AMH and FSH - Looking for tips or success stories?!

[firefly37]

Hi all,
I am 41 with a low AMH (in 2019 it was 5). I haven't had it tested this year yet however my FSH was tested in May and it was 15! This is a huge jump from 2019 when it was 7 or 8. I was hoping to be able to do another round of IVF as my last FET just failed but I am aware that IVF is not recommended with such a high FSH.
I have started a low dose of DHEA, COQ10, Omega 3, wheatgrass and various other vitamins in an attempt to lower the FSH which I believe is possible?
I would really love to hear from anyone with similar numbers, what you are doing/have done to improve FSH and any success stories.
Thank you x

Hi @firefly37

I turned 41 a few days ago. As of Sept 2020 my AFC was 5, my AMH was 2 and FSH was 20.7. Very bad basically! They haven't been tested since so I have no idea what it is now.

In Feb/March this year we had our first ICSI cycle. We got 3 mature eggs, more then we were expecting. I was worried we would get none. 2 fertilised and got to day 5, and a hatching blasto was transferred to me. It worked and I fell pregnant, however after 2 scans where we saw a heartbeat the baby stopped growing and I miscarried at 10.5 weeks.

We are about to start a 2nd cycle and I am hoping that it works this time. I don't have much time left. I take 400mg of Ubiquinol daily, that wasn't prescribed by the clinic that was based on my own research. I don't know if that made a difference, but I'm doing it again for the 2nd cycle just in case it helped!

Best of luck for your next cycle, when do you start?
x

Hi @Goldilocks2528
Thank you for writing... Firstly I'm so sorry for ur loss. That must have been very hard and I wish u every success in ur next cycle.
Did you come up with any resistance from the clinic in relation to doing ivf with a high fsh? Google suggests ivf will be difficult to get agreed over fsh 15. I'm still clinging onto hope that mine was a fluke result as I'm shocked to think it's doubled in only 2 yrs 😭... Do you have any male factor issues? My partner initially had poor motility with borderline acceptable morphology and then two yrs later his motility had hugely improved (doubled) but morphology declined to 3% normal forms! So we don't really know where we are with that side of things lol... My last fresh cycle (amh 5 and fsh 7) produced 10 eggs but only 3 were mature (not sure if that was a protocol error or just poor eggs) but all 3 grew to day 5... One is now my daughter and the other two froze for failed recently. Based on those results... It doesn't look great for another but we have our consultation on Friday.
Like you I done loads of research in relation to vitamins and supplements and they need a couple of months to kick in so I doubt we wil start anything until later this year xx

Morning @firefly37

My first FSH blood test result was "24.6 - borderline" and then the repeat was "20.7 - satisfactory". How that can be satisfactory I don't know when I thought a result of 25 meant you were in the menopause! Anyway, after that it was never mentioned again apart from for the clinic to tell me that I had diminished ovarian reserve, that we had less than a 9% chance of success and to think hard about whether or not we wanted to proceed. We were told I may not even respond to the drugs, even though they were putting me on the highest dose of everything.

My OH is infertile, he had cancer 23 years ago. We are using his frozen sperm, so that coupled with my crappy results isn't great.

Best of luck when you start again. I think they say it takes about 3 months for the vit's to get working. I stopped taking Ubiquinol when I got a positive test, so I didn't take them for quite while. Worried what I had built up in my system has now gone, but I've been taking them daily for the last 9.5 weeks since the miscarriage so I am hoping that might be enough. By the time I start injecting it will be about 13 weeks so fingers crossed should be ok.

@Goldilocks2528 wow u guys have been through a lot... Good that you managed to freeze sperm. I think I read for the vits that 70 odd days on them can help so 13 weeks u should get some benefit 😊
I'm a bit down today as I had my clinic consultation and was told straight off that if my FSH was higher than 12 when retested then IVF is not viable in their opinion. They said we would probably be wasting our money... I need to get an up to date AMH test and retest FSH before going any further. Even tho I knew they might say this, I still cried as I'm not ready for it to be over. They touched upon discussing donor eggs... We are not sure how we feel about that at the moment x

Hi @firefly37
That seems really unfair to me, and I am so sorry. Look how high mine was and I got pregnant on our first cycle of IVF (which was NHS funded)! Can you go to another clinic?
Donor eggs have been spoken about to us as well and personally that's not what we are looking for, so we won't even consider that as an option. That is just us though, I have read lots of stories of people who have chosen that path and it has worked out well for them.

