At advanced age, especially when women reaches fifty years old, her ovarian reserve is almost depleted. Therefore, the roles of acupuncture and Chinese herbs are changed to improve the uterine lining and implantation for donor egg IVF.
Usually, patients in advanced age still want to carry the babies in them. Uterine lining with enough blood circulation and thickness will increase the chance of donor embryo implantation and further development. It would be a difficult task due to other conditions such as polyps and fibroid or unexplained bleeding during the cause of first trimester.
Patient first starts Birth Control Pills for ten days. At fifth days, she will start taking Lupron for three weeks. Three days after birth control pill is stopped, patient starts to take estrace. Patient will go to fertility clinic for blood work and Ultrasound check of lining. Once the lining is good, she will start adding progesterone injection and stop taking Lupron. After five days taking progesterone, the patient will have embryo transfer which comes from a donor egg fertilization.
Two weeks after the transfer, if the pregnancy test is positive, patient will continue taking progesterone and estrace until 10 weeks.
During the early lining preparation, most patients will have acupuncture twice a week. Some previous miscarriage patient chooses taking Chinese herbs couple of months prior to transfer. After the pregnancy is confirmed, we will alter the formula to support patients until the end of first trimester. Sometimes patient may have bleeding which we view it seriously, herbs has to add in to stop the bleeding to prevent miscarriage. Some patient may have nausea. Usually acupuncture can reduce it plus some herbs if needed.
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