AMH and conception?

[meadowlark3]

Hi all,

We just got the results of my AMH: 9.4 at age 35. DH's SA was 9 million/ml with great motility and morphology. (He'll repeat his SA and we'll see what a couple of months of Wellman preconception tablets do...) So it seems as if we're both just at or below the normal ranges.

Has anyone had similar numbers and gone on to have a baby without much intervention? (Or have you not been able to?) I've had a hard time finding good information online about AMH, what with the US units and age differences and whatnots.

I had a big wobble last night after getting the AMH results and felt we are doomed but our consultant (NHS) is happy for us to try a few more months before we start down the IVF road. We are having a HyCoSy soon so hopeful that will give us a boost.

We are now on month 12 of TTC with no wee one to show for it. We did get pregnant in month two but sadly lost that one to an early MC. I am battling feeling hopeful that we can do it on our own with my fears of IVF and other interventions that might not work. I have spent the last few months trying to come to terms with the idea that we might not have children and it is a massive struggle, and it feels as if I'm starting to lose the plot.

Thanks for letting me rant. I am hopeful to hear some of your experiences.

[Werkzallhourz]

I know exactly how you feel.

We had been ttc for 14 months and had gone through all the fertility clinic process prior to ivf (clomid, ovulation monitoring etc). It was at that point where we were advised to have an amh test.

It came back as 3.73. I'm 40 years old.

We were devastated. We were advised to go for ivf as it seemed to be the only chance and at my amh levels, the success rate per cycle would be about 10 to 15 percent.

It looked like we would never have a child.

We agreed to go for the ivf despite the poor statistics for success at my amh levels. My reason for doing so was that I didn't want to get to 80 and have regrets that we didn't at least try ivf. I didn't want to be plagued with "what ifs" as an old lady.

We were awaiting the paperwork appointment. And then ... what do you know ... I got a positive pregnancy test. Both DH and I were so shocked that we walked around in a daze for a weekend. It wasn't even a very well covered cycle. We didn't dtd on two key fertility days.

From what I can gather about amh levels (and like you, I researched like mad), they are a fairly accurate figure for the number of eggs you will generate through ivf stimulation protocols. But everything else is a bit open to question. After all, you only need one egg to fertilise.

I am proof that it is possible for a woman to get pregnant naturally with an amh level of 3.73 at 40 years old.

As for why I got pregnant at that point after so many months, well, I've some suspicions. If you are interested, let me know and I'll post them.

[littlepooch]

I was in a very similar situation so my heart goes out to you.

I was 33, ttc for a year with no sign of a bfp when we went for tests. The tests showed my DH was basically in the best possible shape, I however had an AMH of 5. We were advised to go for IVF straight away. I was devastated. My world felt it had come crashing down.

We were due to start IVF a couple of months later when, you guessed it, I got my first ever bfp. We were in shock and over the moon. Sadly it ended in a mc at 6 weeks. We then went on to conceive exactly 4 weeks later which resulted in beautiful DD. I still to this day have no idea why it took so long and then 2 positives came along one after the other!

Because of our troubles and because Im now 36 we decided to start ttc fairly quickly once DD was born. I've fallen pregnant much quicker within s few cycles twice but sadly it ended both times in a mc. I'm now pregnant again and hoping it's all ok.

I think in my case AMH showed that my egg quality is poor so perhaps that my chances of a mc are higher. But your score doesn't suggest you have no eggs, and you only need that one good egg to fertilise. So there is every chance you can still get pregnant naturally. Fertility seems to be such a lottery. Try not to lose hope. It may (and likely will) still happen. And if not, you have a consultant and they can help you maximise your chances if you do need intervention of some sort.

[littlepooch]

I forgot to say - as soon as we found out about my AMH, my fertility specialist put me on a very high dose of co q 10 to improve my egg quality. I have no idea if it worked, and am no expert but I took it until I got pg with DD and then after she was born.

[meadowlark3]

Congratulations to you both on your successful pregnancies, and thanks so much for your replies and kind words. It really helps to know I am not alone and to feel a bit of hope. (We have additionally moved far from friends and family, all of whom have gotten pregnant on their first and second cycles trying, so I have no one to really talk to about all of this, except DH.)

