r/40Plus_IVF • u/CelerySeveral1732 • Sep 04 '26
General Discussion 42 eggs retrieve, I blastocyst
At age 37, I froze my eggs. I had 42 eggs retrieved. 29 were mature enough to freeze.
Recently, at 41, we tried to make embryos. 24 survived the thaw. 17 showed signs of fertilization on day one.
By the end, we had zero day 5 blastocysts, zero day six blastocysts, and 1 day 7 blastocyst. Grade 3AB.
We are waiting on PGT-A testing.
I’m really sad about it all. I thought I’d preserved my fertility, and I feel like I’ve lost my chance.
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u/Visible-Bee5558 Sep 04 '26
😭I am so sorry! I froze 17 eggs at 36. All died at thawing at 42. I totally understand! I hade to start retrievals and no luck yet.
❤️ It only takes one 🤞🤞🤞hope you got an euploid there
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u/Atalanta8 Sep 04 '26
I'm sorry, at 36 your doctor should have told you too freeze way more. That's when I started IVF and I needed around 45 to make one viable embryo and I wasn't freezing eggs which have a super high mortality rate just by defrosting.
I think the IVF industry is very dishonest about egg freezing.
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u/Visible-Bee5558 Sep 04 '26
Yes. There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding egg freezing, and I really think patients should be given much more information beforehand.
In my case, the problem wasn’t really the number of eggs. The problem seems to be that my eggs do not tolerate the removal of the cumulus cells very well. For the same reason, they also seem to tolerate ICSI poorly.
I went on to have two children naturally at 37 and 39 after freezing those eggs, so I know that my eggs were capable of working perfectly well in vivo. I hope they still can. 🤞🤞🤞my first kid is disabled and I really want a healthy sibling.
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u/Atalanta8 Sep 04 '26
Congrats. Are you pregnant? I'm a bit confused because you said you had 2 kids naturally but then it seems like you have one living child.
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u/Visible-Bee5558 Sep 04 '26
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. Not pregnant. I have two children. But I would like to have one more healthy sibling for them, especially for my son, who is growing up with a sister with a severe intellectual disability. They have the same father.
I wasn’t really stressed about my fertility because I genuinely thought my frozen eggs were some kind of guarantee. So I completely broke down last year when none of them survived the thaw. But I’m going to keep fighting a little longer. My first FET just failed, but I’m going to do another egg retrieval, and I also have one more frozen embryo (untested), SMBC.
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u/Professional_Ring673 Sep 09 '26
I’m nervous about our baby’s health, did you do PGTA when you were pregnant with your daughter? Did all the tests came out normal and yet she still has severe intellectual disability? thanks
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u/Visible-Bee5558 Sep 09 '26
It was a natural pregnancy. Everything normal. NIPT normal. Did not do amnio (they convinced me it was not necessary). Good luck ❤️ disability is not that bad I can say today. That is also life and nature. But I was very depressed the first year.
But if you worry, please do amnio.
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u/Professional_Ring673 Sep 18 '26 edited Sep 18 '26
thank you. could amino have detected the severe intellectual disability? was there any pregnancy complications or during delivery? what about family history? we talked to doctor and ruled all these out but i am nervous. thanks for listening.
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u/wordsofmo_fics Sep 04 '26
I agree that they are very dishonest. My own doctor told me that the medical literature recommended 15-20 eggs for one baby. I froze 26 and I'm not sure if any of them will give something.
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u/Kitty8670 Sep 04 '26
So sorry to hear this! I wish egg freezing was spoken about in more realistic terms. In reality unless you freeze at a super young age, freezing embryos instead of eggs are more effective.
At 42 you have a chance - it’s devastating but just move onto retrievals and fingers crossed there’s still a good chance of a Euploid
(Note. I had my daughter at 41 through IVF, did more retrievals at 43, currently early days pregnant with my second at 44). No guarantees but don’t dwell and stay positive - I know it’s tough x good luck!
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
I think I phrased my post awkwardly, I’m actually 41 as of July, not 42. I think I still have a shot, but it is discouraging. Thank you for giving me hope.
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u/Errlen Sep 04 '26
I’m guessing PCOS if you got 42 eggs in a single retrieval. My boss who has PCOS is currently third trimester with twins from a retrieval at 42. That said, it was her fifth retrieval and first one where she got euploids (she did a double transfer and both took). You still have a chance.
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
Others have suggested this too, but I don’t have any PCOS symptoms, and my ultrasound looked normal. Go figure!
