After four retrievals where nearly all embryos arrested before blastocyst, a single 3AB embryo finally led to a healthy 17-week pregnancy at age 42. Cancer and male factor infertility added further complexity to this success.
⚠️ These stories are personal experiences, not medical advice or scientific evidence. Success stories are more likely to be shared than unsuccessful ones, so they should not be interpreted as proof that a treatment works. Always discuss treatment decisions with your doctor.
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📊 Story Snapshot
👩 Age: 39📆 Years trying: 4
🧬 Embryo: Day 5 3AB
🧪 Retrievals: 4
🐣 Transfers: 1
💊 Diagnosis: Cancer, Male factor infertility
📈 Outcome: Pregnant at 17 weeks (age 42)
I met my lovely partner at 35. We had a lovely few years just the two of us and at 38 we started trying for a baby.
I had frozen my eggs a few months into our relationship (at 35) as I had already started the process and who knows how things will work out!
The protocol didn’t work, I wasn’t monitored well and out of 17 follicles only 5 grew to the correct size and out of 5 I had 4 mature eggs. I was very upset. But accepted I had 4 good eggs. Then off we went to live our lives.
We tried naturally (at 38) for 9 months. No joy. I went for all the checks. All were normal. I went to have my womb checked and the doctor saw something pushing into my uterus. I had a 7cm tumour in my bladder. It was cancer. I was devastated.
I had surgery to remove the tumour and immunotherapy treatment over the next year. They told me it was highly recurrent and that I might end up having to remove my bladder, uterus, cervix, part of vagina, ovaries and fallopian tubes as it had a high chance of spreading. We started to explore surrogacy.
I was told to freeze embryos. We began this process.
I managed 5 eggs on that first cycle at 39. They all made it to day three but none made it to blast. We discovered we had sperm issues. Very high DNA fragmentation. My partner had the TESE operation. So we went for another cycle and retrieved 4 eggs. 1 made it to a 5 day blast 3ab and was frozen.
I took a break and continued to recover from my cancer. Then at 41 I was given the all clear to go for transfer. I decided to thaw my 35 year old eggs and try to make blasts. I was so optimistic about them, they were my little insurance policy long before cancer came my way. Unfortunately none of them survived the thaw. I was devastated again.
We decided to do another round of ivf to try and bank another blast. We only had one and I was afraid that wouldn’t take.
This round failed. At this stage I was nearly 42. I still had mature eggs and the dr recommended one last go. No blasts again! We were so upset. I couldn’t go through another egg collection. The expense and disappointment was too much to bear.
We prepped for our one and only embryo transfer at 42.5 years old. I found it all so stressful. I was so used to failure it was hard to be optimistic.
The embryo defrosted well and in it went. The TWW was awful. So long. But we got our positive in the end. I couldn’t believe it. The next 6 weeks went so slowly. We had our viability scan at 6+ 4 and saw the little flicker of the heart. It was amazing!
I had a massive bleed at 9 weeks and thought it was all over. But my little one was fine.
I’m now 17 weeks and baby is doing great. Growing healthy and well. I’ll be 43 when the baby is born.
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