Whilst IVF can be very a wonderful thing when it works, it can also be a frustrating experience when it doesn’t – particularly if you are over 40 years of age.  The trouble is that your body clock time bomb is clicking away and unfortunately the quality of your eggs declines rapidly at this time.  In fact, while the quality of embryos declines from about the age of 32 (yes 32), the decline is much more rapid at age 40 and above.

How do I know this? I visited a new IVF fertility specialist today. As kindly as what he was in delivering the bad news it was devastating to hear the facts. I had gone to him in hope only to be delivered bad news. At least it was more realistic than what my current Doctor tells me. My current fertility specialist tells me don’t worry you will get pregnant.  Even though I know the odds are stacked against me it keeps me in hope.  Hearing the facts from the new specialist made me upset. My age and the fact that 99% of my husbands sperm is abnormally shaped is a key problem. I had gone to him looking for a solution.  Although I don’t think this is what I got.

On the positive, he told me his clinic did things differently.  For a start, he would be the doctor who treated me – not like the clinic I currently attendwhere I get treated by whoever is scheduled to treat me on the day (a major plus).  He told me that this particular clinic only did Day 2 embryo transfers not blastocysts. He thought the fact that I had lost so many embryos at Day 5 was wasteful. Interesting – a debatable point amongst the world’s experts.

It seems there are two schools of though in IVF – Day 2/3 transfers versus Day 5.  My current clinic does either day 3 or Day 5 but this clinic doesn’t. In any case, I was directed to the patient co-ordinator and we set up some appointments to begin my next cycle.  The first thing that happened was that I was informed that as I was deemed medically infertile, I would not be eligible for the medicare rebate and as such my total costs would be $12,800 with no hope of rebate.  I was shocked.  I went back to the Doctor to check this and discovered he had made a mistake. Phew – was I relieved.  One hurdle down. However my next hurdle made me question why I was changing clinics in the first place.

When I analyzed the treatment protocol what I discovered shocked me.  What shocked me the most was that he was recommending an Antagonist cycle with the same medication as what I had previously been on.  He was also not convinced on the Colorado Treatment protocol. As far as I could see, there really wasn’t any major difference between the treatment protocols which clearly was not working for me.  The only difference was the day the embryo got transferred.

With this in mind, I had to question why go through the heartache of change. The steps I would need to take to change clinics would mean I would need to get all the paperwork on police record checks and child protection checks from my current clinic. My husband and I would also have to go through counselling all over again. The clinic locations were not as easy and accessible for us to get to. All these steps would mean another delay to my treatment.

On reflection, I don’t think this clinic is offering me anything different. I can choose to transfer an embryo on day 3 instead of day 5 at my current clinic. Personally, I am not convinced that there is a hell of a lot of difference between Day 2 and Day 3 embryo transfers.  Ours all seem to survive to Day 3.  So I think I should just save myself the heartache and continue with my current clinic but still explore another doctor in that clinic who I know will offer a different protocol to what I am currently doing.  Heck I might as well even try a day 3 transfer. At 40, I might as well try and preserve what embryos I have.

IVF Over 40 is a post from: The IVF Club

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I recently learnt about a technique called the Colorado Technique which is geared towards older women and those women with multiple failures. It is used to improve the lining of the uterus to aid implantation of the embryo.

Sounds like this technique was made for me. I am older, have had multiple failures and implantation seems to have been an issue. In fact, a work colleague who did IVF swears by it.  Using this technique helped her conceive her baby boy at age 43!

The protocol varies by stage and individual Doctors may vary it slightly but in the general protocol works something like this:

STAGE ONE
1. Commence Baby Asprin (Astrix, Cartia, Cardiprin) when you commence Syneral / Lucrin.

STAGE TWO
2. Your husband commences Doryx 100mg twice a day for 7 days when you commence Gonal F / Puregon.
3. You stop Asprin on the day of your first ultrasound.

STAGE THREE: The day after the Trigger Injection (Pregnyl)
4. Commence Prednisolone 25mg at night for 5 nights.
5. Commence Augmentin 500mg orally twice a day for 5 days.

STAGE FOUR: The day after egg pick up.
6. Crinone (Progresterone gel) one application each morning.
7. Apply two Estraderm mx patches 100mcgm to the buttock (one on each buttock). Change alternative days.
8. Recommence Baby Asprin.
9. Have intercourse the night before embryo transfer.

OTHER

• Continue Asprin, Crinone/Estraderm Patches until the pregnancy test.
• If the test is positive, treatment continues to 6 weeks.
• If the ultrasound shows a viable pregnancy, continue all tyreatments until 13 weeks are completed.
• The Asprin continues to the 34th week of the pregnancy.

I can’t guarantee the accuracy but this seems to be the general idea. I guess I will find out more when I see my new Fertility Specialist next week.

The IVF Colorado Protocol is a post from: The IVF Club

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An innovative step forward in IVF procedures is offering fresh hope to thousands of women who struggle to conceive. According to the outcome of the latest trial in Britain, the new test significantly increases the possibility of a female achieving a successful conception.

British scientists assert that they’ve developed an embryo screening procedure which triples the likelihood of a woman successfully achieving pregnancy and giving birth.

The embryos are examined to rule out any potential hereditary abnormalities, which are a risk predominantly among older women. The screening checks chromosomes in the embryo and only those embryos with the maximum possibility of success are used.

Experts claim the technology will be up and running in 2-3 years. Being an “older” women myself, I for one think it is not soon enough.  Bring it on!

Breakthrough in IVF Technology is a post from: The IVF Club

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Call me ignorant but after months of worrying about not being about to get pregnant before the age of 40, I am not worried anymore.

A sure sign of this is that after months of procastinating with the Police Record Check forms so I can start IVF, I have finally sent my form in complete with cheque. Somehow I don’t think I will be getting it back in time for the 1st September deadline when the new laws take effect.

Apart from the fact that my husband’s form has not been sent in yet, I imagine there will be a backlog of applications from the late rush of couples who have also submitted their forms. Obviously, holding off like me in the hope that they won’t have to do another round of IVF. In any case, I guess it means we might start the next round a little later.

It’s strange but I am less perturbed by the later start this time. In the past, I have pushed my body so hard, doing IVF with only a month break in between cycles. Once, I did a cycle back to back with no break. Now that was hard. All of my attempts, of course, have been done in my futile attempt to racie against my biological clock.

But the truth is, I will be turning 40 at the end of September. I am already in the statistically significant, lower end of the IVF success bracket. A delay of one month is hardly going to make a big difference. I think my body also needs a break to get back to its natural rhythm. The scary thing is that I’ve been doing this so frequently that I don’t even know what my natural rhythm is.

Apart, from that IVF is hard – I am in no rush to start again only to get another negative result. I need emotional space to come to terms with the last seven failed attempts. Maybe my birthday this year will not be about trying to conceive – maybe it will be about relaxing and enjoying myself. Now that would be a nice change.

IVF at 40 is a post from: The IVF Club

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