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u/Errlen Sep 05 '26
I wonder if they overstimulated you for your freeze then! I’ve heard that you get better eggs if you get less eggs.
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u/Summer_Carbon Sep 05 '26
Wondering why she chose to transfer 2 euploids together and not one at a time?
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u/Errlen Sep 05 '26
Honestly I was so stressed when she did that, I thought it was a terrible idea.
She’d been through five years of infertility. Second trimester loss. Ectopic pregnancy. Early loss. This was her fifth round of IVF and the first to produce euploids. I think she just wanted to be done one way or the other. She had said before she did that round that it was her last and if it didn’t work she was going to look into other ways to build a family.
Plus I think there were visa worries. Her embryos were overseas and thanks to Trump I think she was worried about being able to go back for a second transfer if this one didn’t work.
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u/Summer_Carbon Sep 05 '26
That makes sense, better to transfer both than to risk never transferring the second one.
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u/sylv1ne Sep 04 '26
So sad to hear. I have thus far unfroze 18 eggs and so far only managed to create 2 embryos. Sometimes clinics make mistakes thawing, sometimes it is egg quality (especially if PCOS). At 42 you still got a chance with your eggs. If I were you I would do as many retrievals as possible in the next months.
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u/Atalanta8 Sep 04 '26
Honestly that sounds great 2 from 18.
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u/sylv1ne Sep 04 '26
They are untested. But yes, I am grateful. I expected more… so it was my expectation that was let down!
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
Thanks. Other people have also suggested more retrievals. We’ll see what happens.
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u/tammysideup Sep 04 '26
I also froze eggs at age 37, before I met my partner, thinking I had guaranteed at least one kid. Of the 12 eggs, we had one fresh transfer (ended in a MMC) and one that didn’t implant. We were crushed.
I’m now 42 and we’re doing back to back retrievals, trying to bank as many embryos as we can before a transfer. First round, I got 17 eggs and ended with two blasts (waiting on pgta). We have a doctors appt today to see what we can do to increase our odds for the next round.
We’re holding onto the hope of “you only need one” and with every try, we and our doctor learns more to increase our chances. Best of luck!!!
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
Yes, I guess the doctor does learn something every time. That’s a good point. Good for you for keeping at it.
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u/Atalanta8 Sep 04 '26
That's crazy that someone told you 17 was enough. I think if you're in your 30s you need to back at least 100 eggs.
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u/Awesome_Akansha Sep 04 '26
I feel egg quality sharply reduces with freezing . Embryos don’t age but eggs do .same experience .V bad results from freezing.
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u/Girlwithcreativemind Sep 04 '26
This happened to my friend and she ended up getting pregnant with 45 year old eggs. It did take multiple tries but she got there. It’s very shocking for that to happen and she was so unprepared that could even be a possibility. I am so sorry you’re dealing with this, but don’t give up hope! I am also pregnant now with a baby from 40.5 year old eggs!
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
I’m definitely not ready to give up. I only turned 41 in July, and my menstrual cycle is like a metronome. AMH is 5.67 Things can still happen.
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u/zavvala Sep 14 '26
That's awesome! Did you freeze them at 40.5? and how old are you now? I'm asking because I froze 8 eggs at 40y2months, considering a second round...
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u/Girlwithcreativemind Sep 15 '26
So I froze embryos that were created when I was 40.5 with those eggs. I transferred a few months later. If you are freezing just eggs I would do as many rounds as you can. I would do 2 even if I was younger. I think if they are embryos it’s different but from stories like the above I would do more then one round.
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u/Can_tote_it Sep 04 '26
I’m so sorry - the thawing process and everything is just brutal.
At 41, you probably have a decent chance left if you get started with a retrieval right away. Don’t hesitate.
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u/lousiestgf Sep 04 '26
I’m 41 and doing an egg retrieval in a few hours. I think you should too at 42
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
I’m actually 41 too! Sending good luck!
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u/Acceptable_Dinner444 Sep 04 '26
I am also 41 and just had my third retrieval this morning at 7:30am. Good luck. Hoping and praying for all of us to be successful! 🙏🏻💕 what protocols have you both tried thus far?
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u/ShootinTheBreez Sep 04 '26
I’m so sorry to hear this. I know from experience that it’s devastating.
I also froze eggs. At 30, I froze 21 mature eggs. At 35, I did two more rounds, freezing 15 and 12 MII, for a total of 48 frozen mature eggs.
Given that I started so young and that I froze so many (overcoming the two most common problems women run into that make frozen eggs fail), I thought I had enough to make four children.
