# HELP REQUIRED



## joannebc (Dec 26, 2007)

Hi 

I am new to this so sorry if this post is in wrong place / this q has been asked and answered before.

Basic situation:  I am 41 (42 in 6 mts) and am trying to get pregnant for 1st time, with no luck.  But am now concerned re age ect.  I would think that at this point fertility tests are required but unsure where I can do that within the UK @ my age / do I need to go further afield.

Jumping the gun a bit, if all is fine fertility wise I had thought about going abroad for sperm donation ect.  There are a lot of clinics out there, with a mine of info, but I am still a bit at sea.

Can anyone advise?  I do need to say that this is the first step I am taking on this road so forgive me if my q is basic.

Thank you


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## druzy (Jan 25, 2006)

You can have fertility tests through your GP but bear in mind that it will take a number of months to be referred and get results.  Quicker would be to go to a private fertility clinic near you.  If you go on the HFEA website you can type in your postcode and find ones near you.  Bear in mind that the national statistics for IVF with your own eggs at 40 to 42 is around 12/13% success rate.  At 43 national statistics are around 3%.  Again you can find these stats on the HFEA webset.  Under 35 is around 30% so there is no getting away from the fact that fertility declines with age - although someone has to be the lucky one.  The doctors will tell you how fertility declines with age.  Some of us get away with it some of us don't.  I didn't and had 4 IVFs with my own eggs before moving to donor eggs abroad and am now pregnant with twins.  Both donor eggs and donor sperm are in short supply in this country because of the anonynimity laws ie offspring can contact biological parents at 18 and this has stopped donors coming forward.  Therefore if you want donor sperm you're right you will find more abroad.  There are many clinics in Spain, Russian, Ukraine, South Africa to name a few.  I went to isida in the Ukraine who I found very professional and good.  I didn't have donor sperm but I think they don't have problem with supply of that either.  Their law is total anonymity so you and any offspring can never know the identity of the donor.
Good luck!
love
Druzy


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## Jo (Mar 22, 2002)

Hi Joanne
Just wanted to wish you luck in whatever you decide to do 

You have been given lots of good advice from Druzy , hope it helps you out to decide what to do

Love Jo
x


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## sandee2002 (Jun 24, 2003)

Hello Joanne,

I have been messed around by the nhs since the age of 40, wished I had gone private right away as I lost so much time trying differing drugs before going onto ivf, by this time had to go private. Get your fsh, E2, amh and cant remember the rest but private hospital will do them.

Wish I had been given better advice. First ivf failed. I have had fsh test and amh test(to test ovarian reserve), first one was not so good (so took wheatgrass) came down from 15.1 to 5.1 so that worked second very poor. As as a result private clinics have said no point in doing ivf.

I have been on dhea (been researched and have shown to reverse age of eggs) I have have also been taking wheatgrass to help fsh levels also. Husband and I on Zita West vitamins. Had acupuncture. Now I am in Istanbul, Jinemed hosptial (v good for older ladies). 

I am on day 5 of treatment at Jinemed. Things to help during ivf, 3 litres of water a day, brazil nuts for selenium, pineaple juice not from concentrate or fresh helps with endo lining, pomegranate for vits and and folic acid. IVF hypnotherapy CD really helps. 

If this doesnt work I will be going on to donor eggs. Would be interested in the detail from druzy as to treatment and cost. I hope I have given a wee bit of info.

Regards
Sandy
Hope this helps but dont wait around


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## Johan (Dec 6, 2007)

I would just reinforce what Sandy has said. I went down the NHS route (paying as over 40) and it took forever. Just gone through first (failed) IVF and wished I'd gone private from the outset because of all the time it took getting referred, getting the tests done and then waiting for treatment. Now thinking of making an appointment with a private clinic and trying with them instead of waiting again for another round of treatment on the NHS. We've had all the tests done but don't know much about the figures except that they were all normal. We'll probably have to have them done again now. Sigh.
Good luck and good luck to you too Sandy!    
Johan.


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## suitcase of dreams (Oct 7, 2007)

Just to say that even if you decide to go private for your consultation and treatment to speed things up, you should be able to save a bit of money by getting the initial tests done by your GP at least. The FSH/AMH etc they should be able to do for you at no cost - they are blood tests and have to be done on a specific day of your cycle but otherwise you shouldn't need to wait. You can then take the results to a consultant at a private clinic to discuss your options

I'm in a different situation to you (I'm single and don't know if I have fertility problems as haven't tried to get pregnant yet - starting IUI in January with donor sperm) but I basically went to my GP, told her I wanted to get pregnant, gave her a list of the tests the clinic (I'm at London Womens Clinic) recommended, and she got them all done on the NHS for me, gave me a print out of the results and I then went and discussed them with the clinic.

No point paying clinic prices for those tests if you can get the GP to do them. And if you are going private, you don't need to be referred to the clinic by your GP, you can just self refer and take along the test results.

Hope this helps and good luck!
Laura


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## joannebc (Dec 26, 2007)

Thank you all for all advise, am about to start investigations re clinics abroad so fingers crosed.  Would be interested if anyone had any costings on these.


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## LondonJax (Jan 30, 2006)

Hi Joanne

I had all my tests on NHS - took about 8 months from beginning to end as I had to have certain tests on certain days of my cycle (as has already been mentioned) and the NHS only did the tests on certain days of the week so getting the two to coincide was a nightmare!

Anyway, I'm a Lister IVF over 40 success.  NHS tests showed I was OK apart from being 42 years old (!) but hubby was borderline in his sperm test quantity.

Anyway, we went to the Lister just after my 43rd birthday in January 2006, started our first round of IVF (ICSI) in April.  Though I showed all the signs of producing three precious follies none of them carried mature eggs unfortunately.  We thought that was it - donor eggs for us.  However Dr Parekh said she would raise the stimming drugs to the highest level and the down regging to the lowest allowed by law as she thought I may be down regging naturally due to my age.  We had already decided that two attempts would be it for us as we couldn't cope with the roller coaster beyond that and we honestly thought we would just go through the motions.

Again we got just 3 follies but these all contained eggs.  All three of them fertilised by ICSI (they had also discovered that a percentage of hubby's sperm were going in circles just to add to the fun).  All three embryoes were put back ....

The result is currently playing with his dad having just finished smothering both of them in spag bol in his highchair .  Ewan (now 8 months old) arrived 3 months after my 44th birthday and is the apple of our eye(s).  

I know we were incredibly lucky - Ewan has a congenital heart problem but it is being managed well and he is thriving.  Whether that condition is related to my age or to IVF or both (or neither) we will never know but either way we would not be without him and we'll cope with the future as it happens.  He's a great little boy, although at 19lbs in weight and 30 inches tall I can't really call him little anymore.  

Miracles do happen and Ewan is our proof.

Good luck.

Jackie x


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