IVF approaching - Confused with AMH levels. Help !

[LauraHayle]

Hi all

I'm new here and have joined as I feel quite alone as I am living such a different life to all my friends and family around me.

I am 35 & my first IVF consultation is next week at the Coventry hospital.

I recently had an AMH test and the result came back very high for my age (55.8)

The doctor mention I may have something called OHSS.... I looked into this and this seems to be bad news for people having IVF....

Has anyone else had a very high AMH test and got pregnant through IVF??

Any thoughts / comments are appreciated! xx

Not me personally (my AMH was low) but lots of ladies in my IVF group have gone on to have successful pregnancies.

It may just be that if you're at risk of OHSS that you do short protocol IVF and perhaps have a frozen cycle rather than fresh to give your body a chance to recover.

Best of luck, I hope everything goes well for you at your consultation!

Thank you for your reply! I know they say you shouldn’t start googling but I did & saw how high my chances of miscarriage is with OHSS. My doctor wasn’t suggesting its something ill develop, but rather something i am already living with which explains the high result.

when you say IVF group, do you mean on this site?

thanks again

My understanding is that it's rare for OHSS to occur spontaneously, and much more common for it to be caused by hormonal drugs used in fertility treatment, especially when someone has a high AMH value.

Do you have an ovulation disorder? If so, that would likely be the explanation for your high AMH. Mine is 46!

If your AMH is very high it's likely you could have PCOS.

I had OHSS quite badly and was admitted to hospital. My AMH isn't that high, 30 something. I don't have PCOS that I know of.

I was pregnant when I had OHSS, my baby was born without any issues! My OHSS was late onset, so only started getting bad once I was pregnant.

Second pregnancy I did not have any issues as it was FET, however I miscarried.

I was told that OHSS doesn't impact pregnancy but it can be very serious and gets much worse once you are pregnant. If you are likely to get it due to having more follicles they are likely to do a freeze all cycle for you, so you don't need to worry about being pregnant with OHSS anyway. Hope this helps!

I don’t believe i have an ovulation disorder. My peroids are between 26 - 32 days but more often 28. I ovulate when i’m supposed to - window is 3 days when the line is dark. sometimes i ovulate multiple times like just after my period, 10 days later and i also faint ovulation lines just before too.

ive suspected PCOS - my only symptoms being very painful peroids and acne when i was a teenager to 25. Never had excessive hair and always been slim. I had a scan when i was young & they said i was fine. I had an internal scan/ hycosy in Jan & they said “you look slightly polycystic” - then when i had keyhole surgery they said i dont have PCOS.

I cant help thinking the high AMH has something to do with my early miscarriage 2 years ago & maybe the reason i haven't been pregnant since.

Thank you for the reassurance! Hopefully freezing the embryo will give me a much better chance. My ivf apt is Wednesday im so nervous of the thought of it not working! X

"sometimes i ovulate multiple times like just after my period, 10 days later and i also faint ovulation lines just before too"

Do you mean just on OPKs @LauraHayle ? This isnt 3x ovulation, this is because LH is very high during a period AND during ovulstion. So the lines are almost positive during and just before period as well as at ovulation time of month. I think its extremely rare to ovulate multiple times in one cycle (obv possible to release more than one egg when you do ovulate - that's how dizygotic twins occur but those eggs are released at same time)

Have you had bloods to ensure you are actually ovulating prior to ivf? I know 2 women who had a 'secret' almost ovulation disorder where their bodies were producing LH peaks at the right time but bloods showed not releasing eggs. They had high AMH too.

Don't worry about it either way, IVF will sort that. It's just that the above is so much more likely than OHSS as an underlying state. Not sure what part of the IVF process you are in but they should monitor your follicle development v closely so they don't cause OHSS and typically do a frozen transfer to split one IVF round across 2 cycles to avoid this risk.

Also just to say I hear you with worries about MC - I also conceived a long time ago and miscarried. It's been 2.5 years here TTC baby 1 and it's so painful. Many women on this forum are walking that same path x

Oh that is interesting! I did have all of my bloods done when I had my initial consultation in April 2021... since then I track my ovulation (have done with the sticks the NHS use as well as clear blue)

The line appears faint but definitely there at the beginning of my cycle. Then it goes away completely for around a week, then it comes back (right when i should be ovulating) and the line goes very dark. It then goes away for a week and comes back very faint just before my period - very odd! I assumed this had something to do with my AMH being so high.

I have my initial IVF consultation on Wednesday next week at Coventry hospital - I believe they will teach me to inject myself, talk me through everything & get me to sign consent forms... I have such mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness!

Thanks for your kind words - sorry to hear about your MC too. I have just joined but already I feel a little less lonely. No one ever seems to talk about this around me anywhere else. Hope everything works out for you.

What you describe about LH tests is totally normal @LauraHayle - faint lines show low but present LH before and after period, then a peak with dark lines just before you ovulate. It's not linked to high AMH, sounds completely normal.

Exciting but scary to start IVF! I'm on letrozole as I don't ovulate alone

Ohh okay that’s really helpful to know, thank you!

I hope its working for you & you do not have to wait much longer for your miracle xx

@LauraHayle eh, it's working in that letrozole is making ovulation happen but not working in that I'm not pregnant?

Fingers crossed for us both soon x

Have you been trying for long?

Initially the doctors thought i had PCOS, a blocked tube & a uterine septum (a wall dividing my uterus). After lots of appointments, bloods, internal scans, 1 failed & 1 successful attempt at keyhole surgery- they have told me there’s absolutely nothing wrong with me & theres no reason why it shouldn’t have happened by now. My MC was 2 years ago.

No one ever speaks about how long it can take hey. Pregnancy & babies are everywhere for me at the moment. Probably because im 35 & all my friends are a similar age or younger. Im the last one left & have been ready for children for 8 years - but wasnt with the right person until 4 years ago. X

Since March 2020 @LauraHayle - so quite a while. My friends either all have babies, are onto baby 2, or aren't at the stage of interest in babies at all. I don't know anyone else struggling and that's quite lonely. I'm 33

Hey👋

I know this post is almost a year old but I wondered how everyone was doing? @LauraHayle I have my initial appointment at Coventry on the 22nd August to start trying IVF after about 6 failed attempts using clomid, maybe even more I've lost count 😅 feeling a bit apprehensive and anxious about it all x

also have PCOS and high AMH levels, which is how I've come across this post!

Hi @cbear1989 after years of infertility i am now sitting here breastfeeding my 8 week old! It all seems a distant memory already even though the journey was long. The team in coventry are rated no. 1 out of all the NHS clinics in the country for success rates with IVF (not sure if you know) and that might have been why it worked first round for me!

what level is your amh? Best of luck to you!

Your message has absolutely lifted my spirits, that's so lovely congratulations to you for your beautiful little one❤️ it's always amazing to hear of others having success in similar cases to what you're going through, helps you keep a glimmer of hope! can you recall any issues with suffering of OSHH when you did your successful cycle?

Thanks so much for replying x