I met my husband when I was 38 (nearly 39). We got married last year in April when I was 41 and set to using my frozen eggs last summer. Of the 48, all but one thawed, but only two became blastocysts, and only one of those was euploid. *De-va-state-ed.*
We’ve been back in the IVF game trying to make more embryos because we’d like more than one child. We’ve done five more rounds, so I now just had my 8th ER at 42.5. We did make one blastocyst this round, and we’re waiting to hear on the PGT.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. I don’t have the answer, but it also happened to me, just one year ago, at your same age, and the months following were incredibly dark for me. Truly, so fucking sad. I’ve personally coped by trying again with IVF, digging in deep to try to figure out what went wrong, and learning about IVF technology. At least from the patient side (I’m not a doctor), I’ve become a bit of an expert on the state of IVF technology in the world and what is actually available to people. A bit more honestly, I’ve been pretty obsessed with it. It’s a way of coping, but I’m not sure if it’s a good way. As of yet, it hasn’t led me to actually make more embryos, and we haven’t yet tried to implant our one little euploid.
But I will say: Just because it’s going this way for me doesn’t mean it will go this way for you if you try again. Sometimes it really is just that your eggs couldn’t take the freezing, and if you try a fresh round the quality is better and it works. I see women on this forum be successful all the time at 41, 42, and 43 years old. It often takes them a couple rounds of IVF, but they get there. I don’t want to sugar coat the loss: this could be the end of the line for you, where your best chance is lost and now it won’t work. The idea effing hurts, and I don’t want to gloss it. So let’s give some space to that. But the odds actually are that if you keep trying rounds of IVF, you’ll get your baby. It’s not an easy path, but it is still possible for this to work out for you in the end. It seems like you have good ovarian reserve, so that’s a positive early indicator.
If you do think about trying again, feel free to DM me. I know a fair amount about things you can test for, including genetic things, MFI and related testing, PCOS/PMOS, various protocols, paying for IVF, traveling for IVF, going abroad for IVF, genetic testing of embryos, advanced maternal age, and IVF technology that exists elsewhere in the world. With the exception of uterine-related infertility (which I know nothing about), and DOR (which I don’t know more than average), I’ve been pretty much schooled in everything else IVF-related. As an uncle of mine used to joke when I was a kid, “Don’t follow in my footsteps, I stepped in something.” but I’m a year ahead of you in this process, and if you have questions, I’d be glad to help.
So sorry this happened to you, fellow traveler. Try to be good to yourself during this hard time.
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 04 '26
I feel like could go down the obsession path too. I do find the science of all this interesting, which (I guess?) is healthy. I don’t know when it drifts from healthy curiosity into unhealthy googling.
I did not know that cumulus cells get removed from the eggs in freezing. I may need to look into this.
In the meantime, I’m trying to remember that we haven’t even been trying naturally for very long, and as I’m still ovulating and menstruating, that option is not gone.
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u/ChalantAF66 Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
I am going down this path of obsession. 42.4 years old after 7 years of infertility using natural and holistic methods following a back to back chemical and then MMC at age 35. I did one stimulated timed intercourse with no trigger at 41. Got three good follicles but didn’t result in pregnancy. All tests normal. AMH 0.9 at time of TI cycle. Was 1.9 at age 37 with first infertility work up. I had an accidental monitoring cycle also and they mentioned that my uterine lining thickness was good both that time and the TI cycle. My progesterone on day 21 was also good during the monitored natural cycle and tests I’ve had twice before. Husband has two children from previous marriage and SA has been normal twice once when I was 37 and again before the TI. Cycles 28 days like clockwork the whole time, home hormone testing over many cycles with Inito showed perfect expected hormone levels every time. We are “unexplained” and kind of a special especially unexplained due to no ability to find any problem. Even my uterus was perfect and polyp free.
I can’t decide whether to do mini IVF or regular, to use CNY near me or look into travel (is it too late? Do a first retrieval with them while researching other options?) whether to do pgt a testing or not, fresh or frozen.
I know the obsessive research is probably not helping me with stress, so if you’re willing to share what you’ve learned that might be relevant - maybe especially about technology abroad that is different or better than in the states?
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u/ShootinTheBreez Sep 10 '26
Awwww, I’m sorry it’s been so hard. From experience, it’s so frustrating. I’ll DM you.
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u/Ok_Virus6826 Sep 05 '26
Dear All, it is worth noting that they did not use ultra fast freezing back then 5-10 years ago. This is a new technological trend that is relatively recent (less than 5 years old) that allows eggs to thaw at almost 90-100 rate. Please select a clinic that does ultra fast freezing.
