Hello - I am new to this and only just starting to think about possible fertility treatment. I'm 44 with one DC and always wanted another, but had a very very traumatic birth, followed by years of financial problems and have put off and put off trying again. We were thinking about it last year but then the pandemic happened and we put it on hold, but tbh I'm stiff suffering from the legacy of the birth trauma and was unsure.
Until the last few months I've had regular periods as normal, but since then they've been very irregular (unusual for me), long or skipped cycles, with odd flow and hormonal ups and downs, dry vagina, palpitations, ovarian cramping, constant PMS symptoms, night sweats. Saw GP for blood tests to see if I'm suddenly menopausal and rule out ovarian cancer.
Bloods came back normal except for FSH at 18 (taken day 9), so GP told me I'm likely in perimenopause/early ovarian failure and most likely infertile. I could cheerfully kick myself for drifting along and suddenly realised I do want to try again. The IVF clinics I looked at say they don't treat women over 44 with their own eggs, only donor eggs? Is this the case everywhere?
Then a second set of bloods (on day 3) showed FSH at 2.5 (?) so a different GP just told me I'm not in perimenopause after all and wouldn't order any other tests.
I don't quite understand any of this yet and am trying to give myself a crash course in it, but is this kind of fluctuation in FSH normal? Is it likely that I'm in perimenopause anyway and this is just an anomalous monthly result? At 44 is it likely that my egg quality is just too low anyway and it isn't worth trying? I'm struggling to get my head around the science of it all and any explanations or advice would be really welcome!