Egg freezing after miscarriage

[Eggjen]

Hi everyone!

I'm 35, and looking for some advice, as my AMH and follicle count has massively decreased this year, and I am trying to figure out when to time egg freezing given my recent lifestyle and levels of stress. This year I have miscarriages, and then my long term relationship ended very recently. I now feel strongly I need to preserve my fertility, but don't know what to do.

I had my AMH in April, it was 7pmol/L. I then had my follicles counted in July, there were 18.

Then in July I finally got pregnant after 2 years of trying, and ended up miscarrying in September at 10.5 weeks.

I was super stressed and upset for a while after the miscarriage. Since the miscarriage I have also eaten a bit less healthy, done less yoga, and less relaxation, and also on 3 occasions drunk 3-4 large glasses of wine. Prior to the pregnancy this year I'd lived an extremely healthy lifestyle, minimising stress and not drinking at all.

Now my long relationship ended a couple of weeks ago, and this has been also extremely upsetting and stressful.

I then got my AMH done again - it has dropped in 7 months to 2.7pmol/L. I also had a follicle count done a couple of days ago, and they could only see 5. This is a huge huge drop in a really short amount of time! I've seen a doctor and she said its really unusual.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do. Should I just freeze my eggs immediately, on the next cycle (and probably for the next 3 back to back), as it looks like my fertility might be dropping off a cliff, or should I wait some time to live a really healthy and stress-free life for 3 months before collection. I'm really torn as I know stress is a big factor, and I've been extremely stressed a lot since the end of September, with the miscarriage and then my long term relationship ending recently.

Any experiences or advice? Should I just collect eggs as quickly as possible, or should I try and give my body some time to be in the best state it can before the collection? Does miscarriage affect growing follicles? Or does pregnancy affect growing follicles?

This is a rather long post but I'd really appreciate any suggestions or advice.

Hi OP - hope you are well, interested to hear what route you went down. I am thinking about freezing eggs due to my age (37 in May) x

Hi Laura,

Nice to hear from you.

I am about to start 3 rounds of egg freezing. I had an appointment with a fertility doctor, and she recommended this would be wise given my low AMH and low follicle count in November. She said I was still at a good age for egg freezing.

I'll start my first round this cycle, so if all goes well I believe my first eggs will be retrieved in late February or early March. I'll keep you posted.

There is one study that looks at the effect of pregnancy on AMH in women. It showed that it decreases a lot during pregnancy, but the study only looked I think a week or something after birth to track AMH levels. Therefore its hard to know how long the reduced AMH remains after pregnancy.

This is the link to the study:
rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1477-7827-11-60

Having said that, the doctor did say it would make sense that AMH and follicle count might be reduced temporarily after pregnancy (in my case leading to miscarriage) since during that time the body stops developing eggs.

I'll let you know how my egg collection goes. I have been trying to do everything right between the post and now, and will continue to do so, in the hope that I will get a good number.

With best wishes

OP

Hi @Eggjen stumbled across your thread as my AMH is 1.1 after recurring miscarriage and we're now looking into egg freezing. Just wondering how you got on? I hope it was successful for you.

Hi @justsayso

I am very sorry to hear about your miscarriages, I hope you're doing ok.

I had my first egg collection on 1st March, 14 eggs, 9 of which were mature. The doctors were really pleased and said I reacted very well to the stimulation. It is possible that my AMH has increased, as this egg collection was 6 months after my last miscarriage, but I have not had it checked. I am now very hopeful to collect somewhere between 25 and 30 eggs over the three cycles, but I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Have you had your AMH checked before? How soon after your miscarriage did you get it checked?

One thing I'd say is if you have the option to create embryos, and freeze them, this is meant to have a higher chance of success down the line. I am single - so not an option for me!

Hope this helps, and best of luck with everything.

I just came across your post and I’m recently single/going through separation. I just wondered how you went about getting your levels checked in the first place? I have no idea what my fertility is like. I got pregnant last may but lost it around 5 weeks.

Hi there,

I ended up paying for it through the London Egg Bank, but that's because I initially tried to be an egg donor for them, and part of the process involves paying for an AMH test. If you'd be open to donating some of your eggs, you might want to check them out as you will get to do the process pretty much for free if you meet their requirements.

My result came back too low to be a donor unfortunately.

Soon after I was due fertility tests on the NHS (as I was still with my ex at this stage), so I had another AMH test and an fertility scan of my ovaries through the NHS.

Later on the same year, I went to Ultrasound Direct and paid for an extra fertility scan. You can actually do a combined fertility scan and AMH test combined through them if you want to pay for it yourself. I don't think its possible to get these test for free through the NHS when you're single, which is not great!

Personally I think getting these tests done is a really good idea for women in 30s. Information is power. I wish I'd had one done at the beginning of my 30s, as I am on the low side on indicators for my age.

I hope that helps, and wishing you all the best for your fertility journey.

Also - I am very sorry to hear about your loss last year. It is devastating, words can't express what the experience is like, and I hope you're ok.

@autumn1610 I had my AMH levels tested from superdrug and it was £89 I think, I went via their website and they sent me a kit.
Hope all is going well for you OP?