Diminished ovarian reserve/failed IVF

[SUMMER789]

Hi all,

Sorry this will be a long post.

I am wondering if anyone is able to offer some advice. I have been married for over 4 years and we began to try for a child straight away. However my periods weren't as regular as they use to be with lots of bleeding in betweens periods and very long or extremely short cycles. It really differed each time, after countless visits to the hospital and eventually a referral to fertility, my amh test came back at 0.3. I was horrified and overwhelmed to be told I have the same egg count as someone in their late 40's. At this time I was only 28...

I ended up doing a round of IVF on the NHS, two eggs retrieved but failed to fertilised. I had a round of IVF in Greece which was horrific, due to me finding out I ovulated on the day of my egg retrieval. Fast forward to this month, I had another round of IVF with only one mature follicle. I was not sure if this cycle would get cancelled, due to only having one follicle, however I proceeded as I normally tend to only have one or two follicles. To my shock horror I woke up after egg retrieval to be told no eggs were collected? I am not sure why this was!

I wish I could go back and cancel the cycle :( but due to my amh I proceeded. I think for now I am done with IVF, the mental toll it takes and due to funds running low. My question is to those with low amh, has anyone after countless rounds of IVF become pregnant naturally? Changed their diet? Tried something new?

I am scared I am going through menopause :(

When I say low amh I really mean anything under 1.... Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry I don't have advice but I am in similar situation. Amh of 0.6 , high FSH age 30. No follicles or just 1 seen on scans. Create fertility clinic advised IVF highly unlikely to work, maybe 10% chance if they could retrieve any eggs, but likelihood of even getting eggs is very slim. So I don't think we're even going to try :(

I am so sorry to hear about both of your struggles, @SUMMER789 and @Lemonem

Infertility is difficult to process at any age, and especially when you are so young. I do not have comparable experiences so unfortunately can't give any advice. Hopefully someone in your shoes will respond with some positive stories.

I have read elsewhere on MN people getting 2
eggs and got embryos via ICSI and got pregnant. At your age, egg quality is not an issue and if there's no male factors, theoretically your chances of getting a viable embryo is still there. I would suggest you research more clinics and find out who is good at dealing with your issues in both the UK and abroad. At your age I would not give up using own egg. The DE option will still be there further down the line.

Best wishes to both of you.

Just wanted to add that of course you should continue to try naturally, it takes only one egg after all. Best of luck 🍀

Hi @SUMMER789 sorry about your failed cycles! It's tough I also had 2 failed cycles, been ttc 3 years my amh is 0.8 💔 and I'm also only 31.
I reached out to a few clinics aboard that also advised natural ivf is best with low amh and sometimes higher Stims and worsening egg quality!
One clinic in particular I'm drawn to is serum in athens, they have advised me to come for tests for hidden infections and to get a procedure called ovarian prp it is ment to help egg quality and wake up dormant eggs, I've read for some girls it also increases follicle count.
I'm planning on going over in August 🤞
Don't give up hope it will happen and of course there is always the chance it could happen naturally xx

So sorry to hear this. My AMH is 1.0, and had numerous failed ivf cycles.over the last 4 years, For my age (now 42) and having endometriosis they suspected it was down to egg quality.

As we were still trying naturally I was using and recording via ovulation sticks so I could see I ovulate extremely early such as cycle days 5-8.

I explored overseas and whilst we'd go ahead with the retrieval for 1 follicle on a natural cycle.1 cycle was found to have ovulated early so the follicle was empty (I warned them) the next cycle we retrieved an egg and it fertilisated abnormally.
Which they said is likely due to the egg being over mature. In which case they wanted to try the next cycle earlier.

I did have ovarian prp which resulted in more follicles than usual at the baseline scan.

My experience at the clinic was amazing ! The pricing was incredible especially as it was minimal drugs. I'm talking less than 2k including flights, hotel, food, taxis and treatment for me and my husband.