Werkzallhourz, I would gladly hear your suspicions of what changed the cycle you got your BFP! Please feel free to message me if you don't want to post it here...?
littlepooch, I have heard a lot of women take CoQ10...did you have any side effects? I am only on pregnacare preconception now and the omega supplement that comes with the pregnacare antenatals (left over from when I had my MC) but I am rubbish at remembering to take them, so a little hesitant to add another costly one to the mix

[littlepooch]

I had no side effects at all and they were so expensive that kind of forced me into remembering to take them lol. But I'm no medical expert so you may react differently etc. Perhaps something to ask your consultant next time if there is anything he or she recommends etc to improve egg quality.

I hope you are ok. I know it is a really awful time, when everyone else is falling pregnant seemingly with ease and it feels so lonely trying month after month with nothing. Even DH started to dread the pregnancy announcements from friends as he could see how upset it was making me.

[Werkzallhourz]

Meadow, it is really hard. I found the sense of not being able to do something that so many people do with ease to be very alienating.

It's probably useful to say that our journey for a baby had been going on for four years; I had two late miscarriages in pretty traumatic circumstances in my mid to late thirties, so the inability to get pregnant again made me feel as though I was cursed somehow.

What I found was that it isn't that unusual for women to fall pregnant naturally just before IVF or after a failed cycle. I'm in a support group for my miscarriage-related condition and some of the stories are extraordinary. One woman tried for five years, had no luck and discovered her AMH level was extremely low, only to then fall pregnant three times in a row and end up with three children. Another thought that was it, couldn't get pregnant after three years, then felt a bit strange one morning and discovered she was pregnant at 43.

Fertility and conception is a very strange thing. There are still so many unknowns. I always had a nagging feeling there was something "just not right" and that, when I found out what it was, I could change it and conceive.

By conventional wisdom, I shouldn't have conceived on the cycle I got pregnant. So I've done a lot of thinking about what was different.

1. It was just after Xmas and we'd been to ILs who cater as though the entire period is a week long medieval feast. I ate vast amounts of veg, different meats, shellfish and cheese, so I wonder whether I just bombarded myself with an unusual amount of vitamins and minerals.
   
   
2. I got sick of taking pregnacare conception and switched to Seven Seas. I was also taking krill oil, VitD3 5000 IU every other day, and Vit C, but I wonder whether the change just knocked something.
   
   
3. After Xmas, I gave up grain products in an attempt to lose a bit of weight. When you give up grains, you tend to replace them with foods with more nutrition, so again, maybe I just upped my nutritional intake.
   
   
4. I had fallen out with OPKs. I'd been doing the tests religiously for fourteen months. We'd also done the Sperm Meets Egg plan. When I heard about my AMH levels, I threw in the towel a bit. Now I wonder whether the OPKs were throwing my timing off somehow because the cycle I got pregnant, we dtd two days before my normal day of ovulation and two days after with nothing in-between. By all the conventional wisdom, this shouldn't have worked.
   
   
5. We were having a problem with "conception sex". DH was getting so anxious about the whole thing, it was giving him erectile issues. So we decided to try and overcome this by changing the kinds of things we did. We tried a lot of new positions as an experiment and just got a bit silly in an attempt to break the stress of it all. I wonder if that somehow worked.
   
   
6. DH and I started talking about what it would mean if we didn't manage to get pregnant again. It wasn't looking likely. We both realised we had to start thinking about what a childless life might look like for us and that we had to start building it. We didn't want to live out our days sat at home, constantly grieving over "what might have been", just letting the days go by.
   
   So the first thing we did was decide to improve our fitness. We both had a bit of weight to lose and have sedentary desk jobs, so we bought a second hand treadmill and were given a free X-trainer. I started to do bits and pieces here and there in the evening or during the day. It is possible that the exercise shook something up.
   
   Again, we decided to invest in a multigym for the back bedroom (potential baby room). When I bought it, at the back of my mind, I thought: "It's sod's law that I will buy this and then miraculously get pregnant so we have nowhere to put it." I got my BFP the day before the multigym arrived.
   
   
7. As part of this "looking towards the future" plan, we also decided we needed to do the things we'd always fancied doing. We'd been iceskating at Xmas for the first time in a decade, and I'd realised how much I loved it and how happy it made me to ice skate. So I booked us both in to go to a trampoline park. I'd always wanted to go and try it, and it was so much fun. I woke up the next morning feeling great; I hadn't felt so happy in years.
   
