High FSH- any success stories/advice

[starbar2020]

I’m 35 and have been ttc for 7 months with no joy so went to the GP for further tests. They found my FSH was 18, oestradiol was 66 and LH was 13. I am due to get my AMH tested tomorrow and have an appointment booked with a fertility clinic for a few weeks time.
My partner will be sorting his sperm analysis also so the clinic will have all our results at the time of our first appointment.
From reading online I see that AMH is more accurate than FSH but since my FSH was high I’m not hopeful that my AMH level is any more promising. I have also read online that egg donor seems to be more suited to someone with levels like mine and it’s probably not an option for me or my partner.
Has anyone had similar readings and a success story to tell involving conceiving with other means than egg donor? Or any advice would be welcome too.

I had an FSH of 19 and AMH of 4, I had tried own eggs once then moved onto donor eggs, I did have a baby from donor eggs but then also had a natural surprise a few months later. It's tricky as with low AMH a higher dose of stimulation is often suggested but with higher FSH response to stimulation can be affected, my antral follicle count was 7 from memory and I got 4 eggs with 100% fert but quality wasn't great

Hello! My first blood work came back with FSH 48.3 I was 38 at the time. What noone told me is it can change month to month. At its lowest its been 12 naturally within the last 2 years and never went anywhere near that first result of 48.3.

I have been in IVF cycles for 2 years so had oestrogen suppression for some of my cycles to reduce FSH and at lowest it was 1!

NHS told me peri menopause and no chance IVF would work. Not going to sugar coat it...it was rough. We went private 10+ cycles to get 4 embryos in the freezer as FSH, low AMH and low AFC all contributed so we got all the way to egg collection for 3 out of 10 cycles and usually had about 2 eggs collected per cycle and 1 day 5 embryo.

Just to share my 2nd month FSH was 28 so still considered high but as I said the one thing I wish I'd have known which didnt appear on Google searches I did is that FSH can change month to month and in one cycle we didn't supress and we just had to wait for a good month whcih took 2 months.

Also folicle count can change my first result was 3 folicles and the highest count was 8. It didn't change how many grew and developed into viable eggs for collection. I can't remember my AMH but I know it was low. I also had other exciting factors of inaccessible ovary, kink in cervix and premature ovulation risks (daily bloods to track LH levels) and my folicles developed slowly (3 extra days of stims before trigger).

We did mild stim (every other day meds) with oestrogen priming and our final cycle we switched it up to no suppression and daily meds. We got 1 embryo per cycle for the mild stim and 2 embryos from the last cycle. Our target was 4 before starting to transfer phase.

I transferred my 1st embryo which has been in the freezer for over a year in December and am currently 13 weeks so it is possible. Difficult yep..but not impossible xxx

Wishing you all the best ❤

Thank you for the replies. My cycles are regular and I get positive Opk so I’m hoping that I’m ovulating. I’m hoping that the eggs I do have are of good quality. I can’t do much more between now and our appointment with the consultant at the clinic just minimise stress (easier said than done when you get test results like this) and wait (rather impatiently).

Hi all I may be last to the party but wanted to add some positive info, I’m 32 and for an unrelated reason to fertility (consistent night sweats) I had a full hormone panel, I was tested over 4 months and my FSH was recorded between 15.8 and 20 on day 3 of each month. My AMH was on the borderline between low and normal for my group. Also on a side note my Mother is a fertility and IVF senior doctor so everything im writing as been checked with her.

I assumed when TTC I was doomed and was extremely emotional and looked to these thread for support. But I want to assure you these are the facts. FSH and AMH have no bearing on your ability to conceive as long as you are ovulating each month (confirm through bbt and pdg tests for progesterone) there is only one limiting factors (excluding of course unexplained fertility I.e not linked to any tests)

your age as this is the only predictor of the quality of your eggs, lower quality means it reduce you per cycle chance for fertilisation

amh and FSH are only predictors of how many eggs you have left so how many years you have left to be able to get pregnant. They are also important if you are not able to conceive naturally as it will determine how many eggs they can collect through stimulation through ivf.

the absolute key to concieving is

1. timing (use clear blue ovulation test with the flashing and static smileys)
2. good supplements (I used wild nutrition fertility support at least a months before trying)

long story short I conceived in the first month of trying with those awful results so please please never feel disheartened

one last thing I also found out my levels of FSH fluctuate massively , all my day 3 blood tests showed ridiculously high FSH (up to 20) but when I bought proov FSH pee sticks where you test on cycle day 5,7,9 (2 days after blood test as it takes a while to get into your urine)

my day 5 = day 3 blood test matched and was 20 but my day 7 was 9.8 so in the healthy range. Remember every body is different not one size fits all