My wife and I have had 5 failed cycles of IUI and have decided its time to try IVF. I am 35 with a low AMH of 2.1, however I have been taking 3 x 75gm DHEA (for 4 months) daily along with Co-Q10 and NHP Fertility support for woman. As well as trying my best at maintaining a healthy lifestyle (no alcohol, chemical products etc).
I've never had many follicles on each cycle, although on my last two cycles of IUI, both looked very positive with two well sized follicles. My question is woman with similar AMH and have experienced IVF, how many follicles did you manage to retrieve? What type of drug did you take, did you change this at all and find you responded better to one type of drug than another?
Previously for my IUI cycles I was on Meriofert and never responded well, in fact I don't think I ever responded to this drug at all, despite being increased after failed cycles. My last cycle I was on Gonal F and my two follicles grew the biggest and best I've ever had.
I realise we are all very different and respond differently, but I am curious to know what I'm likely to expect in terms of follicle numbers/response from treatment with IVF.
Any thoughts we be greatly appreciated. Also I'm thinking low dose seems to have a more positive response to those with low AMH?
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Amelia1984
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Hi Amelia1984, I don't have any experience directly with IVF (yet) but when I was told I had a low AMH (1.5 aged 37) we went along to a clinic open evening that specialised in Natural IVF, where they focused on egg quality rather than egg quantity. Perhaps you could look down that route? The open evening was free with no obligation and it was very informative. I can give you the name of the clinic over PM if you need more info. Good luck xx
Thank you for your reply. Yes I have read that natural IVF and low dose IVF seems to be more success for those with low AMH, than a normal cycle of IVF. I am definitely keen on going down this route. We are awaiting an appointment next week with a consultant to discuss our next stage and I am hoping its something our clinic can offer. And yes if you wouldn't mind sending me the name of the clinic you found informative that would be helpful.
Hi, I had an amh of 5.1 when tested before ivf, which was very low for my age (28). AFC was always about 3 but in the last scan before egg retrieval I had about 7 follicles. They ended up getting 3 eggs, there was one more but they couldn't access it and the other follicles were too small. I was on max dose of menopur, as this is what the clinic recommended for low amh.
All 3 fertilised, one was transferred on day 4 and one good enough to freeze. I am currently 22 weeks pregnant from the fresh transfer. I think it's more about quality than quantity in the end.
Hello and huge Congratulations!! Thats great news, that you got your BFP on your fresh transfer. May I ask was this your first cycle of IVF? And had you tried IUI at all? May I also ask what the max. dose of Menopur was that you were on?
Indeed quality is more important than quantity and always a good point to remember when you have a low AMH.
Thanks again for your response and all the very best with your pregnancy
Thanks, its all starting to feel real now. Yeah it was my first ivf cycle. We were advised to go straight to IVF because of the low AMH and also because I have endometriosis. They didnt think IUI would work, not 100% sure why, but we trusted them and obviously it all worked out.
Just had a look at my prescription and I was on 300IU Menopur and 75IU Fostimon. The doctor said at the time it was the max dose.
Well thats great news, I'm so glad it worked first time for you. We are trying to be optimistic about moving to IVF, the consultant had advised us that IVF had more chance of success, but we wanted to rule out IUI first. Its definitely feels time to change now though.
Thank you for sharing your drug info. I haven't heard of Fostimon before, did you take this daily and notice any side effects? Is there anything you could tell me about IVF that you know now, that you wished you'd known before?
Yeah i took the Fostimon daily, so ended up having to do two injections each day which was a bit of a pain. I didnt really have any side effects until I started the progesterone, then I got really bloated.
In terms of advice, I would say try and stay calm and distracted. Its a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, some days it would feel that things weren't going well but by the next day they had improved. I worked all the way through, took one day off for egg retrieval and an afternoon for embryo transfer. I think I would have gone crazy if i hadn't been at work because I google everything.
Also ask lots of questions, if you dont ask you will just spend ages obsessing over things that are probably really simple.
Haha you sound like me! I'm always asking questions and also googling just to learn and discover more, and likewise like to keep working. I just had afternoons off on procedure days for my IUI, although anticipating a may need a day for egg retrial.
Thats good that you didn't have any side effects, I had lots whilst on Meriofert, but nothing apart from a bloated tummy on Gonal F, and likewise had plenty of effects with progesterone and still feel I am a little (only stopped it a few days ago when we had our BFN).
I've googled both your drugs and am I correct in thinking you took them both for stimulation? Did you take anything to stop the natural cycle? I've had suprecur each time, so would have an injection of that and then one to stimulate each day. Apologises if I am missing something, but I'm reading that both those drugs stimulate?
I had a prostap injection before the cycle started, I actually had it for 2 months before the ivf as well. The prostap was to shrink the endometriosis and also stopped my natural cycle. The injection I had lasted a month so I didn't need to take anything else during the ivf.
Hi Amelia, obviously everyone is different but if it's helpful. I am 33 with
AMH of 0.8 and AFC at around varying between 9 follicles on day 25 the cycle before my period. I was put on 450 Menopur which I was told was a max dosage from day 2 of my period , I had no drugs in the lead up. My follicles responded well and I only had 8 days of drugs. They collected 6 eggs on Monday of which 5 were mature. It sounds like they might put you on Gonal F if it was good for you - I've not had IUI but I'm guessing they don't give you tons of stimulation as they dont want lots of eggs right? I am approaching transfer so obviously can't say for the success of my treatment, and this is my first cycle.
Thank you for your message, it is helpful indeed. I hope things are going well for you and you have a successful transfer, it sounds like you've had a very good start with 5 mature eggs. Would you mind letting me know how many embryos you get from your 5 mature eggs? Did you take a second injection along with Menopur to control your cycle?
Hi Amelia, we currently have 3 high quality embryos sitting in the clinic out of those 5. But we have male factor issues as well so we had ICSI ... They weren't sure if a 4th had fertilised and the 5th they didn't mention so it could well be it didn't fetilised or with ICSI there is a risk with injection the egg I think.
You do introduce a second injection on day 6 alongside yes which blocks ovulation, I was on cetrotide.
Thanks for sharing that 😊 That’s excellent that you have 3 high quality embryos. This is one very good advantage to IVF which we haven’t had previously with IUI, that with any luck I make more than one good embryo and it can be used for a future cycle if the first one doesn’t work xx
Hello Amelia. My AMH is 0.3 so I can't have any treatment with my own eggs.
I had an experience of an IVF treatment 5 years ago but didn't undergo any IUI so, unfortunately, I can't compare these methods. I know that IVF is more effective and many women use it as their main way of treatment. My first IVF was negative. I decided to read something about ICSI and maybe try it. After long searchings, I made my decision and went abroad. After my second attempt, I got a positive result but miscarried. Now I am going in for surrogacy program.
Hello SunnyDream, thank you for your message. I'm sorry to hear that you can't have treatment with your own eggs, but I wish you a successful surrogacy journey and hope you have your baby soon. How did you find the experience aboard? Did it differ much to your experience here?
Hi, Amelia. You know, it hard to say about the difference and I don't want to judge anybody but, it was not so good as I wanted to be. I didn't like to doctor and he wasn't probably a professional. I was too devastated to have a clear mind and agreed to have one try with own eggs, if I would have had them, of course. I had my meds and they even retrieved three eggs, all of them were immature.
I felt into the hard depression because I left without money and baby. The attitude wasn't good, I would say even with a fake grin. Anyway, I got to experience)). I was afraid of having similar results here, abroad, but luckily here is better. Though I am sure, it was the unlucky case and that's it.
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