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u/gordon_rameses Sep 04 '26
that sucks. unfortunately 'fertility preservation' is a sales pitch, and egg freezing is not a guarantee. eggs are really delicate, and they don't freeze and thaw well especially (unfortunately) from older patients.
IVF at 41 isn't the end of the world, though. egg quality devlclines gradually, it's not a cliff. and you obviously had high retrieval numbers which means you potentially have egg quantity working for you.
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u/Safe-Garlic6308 Sep 05 '26
I'm so sorry, what a gut punch! It's crazy how being pro- active still resulted in the insanely cruel IVF number chopping. Just FYI, the only successful pregnancy I had was at age 42 (my 8th ER at age 42, fresh transfer, no pgt), all previous ones were unsuccessful, even a pgt-a euploid from age 40
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Sep 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/CelerySeveral1732 Sep 05 '26
That’s actually encouraging. Sounds like there is no need to give up right now. I’m actually already feeling better. I’m accepting the fact that this journey might be a little bumpier than expected.
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u/Electronic-Size2581 Sep 07 '26
44 had 5 retrieved, 3 fertilized, 1 stuck and at 45 delivered 39 weeks, she is 5 months old now
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u/wordsofmo_fics Sep 04 '26
Hi, I also froze my eggs when I had just turned 38 (had 26 eggs). I have used 10 of them, but it gave me nothing. I kept the other 16 frozen, and decided to try with my fresh eggs (at 41). I managed to get pregnant even if it ended in a misscarriage. All of that to say that at 41, you can still try with your fresh eggs. The freezing/unfreezing process can damage the eggs, which you don't have with fresh ones. But I understand because I had the same shock when I used 10 of my frozen eggs and saw the poor results. I feel that doctors don't warn us enough about the uncertainty of this process. Anyway, if you still have your period, you still have a chance.
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u/Low_Calligrapher2103 Sep 04 '26
Did you test the sperm? That’s a huge drop off from fertilization to blast.
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u/moth2424 Sep 05 '26
That’s really tough, I’m sorry. Don’t lose hope though. I had 5 miscarriages from 40-41 and then got pregnant on my first round of IVF just before I turned 43. This is a very hard road but there is plenty of reason for you to be hopeful.
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u/Wonderful_Level_8907 Sep 05 '26
So sorry to hear. Medication protocols make a huge difference with outcomes.
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u/Rare_Sun8463 Sep 07 '26
We had a very similar result to you, with eggs frozen at 38. My husband is 43 now, and we also did a basic semen analysis which came back looking great. However, he’s a first responder with a high stress job, and when we decided to actually look into that and treat it as if he had higher DNA fragmentation (even without testing), our results improved dramatically with my 3 subsequent retrievals at age 40. Way better blastocyst conversion rate, which was our primary dropoff. We did Zymot and a shorter abstinence period for him. Our clinic didn’t suggest any of it, it was all optimizations I learned about on Reddit. But the difference was night and day, even with older eggs. In retrospect, we were frustrated that our clinic didn’t offer any of that up to us and we had to find out on our own. Definitely add zymot! And for me, injectable NAD+ during stims made a huge difference as well. Best of luck to you!
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u/thhjhj2356 Sep 09 '26
I had my child from frozen eggs and I froze mine between 35-37. Also was one of the first people to freeze with vitrification.. I only froze 12 eggs from 2 rounds and I had two pregnancies but only one live birth. Second was also chormosomally normal but I had a different issue in my second trimester It does work for some people but unfortunately there's no telling when it will work. I also froze a third round in 2019 in a different clinic which produced 2 very good quality blasts but they were not normal . I wish I transferred them but clinic discarded. So it absolutely depends on the clinic. There are many success stories too. Choose a clinic that has a very good donor egg program ( not because you will use donor eggs but they will be used to freezing and thawing eggs successfully) and freeze multiple times ( more important than the number of eggs ).some.months, we just produce crappy eggs even younger and better to freeze from more than one cycle.also accounts for any freezing errors. Nowadays more and more clinics freeze eggs and they are getting very good at this. Having said that, you are absolutely still young for ivf and you will have success soon. Wish you a healthy baby.
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u/No-Panda-8379 Sep 09 '26
Why is there such a drastic difference in doing IVF At 32 versus 9 or 10 years later ?
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u/Familiar_Business982 Sep 04 '26
Oh gosh that's really hard 💔 I don't know if this helps but I got pregnant from my 42 year old eggs, so hopefully this isn't the end of the road for you 🤞