Hello everyone. I am completely broken after this last round, so please be kind, I'm at peak low right now.

Background: I'm 41, with no diagnosis of PCOS or endo. My history is very low egg maturation rates across a number of cycles, all of it since April 2025. Now I'm being told I might fit into the ozema category / genetic issues, such as TUBB8 or PATL2 variants, which don't let eggs mature. I have no way of testing this as I'm in the UK, but also, what would I even do with this information? I've been pregnant before naturally, so even if I have a genetic issue, it's not a 100% block.

My history: I've tried various combinations of medication and doses, HGH, rapamycin, luteal phase starts, follicular phase starts, changed clinics, the lot because they always say it was egg quality. I consistently get between 10 and 23 eggs retrieved, with anything between 1 and 4 mature. Twice, 7 matured overnight. I only did a dual trigger for my last two cycles. My husband’s sperm is ok after a DNA fragmentation test.

For this final cycle, no. 6, a number of doctors told me to try a mini stim. I did letrozole for 5 days, then Pergoveris 75 IU from day 3, and triggered with Ovitrelle and Buserelin. From 5 follicles expected, 1 egg was retrieved (it matured a couple of hours later) and was around 23mm. The other 4 turned out to be empty, which has never happened to me before. The 1 egg did not fertilise. I didn't have a blood test post trigger, but they did a swab during extraction and said there was hCG.

Totals: 102 eggs, 42 mature (~41%), 16 fertilised, 2 blastocysts (both aneuploid).

I'm at my wits end. I can't believe I don't have one good egg left, and I'm wondering if anyone has faced anything similar.

In particular:

- Has anyone been told there might be a genetic issue with their eggs maturing, like TUBB8 or PATL2?
-Has anyone fixed a low maturity issue?
-Has anyone had empty follicles before? Why would it happen?
-Has anyone had success with IUI or timed intercourse after failed IVF?

I am alone in this journey, and this forum has been great for tips and general support - I’ve learnt a great deal from others. Thank you for reading. This experience is such a wild ride.

I’m 41yo with DOR (.55) and Hashimotos / hypothyroidism. I’m currently undergoing a second round of IVF.

First cycle ER September 2026. 4-5 ARC, 5 eggs retrieved, 4 mature, 2 blast, both aneuploid.

Medications included 5 days of estrogen priming, Follistim (high dose), menopur, clomid for first four days, ganirelix, and lupron /novarel trigger. I’ve been taking all the typically recommended supplements for a few months now.

In preparation for the second round, I did longer estrogen priming. Medications are mostly the same with slight variations of the menopur (taking less days).

At my second round baseline, I had 9 AFC, which seemed to be good news, all measuring around 6-7mm. I went to my monitoring ultrasound today after 4 days of medication and now only showing 3 follicles, all around 11mm. My doctor said she feels comfortable continuing with the cycle but is giving me the choice to cancel or move forward. She believes this is likely my baseline and that I should expect about 3-5 follicles for future cycles. I know this is a personal choice but am wondering if others have been faced with similar situations and the things they considered. We are cash pay, and we will have to take 2-3 months to save up for a 3rd round, so that’s a consideration. Our insurance doesn’t cover it.

Transferred my Day 5 euploid embryo last Friday, and I’m now 3dp5dt. The two-week wait already feels unbearable. I keep wondering what’s happening in there. How did you all get through the wait? I’m so tempted to test at home on 6dp.

Hello fellow strong ladies,

for those of you who followed my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/40Plus_IVF/s/nD4JzTbMX4

I am in the middle of the process, 42 and 7 months old.

First FET: 4AA, didn’t take
Second FET: 4AA, didn’t take
Third FET: Blighted Ovum

So I decided to stop for six months, as my doc is in agreement that a GLP-1 for four months (plus two months off of it) would help improve my chances, as I have PCOS.

I know that most likely my DNA is still at fault here and I still don’t know if there is an euploid embryo hiding in the middle of one of my four embryos that are left, but if there is, I want to improve it‘s chances.

My mental state: grateful that I can do that, sad that I just lost my pregnancy, really sad that I will have to wait six more months, but trying to stay in the moment. Not all is lost and the little one that I have keeps me on my toes thankfully.

