are scheduled for a consult with our RE on next Tuesday about trying again. I have three adult children from a previous marriage and had my tubes tied. DH had none before our little girl was born. We have nothing against donor egg/sperm but have just decided that we didn't want to go that route and that if things didn't work again with our own eggs and sperm that we would be happy with the one that we do have.

Here are my questions:

1. We are paying these cost out of pocket and it's crazy expensive. How many of your are paying out of pocket?

2. How many of you are using your own eggs and are getting positives?

3. Do any of you live in Maryland?

4. How many of you goy BFP the first try with your own eggs?

5. Did any of you have as many fertilized eggs as I?

Just asking these questions because age does play a big factor in all of this and we are wondering what our chances are. I know it's all in Gods hands but it's alway nice to hear what others in your age group are doing.

Looking forward to joining you ladies.

[children]

washingtonda,

Welcome and please see attached signature file to know what I did. To answer you Qs here,

1) yes, we paid out of our own pocket
2) yes. we used our own eggs and sperms
3) no, we live in Nashville
4) & 5) we had 25 eggs collected, 20 fertilized, 19 developed normally and had been kept frozen from our first fresh ivf. We had two beautiful children from 4 subsequent frozen cycles.

According to your successful history in reproduction, I would be very surprised that your RE will recommend that you use DEs. Good luck and keep us updated!

Yasmina

[washingtonda]

Children -- Thanks for the warm welcome and the answers to my questions. Do you and DH plan on having anymore?

We have our consult on Tuesday so I will let you'll know what they advised. We were probably not going to work on another until around June. We were hoping that our little one would be around 3 when the new baby came.

[babyblue]

Washtingtonda, welcome to the thread. I am 49 and 9 weeks pregnant with twins. My insurance covered 4 IVF cycles. My prescription drug insurance wasn't as good. However, the meds are all we had to cover each cycle. I tried my eggs the first two then decided to go with donor eggs. Two cycles of donor eggs and two more failures. DH sperm were used throughout all the cycles. Then our RE made us an offer of a lifetime, all we had to pay was $2000 for the donor and he covered ALL the rest. This time, BFP. We put 3 back in and I did have triplets until about 3 1/2 weeks ago. The other two are doing great. This time our RE chose our donor. Wow! She was definitely proven. We live in Kentucky, but see an RE in Nashville TN.

Catherine, good luck on upcoming cycle. Hope all your tests come out great.

To all those I have left off - have a great day.

Kim

[mrscutter]

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[mrscutter]

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[Catharine]

Greetings Ladies!

Welcome Washingtonda. Like you we too are paying out of pocket. Interestingly, the clinic is giving a 25% discount at the moment We're using our [my] own eggs. DD was from my eggs, the IVF cycle was ICSI with assisted hatching. I had gone through 3 IVF cycles. The first, a co-flare protocol, resulting in a BFN, the next cycle was pretty standard protocol resulting in a BFP and OHSS, but mc the third one was the charm, same protocol no as second, no OHSS and the result is our DD. We always had lots of eggs and embryos. They transferred 5, 4, 5 with the respective cycles. However, they did not freeze the remainder as they graded them as poor quality. Only the best of the bunch were transferred back. We just had a consult with our new RE same old clinic [old RE moved out of state]. We will be sticking with the protocol that works and should be going through this last cycle around the first of November, just in time for DD's first birthday, hooorah! hahahahha. If you don't mind me asking if you plan not to work on another till June why get a consult so early? Just asking. I was shocked that ours is moving forward so soon. Ususally to get the consult appt, takes a minimum of 3 months, that was in 2006 when we started this rollercoaster ride. Well I called the clinic on Monday and got an appt that Wednesday and then we were on the schedule for the first half of November with a 25% discount.

Kim-how's it going? twins. the thought warms my heart. Thanks for the luck. Sending you well wishes your way.

Rhonda-she is adorable! you did good girlfriend!

