Low AMH & IVF

[bucksfizz1]

I've just had some bad news from my IVF clinic. My anti-mullarian hormone test (AMH) level came back as 2.4, considered very poor and potentially great difficulty with me getting to respond to IVF drugs. Obviously I'm totally gutted - I'm 34 so they said that might help. I guess what I'm wondering is if there are ladies out there who have had similar low AMH (but all other hormone levels in normal range). Did your IVF work? Did you respond? I feel like my chances are gone before I've even started. Thank you

[hairylights]

I have a relative who had lower amh than that and for whom ivf worked first time, and she was forty. There is always hope.

[TooTiredtoGoogle]

I had a low AMH and was told the same as you. All my other hormone levels were normal. Fortunately, the clinic I was at had just started doing "natural cycle IVF" - this is where you don't take any drugs to stimulate ovaries, they just monitor when you're going to ovulate, collect a single egg and fertilise that egg.
It took us 3 cycles to get pregnant.
I'm 40 btw.

Good luck

[DuelingFanjo]

I had amh about as low as that (I was almost 40) and was successful with IVF, you just need one good egg. I managed to get 4 embryos from around 8 eggs (I forget) and they were able to put 2 in. I was on a high dose of the menopur and was very disappointed when they only got 8 eggs from me but it did work out ok.

[bucksfizz1]

Thank you! I'm very grateful for your replies. It's great to know there is hope for us. We were both gutted but on the back of those replies I'm starting to feel hopeful again. I'm curious about the natural cycle IVF (tootiredtogoogle), they said to me that they weren't going to shut my system down, just stimulate it from day 3 of my next cycle (they were worried about shutting my system down and not being able to kick start it again!). Did they give you a reason why they didn't stimulate ovaries?
Thanks all x

[bucksfizz1]

Hi duelingfanjo - 8 eggs is great! I'd be delighted with that. Were they disappointed with 8 eggs? Did they freeze any for you hon?

[TooTiredtoGoogle]

If you google natural cycle IVF, there's lots of articles on it, with personal testimonies and reasons why people go down that route.

To answer your Q, my fertility consultant advised me that the drugs were unlikely to yield any more eggs for me, so not worth doing in his opinion.
I'm pretty sure that if they hadn't started doing natural cycle IVF at my clinic, they would have tried stimulating with me.

BTW - when I had my ORT scan on day 3, I only had 6 follicles. But, as Dueling says, you only need one good egg.

Good luck with it!

[chandellina]

one of the best ways to measure your ovarian reserves is to actually take the IVF drugs. I never had my AMH done but was a poor responder from the first go at IVF (which was cancelled due to lack of interest from my ovaries) so that was my baseline from then on. My FSH initially wasn't that bad but I never got more than a few mature follicles. In the end, I've had three unsuccessful IVFs but the "one good egg" thing happened on its own between the second and third, so I have a son.
I did ask about natural IVF and my clinic's stance was the more chances the better, so they still wanted to use the drugs. I would definitely have considered it if I've had more time.

[DuelingFanjo]

bucksfizz1, unfortunately we didn't get any to freeze as they weren't good enough quality. I also didn't go through the system shutdown, they just put me back onto the pill for a month which after over 2 years of TTC was the strangest part of the whole thing.

[bucksfizz1]

Thanks everyone. I guess now I keep fingers crossed. Really appreciate your feedback x