AMH 3.8 aged 39...how bad is this?

[TurquoiseDress]

I recently had my appointment at Guy's and they did AMH (had asked at GP surgery but they do not do this in primary care).

AMH came back as 3.8

Got this result over the phone so have not discussed it with GP or doctor at the hospital clinic.

I am 39

TTC 15 months now after MMC summer last year, baby no.2

Have fallen pregnant very easily twice- aged 34 and 37

Just want to know the reality- how bad is an AMH of 3.8? I've googled this quite a bit but hard to get a straight answer.

Thank you

[farfallarocks]

I got pregnant naturally with an amh of less than 1 so it can happen! It does mean that ivf might produce less eggs but you can't look at amh in isolation. Are you havingother investigations? Good luck
And I'm so sorry to hear of your miscarriage.

[Chattycat78]

Yes it's low. However, pregnancy is determined by egg quality, not egg quantity- which is all the amh tells you, apart from the fact that you'll probably respond poorly to ivf if that's where you're heading. Again though- that doesn't mean it couldn't work.

My amh was 2.8 age 34. I've been pregnant 3 times since this news and thinking I would never conceive.

[JoJoSM2]

I think that's about the 25th percentile for your age. However, it doesn't mean much for trying naturally, only that you're likely to hit the menopause sooner than most women so it could be too late in 3 years or something along those lines. If you were to go down the IVF route, it would mean that they won't get too many eggs out of you.

[TurquoiseDress]

Hello

My phone logged me out of MN during the week and the laptop was down- just catching up today!

Thank you for all the replies.

This is most likely clutching at straws, but I've realised that I do not know the units for my AMH.

Is there a standard unit that is used in England/the UK?

I am wondering whether my AMH result is in pmol/L or ng/dL as this makes a difference to the significance of the result.

Not been able to get through to the hospital clinic enquiries/results and the result was never forwarded onto my GP.

[Chattycat78]

If you had it done in the U.K, It's probably in pmol. That's the unit measurement used here. The other is used in the USA.

[Chattycat78]

And also- if it was in the other measurement, it would be mega high- I'm guessing unlikely unless you were early twenties or something.

[TurquoiseDress]

Basically, the outcome of my hospital appointment was that the consultant said that we could now self-refer for IVF.

She didn't really answer my queries about my DH sperm analysis (his morphology is 1%)

All my blood tests so far have been in normal range- FSH, LH, day 21 progesterone was 60 (over 30 indicates ovulation I think), thyroid ok etc.
Just trying to work out significance of my AMH.

But actually, if I step back and reflect for a moment- I feel some reassurance that I have twice fallen pregnant quickly/unexpectedly before and of course, feel very lucky to have a healthy 3 year old.

I doubt we will go down the IVF route- we do not have the finances for it- and we need to put every last penny into buying a place in London and get out of the rental trap.

Also, I would rather spend money on acupuncture and chinese medical treatments for now rather than go down to IVF route- I cannot bear the thought of spending £6k (that we do not have) and it not working.

At least if the former option doesn't work, at least it's only a few hundred pounds or so (depending on how long I keep it up) and also it feels much less invasive than IVF.

Thank you for sharing your experiences

[TurquoiseDress]

Chattycat78

Thanks for that, it makes sense that it's probably the pmol units!

Just thought I'd try and clutch at some straws ha

[JoJoSM2]

Your husband should make sure his lifestyle is as good as poss + take supplements.1% morphology is subfertile but can often be improved.

[TurquoiseDress]

Yes I've bought him a load of supplements and persistent reminders to give up smoking!!

[juneau]

That one expensive round of IVF is pretty likely not to work too. Most of my friends who had IVF had to have several cycles before they got a baby and they were similar age to you. Much better to get yourselves as healthy as possible and see if you can do it naturally if money is an issue.

[TurquoiseDress]

Just out of interest, what's the explanation behind failing IVF at my age (39) and the AMH that I have?

Is it purely poor quality eggs or not enough? Surely it just takes 1 good one?

Sorry for the completely ignorant question!

[Chattycat78]

The relevance of the amh to ivf failure is that when you have low amh, you will probably respond badly to the ivf drugs and not produce many eggs. Less eggs equals less chance of it working.

However- amh has nothing to do with egg quality (only quantity) and you do indeed only need one good one, so it's not impossible.

For what it's worth, I did ivf age 35 with an amh of 2.8. My response was indeed rubbish, and I only got 2 eggs. However, I got a bfp anyway!

[TurquoiseDress]

@Chattycat78
Wow that's amazing you got a BFP with just 2 eggs!

I hope that pregnancy was successful and went to term?

Thanks for summing it up like that- I suppose IVF is a numbers game when it comes down to it, in some ways.

I think for now I'm going to focus on increasing my egg quality as much as possible.

As for egg quantity, I guess there is not much that can be done about it- and hopefully I can improve on the quality of what I've got left.

[Chattycat78]

Yes it was - thankyou. He is almost 3.

Definitely work on the egg quality- I got another (natural) surprise bfp after only 1 month of trying when he was 9 months old. So it's clearly possible. It just means you run out of time faster.