Hi to everyone out there lurking. Stop by sometime.

Cheers!
Catharine

[washingtonda]

Catherine -- We really don't know what we really plan to do right now. Since we got pregnant the first time we never really cared to ask about egg quality and why there were no eggs left etc. I want all of these questions answered before we start trying again. Actually, we are not even sure if we are going to try again as you see I have 3 older children already. We were wanting to wait in around June/July because we wanted our DD to be close to age 3 when the new baby arrived. My DH and I both work and juggling career and baby is hard because he travels alot. DD is awesome but being older parents is a little harder than when I was younger with my other children. We just got DD to sleep through the night and have just moved her out of our bedroom. She will still wake up some nights but we let her cry it out. She have to get better before I would even think about trying again. She is spoiled rotten and that probably have alot to do with alot.

Where do you live and how are you managing with your little one? Do you work full time?

[mrscutter]

washingtonda,
Did you have a reversal on the tubes? or is that why you are doing IVF. With producing eggs like that you could probably get bfp on your own. Just curious. I did IVF one time. Cost me 13,000 out of pocket and got a bfn. I only produced 7 eggs and only 2 fertilized. I was told i only had a 5 percent chance with ivf. My fsh level is 15 which is really high. Anyway the two fertilized eggs were so good she said i had a 95 percent now. well i got the bfn anyway. it was heartbreaking. that was last november on thanksgiving day. We gave up and said it wasn't meant to be. I have a 20 year old and 15 year old but my new DH had none. The very next month I was pregnant naturally!!! and DD is 5 weeks old. The first RE i went to told me I would never get pregnant even with ivf and look what happened. good luck to you.

Rhonda

[washingtonda]

Ms Cutter -- I did have my tubes tied and paid to have them reversed on 2006 and they were still blocked. That's what led us to IVF. My FSH level and everything with my cycle were perfect. I can still tell now when I ovulate so I think I'm pretty good with still producing. We did the $22K shared risk with DD so I was more relaxed because we had that 6 time guarantee or a 100% refund. This IVF stuff is all such a big gamble. It's very costly if you are paying out of your pockets and we paid 9K for the reversal that didn't work and I thought for many months about what we could have done with that 9K.

Right now we are only able to afford this stuff because we have so much equity in our home so that's where we are getting it from. We never thought twice about the 22K because we achieved the pregnancy but since I'm now 40 and can't do the guaranteed program, I am more skeptical. My DH and I have money is TSP accounts but he will not touch our retirement funds.

I will let you all know what I find out at the consult.

Thanks for responding back

[Catharine]

TGIF

Washintonda-how's your wee one doing? We live in Georgia near the ATL. I'm currently unemployed, but picking up piece work here and there. Recently I took on some long term work, but it's not full time, lots of down time inbetween due dates With DD growing and not requiring as many naps I finally had to put her in daycare so I could get what little work I have completed. During slow days I miss her though. Our clinic does not participate in a shared risk program So, it's out of our savings and into their bank account. It's such a hard decision, but I just would like to try to give DD a sibling to grow and play with. What's hard for me to watch is the daughter of one of DH's coworkers have baby after baby after baby. She's on number 4 all one year apart with her fourth due this December. Such ambivolent feelings: happy for them, but sad for us that we don't have such an easy time conceiving.

Rhonda-how's your little sweetie doing? she is so precious.

Have a happy weekend everybody.
Catharine

[Catharine]

TGIF

Washintonda-how's your wee one doing? We live in Georgia near the ATL. I'm currently unemployed, but picking up piece work here and there. Recently I took on some long term work, but it's not full time, lots of down time inbetween due dates With DD growing and not requiring as many naps I finally had to put her in daycare so I could get what little work I have completed. During slow days I miss her though. Our clinic does not participate in a shared risk program So, it's out of our savings and into their bank account. It's such a hard decision, but I just would like to try to give DD a sibling to grow and play with. What's hard for me to watch is the daughter of one of DH's coworkers have baby after baby after baby. She's on number 4 all one year apart with her fourth due this December. Such ambivolent feelings: happy for them, but sad for us that we don't have such an easy time conceiving.

