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Successful ICSI / IVF at 41?

I am a 41 years old and about to start my first IVF cycle next week.  I am newlywed and my DH and I knew that are only way of having our own biological kids was with IVF & ICSI, as my husband has nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA).   If my body responds well to the egg stimulating-meds, my DH will have a testicular biopsy done to harvest immature sperm cells.  That is our 1st big obstacle.  If we get past that and my eggs are good,then I have to wait to see if my eggs are fertilized.  After that, its all down to quality and the # of embroyos to transfer.  At my age and the fact that my DH and I would not do 'selective reduction' if 4 embryos implant in my uterus, my doctor said he will put 3 embryos inside of me.  I AM TERRIFIED OF ALL 3 taking and having multiples!!  I also worry that if the doctor transfers 2 embryos, one may split and I would have triplets, etc.   I saw the TLC show last night called "Multidue of Multiples" and I had to turn it off, crying so hard when the one poor woman lost "Baby D" and had to deliver the 3 surviving babies right away.   Now, I am doubting should I even do this?  Yes, I will and I want to, but the worry is going to wreak havoc on me.  I am doing accupuncture too, and my FSH is 10.5 and Estradiol was 49.5 on Day 2 of my August menses.    Anyone in my age group have 1 single good quality embryo transferred and resulted in a live birth of a healthy baby?  I would APPRECIATE BEYOND MEASURE any shared experience you could offer....GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND YOUR OFFSPRING!!!
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Avatar universal
Hi, I wanted to share my story with you.  I am 39.  DH and I went through our first IVF in June 09, which was failed.  I did respond wellto the meds and we got 12 follies, we did not do ICSI, but as only 1 fertilized we did a rescue  ICSI.  We had a total of 3.  I also had a huge amount of stress so I iwll place some blame on that too.  That was June.  I hopped back on the IVF train, in July I did my second round, again I had 12 mature follies but this time we did ICSI and 7 fertilized out of which 5 made it.  They were all grade A.  Now I am 6 weeks pregnant. I think ICSI helped also, if you want you can go for Assisted hatching.  I do feel that accupuncture helped improve the quality of eggs.  I did add B12 to my pill collection , I also started taking Pre natal with DHA.  Good luck with your IVF and if you have any questions email me  
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Avatar universal
I am 40 (41 next next week) and just got my BFN today from my 10th IVF/ICSI cycle :-(
In all ten cycles only one BFP (Ectopic) and one very early miscarriage (low HCG after TWW). I live in Perth Western Oz and they will only transfer two max. For me, if I had more to transfer, I would just because as previously mentioned once you hit forty there is a rapid decline in the majority of women. You could be the lucky one but i think you will get the idea when you know how many follicles you get and how many drugs it takes to stimulate them. I take 450 Gonal F and despite getting 10 - 12 follicles I have only ever been able to get max of three eggs from them, but usually two each time.  Some of the younger ones with great eggs take minimum doses (not sure how low but around 100) and get masses of follicles and eggs - although there is no guarantee of egg quality but predominantly the younger the better. .I would not worry this far ahead, you will become clearer once you know how your body will respond and trust your RE, they do not like to put anyone at risk either.

Best of luck with everything. By the way my FSH is between 6 and 7 but recently jumped up to a 10!!! Get the Zita West IVF guide, it has a wealth of information to help you.

Good Luck :-)
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254689 tn?1251180040
The odds of IVF for women in the 40's is not good but not impossible.  The decline in egg quality between mid 30's and early 40's makes a difference.  When I was going through my IVF cycle w/my own eggs, my re explained that if we made it to the transfer, she would put all of the embryos in in hopes that one would implant because the odds aren't very good.  I was older than you when going through my first cycle and I didn't respond well to the meds so it was cancelled the day before retrieval.

You have a lot of obstacles to overcome so the thing that stands out to me is not to worry about multiples at this point.  I didn't see the Multitude Multiples show on TLC so I don't know what' it's all about - how old was this woman & did she get pregnant through IVF?

I don't mean to sound overly negative.  I do know of one woman who got pregnant in her 40's through IVF w/her own eggs - she delivered triplets - one embryo split.  I got pregnant w/a single embryo transfer but it was a donor egg cycle so I guess that doesn't count in this case.  I hope everything works out great for you - best of luck!  Also I thought of one more thing - try some positive visualization techniques - the book called "The Secret" talks about this.  You might want to check it out!
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299260 tn?1304216105
Hi.  I'm so sorry you're feeling so stressed ;(  I feel like I've told my story so many times, but it seems to apply here, too.  I'm 37 and just went through my first IVF with ICSI.  Back in October, my HSG exam revealed that I have what's called a T-shaped uterus, which caused my doctor to stress that I shouldn't get pregnant with multiples, because there is less room for them to grow.  So, we did IVF and only transferred one embryo. That one split & I am almost 10 weeks pregnant with identical twins =)  So, yes, it is possible to get pregnant with one embryo!  As far as FSH, from what I remember, under 10 is considered excellent, so yours looks great.  For my IVF, the embriologist actually picked the best quality egg & it was of the highest quality. Who knows if that's why it split or if it's just because of my age.  I've been told that if you're over 35, there is more of a chance for them to split.  Try to stay positive & minimize the stress.  It's really important to stay relaxed.  Joining a Pilates class for the months prior to my IVF really helped me a lot! ;)  I'm sure accupuncture is helping too.  Take care & I wish you my very best!!!
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