Premature ovarian failure AKA early menopause

[northernlassy1]

Hello, is there anyone out there with this who wants to chat?
I am dying to find someone who has managed to have more than one child despite dodgy ovaries. I am late 30s and struggling a lot with the prospect of only having one child (although I know how incredibly lucky we are to have one). Is anyone here battling early menopause / had several kids anyway / experiencing crappy crappy health because of it?

It depends what you mean by "dodgy ovaries'. I was told I had low ovarian reserve when I was 34 after amh and fsh tests. Was convinced I wouldn't have a baby (;had no kids at that point). However, since then I've been pregnant 3 times and had 2 live births (one via ivf and one naturally).

How high is your fsh and how low is your amh?

It only takes one decent egg to get pregnant remember, even if you haven't got many....

Thanks that is really encouraging - FSH has been pretty high, not sure what it is right now but was 60 in the past, and as high as 110 when bf-ing. Amh is either 0.05 or undetectable depending which doctor does the test... trying to get normal cycles at the moment thru diet supplements etc (this worked when I was 34) but not joy yet... I'm now 37. Is there anything else you think should be doing? I don't want to try ivf unless/until I know I definitely can't get back 'in sync' naturally

There's a book called it starts with the egg which could be worth a look at. Also Uniquinol for egg quality.

What are your cycles doing?

I must admit, my fsh was lower - 12 and amh was 2.8 at 34. However I did get pregnant 2 years after these results at 36 on the first month of trying and I Have no idea what my fsh was at that point.

Ivf is more tricky as you're likely to not respond very well. I didn't - BUT it still worked! Again- egg quality is what counts!

Hiya Thankyou for replying! My cycles are all over the place, nothing for 65 days. I have come off hrt as trying to see what my body is 'really' doing and it seems not to be doing a lot at the moment but I have a load of work stress which may be contributing. May I ask what you were doing around that time when you conceived, were you still having normal cycles of normal length?
Thanks I have it starts with the egg, it's great tho I can't get to grips with avoiding all plastic!!!
May I also ask did you go to ivf after first and what age were you and what happened? Did you feel you wouldn't be able to conceive naturally again? It's so hard just not knowing what the best thing to do is... thanks again for the encouragement

Hi- I did ivf when I was 35. After I did the Tests at 34 And they came back high fsh/low amh, I conceived straight away naturally, but had a miscarriage. Then we were told to do ivf because of the test results and I was running out of time. That worked and ds1 was born.

When he was 9 months old and i finished breastfeeding my period came back. We decided to try naturally straight away because I assumed it would take ages or wouldn't be possible. Instead I got a bfp 4 weeks later . At this point I was 36.

I have no idea about periods at this point because I've now only had 1 period in 3 years (due to being either pregnant or breastfeeding). However, yes, my cycles were around 30 days in length so were still normal.

I managed to get pregnant with an fsh of 11 but amh of less than 1. Still
Had regular but short cycles and was told
IVF was unlikely to work. Did one round which only produced 2 eggs but got pregnant naturally after that! I wa taking dhea and all the supplemts mentioned in it all starts with the egg.

Thanks both... farfalla may I be cheeky and ask how old you are?

Chatty that is amazing about getting pregnant when your baby was nine months - you must have been sooo delighted. Great sign for the rest of us!!

I guess I just need to stick with it, I've been trying to improve egg health etc since Jan I guess that's not long enough, I am just impatient and anxious that I'm now 37 with the added aged ovaries issue.

Hi ladies.. Just wanted to add here that ivf really sometimes may provoke the work of our ovaries ..and you may conceive naturally after failed ivf and years of unseccessful ttc attempts.. as it worked for farfallarocks I believe. Hope it would work for you too. At least it worth trying.. In other case you always have an opportunity for ivf on donor eggs..And that's not the worst thing that may happen here.

I agree about ivf starting something! I was
34 when I conceived -#2

northernlassy I have the 'it all starts with the egg* book which I am happy to send to you if you want to PM me 💐

I can't recommend acupuncture highly enough. If you look on the Zits West site you will find names of fertility acupuncturists. I had secondary infertility in my late 30s after having my first child at 37. We had three miscarriages and my cycles went as short as 23 days at one point. I started acupuncture and within three months my cycles were 28 days and I conceived. I sadly lost that baby due to a chromosome issue but we conceived again when I was 40 and that pregnancy resulted in my amazing 14 month old 😍

I was also taking FertilAid (the normal one and the cervical mucus one) and a few other supplements to help egg quality. I have no idea what my FSH or AMH were as I decided I'd rather not know.

It sounds to me like the main thing right now is trying to get your cycle back again. Have you had any other testing done to see if you are in early menopause?

*Zita West

Hi again, that is fascinating about ivf farfalla, maybe I should rethink a bit. I've been very focused on not adding in 'false' hormones but the current regime seems not to be doing it ATM...
And sleepfree I am pretty sure is at least perimenopause, I don't know what tests there are that could more fully establish beyond FSH / amh?? I might well have missed though I have been trying to curtail my obsessive [unhelpful] reading of medical papers the last few weeks.
How wonderful that you conceived after all that heartbreak - I am so pleased for you. I love love hearing stories like this.
You are absolutely right about trying to get cycle back. I am getting weekly acupuncture but I am wondering if the doc isn't that great. I've had it before and is been powerful but this lady doesn't twiddle the needles halfway thru and I got a bruise last week. I'm probably being over sensitive. I'm just desperate to find the magic ingredient that will get me back on a normal cycle. Maybe I will try fertil aid
Thanks so much for your replies ladies, it's really appreciated.

Yeah I also wonder about the ivf... like I said I conceived first try after ds1 was born via ivf.

I did acupuncture too before the ivf and during the ivf. I also went back to it when I was trying to conceive ds2 but didn't last very long as I was already pregnant.

Ps might be worth reading "inconceivable" by Julia Indochova (not sure of spelling). She conceived second child after being told it was impossible by doctors- her fsh was 40 something. Her book outlines what she did.

The gynaecologist I saw thought that it be the actual process of extracting the eggs that improves fertility rather than the drugs. But no one really knows why. Best of luck it's a tough diagnosis to receive as the usual magic bullet of ivf for fertility problems doesn't necessarily help with this problem.

Really? That's so interesting. Why Did she think that?

There is some experimental work going on in the US I think where they remove some ovary tissue and transplant it back, I wonder if that's related...

I love julia indichova, initially it was a bit woo for me but am now embracing anything and everything that might work!

Personally I think stress might be the biggest issue at the moment, not sure if any of you guys felt that was a factor...

This is the 'ovarian rejuvenation therapy' - bit extreme but...

www.infertilityny.com/ovarian-rejuvenation-nyc/

Hello,

Im new on here,

Did anyone have PRP for the oavries , did it work?

Im planing to hav it done I have low AMH and POF

Hi @christina251 - I am also looking into it. Do let me know whether you try and it and if it works for you!