Pre-TTC fertility test result - anyone else had low AMH but otherwise good readings?

[ispyland]

Hi,
I’m not sure whether this or the infertility board is the best place for this question but I haven’t technically been told I’m infertile / need to try IVF / etc so here might be best.

I’m 32, my partner is 40 and we just had a pre-emotive fertility test to work out how much time we had to play with before TTC. His results were all really strong, and most of my readings were indicative of being healthy (FSH 5.8, AFC 21, LH 7.5, O 45 pool/l) and no trouble TTC. But my AMH is 6.3, which is on the low side of “poor egg reserve” apparently. I’ve only had a letter through so far (what a thing to send via a letter!) and I’m waiting anxiously for my appointment with a consultant to go through what this means, but the wording on the letter is worrying (it talks about this may lead to poor or no response to IVF, lower fertilisation with no pregnancy rate and even early menopause). I have a regular cycle of 31 days, too, so no problems there.

Has anyone else had their AMH done and had a similar result, but gone onto conceive naturally? And if so how long did it take? I’m just looking for anecdotal evidence to hopefully reassure me really while I wait to speak to the consultant.

Apologies if this isn’t the right board to put this in - I considered posting in the infertility board but everyone in there seems to be far further along in their journeys and we haven’t even tried to TTC yet so I wasn’t sure if it would be a bit tactless.

Don't post in infertility - you aren't infertile without trying for a year or more without becoming pregnant. That's the medical definition. If you haven't started TTC you have no idea that it won't actually happen.

You won't know until you try - so try. With your AMH you should be able to conceive naturally (barring any other issues), and actually may have more success with that than by jumping into IVF (which I honestly would not wish on my own worst enemy). A low response to the IVF drugs doesn't on it's own mean you won't get pregnant the old fashioned way.

I've heard of women on here conceiving naturally with AMH of 0.2... you're a long way off that. It's definitely not a doom and gloom situation! And your FSH is actually great!

Yes that’s what I’d thought re: not posting there, didn’t want to upset anyone and i definitely am not anywhere near being diagnosed as that.

Thank you, that’s encouraging :) I’d definitely want to try naturally first, I know IVF can seem really tough and it would feel a bit too soon to turn to that.

Thanks for your reply.

Also your AFC is actually quite high!! So from those results alone, it seems you have an excellent chance of conceiving naturally. But with that AMH result, maybe don't wait more than a year or two to start ttc.

Infertile women can get pretty tetchy about it... it's so emotive and awful. Unbelievably awful to be told your whole life you can have it all, and that you have sex once and BAM! And then you've done all the right things and find you can't start a family. It leads to some pretty fucked up places and darkness... (it took us two and a half years and our first IVF cycle to get pregnant - except for two chemicals very early on).

If their letter was very negative, I suspect they might be trying to push you into their services before proving that you actually need any help! I bet they suggest IUI next... or at least more tests (which you DON'T need.)