Whilst mine hasn't resulted in a positive pregnancy, let me remind you you are still soooo young. Your egg quality is likely very good. Arm yourself with what you already know about your body and make as many suggestions as you have to about your next steps.

Self advocating in this journey is a must

I wish you all the best xx

Hi @Rosequartzz it's great you found a good clinic that has you on the right road! Do you mind me asking which clinic you had the prp ovarian and tests? It is so cheap! Our 1st trip will cost us 4k then the next 6k 😢

@Clocloxx PRP was done in Bulgaria at Nadezhda which is where I had a couple of cycles done. It cost me 600 BGN which is approximately £260.

I had valproic acid done as well for treatment of adenomyosis which was 470 so just over £200

bloods we're different each time depending on what was being checked.

Thanks @Rosequartzz I will reach out to that clinic, will you be going back soon for another cycle?

We've taken the route of DE. It's been many years and too many cycles trying with OE.
We have switched clinics for this just because Bulgaria doesn't have a wide choice to match me, whereas Spain does.

DE will be my option too if this cycle fails, I wish you the very best ✨️ you will have your bundle of joy soon ❤️

Thank you @Clocloxx wishing you all the best with this cycle.
We shall indeed have our babies very soon 😍

Hi there.I have an amh of 1.24pmol/l measured in Sept 23.I also have endometriosis and under active thyroid.I got pregnant naturally in Feb 24 at nearly 42.Unfortunatrly miscarried at nearly 10 weeks but I'm sure my amh would have dropped again by then.I did 2 rounds of icsi in 2022 at age 40 where only 5 eggs were collected on both cycles but we were incredibly lucky to now have a 13month old from our second cycle with a double day 3 transfer.On both cycles we were told i would need donor eggs due to poor response but we were adamant we would go for collection with only 1 follicle.We are going to go for another cycle in August and again will go for collection(if we get that far)with only 1 follicle.I have seen on other forums some ladies amh increasing with diet changes and supplements.Like the previous poster said you are still very young so egg quality will still be good.Wishing you all the best.

This is not the point of the thread but are people generally using ng/ml or pmol/l? I have 5.2pmol/l which is 0.75ng/ml. I guess OP is talking about less than 1.0 in ng/ml?

I have been told to start ICSI in the next few months so I’ll start in September. Im sorry to hear that people have not been so successful. I’ve been told 1/3 chance of success but that’s before any failed cycles. It could be lower. Good luck to you all.

Just thought I’d share my story for those of you thinking about donor eggs. I have very low AMH and tried 3 rounds of ivf with my own eggs. I tried max doses of stims and mild ivf along with the general NHS protocol. No matter what stims I used my body only produced one egg. I got to transfer twice but the embryos created were never great quality. Last January we made the change to donor eggs and got 2 embryos from a batch of 6 eggs. The first transfer with a perfect embryo was not successful. However, I am now currently 23 weeks pregnant with our second embryo. The thought of donor eggs can be quite daunting but for us it is the best decision we have ever made.

@Jennie154 I really needed to see this. A huge congratulations to you on your pregnancy ❤️ we made the decision to go for DE and had 3 good embryos. 1st one top quality did not take.

We have our 2nd transfer booked for Monday. Can I ask what was done differently between the 1st and 2nd to give you this amazing outcome xx

@Rosequartzz The only thing we did differently was add in Lubion progesterone injections as well as the pessaries post transfer. Our second embryo wasn’t as good quality as the first so we were amazed that he stuck around.

@Jennie154 that's brilliant, we have 2 slightly lower grade frozen so will see what we transfer. I did have pessaries last time but the progesterone was not monitored prior to transfer. This time it will be and I'm taking clexane as well.
Fingers crossed 🤞

@Rosequartzz My progesterone was just above the cut off for my first donor egg transfer but they suggested increasing it for this last time. I also have a friend who has just given birth to twins from her 3rd donor egg transfer. One of her embryos was lower quality.