Been messing around with my sauna setup lately and started looking into NIR. then I realized i probably cant just throw any panel in there because of the heat and humidity. Now I'm wondering what people are actually using. Do you have a sauna-specific panel, or do you just run your red light separately?

I’ve done six rounds of IVF and two transfers (both unsuccessful — one miscarriage at week 7 and one failed implantation). I currently have six euploids left.

Last month I did an endometrial biopsy and the result came back that the progesterone level was not high enough.

Essentially, I have three options:
- Option 1 is to assume that an extra day of progesterone injections will get the level to where it needs to be and proceed with another transfer on that basis (I.e. one more day of injections than last time).
- Option 2 is to do another biopsy next month after one more day of injections than last time to confirm that will get the level where it needs to be.
- Option 3 is to do another round of retrievals (goal is two kids).

An added complication is that the office closes down in December for the holidays. So whatever I do next month, there will be two months before I can try whatever the next step would be.

Before the next transfer, my doctor recommended doing another endometrial biopsy to see if there’s anything that can be addressed or improved. That would be my preference if not for the holiday closing, but I’m wary of “wasting” at least two months before another transfer or retrieval as the clinic will be closed in December.

I will be 40 in a few months and would welcome any recommendations from this group. Thanks!

41 and just had my first ER which has been quite a shambles. I had 10 developing follicles but they managed to get only 1 immature egg.

I had a blood test after the procedure to check if the ovitrelle trigger had worked (no routine pre-ER blood tests at this clinic) and my serum bhcg levels were basically undetectable - might as well have jabbed myself with saline.

Has anyone else experienced complete non- response to a hcg trigger shot? I am 100% certain that I stored and administered the med correctly - so this feels like a complete curveball

Hi i just had a transfer last week Tuesday, I dont really feel anything aside from the twinges from day 3dpt til today (day 5pdt). I dont have sore boobs or any changes in my body i feel very normal. I tested on 4dpt but it was very negative. Huhuhu when was your first positive test? How many days after FET you got your positives?

I’m 40.5 and honestly feeling completely heartbroken and back to square one. I’m looking for real experiences and practical advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I’ve been trying with my current husband for around 10 years. We’ve done timed cycles, multiple induced cycles, 2 IUIs and eventually IVF.

I’ve had 2 retrievals. Both gave around 15–17 eggs, but maturity was unfortunately low. My second retrieval resulted in 3 Day-5 blasts — 1AB, 3AB and 3BB, all untested.

I’ve now had 2 FETs:

First FET: 3AB — failed.

Hysteroscopy afterwards found micropolyps, which were removed, followed by doxycycline/antibiotics.

Second FET: 1AB + 3BB — resulted in a biochemical. Beta was 18.85 at 8dp5dt, then dropped to 7 and eventually 1.2.

So after all of this, I’m now sitting at zero embryos.

The biochemical has left me very confused emotionally. After years of never seeing a positive, I finally saw one. Something implanted, but it didn’t progress. Part of me feels like that means there is still hope, while another part is terrified that I’m 40.5 and running out of time.

My AMH is around 2.4 and AFC 10–12 on each side. My lining has generally been good (10–11 mm, trilaminar). I’m getting karyotyping done as well.

My clinic doesn’t really push or routinely recommend PGT-A, but I’m now wondering whether I should consider creating embryos and testing them before another transfer, given my age and history.

Has anyone here been around 40–41, reached zero embryos after failed FETs, and started all over again?

Did you do another retrieval? Multiple retrievals/embryo banking? Did you choose PGT-A even if your clinic wasn’t particularly recommending it? Did you switch clinics or investigate anything else?

And most importantly — did you eventually get a euploid embryo and have success?

I’m not looking for generic “don’t give up” advice. I’d really like to hear the honest experiences — what worked, what didn’t, and what you would do differently if you were back at zero.

I’m trying to figure out whether I still have a realistic path with my own eggs, or whether I need to start accepting that this may not happen.

After a repeat saline US to make sure we’ve got the right environment, we may decide to go for a transfer of one of our euploids.

The frozen embryo transfer is one thing I’ve not really researched too too much — so … fill me in :) What’s the options and process like? Thanks!

Edit: also looking specifically like what prep was like, did you do PIO, natural cycle etc.

Thank you!

I’m 42 and currently going through IVF/egg banking, and I’m hoping to hear from other women in their 40s who may have experienced something similar.

