Infertility

[youngdollhopes37]

Hi everyone

I'm just wondering if anyone has gone through what I am at the moment? My husband and I have been attending a fertility clinic and on our appointment today the dr told us my ovarian reserve is sitting at 1 and think they wouldn't be able to stimulate them enough along with that blow he's told me there aren't a lot of follicles on my ovaries? At the minute I'm devastated as I'm only 36 and he sounds like I'm about to start menopause. He's told us to go and discuss what we would like to do? Our main option is an egg donor but told they are quite hard to get? I also have to get fsh and estradiol tests done. I'm on the highest amount of folic acid at the moment can anyone recommend a good supplement that could also help?

Hi. Sounds like you have low ovarian reserve. Did you do the amh test? Is that the result which has given you the score of 1?

Can I ask why you are looking at ivf? It's true that low ovarian reserve can make ivf less likely to work. This is because your ovaries can't be made to produce many eggs. However that doesn't mean that you can't conceive naturally if there are no other things at play. I have low ovarian reserve too. my amh was 2.8 when I was 34 and I was very worried too.

However, I now have 2 children. One through Ivf and one conceived naturally, so it is possible!

Supplements- best one is high dose co enzyme q10- make sure it's in the form called ubiquinol. Thus is good for improving egg quality which is the most important factor when it comes to getting pregnant- not how many eggs you have, which is all the amh test tells you.

My fertility acupuncturist said re. donor eggs that it would be easier to have IVF outside of the U.K. as donor eggs are more available. I wonder if that route might be worth investigating.

I would say looking at donor eggs is a radical step and i would make sure there's no way you can conceive naturally before looking at other things. Also you might not respond well to the Ivf drugs but that does not mean that it couldn't work. I responded badly to the drugs but it still worked for me- egg quality is what counts!

ChattyCat that is really useful advice and I have taken it on board for me too.

OP while I am older (40) I too have very low AMH. I have conceived twice naturally (one at nearly 38 - now my two year old DS; and one at 39 which miscarried). Neither were planned pregnancies and happened easily.

Have you been trying to conceive naturally for a really long time already?

Given my advancing age and impatience we are about to embark on our first fresh IVF cycle to try for a second baby. But we gave it a test round in March (freeze all round) and on a very high dose of stims we collected 6 eggs. My clinic were very pleased with this.

I don't have any advice re what you should do specifically, but I do sense that AMH is just a piece of a big picture.

What are your thoughts? Are you financially in a position to get really healthy, get three months of great supplements under your belt and try IVF to see how your ovaries respond?

Thanks everyone for your replies I'm doing as much research as I can as ideally I'd love to try with out an egg donor. My husband and I had been trying for roughly 4 years without anything? My periods had also been irregular so I had suggested to my GP about being referred to fertility as I had start to think I had PCOS or endometriosis? I'm not sure whether the result of 1 was my amh test think I am just in complete shock still all I heard was dr needed me to as close to 10 and I'm sitting at 1. This was only our second appointment so still very new to options etc? I have epilepsy and type 2 diabetes so I had thought my issues would've been with them 😪

Is there any other supplements such as viabiotics, seven seas pregncare that anyone can recommend?

Thanks again xx

Has anyone here taken or heard of dhea?

Yes Ubiquinol (300mg per day) as suggested by ChattyCat and DHEA are the most often recommended for improving egg quality (as well as living healthily).

I am about to start a fresh round of IVF so have been doing the Ubiquinol for more than three months, but I really hated the DHEA which is powerful stuff so I stopped after a week. I'm sure there will be posters along soon who can comment on the benefits they believe that DHEA gave them if they took it for the required three months.

This document at this link may help you think about your situation.

ivf.org.uk/images/downloads/Lister-Fertility-Clinic-low-ovarian-reserve.pdf

Thanks for all your replies. I'm still trying to stay positive, went for fsh today so please keep fingers crossed / me (&many like me) in your prayers xx

Ladies, my day 2 results have came back the following

Fsh level 11.5
Lh level 6.9
Progesterone 1.6
Oestradiol level 72

Are these good or bad? (Confused)