Advice on eggs, sperm or embryos to use down the track...

Hi,

My name is Beata and I've just turned 40 this year. I have done a fresh cycle of IVF with ICSI in July 2008 which resulted in a pregnancy (sadly I have lost my baby due to a large fibroid). I then had a frozen embryo from the same cycle transferred in July last year which also resulted in a pregnancy and now I have a beautiful 5 month old boy.

I have a dilema however, and I need some advice. I would dearly love a sibling for my child, but I feel like time is of essence as I am already 40. Both my pregnancies resulted from eggs which came from a 38 year old body. The dilema I have is, my partner is not ready to have another baby just yet. I was thinking of doing another cycle next year when my baby turns 1, in case it takes us a few goes this time around. My partner wants to wait 2 to 3 years. I thought that maybe he was happy with just one between us (he has 3 grown up kids from a previous marriage) but I have spoken to him about this and he definitely wants a brother/sister for our child. I am terrified that at 42/43, my eggs could be useless. I wonder if I should do a cycle soon and have either my eggs/sperm or embryos frozen to use when we are both ready (so the eggs/sperm/embryos are from a 40 year old body and not 42/43)??? Has anyone taken this sort of path before and what was the outcome???

TIA for any feedback/advice/stories.

Beata.

Do you have any embryos left at the moment or is it back to the beginning of it all?

I do know (at least this was what I was advised when I was going through IVF and my son is now 20 months old!) that eggs don't freeze as well as embryos, so you would be much better off having embryos frozen rather than eggs. How would you feel about possibly having to wean your son now in order to cycle in order to get younger eggs?

BW

Hi BW,

I don't have any embryos left from that first cycle of IVF (I only had one cycle in 2008) so I'd have to have a full stimulated cycle. I too heard that eggs don't freeze as well as embryos, so that's why I would be inclined to have the cycle soon so at least I could have some embryos at 40 years of age and not at 42 or 43. I realise that the egg quality can go down hill fast with age....I am FF my son now so weaning him off b/m is no issue. I think I will book in to see my FS asap to get his opinion. Right now I am so afraid that I might not get any embryos, but I guess that would mean doing another cycle.....The other thing I want to ask is if to freeze a day 3 embryo as well as day 5 (PROVIDED there is any embryos at day 5...) to maximise the amount of embryos from the cycle.

Thanks for your reply hun :p

B xx

I'm not sure how true it is, but I heard that when you are pregnant it 'pauses' your reproductive age.

I guess it depends on what the issues were that made you go through IVF in the first place.

Afraid I can't help too much with the rest of your questions. Consulting your FS seems like a good plan.

Now if only I would take my own advice in trying to sort out my own reproductive future!

BW

Hmmmmm, that would be good if it was true Malyna! lol

The reason we had do IVF was because my partner had a vesectomy reversal about 2 years ago and it didn't work. Because he had the snip 14 years ago, the success rate given to us for the reversal was pretty low. So he basically has no swimmers coming 'out' at the crucial moment. During the IVF process, they had to to the sperm biopsy. My worry is that my eggs are ageing, so I would prefer to do a cycle now and use the embryos at a later time.

Thanks Malyna :p

BW, thanks hun and GL with your own journey!

B xx

Just my 2 cents (it's very biased as an over 40 prior LTTC-er) - would definitely try to get those frozen embryos created ASAP. Every year matters at this age - for that matter, every month. TTC at 40+ is hard, the statistics are not good - and they keep dropping quickly. If your husband also wants a 2nd child - unless he (and you) are willing to consider an egg donor in the future - there's not much a decision to be made as far as getting the embryos frozen now.

I think it's a good idea to get some embryos frozen as soon as you can if you're both sure you want another child.

Thanks very much buliej and marcellus. My heart is telling me to hurry up now and do the cycle as I could even end up with no embyos and then I'd have to do another cycle anyway, hence costing me precious time. For all I know it could take a few cycles to get any embryos! I will see my FS asap and see what he thinks as well (especially day 3 embryos v day 5) . I am more than certain he will tell me to get some embryos NOW. The thing is, I don't want to resent my DF down the track if we do the IVF in 2 years time and can't get pregnant. I don't want to be saying to him, 'I told you we needed to do the cycle earlier to get some decent embryos'. It would be a nightmare if we waited and couldn't get pregnant because it was too late.

Thanks again ladies for your input/opinions.

Beata xx

my Dh had a vas as well but refused a reversal and it's beed almos 8 years now.
so trapped swimmers also
bummer
i am about to be 39 very soon and i am worried about the age thing, if it wasn't for my age i'd wait but my 'FS said better to do it sooner than later as odds are against you. you could freeze them all then use them later and have more of a gap between babies?

good luck with it.

btw it's so good to see it can work for some, i am abot to do 2nd full stim cycle as got nothing out of first. and this will be the last one.

chat soon

Hey JBM, love the 'trapped swimmers' comment! ha ha. I remember when my partner went to see the urologist (sp?????) he said that he was happy to do the reversal but advised us to go straight to IVF, saying we'll have probably more luck that way. Should have listened to him, hey, at least he was honest and not after the money! Stupid me wanted a baby 'naturally', there was no way I was doing IVF!!!!! LOL. Well, even though the urologist was really happy with the op. (apparently the doc who did the snip left enough of the tube to be re connected) it was a flop b/c the test 6 months later showed zero sperm!!! Damn! Anyhoo, at least the swimmers are there just need a bit of convincing to come out! GL with your cycle hun, I really hope you get some good results :crossfingers:. Will have my fingers crossed for you!

Beata x