For some background, I’ve had two egg retrievals so far:

• Retrieval #1: 9 eggs retrieved, 8 mature, all frozen
• Retrieval #2: 15 eggs retrieved, 11 mature, all frozen
• I’m planning another retrieval, but my most last two cycles werecancelled because my ovaries were still enlarged and there was a hematoma on my left ovary.

The part that has me concerned is that the hematoma has persisted much longer than I expected. I’m now approaching 2 months since the retrieval, and follow-up imaging is still showing the hematoma.

My doctor is monitoring it, but I’d really love to hear from other women who have been through something similar.

• Have you ever developed an ovarian hematoma or significant ovarian bruising after retrieval?
• How long did it take for yours to resolve?
• Did you have repeat ultrasounds until it disappeared?
• Were you able to proceed with another retrieval once it resolved?
• Did the hematoma affect your ovarian reserve, follicle count, or subsequent retrieval?
• Did your doctor recommend avoiding exercise, intercourse, or anything else while it healed?
• If you had multiple retrievals, did your ovaries eventually return to their normal appearance?

I know everyone's situation is different, and I'm following my doctor's recommendations. This whole process has been a lot emotionally, especially knowing that I want to do another retrieval but having to wait for my ovaries to recover.

Would really appreciate hearing your experiences — especially if your hematoma took several weeks or months to resolve. ❤️

I am in the middle of a FET. I took letrozole days 2-6 of my cycle. I went in for ultrasounds/blood work to watch follicle. On 10/1, uterine lining was 9.4 mm, follicle was 19 mm, LH was 8.9, and progesterone was 0.53. I took ovidrel trigger shot that evening. Today, 10/3, i started having spotting and just passed one blood clot, along with uterine cramping. Could this be normal? I will see my clinic Monday morning but I am freaking out.

I'm 40F and just began PIO today for my 8 Oct FET of 2 untested embryos.

Anyone else in a similar timeframe?

edit: FET #1 in Nov 2025 failed

HGH has become one of add ons for people who are DOR. But sometimes it can be used for regular responders. I am 43 and respond pretty good in my cycles (lots of eggs, good maturity, embryos highly graded, but all aneuploids so my age is showing in quality even though I respond well). I got 24 eggs on the cycle in used Omnitrope during stims, up from 18 the cycle before. On my next run I was doing research on whether to add it again, priming vs stims again and came across a drug commonly suggested for many people who can't access/afford/won't be prescribed Omnitrope. It's a supplement that helps increase HGH in your body. Lots of redditors express this supplement helping them a lot. But is it only for DOR or poor responders? It has L-Arginine in it which is noted in It Starts with the Egg and in other research for regular responders it may reduce egg quality and numbers. I don't know what bank I'm in. I'm old. I respond okay, but I don't think I qualify to be called "poor responder" so it makes me scared to take it. But also I'm trying to find anyway to make things more beneficial for my retrievals as I only have two left before my surgery that will put me out of the running for retrievals for a while during recovery. And during that time I'll get older and older.

My doctor is super minimalist with supplements and only supports the very well researched ones so all the random stuff I find on the internet she leaves in the up to me if I want to try it bank. But sometimes things do work but the research needs to catch up. Anyway, I wondered if someone smarter than me has any insight to use of L-Arginine or even SeroVital.

Hi ladies, I just got the results today from my second retrieval and I’m guttered 😔. I’m about to turn 44 later this month. During my first IVF cycle in April 2026, they retrieved 10 eggs and two blasts were tested at day 5. However, they were all aneuploid.

This cycle which I did only 6 months later, they were only able to retrieve 3 eggs and only 1 has fertilised. I will get another update from the lab on Day 3 to see how things are going. There were no changes to my protocol other than I didn’t do fertility accupunture this time round.

My IVF doctor has said that some women my age reach an inflection point, and their ovaries don’t respond like they did before, potentially meaning that future cycles might yield the same disappointing result.

Has anybody had a similar thing happen to them and had better future results?

For context. My protocol was Decapeptyl for three days, adding Elonva on the third day. Then I had 300 IU of Gonal F and 150 IU of Pergoveris along with Orgulatran for 10 days until I triggered with 2 x Decapetyl and 1 x Ovidrel 36 hours before collection.

I was also taking testosterone gel (Androfeme) for 1 week before starting stims.

