can i be relieved by these hormone results?

[MrsDarcy4092]

basically i saw an endocrinologist who ordered blood tests to see how my pituitary is functioning. We are 2 1/2 years in of TTC with so far what seems to be male factor infertility only. I have not had any tests by gp as such just the progesterone test which was normal.

The tests the endocrinology ordered i think are some of the same as what you need for fertility but i didn't have them at a certain time of my cycle. Mine was on day 10 of a 31 day cycle so before ovulation. They have all come back normal in terms of pituitary function and i wondered if i can be relieved that they are normal for fertility too or because they weren't done on day 3 does that mean it doesn't count?

i had:
FSH 8.4
LH 6.6
oestradiol 207

thank you for any help you can offer!!

Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts on this?

Hi, I'm not sure anything much can be read into these test results, they look fine to me for 5-6 days before ovulation (completely untrained eye), but that's good your endocrinologist thinks they're ok. It sounds to me that you should get a referral to a fertility specialist to complete the investigations on your side. That would include a day 3 blood test (which you could still go back to your gp for) and things like tubal patency. And as part of your dp's investigations you might want to find out whether anything can be done to improve things, or if icsi is the only option - in which case try to get a referral moving asap. Hope this helps.

Thank you. DH is under Ramsay atm to try to improve his sa enough for us to have icsi. Seeing as we're definitely on the ivf path whether it be with Icsi or using donor sperm I having been that bothered about having tubal latency test. Seems like a waste of time. I think your right though and I should return to Gp to get day 3 bloods done. If I had planned it better I should have had these endo bloods done on day 3 but never mind. Again, Ramsay has Told us that by end of year we will be ready to start so I am not feeling any rush, which is prob wrong of me. I also thought I might book a fertility scan at a private clinic who use dopler to check ovarian reserve which is meant to be more accurate than amh. Other than that I just have to keep loosing weight.

Ok, it sounds like you are doing everything you can on your dh’s side of things. I also get that there doesn’t appear to be much point checking your tubes if you end up going straight for ICSI. But in my opinion it won’t hurt to be prepared for every eventuality. If you do decide to do an HSG test it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as it also would give you an X-ray of your uterus to check there’s no problems and if it shows you have open tubes that would rule out things like a hydrosalpinx that could otherwise impact on your chances. Also a referral to a specialist on your side might help you to get treatment ready as taking a full history alongside ovarian reserve test - both ultrasound and AMH blood test – should give you an idea about how you might respond to treatment. If you need to lose weight, then getting your BMI under 30 is also sensible, although there are clinics that will treat women with higher BMIs (my old fc didn’t even care about this). Also, I don’t know why you are seeing an endocrinologist, but if it’s thyroid issues then that’s something you should also try to get under control before treatment – I think TSH should ideally be under 2.

Oh just to add, if you do end up having to think about treatment using donor sperm you might also want to also consider IUI as an alternative to IVF – it’s less invasive, cheaper and can have good chances of success for certain women. If you do pursue this, you would be better off finding out your tubes are open before you start. I hope I’m not bombarding you with information!

thank you, its not bombarding me at all. I have been researching and reading for almost 2 years now, its amazing how much there is to learn.

If we do need to go down the donor sperm route then we will consider iui and then you have to have the HSG before they start treatment anyway. What i have found with most places is they want all theses tests done within 3 months of treatment starting, bloods included, so its in the pipeline but not needed just yet for us. We need Ramsay's investigations to be a bit more underway so that he can start to help us make the best plan.
Where i live the ccg wont allow any referral to fertility until bmi is under 30 and maintained for 6 months so are thinking we will go privately as getting my bmi to 30 is doable but maintaining it for 6 months will be 6 months too long for my patience.
I am seeing endocrinoogist as i have a benign brain tumor and i wanted to have some reassurance about taking ivf drugs with regards to any affects on the tumor itself. THe endo and neuro have both reassured me that i can take the ivf drugs without problem. I guess i was hoping if my bloods were normal on day 10 pre ovulation then they should be normal on day 3 but i guess it doesn't work like that.

Well from here it all sounds like you have a plan. I would be inclined to agree with you that with those day 10 bloods, combined with regular cycles if you have them, there's no reason to suspect the tests wouldn't be normal - but there's no harm at all in finding out for sure.

That bmi policy is a bitch by the way and I think it's probably aimed at saving money . My old consultant left the nhs to set up a private fc with the intention of offering treatment to all and left the bmi policy behind as it's just not got a good enough evidence base.

For what it's worth, I lost 4 stone over a couple of years by making small dietary changes and substitutions, baby steps first and then eventually cutting out most foods containing sugar and sweeteners (motivated by the documentary 'the men who are making us fat'). I was never really dieting and the weight came off very slowly, maybe only 1-2lb a month at some points. Eventually my weight stabilized by itself (I'm not slim, but sort of average with bmi still sitting in the 'overweight' category). As a consequence I've managed to sustain the lifestyle changes and have mostly kept all the weight off over the last 2 years.

Can I ask which clinic you went to ? Well done on your weight loss and maintenance. I joined slimming world almost a year ago (10 months) and have lost nearly 3 1/2 stone so far. I'm glad my weight isn't holding thing up yet, as DH is still being investigated.

Thank you for taking the time to comment, it's been really helpful.

I would prefer not to name as I sometimes talk very frankly about my treatment on here! 3 1/2 stone loss is a big deal, well done you! Are you feeling better for it? It's been my pleasure to chat on here. I'm on a very supportive thread - the berries - over in conception - we are all aged over 30, TTC no. 1 - if that's you, do feel free to pop in if you'd like to.

No problem, thank you re the other thread!!! I do feel better for my weight loss but I can feel how much j still need to lose! I'm so pleased though.