   Now I look back and wonder whether those feelings of fun and happiness, that sense of looking to the future and being positive about good things that could happen if we didn't manage to conceive, somehow made something happen by flooding my body with endorphins.
   
   
8. This one is quite woo. I asked loudly one day in my bedroom for a baby. I was just so cross that day, and I looked up at the ceiling and said in a very stern tone: "I want a baby. I want to get pregnant and go to term and have a baby that is born alive and is healthy and happy. We have never asked for much as a couple, and we deserve this after everything that has happened to us." My next period was the one that turned out to be a BFP. I wonder if that act somehow vocalised something on a psychological level that then changed something else in my body: for example, whether expressing the anger out loud reduced my cortisol levels or something, and that was what was stopping me getting pregnant.
   
   
9. I also realised I had to leave my job and made a conscious decision to do so. I started applying for new jobs as I felt that if I wasn't going to have a child, then I ought to find something new in life. We needed change. I needed change. I hadn't liked working there for a while, but I'd been hanging on for the maternity leave. Again, this had been a source of an ever present niggle, so when I realised I had to go, the uncertainty disappeared. Maybe, again, that reduced stress and thus changed a little something in my body.
   
   Of course, it all could have just been luck, but part of me doesn't think so. It was almost as though we had to hit rock bottom and try to pick ourselves up again before it would happen for us .
   
   But it did. And you are only 35. Keep the faith.

[Chattycat78]

I found out my amh was 2.8 age 34. I was devastated and thought it would never happen. I then had a miscarriage (after 4 months trying- I had done fertility testing early on in trying). We were told to do ivf as my amh was so rubbish. I expected to respond badly to the drugs- which I did. However, 1 embryo, 1 bfp and he is now 2.

When he was 9 months old we decided to try again. I thought it would take years/wouldn't be possible/would need ivf again. Instead I got a bfp 4 weeks later and he is now 7 months old.

Amh is mainly used for ivf and tells you how many eggs you Have left. It tells you nothing about the quality of your eggs or if you can get pregnant or not. All it tells you is how much time you have left to conceive.

I wouldn't panic if I were you.

[farfallarocks]

It is certainly possible to get pregnant naturally with those numbers. I am amh of less than 1 at 35 and conceived twice in 3 months, the 2nd pregnancy resulted in my son. We had tried for 18 months beforehand and had one unsuccessful IVF where I produced 2 eggs. A lowish amh means you won't get loads of eggs but you only
Need one! The fact your husbands swimmwr are good is a great sign as you have a good chance of catching the golden egg when it's released! I also undertook a bit of an egg quality regime taking supplements recommended In a great booo called it all starts with the egg. Good luck!

[meadowlark3]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. It gives me a bit of (cautious) hope.

little Thanks for your words of support. I will chat with the consultant about supplements when I go for my Hycosy.

Werkz Thanks for your support and sharing your list! It makes complete sense that you'd shake things up and get a BFP. I quite like the woo as well...if I am honest, I have just done the same thing this month. It felt good to verbalise that wish and not feel like I'm in denial.

Chatty Thanks for sharing your numbers and your success...congrats on your two healthy babies Thank you also for the reminder about AMH being more useful for knowing about IVF success than regular TTC.

farfalla Thanks for sharing your numbers and you reassurance. I hope that we are successful I have heard a lot about 'It all starts with the egg'...would you recommend it? On Amazon, it looks like it's more for IVF...do you think it is as useful for pre-IVF?

[sophie150]

There's definitely hope! I had amh of 1.44 at 28.
Had three rounds of ivf before getting pregnant, although first two were in a different clinic which definitely wasn't as good as the place we used for our third round(care fertility). We also had some 'trial and error' as I don't respond well to progesterone through the normal method and we fixed this by round three.

Got pregnant on third round of ivf at 32 with just two good embryos from 5 eggs which resulted in ds.
found out today bfp again at 34 with just one good embryo from 5 eggs again. First ivf since ds was born so 2/2 for Care!

I think it's all a bit uncertain with amh- I was told it was an indicator of egg quantity not quality and my age would be the key factor in quality rather than the amh. So definitely don't lose hope- you can get pregnant with fewer eggs!