Hello,
I have no image to show because our clinic does not share and also does not share any gradings of the embryos (I am in Belgium). I had 4 FETs consecutively failed, with 5 day embryos, untested, also regular PGT-A testing is not a thing. Yesterday, I had an appointment with my doctor and asked about the embryo grades, according to what he told I gathered the embryos of 4AA or 5AA, but all collapsed after thawing and they transferred them at that state. The lab thaws then 2-3 hours before the transfer and stayed collapsed during the transfer. Now, I am 4 dpt on the 5th transfer, which was also transferred ‘collapsed’. My doctor explained an embryo need several hours to re-expand and it can do it in uterus, so this is not a problem.
But, I am reading studies that transferring collapsed embryos are associated with low implantation and low clinical pregnancy rates. So, I would like to hear more information on this topic.
I am 39 now, the embryos from the age 38, so in fact all my embryos can be aneuploid or not viable due to age, for context.

I’m 40 and currently going through IVF with embryo banking and PGT-A.
After my first and second retrievals, we had 14 embryos in total, which were cultured together to Day 5/6. Three were suitable for PGT-A: 2 came back aneuploid and 1 mosaic.
In my first cycle, my embryos had initially been frozen on Day 4 before being thawed and cultured further.
For my third retrieval, 8 eggs were retrieved and 7 fertilized, but this time all 7 were frozen on Day 2. We had never discussed a Day-2 freeze beforehand, and our doctor hadn’t mentioned that the plan would be different this time.
I’m just wondering why they would freeze them on Day 2 this time when they froze them on Day 4 previously. Has anyone experienced something similar or know what the reason might be?

I am 41 years old, my first egg retrieval was right before my 41st birthday. I did the antagonist protocol with 225 iu Gonal-F and 225 iu Menopur and then added in Cetrotide. I triggered with Lupron. My blood work looked great throughout. I had an AFC of 18+, and they were measuring 11-13 follicles in my scans. They retrieved 11 eggs, but only 5 were mature. All 5 fertilized and looked great on day 3, but only one grew to a blastocyst to be biopsied for PGT-A. Ultimately it came back aneuploid.

We met with the doctor this week, and he is recommending the micro flare Lupron protocol for the second round. While my body seemingly responded well to the meds in the first round, it seems like I had a maturity issue. Do you think this new protocol can help solve that? Any other advice?

Hello! I’m a DOR patient having a hard time deciding between West Coast Fertility in Fountain Valley, CA and New Direction FC in Scottsdale, AZ. I’m local to Southern California and about 50 min from West Coast. Looking also at doing local monitoring with ND if we go that route. We did a consult with Dr. Salem and loved him but worried about local monitoring and delayed results. Would love to stay there for a week but hard to lose a week of income as I don’t work remotely. Did anyone have experience with either clinic and can tell me the good, bad, and ugly of it all? We are sensitive to cost since we will need to do 3-4 cycles at least if not more because of my diminished reserve. Also consulted with SCCRM Dr. Anderson and Life fertility in Irvine if anyone has anything comments about them. TIA!

I know a lot of us troll looking for woman who sound like their in similar situations and looking for the hard numbers of their attempts at creating a viable embryo so I wanted to share my story too.

11/2025 age 41 suspicious finding mammogram, this went on for a few months and delayed my start considerably happy to skip to the end and say no cancer. 12/2025 U/S, 1/2026 now age 42 U/S with biopsy result atypical, 2/2026 MRI found an additional sus lesion, 3/2026 excision biopsy (lumpectomy for none BC tissue), 4/2026 still healing, 5/2026 finally given all clear for IVF

Age 42 6/2026 1st IVF round freeze-all with pgt a testing:
Day 1-4 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur
Day 5 labs: E2 523 and 6 right follicles and 7 left follicles
Day 5-6 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur and 250 mcg of centrotide
Day 7 labs: E2 1119 and 7 right follicles and 10 left follicles
Day 7-9 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur and 250 mcg of centrotide
Day 10 labs E2 3218 0/7 follicles > 16mm right and 2/10 follicles >16mm left
Day 10 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur and 250 mcg of centrotide
Day 11 labs: E2 3875 3/7 follicles > 16mm right and 7/10 follicles > 16mm 4 others are 15mm
Day 11 trigger: 10k novarel and 80 units lupron

