AFC dropped from 22 to 7 in three months

[Lullabybutterfly]

Long time lurker first time poster. I’ve been gearing up to freeze my eggs for a while and went into the clinic yesterday to get started. They did a baseline scan and told me they could see seven follicles -I had the same scan three months ago and there were 22! I’m 40 but I didn’t think things went downhill that quickly. I was so shocked that they said they would talk to me in a few days when I’d recovered, so I have no idea what’s happened. Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

Heya, Im 34 and I had AFC of 20, then 21, then month after the 21 I started my stims and I had 11! I had had a really painful ovultion feeling on my left ovary the month before and confirmed I'd ovulated there as had a hycosy the day after, and had a huge corpus luteum there that I think obliterated other follicmes for the month after. The left ovary on the scans for baseline was almost totally bare, and only had 2 of the follicles that yielded eggs for the fresh cycle. I ended up with 7 eggs, and was so disappointed as we're male factor so wanted a good number to try and beat the dreaded drop off, but all 7 got to day 5, three top quality, 3 good quality and one a little too slow to be frozen on day 6. So you dont need tons, just need good quality ones and having less sometimes means they develop at a similar rate and you get more mature eggs.
My first cycle failed with a faint CP but going on to frozen next month. AFC does fluctuate each month so its not a set thing that drops like AMH (though I've seen people on here have fluctuating AMH too). Good luck with your cycle!

Hi @Imisscoffee2021 thanks for responding. Im sorry this happened to you too but congratulations on getting so many good embryos, that’s wonderful. I didn’t go ahead with the cycle this month as I just need to get my head around the reduced changes of success. Because of my age and the fact a lot of my eggs probably won’t fertilise I’ve gone from thinking I had about a 30% chance of a baby down to 10% and I’m not sure if it’s worth it any more. I will scan again next month in the hope that it goes up again, although I felt my ovulation this month and I don’t usually so maybe not! I’ve been taking all the supplements and doing all the right things, although I have been very stressed. But even at the clinic they said they’ve never seen a drop off like that. My AMH isn’t massively high at 10 so I’m wondering if the first scan was just an outlier that gave me false hope. I’m still feeling quite crushed today, just wasn’t expecting it at all

@Lullabybutterfly i would say you never know what will happen. I am also 40 and we did our first egg collection back in March. I had a really high afc so they put me on a low protocol. My clinic said you don’t want any more than 12-15 eggs as quality can start to suffer. We only got 9 eggs (out of over 30 follicles) and I was worried about the number but despite my age all 9 fertilised and 7 made it to freezer. I assumed we’d have a much higher drop off rate but it doesn’t always go that way!
sometimes getting less eggs doesn’t mean less chances!!

I hope it rises for you, my clinic weren't worried when I was shocked at the drop and said it fluctuates so perhaps another month will give you more follicles and get those odds back up. Ive read lots of posys on MN about woman over 35 have IVF with a lower AFC and are successful.Statistics aren't always helpful, I was told that our top grade fresh embryo was a 60% chance of success and I started bleeding before the official test day, so I think sometimes it just happens and until you try you can't know what egg quality will be like 100%, or what will happen when sperm meets egg. We were prepared for a huge drop off as my husband has a severe varicocele that can't be embolised and very low parameters on all counts, but we managed to get most of ours through to day 5, so beat the statistics there. Hope you feel better about it all soon, and that next month gives you a few more follicles to work with x

Ah thanks @LT103 that is really interesting. I’ve been reading up about quality vs quantity and getting confused so really good to hear of your positive outcome. Several places told me to freeze 20 eggs to have a good chance and I can only afford one cycle so I figured the more the better but as you say that might not be the best way to think of it. I was going to go for a low protocol before but if I still only have a few next month I might up it to try and reach the middle ground. Thank you x

@Imisscoffee2021 thank you, my clinic were a bit flustered by how upset I was and couldn’t really explain it to me which made me feel worse. You are right about statistics, although I had promised myself I wouldn’t go ahead if it didn’t feel like there was a decent chance of success as I didn’t want to give myself false hope and everything I read online about freezing eggs over 40 basically said don’t bother! I’m sorry your first transfer ended the way it did but it’s brilliant that you have so many good embryos left and that the two of you beat the odds to get as far as you have. Thank you for taking the time to respond and make me feel better, I really appreciate it x

I thought the more the better too. My AFC was 21 and 20 follicles were initially counted, but when it came to my cycle I ended up having 10 eggs collected, 9 mature, all 9 fertilised, 7 embryos biopsied and 3 pgt-a normal. I was initially devastated think my chances of IVF success had dropped. But I’d actually budgeted for 4 embryos being biopsied so 7 was a surprise. In the end, the quality mattered far more. Have you been following any nutritional or supplement plans for egg health?

Hi @MyEasterEggs, yes I’ve been watching my diet and taking ubiquanol and high dose vitamin d for the last three months. It’s kind of why I didn’t go ahead straight away as I thought with my age I’d better throw everything at it to try to help. What kind of protocol were you on if you don’t mind me asking? And congratulations on your results!

I saw Anna Firth at Melanie Brown Nutrition. She’s been wonderful. It’s quite a full on regime they put you on but they cover so much and I’ve been glad of the support. I’ve had a few 30 min sessions with her since our first review and it’s given me a lot of confidence. You could read something like It Starts With The Egg but if affordable I’d opt for a nutritionist!