Trying naturally for a second baby at 41 after low AMH results

[newmumcrazytired]

I am 41. I know. Old. I am trying for my second baby. We have been trying for 8 or 9 months. We saw a consultant yesterday and my AMH is 0.8. 6 follicles. He said he wouldn’t recommend IVF because the chances of retrieving a viable egg with such a low AMH reading is very low. He recommended to continue trying naturally. I’m gutted. Any success stories of getting pregnant naturally at 41 without dying from the stress and pressure of it? He recommended having sex twice a week rather than by the ovulation monitor readings and taking C10 co-enzyme 200mg, which I’ve bought. I just keep thinking I’ve missed the boat and it is hitting me so hard. I suffered a horrendous miscarriage before my daughter was born but this somehow feels worse. I have cried a lot today. Really struggling and feel so guilty my daughter is seeing this. I think it might be a depression, which I have suffered from before.

Sorry I meant Ubiquinol 400-600mg a day. In my opinion the COQ 10 isn’t pure enough x

Yes to ubiquinol - 200mg to 600mg a day. Have a look at It Starts with the Egg, she also recommends the antioxidant NAC. Both of you take good quality vitamins, with methyl folate in it.

And 5% a cycle is still 50% ish chance in one year of it happening

Thank you! I have just bought a pot of the Ovum vitamins as apparently they have all of what is recommended in ‘It starts with the egg’ book. Apparently you have to take three a day spaced out over the day, but I’m going to have a go. My diet is probably not the best so that is something to work on. I find it hard with a three year old! Congratulations on the birth of your new little baby. Thank you so much for the advice.

Sorry, me again just to say I’ve bought some omega 3 now on Amazon so will take that as well as the Ovum. Hopefully that will be enough?

I had my first child at 38 years 9 months, then had to wait a year to try to conceive again due to having a section. It then took 7 cycles to conceive again, giving birth just after I turned 41.

Thank you. That has given me hope! I’m 41.5 and not conceived yet after 8 or 9 months trying. I conceived my first child after 3 months but that was after a miscarriage. The miscarriage one maybe took 5 months. It is so stressful 😣

Well you need to have a word with yourself. Getting into a downward spiral of disappointment is not going to be helpful to conception, other people's stats are not your stats, and you will miss out on so much if you let this take over.

I sympathise, really - i am coming to terms with not having the second child i wanted so much, for not dissimilar reasons. But i have an amazing son and there are as many advantages to him of being an only child as in having a sibling. And I dont want to look back and regret missing him

You are so right. I’m feeling better today. Having one is lovely. I think we’ll continue to try for a second but try not to put too much pressure on.

Hi Op, just in terms of the amh- I had fertility issues and was told my amh was very low and natural pregnancy unlikely, but my scans showed more follicles than the amh suggested - which it sounds like might be your situation? I was younger than you, but we seem to start peri quite early in my family - I was early forties and my sisters were late thirties / thirty to forty threshold. Anyway, after my low amh tests I felt hopeless and cried a lot. I then got pregnant naturally the the month i was due to have ivf. Conceived my second 2.5 years later very quickly. And, my sister who was peri in late thirties and the nhs wouldn’t give fertility treatment to given chances of success, paid for ivf and only had two eggs and got pregnant with ivf first time. Hope that things work out for you.

That’s really interesting. Thank you. It does sound very similar although mine is age related. I’m trying to keep in mind that AMH is only about quantity of eggs not quality but maybe I’m clutching at straws. I think all we can do is keep trying naturally. Thank you for your inspiring story.

That is inspiring! Thank you 😊

I get my omega 3 tablets from cytoplan, I take the vegan ones as my body doesn’t really like fish but I’m sure they sell normal ones on there, my multivitamin is a prenatal one from Wild Nutrition. My Ubiquinol is Solgar brand and I also took 4000ui of vitamin D which I forgot to mention in my previous post x

Hi OP, I’m the same age as you and also TTC number 2 after having my son at 38. We’ve been trying for over a year now.
Is your AMH in pmol/L? Your follicle count does sound OK and better than the AMH would suggest. My AMH is also low (4pmol/L) and there were 5 follicles when I had my scan, which the consultant seemed reasonably happy with. I wasn’t discouraged from pursuing IVF, though was told the chances of success are pretty low.
I was also disappointed with my AMH result because my FSH was OK (7.9 a few months ago). My mum didn’t go through the menopause until around 55 and there are women in my family who had children in their forties.

