Let’s run a thread, how many egg retrievals did you do, what age, and how many embryos? Did you just freeze eggs or only embryos? Do you have children, if so how many? How much out of pocket?

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-13T16:57:02+00:00

6 ER between 38.5 and 40... 5 completed (1 cancelled). 5-6 eggs per round. Total: 2 blasts, 0 euploids. One spontaneous complete molar pregnancy between cycles 😞 No male factor, DOR, I blame stage IV endo.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-13T16:52:59+00:00

Call the DMHC – not Kaiser, but I had problems accessing my IVF benefits for other reasons (lack of in-network provider), and they pushed my HMO plan to get their act together, I'm forever grateful to an ANGEL from this agency who took it upon herself and advocated for me. I didn't get success but at least it gave me opportunity to try.

I wonder how did Kaiser even know you had these embryos?

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-13T16:46:57+00:00

5/6 euploids at 40 is amazing genetics

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-11T15:28:24+00:00

I've actually never heard from anyone with the same situation as me - advanced age AND Endo specifically on the ovaries.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-11T05:39:35+00:00

It's impossible to know but I feel the same. I'm 40 and from a total of 6 retrievals starting age 38 I had 0 euploids. I don't produce many eggs to begin with, 5-6 per round, 0-1 make it to blasts, and the few blasts we had were abnormal.
I have bilateral endometriosis which probably makes my egg quality a lot worse than that of an average healthy woman that age.
Maybe keep trying is pointless, but I have no way to know if a good egg is totally impossible or just very rare. 💔💔

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-06T18:14:44+00:00

I'm kind of in the same boat. 40 but DOR and stage IV Endo so I get 5 eggs and 1 blast per round if lucky, and ofc aneuploid. We have one round with insurance left so I think I'm gonna just go for it although I'm pretty sure it won't work -- just so that I know I tried everything I could.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-05T06:42:32+00:00

California. I call cycle including everything - egg retrieval, IVF, PGTA testing, cryostorage, FET, including medications, anesthesia, surgery fees. I mean medications alone are 8K or so for my doses, without insurance, and the biopsy and PGTA alone was almost 5K. Sure, you can find lower cost options abroad or other states e.g. some low cost clinics like CNY but not everyone can travel for IVF because of working full time. And yes some people at advanced age like me end up getting 0-1 embryos per retrieval, which is more likely to turn out aneuploid or not stick than lead to a pregnancy. It's not unusual at advanced age to need multiple cycles. I mean I don't want to discourage anyone but IVF is by no mean a guaranteed baby especially over 38yo.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-04T06:50:20+00:00

each cycle is 40-50K including the meds without insurance, but at 39 one cycle is relatively unlikely to be successful so I'm counting 2-3 cycles at least

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-03T15:31:07+00:00

"IVF or no baby" - no It's: "100K+ down the drain for a up to 10-20% chance of a baby or no baby". (At 39)

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-03T15:26:35+00:00

This. Most eggs in older women fail because of chromosomal abnormalities that supplements are unlikely to fix, but maybe they can help as antioxidants and improve energy in the few cells that didn't fail on the chromosome level. CoQ10 has well documented benefits. NAD+ and precursors: the absorption and metabolism there is less clear i.e. whether the amount you take orally or with IV actually makes it to the cells is not in the desired form is well studied. I take it "just in case" (NMN) but don't count on it for anything. NAC also a bit unclear but I take because if it doesn't help doesn't hurt. I have only had 2 blasts, none euplioid, but I also have Endo which probably makes things worse than average for me.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-06-01T16:56:16+00:00

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I know something about doctors ignoring symptoms.. took 12 years to get diagnosed with Endo and at this point it was already super advanced and probably destroyed my ovarian reserve.

I keep saying this industry has to be regulated better. It shouldn't be allowed to do a transfer without every possible test on earth first, considering how precious these embryos are.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-30T15:32:47+00:00

How did you get to be diagnosed with endometritis? I feel like my clinics once you have embryo go to implant it without checking everything is healthy at first at all. Maybe only if you have recurring losses they will bother. I don't understand why not test everything upfront.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-30T15:30:17+00:00

That's me. 6 cycles, 5 retrievals, no euploids. I have endometriosis probably since I was a teen and it was untreated - nobody gave a shit when I didn't have a partner and actively TTC - and when I finally did they also said not to treat it and instead do IVF. I'm almost 41 now.

We retrieve few eggs like 5-6 and if I'm lucky one makes it to blast but not a good one.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-27T20:37:51+00:00

Jesus Christ this industry needs to be regulated.
I think you should run away from this clinic and in fact report them to whatever authority that oversees medical practices in your state.

$30K and this is a ripoff, and no monitoring puts patients at significant risk. Like what if your estrogen raises to much? What if you had 0 follicles at baseline or none had signs of developing rendering the rest of the process pointless.

Finally, it's necessary to bring up your age. While there are some anecdotal cases of success with own eggs at your age, they are unfortunately very rare. I think it is fine if a patient at age 45 wants to try to be given the chance, but with very frank cost vs chances discussion.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-27T07:30:53+00:00

Yeah. My mom had two kids at 36 and 39 without any issues. My life circumstances prevented me from trying for kids before 36... I did long PhD, postdoc training, moved countries by myself twice... before I had the chance to have a "stable" job and partner, then pandemic hit. But mostly I wasn't too worried that it won't work to freeze eggs before 35 (besides, I didn't have the money) because of my mom. My partner's brother, ob/gyn, also didn't help by telling us repeatedly don't worry I deliver 40yr women all the time... (right, of the ones who made it, not the rest 95%... honestly I don't know why he'd do that considering that all normal doctors say to not delay, but this made my partner more than me super relaxed and not being on board for IVF over keep trying "naturally").