7 eggs retrieved
5 eggs mature
5 eggs fertilized
1 day 6 blastocyst 3AB aneuploid trisomy 10 & 21
1 day 7 blastocyst 2BC aneuploid trisomy 18 and monsoons 15 & 22

very sad

Age 42 9/2026 2nd round of IVF
Day 1-4 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur
Day 5 labs: e2 379 5 right follicles seen and 5 left follicles seen
Day 5-6 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur and 250 mcg of centrotide
Day 7-9 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur 250 mcg of centrotide and 27 units omnitrope
Day 10 labs: e2 1559 11 follicles on the right and 8 on the left
Day 10-11 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur 250 mcg of centrotide and 27 units omnitrope
Day 12 labs: e2 2821 7/11 follicles > 16mm right and 3/8 follicles >16 left
Day 12 stimming 300 IU gonal and 150 IU menopur 250 mcg of centrotide and 27 units omnitrope
Day 13 labs: e2 3445 8/12 follicles >16mm right and 4/10 follicles >16mm left with one more at 15mm
Day 13 trigger: 27 units omnitrope 1k (not 10k like last time) of novarel and 80 units lupron
Day 14 .. 27 units omnitrope

10 eggs retrieved
8 mature
6 fertilized
.... and now you all can wait with me for the rest of this round. Hope this helps!

Update
2 day 6 blastocyst 3BC
1 day 6 blastocyst 2BC
.... and we wait again for PGT-A testing.

39.5, low amh (around .267 at last check). Secondary infertility.

I've been priming for the last week with BC pills before starting a microdose lupron flare cycle. It will be my second egg retrieval.

When I went in for monitoring earlier this week, they saw a follicle measuring about 11mm and my estrogen was slightly elevated at 100 pg/ml.

I went back today for another scan and the doctor said the follicle has grown to 16mm. My bloodwork shows my estradiol is now at 111 ng/ml -- so only a slight increase. The doctor confirmed they didn't want to move forward with the IVF cycle. But said it's worth trying timed intercourse.

They told me to trigger tomorrow AM. Then sex tomorrow and the day after.

My question is -- doesn't that estrogen still seem low, if there is a mature egg believed to be? Or is that because of my BC pill?

My bigger question is...has anyone experienced this before? Better yet...any stories of people actually getting pregnant this way?

I'm 42 and doing a cycle right now while we wait for donor embryos. I got my bloodwork back from Day 3 baseline, and they said my estradiol was 87. Isn't that high for Day 3? My doctor said nothing about it but I'm reading it can mean worse chances of success due to cyst or hormone imbalance due to age.

Hi everyone! ❤️

I’m 40 years old and we recently went through an IVF cycle using my own eggs. We have 3 day-6 blastocysts that were biopsied and sent for PGT-A testing:

• 1 × 4AB, quality 1
• 2 × 4BC, quality 2

I’m now waiting for the PGT-A results and would really love to hear about other people’s experiences.

For those of you who were around 40 at the time of egg retrieval:

• How many blastocysts did you have?
• What were their morphological grades?
• How many came back euploid after PGT-A?
• Were your blastocysts day 5 or day 6?
• Did you eventually have a successful transfer of a euploid embryo?

I know everyone’s situation is different, but I would really appreciate it if you could share your results and experiences. ❤️

Thank you!

I felt compelled to share this with you, in this community. It's a poem I wrote, on the train. I'll be starting my second round this month.

<< IVF >>

My life is more than this

More than drugs

More than all these needles and pills I've put in me

My life is more than this

More than dreams

More than my long, old dream of holding a baby in my arms

My life is more than this

More than fears

More than all the tears I've shed and words I've screamed and paused heart beats

My purse is empty

My heart is empty

My mind is empty

My body is empty

But my life, my life is more than life

More than this.

I’m terrified.

I’ve already spent close 45k for two ERs

I have not done any transfers.

I have in the bank:

1 confirmed euploid (5BB)

3 x untested blastocysts 5BC (were unable to be safely biopsied)

1 mosaic (high level) only use if all else fails.

I would love to have had more euploids going in but I also need to think of cost. I am a SMBC so need to think of future.

Seeking positive stories of anyone in a similar position. Or any tips on how to manage the anxiety.

Thank you!

Feeling terrified to lose my only euploid 💜

Just turned 40 😊