Many fertility clinics promise that only they can help you get pregnant, but if you’re an older woman wanting a baby are clinics really realistic about your chances of success?
The truth is that IVF in women aged 43 and above, using their own eggs, largely fails. It’s not because the treatment isn’t suitable, but that in women of this age group there tend to be so few quality eggs, standard IVF just isn’t appropriate.
Of course it doesn’t mean that IVF with your own eggs isn’t possible, but here at Manchester Fertility we tend not to treat older women age 43 and over with IVF using their own eggs, because we know the outcome is very likely to be negative.
Some women of course will still want to go through treatment in spite of these poor odds. And there are lots of reasons that couples may want treatment that are completely unrelated to a woman’s age, such as problems with a partner’s fertility such as sperm disorders.
Although ovarian reserve tests can help us understand how many eggs you have if any, we don’t rely on them as an indication of whether IVF will be successful, and we always consider ‘the whole picture’ before we accept anyone for treatment.
Because we will not put couples through the emotional rollercoaster of IVF if we don’t think it will work. As a team we look at the likely outcome and make a decision with you about the best way forward that will give you a family.
And usually that would be using a donor egg for pregnancy, for which we now have no waiting list. There will of course always be some women for whom IVF with their own eggs is possible at this age, but these women are few and far between and generally your chances of pregnancy are a lot higher if you are willing to use a donor egg.
At Manchester Fertility we have always been open and honest with all of our patients and we will always reach any decision about treatment in full consultation with you.
Last updated: 4th October 2019