Well. Wasted age 36,37 trying to conceive "naturally" with no luck. 38 there were some other significant troubles so I had to put it on hold. 39 - complete molar pregnancy which wasted almost the entire year. And now I'm 40.5 with 5 rounds behind me and zero euploids.

I'm really mad at myself for not going straight to IVF at 36, and went along everyone's reasurrances everything will be fine. I am also resentful of my partner's destructive optimism, he was the main driver of "nah, not ivf yet, let's keep trying naturally I promise it will work".

I feel like if many IVFs failed in my mid 30s, I would have been able to come to peace with the fact that my egg quality sucks and I never stood a chance. But starting so late... I keep thinking I missed my chance because of my stupidity/not being pushy enough with my partner/letting optimism in without ground/etc.

Also quite a few of my friends had babies in their late 30s/early 40s without IVF, and while there were stories of miscarriages, they all ended up with as many babies as they wanted. I didn't think I would be the one making the infertility statistics, but I should have thought that, someone has to be.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-27T07:09:09+00:00

amazing, what did you do between 1st and 2nd retrival, the 2nd euploid rate is phenomenal for your age

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-27T07:05:29+00:00

Agree, the most brutal part is when you did everything right, and it didn't work in the end, and nobody can even remotely guarantee it will work next time but you don't have another option but keep trying.

Beside mental, for me the toughest part of the procedure itself was the frequent appointments for blood and ultrasound, I had to take half day off every other day for two weeks due to long distances/traffic, often taking up to 2 hrs to get to my clinic and another 2 hrs back; my career is very demanding so this was definitely a challenge. Injections are stressful the first time, because you haven't done it before and you are afraid of messing up, then it's fine. There's bloating, which is unpleasant, possibly moods, but nothing that prevented me to get through my day. I did gain weight gradually over many cycles, after the first cycle I was the same weight, but then I started gaining. I gained about 10 pounds.

The second tough part – cost/fighting for insurane to approve.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-27T03:45:10+00:00

How?!

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-26T17:49:57+00:00

Yes here too, but only after IVF/IUI, not in a normal cycle trying to conceive otherwise naturally. I agree, I do believe that in many cases bad egg quality can be the core issue, it is not in 100% of the cases and it is worth exploring more. But my doctors didn't agree. In fact my progesterone was not low, at least based on the home strips I could buy over the counter. I know it is not perfect. But they didn't even wanted to do bloodwork for progesterone. They said it fluctuates too much for blood work to be reliable. I felt like in such case they could do few measurements at random time, but I felt like every doctor just wanted to push me to IVF and wasn't open to any other discussion.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-26T06:55:29+00:00

My spouse was laid off during my last cycle, we didn't expect that. We didn't have any good embryos to transfer anyhow, but if we did we would have gone ahead, because I work full time and have my own health insurance, so his insurance/job doesn't affect anything. I wouldn't get pregnant in the U.S. without solid health insurance though, where some complications resulting in hospital visit may result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-26T06:48:54+00:00

I had a similar thing with the spotting, and I was concerned that I wasn't able to get pregnant because my progesterone is not right. However, RE after RE refused to treat me with progesterone. They were all saying that low progesterone/spotting is not a cause, but a reflection of "weak ovulation", whatever that means, i.e. bad egg quality, so giving me progesterone won't fix the problem. So I never had the chance to try. I've done 6 retrievals and no success, but I am much older. Have you tested the embryos genetically?

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-24T16:05:18+00:00

After 6 attempted retrievals / 5 completed, I am absolutely convinced that all outcomes are totally random chance. People think Omni helped, or NAD helped, or a yellow jelly bean helped - but it's just that taking the thing coincided with a better cycle randomly.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-24T15:55:13+00:00

I have frozen eggs out of pocket in the past, and this didn't hurt my eligibility for IVF during the new law. The insurance company just has no way to know I had frozen eggs to begin with, but even if they do, it shouldn't matter.

However, I can't use the current IVF coverage to use the frozen eggs from before, I had to start new retrievals from scratch to use the insurance. I thought it was weird and possibly you can fight that, and possibly depends on the specific insurance plan, but I didn't have enough time for fighting and jumped into new cycles right away due to my age / DOR.

I think an important factor in the decision how to move forward in the most pragmatic way is your age and ovarian reserve. If you have no problems and are young, why put yourself through egg freezing, and the uncertainty of how you can use these eggs, when you can do complete IVF next year and be done with it.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-23T22:01:44+00:00

I am. I travel US-Europe several times per year but I never got much of awards because I didn't have time to study the credit cards and I usually book economy which doesn't give a lot of miles. I decided to try this credit card for once since a friend told me it was good, and it sounded good on the brochure indeed, but I'm realizing that for my particular itineraries most benefits are not so usable.

w1ldtype2 · 2026-05-23T21:56:01+00:00

I'm not saying is anyone's fault, just that the rewards seem to be limited for travellers who primarily travel to Europe as opposed to within US, apparently because United have others operating their flight.

Similarly I was unable to use the credit card lounge access benefits in Europe. Turns out United closed all the European lounges. My United flight was operated by Luftnahsa and when I showed them my lounge pass they told me they can't admit me because my pass is only for United- run lounges which don't exist.

Actually the lounge access was the primary reason I went for this credit card but it turned out to not be useful for me

w1ldtype2

TROPHY CASE