I’ve bought Ovum so going to have a go with those. It says they have everything from It Starts with the egg book. I do have the book but I feel you need a biochemistry degree to understand what is best to take!

Thank you - that is a good way to look at it. 50% chance over a year. My husband and I agreed to try until end of next year.

That’s really interesting. It sounds like we’re in the same boat. I was told that the chances of IVF being successful is the same as trying naturally. I’m not sure about the 0.8 being in pmo/L or not. How would I find that out? I did have 6 follicles on the scan, which didn’t seem too bad so was really disappointed about the AMH. My mum had my brother at 43 and went through menopause quite late I think. It’s so stressful, isn’t it? I’ve had a lovely afternoon with my daughter though so not all doom and gloom at all. Just got to keep trying…

@newmumcrazytired was the AMH test done through the NHS? I think they generally use pmol/L but maybe some private clinics use the other one.
Yes, I definitely think it’s good to try and stay positive and keep going!
We are planning to do IVF but I know the chances are low. I kind of regret not doing it earlier, but I thought the stats were reasonable for trying naturally for a year at 40 for someone who’s already had a child (just over 50% success rate I understand).
I’ve come across plenty of examples of women with low AMH who conceive naturally

That’s what I thought about trying in your 40s when you have already done it once before! My AMH was done privately but I do have a telephone call with a NHS fertility nurse tomorrow so I might ask if they can do another test just in case. I’m clutching at straws all the time with this! I do feel I’ve a few changes this month with the vitamins and having sex twice a week rather than just over the ovulation window. I wish you all the very best with the IVF. I will definitely be telling my daughter to freeze some of her eggs in her twenties so she doesn’t face all this if she wants children later on. I wish someone had told me that.

I totally understand how you feel. I think I would also try to get more tests and a second opinion if possible. Have you had your vitamin D checked? Low levels can suppress AMH I believe.
Thank you for your kind words. I wish you the best in your journey

That’s really interesting. I’ll have my vitamin D levels checked. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were low. Thank you so much!

Can i join in? 41 and TTC number 2 after having a son 2.5 years ago! First cycle off the pill and my body seems to be like wtf! I thought I ovu about 14-15 days ago but my temp didn't go up much, (nothing like when i ttc my son) and it's been bouncing around all month, now i think i might not have ovu and maybe i'm about to have a second "peak" i'm not pregnant, so it's not that. I've just come off the pill and last time I had one really short cycle post pill then into a normal cycle but this one is longer!

I also had a miscarriage before my son, and therefore this time I started taking vitamins 3 months ago, Folate, Q10, NAC, Vit D, B vitamins and a multivit! so i'm hoping all my bases are covered....

but yeah no idea where i am this cycle, i'm either waiting for a late period or im about to actually ovulate! Obv concerned re my age, no idea about my baseline fertility at all!

You should change your consultant. IVF is designed for cases like this, it maximises your chances with whatever eggs you have left, as it will give all those 6 foolicles a chance during each IVF cycle. Saying "try naturally" is a shit advice in my opinion.

@newmumcrazytired At age 37, I had AMH of 0.9, was also told that natural pregnancy more likely than IVF success with that score. But doc said he’d give me a try on IVF, though only if I try naturally for 3 months first.

Got pregnant naturally on the 3rd month but it was ectopic so I lost the baby and one of my fallopian tubes. At this point, my chances of natural pregnancy were now lower than IVF.

After 3 months surgery recovery, I had IVF. Only 3 follicles, led to 3 eggs, 3 embryos, 2 blastocysts and 2 now healthy 13 year old twins. I was a rare statistic but it can happen! Good luck :)

What an amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing 😊 Your story has given me a lot of hope.

Oh really. That’s interesting. I assume I’d have to go through another IVF provider. I wonder if this IVF provider would let me see another consultant. It is FTP Oxford that we used.

Yes, please join us! I’m not sure about coming off the pill as I wasn’t on it since conceiving my last baby. Do you use any ovulation monitoring things? I use the ClearBlue ovulation monitor, Mira device and Premom ovulation sticks. I know…overkill. One month (when I was only using the Clearblue monitor) I didn’t appear to ovulate and then it was the same the next month. That was Jan and Feb and I’ve ovulated every month since. Not sure what that was all about. Whether it was the monitor or I actually didn’t ovulate. I’ve never used the temp method so not sure about that. The consultant told us just to do it twice a week rather than measure ovulation, so we are doing twice a week but I’m still using the ovulation tools to be on the safe side.

edited to fix many of the typos! In haste, sorry!