FSH/AMH confusion question

[AnotherSpare]

Hoping someone can help me understand this as my GP is not being very clear and seems unwilling to explain.

A few years ago I had fertility tests. One of the test results came back to show that my AMH was almost zero (0.02), which the consultant explained to me as meaning I had no eggs and wasn't ovulating.

I recently went to GP as have many symptoms of peri menopause, had a blood test. The results of that show my FSH is completely within normal range.

Can both of these be correct? Can I have no ovarian reserve but still have completely normal FSH level? I would have expected FSH to be low if my body is not preparing to release an egg.

I'm not an expert but I know that even men have FSH so it can't be exclusively linked to ovarys/eggs. I know this as my OH needed his FSH levels tested as part of our male infertility treatment.

The closer you get to menopause, the higher the FSH is. But one thing to note is that it can change drastically from month to month so just because this month it’s normal, underlying it might not be. I think for fertility treatment, AMH is the one that’s mostly used to predict response to treatment etc.

what level was your FSH? For fertility, they like it to be under 10

FSH was 6.7, and this blood test was done in week 3 of my 4-week cycle if that's relevant.

Despite the AMH being barely there so I'm not ovulating, I still have a very regular menstrual cycle. I also thought that might have stopped if I wasn't ovulating? That AMH test was 3.5 years ago.

Do you definitely mean week 3 for the FSH test, or DAY 3? It should only be done on day 3 to get an idea of what's going on - or at least for fertility reasons that's what I was told. If it was not done on that date then the info is pretty useless (and I wouldnt put it past the docs to get that wrong).

FSH is follicle stimulating hormones, which should be high when your body is stimulating the follicles to grow.. I think the idea of high FSH is to go with when you have a low egg reserve/heading to menopause etc, your body/hormones ar working really hard to get the eggs growing so it's not good. Appreciate this info might be incorrect for purposes of deciding about peri menopause though...

Anyway, I think the highest normal range on date 3 I was told was 12.5, which is what I had when I had it tested - but I was told over 10 wasn't great (I have severely disminished ovarian reserve - AMH 0.8pmol).

Btw, even at 0.02 AMH I don't think it means you're definitely not ovulating and not producing eggs. If you're having a period still then I'm pretty sure you're still releasing eggs - obviously the older you get the worst they are. So, for example, a woman at 50 who still has periods might still be releasing eggs every month but the quality would be awful and she would never get pregnant with them

Yes the FSH was tested in my week 3. It was because I'd gone to the GP with what I think are symptoms of peri menopause and they said they'd do general blood test but also check the hormone level. So what time of the month to test didn't come up, it was just done at the time I was there.

I'm pretty sure I'm heading into menopause, having had the AMH/lack of ovulation result a few years ago, combined with symptoms I have now.

But GP says FSH level is fine and will not give me any home replacement.

When I had the results of the AMH level it was very much presented to me as that I was not ovulating anymore. Pretty annoying if that's not strictly true as I based decisions about fertility treatment around that. I just trusted what I was being told was true!

FSH has to be done on days 2-5 otherwise its useless as FSH rises throughout the cycle. Your GP has messed up. You should go back to them with the NHS NICE guidelines and explain.