# Hi I am new here and planning to have treatment this year



## Poppy41London (Apr 8, 2015)

Hi ladies

I have just joined recently and wanted to introduce myself. I realised I really need the support and understanding of others going through the same things as me cause it's so lonely and isolating on your own, plus now we are looking at fertility treatment it's quite overwhelming and confusing too! 

I am 41 and been trying to conceive for about 2 years but not been using contraception for quite a bit longer. I went down the NHS route last year and was told that due to my age they wouldn't be able to offer me fertility treatment so I would have to go private. They did fertility tests though and said that we should go for ICSI. My tests were done in September but didn't get the results until New Year's Eve! But the results were:

Ultrasound scan showed a normal looking uterus with the presence of normal ovaries with four antral follicles on the right side and three on the left side. Lining of uterus also looked normal for that stage of cycle.

FSH level 6.7

LH level 2.9

E2 high at 240 pmol/L (but hopefully may be reducing with weight loss)

AMH level 8.1

Progesterone (this was tested on day 21 of cycle) was 26 nmol/L indicating ovulation.

While my husbands tests last year showed poor motility as well as reduced sperm count and a few other issues. 

Alongside all this mid last year we went to a great fertility nutritionist in London called Melanie Brown who put us both on a wide range of supplements including Proxeed for my husband and a fertility/weight loss diet for us both but especially me as I have always had incredible difficulty losing weight despite trying everything in the past. She also advised we go and see the Urologist Mr Jonathan Ramsay privately and he has been amazing! He did some tests and put my husband on 3 different medications which at the last test had shown a huge improvement in his results. We are retesting and going back in a few weeks to see where things are at now. Additionally, I am taking Chinese herbs and having acupuncture.

We are trying to still get pregnant naturally whilst I continue to lose weight as I still have a ways to go before my BMI is under 35. I am on a 1000 calorie a day diet and at the gym 6 days a week so doing everything I can on that front and that combination has been working to help me lose weight plus I am getting fitter. I am really hoping that with my husbands results improving and mine not too bad (?) we will be able to conceive naturally in spite of my age ... but also am starting to look at clinics and planning for that side of things so that we are ready to start things if we need to later this year. As well as saving money for it! We have been told that Tarek El Toukhy at Guys Hospital in London is very good and it could be worth going for treatment with him and paying for consultant led care where he does everything. Anyone got any experiences of seeing him?

Anyway, that's my story so far. I want a baby more than anything and cannot imagine my life without being a mum. I just hope that one way or another it will happen and I am trying to stay in a positive place although that's not always easy as I am sure you all know. Any advice or ideas or encouragement you can give me is very much appreciated. There seems to be so much knowledge on this forum and I am really glad to have found it and all of you to help me through the next stages of my/our journey.


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## goldbunny (Mar 26, 2012)

good luck!


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## ladybird23 (Dec 19, 2014)

Hi Poppy

Sounds like you are on the journey already and discovering issues and tackling them which is all goodimproving your chances.

Going to open evening days / evenings, I found a good place to start as they are free and informative.

I found emailing Serum in Greece really helpful as the kind lady there gave free advice on ways to improve chances naturally and improve your health.

I'm just starting my first cycle at Create today - first injection in 1 hour or so which is a bit scary but we can't keep waiting to see what happens any more  

We are doing ICSI but it is expensive as advised. if this doesn't work (of course it will you say- must as positive as possible!) I'd look at Serum next.

Best of luck with your fitness regime and fingers crossed for you

LB x


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## Poppy41London (Apr 8, 2015)

Thanks ladies for your support. We are going to do IVF/ICSI if it doesn't happen naturally over the next 6 months while I lose more weight, and would do it sooner if found a clinic that was ok with a higher BMI if fit and healthy otherwise. So if you hear/know of any let me know, thanks!

Ladybird23 I am definitely going to try and go to some open evenings. I hope to go the one at Guys in May and hopefully a few others next month too. Even though masses of people on here are with them, I am pretty sure at this stage I don't want to go down the ARGC route though as it sounds too full on and frankly too expensive as well, even though their results are high. We don't have masses of cash and what we save I don't want to use up on one go, just in case we need to do more than one. 

Mels11 I have read a bit about the overseas clinics as well but i think even though it might work out cheaper, at this stage we want to try a local clinic just so we are in home surroundings and it feels less stressful, I think that's what I need. Plus my husbands work commitments would make the overseas clinics more difficult. 

So much to consider and think about and only just started reading about short and long cycles and trying to get my head around how that works and why people are advised to have one or the other. Plus trying to get a read on how much the drugs tend to cost on top of cycle costs so can actually work out how much a cycle would be in different places. I saw one person said maybe on average about £1000 per cycle for the meds if fairly standard, does this sound accurate?

Anyway, I imagine I will be here a lot asking questions and looking for advice/support, I hope you don't mind. So great to read about all the success stories too, particularly with the women 40+ like us.


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## Lola74 (Apr 11, 2015)

Dear Puppy, good luck with your treatment. You are on the right track, just be pisitive and dont give up.
X Lola


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## Poppy41London (Apr 8, 2015)

Thanks Lola, good luck to you too! x


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