talk to me about eggs

[pigeonpoo]

I'm 31. PCOS, endometriosis and a failing relationship with my only child's father.

I'm desperate (unhealthily desperate) not to lose out on a second child - I'm working on this emotionally IRL

But practically, can I find out how healthy my eggs are? How much time I have left?

I cannot financially or emotionally go through collecting and freezing eggs right now. But I can't stop worrying either.

[Vixxfacee]

How did it go conceiving your first?

If you break up with your partner why does that mean that you won't or can't meet someone new? You're only 31.

[pigeonpoo]

Natural surprise after treatment didn't work.

Emotionally I'm not sure the time is left to meet someone else. Or that it's possible to mend what's happened with DS dad.

I have had somewhat of a breakdown regarding the pregnancy I had/potential future pregnancies. I need intense psychological help to move past that. I don't expect any new partner to be able to understand or myself to be able to trust to share, allow someone else to take it on - it's broken DH already.

[FatimaLovesBread]

Can you pay for the private blood test that gives you an indication of your fertility level and therefore amount of eggs?
I can't remember what it's called but I had one before I had ivf to determine how well my ovaries would react to the hormones and to see if I was eligible to donate eggs.

Will go google

[pigeonpoo]

That's what I was wondering.

Or even if with the support of my psychologist (if I had it) the GP might agree to referring me despite not TTC so that I can confront the facts with the help of the psychologist

[Whatdoidohelp]

You can have what is pretty much a egg MOT. Most private clinics will offer a vaginal scan to look at follicles and an AMH hormone blood test to check egg reserves. Will cost probably around 500 once you factor in consultant fees. It's pretty accurate though

[pigeonpoo]

Will it give an indicator of both time left and the health of the eggs?

It's an awful thing to fear and I'm not sure it works this way but I fear risking potential future dc having disability due to bad eggs. I don't even know if it works that way. But if a test can give me real risk factors to deal with in my therapy it may be more useful than imaginary ones.

[FatimaLovesBread]

AMH that's it, that's what I had done.
Just looked on the clinic I went to and they no longer have a price listed for it as an individual test but they do have a health MOT for £390 which I assume would include this

[pigeonpoo]

Thanks I may have had it done before conceiving DS... My dr may have a record - will discuss

[Chattycat78]

Just to chip in here- an amh test will only tell you how many eggs you have left: it will tell you nothing about whether those eggs are any good. No such test exists for that. It also won't tell you how much time you have left. This is basically impossible. Just thought you might want to know this before embarking on it.

[pigeonpoo]

Oh that's a shame I think health of eggs was perhaps more important than time left in some ways to me

[Chattycat78]

Yeah sorry. It's just not possible. I would be wary of the amh test to be honest unless you are planning on doing IVF and want to see how you'll respond. But if you have pcos your amh will be high anyway so I'm not that sure how useful you'd find doing the test. It certainly won't tell you if you can get pregnant easily or not. That's all to do with egg quality which is linked to age. At your age your egg quality should be good.

[pigeonpoo]

What does high amh indicate? Lots left or less left? Thanks

[loopylou1984]

I'm sure there is a test for egg quality as dog told me about someone at his work who's wife had found out she had 'the eggs of a 50 year old woman' so they had to use donor. No idea what test though I'm afraid, sorry. Xx

[loopylou1984]

Maybe it was just from her blood test results. I found these for you, might help.
Oh, and that should have said dh rather than dog. My dogs not that clever!

[pigeonpoo]

at clever dogs talking about fertility to you!

That's given me a good giggle, thank you!!!!

[Chattycat78]

There is some debate about the fsh test and whether it indicates egg quality but notice it says "might" indicate poor egg quality. It might not as well! In other words - they don't know and there is definitely no test which indicates egg quality. This is especially true as you can affect your egg quality with your diet. You can't affect the number you have with diet.

High amh means a high number of eggs - but this is a given with pcos.

[Amummyatlast]

As others have said, there's no real test for egg quality. I have high AMH and good LH/FSH levels, but during IVF/ICSI have problems with eggs fertilising. This may be a problem with egg quality, but no one can be sure.

[Chattycat78]

And by contrast, I have low amh, and was told I needed IVF as a result. I only got 2 eggs during IVF. one is then is now 14 months old asleep upstairs! When he was 8 months old we started trying naturally in case it was possible to conceive naturally. It took 1 month to conceive again which was a massive surprise. I'm now 24 weeks pregnant.

It's possible that this has all been some massive fluke, but this experience makes me wary of the amh test or anything which claims to tell you about egg quality.

[bananafish81]

Egg quality is primarily determined by age

FSH is primarily a measure of egg quantity

My consultant told me that my very high FSH might have an impact on my egg quality but that quality was primarily determined by age

It is also affected by insulin which is why being overweight or having insulin resistant PCOS can affect egg quality

As chatty has said AMH is purely a measure of egg quantity

And tbh the tests don't say very much as my AMH was undetectable and I got 17 eggs at my last egg collection

The only real test for egg quality is whether you get a baby in 9 months time

[miamiaMo]

you can freeze your eggs in some fertility clinic abroad with costs starting at around Euro 1 400 for ivf eggs freezing xx

[Blue2014]

The book "it starts with the egg " is pretty informative and gives information about improving the quality of eggs

[bananafish81]

I saw a massive improvement in my egg and embryo quality between my first and second cycles after 4 months of egg quality supplements vs 6 weeks before my first cycle (the duration of the egg maturation process is 3 months)

I had severely diminished reserves and my testosterone was undetectable so I was a good candidate for DHEA

I also took CoQ10 as ubiquinol, resveratrol, melatonin, high dose vitamin C, D and E

I followed the advice in 'it starts with the egg' and although I have no proof the difference in egg quantity and quality was pretty stark, whilst the stims protocols were identical. And I was 3 months older in the second cycle so age didn't really come into it.

Definitely get your vitamin D levels checked

[pigeonpoo]

Iv asked for my vit D to be checked before and was told within normal but I don't know where within normal if it's high or low end of normal. Iv heard PCOS can mimick vit d deficiency and I have the depression and anxiety to go with it...

Who's the author of the book please? I will look for it

[bananafish81]

'It starts with the egg' by Rebecca Fett. On amazon for kindle or paperback

[pigeonpoo]

Thank you!