Rhonda-how's your little sweetie doing? she is so precious.

Have a happy weekend everybody.
Catharine

[washingtonda]

Catherine - Are you tryin right now. My niece lives in ATL. That's really why I want another. It's so Michaela can have someone to play with.

Will let you know how my consult goes.

[Catharine]

Greetings!

I hope this post finds everyone in good spirits. I just wanted to give a brief update.

To answer Elles question, we are just about to begin our cycle [IVF]. Over a week ago had the sonohistogram and that came back positively. No scarring from c-section. Furthermore, they assesed my ovarian reserves and I seem to be behaving like a 20-somehting year old. I had 7 and 5 follicles developing in my ovaries at the time of the u/s. I've gotten my estrogen patches that begin next week, 3 days prior to AF arrival, then the medications begins. So retrieval is slated to be around Nov. 14th. But last time we went a day early than the protocol called for to avoid OHSS. I'm sure they will transfer on day three as they have in the past. This cycle is different from last one in that I'm not in a high stress job. So I'm crossing my fingers that my body is calm. Acupuncture doesn't hurt either and I'm trying to do some yoga ontop of that. I just want inner peace or my Qi centered. I've been doing some supplementation as well, trying to replicate as best as possible [minus the stressful job] our last cycles that resulted in BFP.

I'll keep ya'll posted as we move through the cycle.

Wishing everyone all the best,
Catharine

[Akua]

Warm greetings to everyone on this forum. I began posting sometime in the early part of this year, probably around March or April and other than a few posts after that, Ive pretty much been MIA. Quick recap:
In March I went to Kofina's Fertility Clinic in Brooklyn, NY and they set me up with every kind of test imaginable. Hysteroscopy, genetic testing, hormone level testing, etc. Everything came back good except that I have many fibroids in my uterus and my tubes are completely blocked (as suspected). On June 25, 2009 I had a Myomectomy. It was uneventful and I healed well. On 09/11/09 I had a D&C with Laporoscopy. On 9/17 I turned 40!!! In October after all this, DH and I go in for a consult and to discuss when we are ready to start the IVF cycle only to be told that MOST of the cost for the cycle will come out of our pockets because GHI doesn't cover it. I was upset because I had been misled and literally TOLD that they accepted GHI and that I was covered for three rounds of IVF treatment, so I knew something didn't sound right. They told me to call them on the first day of my next period and they would tell me when to come in to start the drugs and to make sure that I bring a check for $3500.00 to be paid "up front".
In addition, after the cycle I would have to give them an additional $1500.00 (approximately). After making some calls I found out that they are full of it and I went to a clinic on Park Ave. in Manhattan called New Hope Fertility. I took them my records from Kofina's and they drew blood. I got a call the next day telling me my FSH levels are good and to come in immediately to get a Menopur injection and Clomid pills. The appointment was on Monday and by Tuesday they were already starting me on the cycle. Yayyyy!!!!! The clinic specializes in Natural IVF and MINI IVF as well as conventional IVF. I'm doing the Mini IVF since I have secondary infertility and my tubes are the only things keeping me from concieving. I praying for a positive result after all these months of surgeries, pills, poking and prodding.
So anyway, Yesterday I took two injections of the Menopur and the clomid. I go back for another injection on Thursday and to test my blood hormone levels. So far, so good, no side effects and I feel pretty good. I hope it stays that way lol. Please, Im asking everyone to keep me and DH in your prayers.
Akua excited in Brooklyn

me: 40
DH: 36
secondary tubal factor infertility
1st IVF cycle began 10/26/09
Clomid tablets
Menopur injections
6 children: Muhammad 22, Amar 18, Aquene 15, Nyjah 15, Delisle Jr. 12, Jaylen 9.