Hi there. I know this thread has been quiet for a while, but I wondered how both of you have got on. I found it because I have almost exactly the same situation as you firefly37 . My FSH is now 15 (it was 12/13 a year ago) and the clinic want to keep testing it until it's lower before they will cycle me again. We had a cycle with some success earlier this year and 3 good quality embryos but ultimately nothing worked long term). I'd be interested to know if your supplements worked or not - I've just started to try and change my diet and looking at various things to help FSH. Any thing at all is appreciated!

Hi @allotmentnerd. Sorry you find yourself in this position too. My FSH was much higher than yours and I had my first cycle on the NHS. We have paid for this one and I am in the middle of my 2nd cycle, 5 days into stims. I can only assume my FSH it is equally as high, or higher, as it was before as I've not been tested for over a year now. Can you try another clinic?

I don't know if the supplements made a difference or not. I took 200mg ubiquinol for the last cycle and got pregnant but miscarried at 10.5 wks. I am taking 400mg this cycle in the hope it might help a bit more with egg quality. Another 5 days to go for me and then I'm in for a scan Monday to see if it's worked and if we can trigger for ec. We shall see..

Best of luck x

Hi @allotmentnerd
Really weird that you messaged today as I just got back my blood results today!
So in 2018 my AMH was 5 and my FSH was 7ish.
In May 2021 my FSH was 15.2.
In July 2021 I started taking 50mgs Dhea, 400mg ubiquinol, omega 3, melatonin, wheatgrass, and proceive fertility vitamins.
My results today shocked me... AMH 5 and FSH 6.6! My oestradiol was low so unsure what issues that may cause... Hopefully I can just take supplement for it.
My AMH hasn't changed since 2018 it would seem and my FSH has dropped by more than half in just 7 weeks of supplements. Lots of luck xx

Hi there - sorry for the delay - thanks for this. I have been taking the supplements but my FSH, after 4/5 weeks of supplements has gone up. I'm hoping next month it might be down.

I can definitely try another clinic which doesn't have the cut off point of 15 (there are a couple not too far away). It's just very demoralising to be told you're nearly at the end of the road when I know a lot of people with my profile have success.

Best of luck to you both

@firefly37 @Goldilocks2528 @allotmentnerd

Hi.

I know this is an old post. My fsh started getting high from January. Before that is was normal. I’m 41 and things have got worse so quickly. My last cycle was cancelled as fsh day 2 was 24.

My clinic said if I can get fsh down to 14 I can do one last retrieval. I also have a vaginal infection which I found out a day after my cycle was cancelled. I’m really struggling and don’t know what to do for the best.

And how do they advise you to "get your FSH down?" As if it's so easy?

FWIW I had fsh at 23 in February and 11 in June, 17 in August. So it does seem to fluctuate.

I am 37.

@spinkupromise

Hi. They have not said much and not been that helpful. I’m now taking 50mg of dhea again. Already doing wheatgrass, ubiquinol, vitamin d, vitamin c, pregnacare, vitamin e, high strength omega 3, doing acupuncture and reflexology now. Had done estrogen priming for 8 days which made it even worse but had been very stressed. Also was on strong probiotics for ibs and vaginal health and have read that it can affect fsh but not sure if that’s true.

Last week I was told I could do a natural Modified FET cycle as high fsh does not matter! Today I decided to revert to this and not do another retrieval. Then I was told I can only do it this month (frozen transfer) if fsh is under 20, so 20 or 20.1 and it will be no!

I found a really good acupuncturist who makes her own Chinese herbs. She is really well known and works with IVF clinics. She believes with acupuncture (which I’m doing) and Chinese herbs it can help. I need to take herbs twice a day for a month.

Are you doing IVF?