IVF/ICSI In Late 30's With LOW AMH Level And Poor Response To Stims

[sparkle183]

Hi, has anyone else been successful with ivf who are in there late 30's or older and have a really low AMH Level?

We've not long started our ivf journey and have just gone for our second scan to see how things are going on our medication. We are due to have our egg retrieval this Friday (4 days time) but unfortunately only one follicle (out of 2-3) is growing so likely to only be able to retrieve one egg. They are going to give us our third and final scan in two days time and we've been told it will be up to us on if we go for the egg retrieval or to try again.

I'm now 37, tests have shown I will go into an early menopause and have an AMH Level of 2pmol/l. Which had dropped from the test i had six months before. So that leads me to think it is dropping fairly quickly. And I don't know how much chance we'll have. We had a miscarriage 2 years ago and are desperately wanting a baby. And we don't know what to do.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? And have been successful?

Many thanks.

[jengi]

Hi lovely, my story is similar to yours. On our first round I had only one follicle growing, thankfully there was an egg inside. It had a thickened zona pellucida which meant the sperm were unable to penetrate it during the fertilisation process. It might have been a different result had the lab done ICSI instead of IVF. For us, it was useful to know the quality of the egg so the next cycle could be tweaked accordingly. It also depends if this is an NHS round & how many NHS cycles you are entitled too. It’s worth asking what’s the definition of a cycle on the NHS. If you don’t continue to collection then is that your NHS go gone or not? What would they do different in the next cycle? I wish you lots of luck Xx

[sparkle183 in reply to jengi]

Hi Jengi,Thank you for your reply. Awww I'm sorry that your first treatment wasn't successful. We are having ICSI as there are also male infertility problems.

This is a NHS round. We are entitled to one fresh and one frozen treatment. So having just one egg this would be our only shot at it if we continued 😥

If we don't continue to collection then they don't class it as having a round of ivf, so the NHS would allow us to try again.

I'm on the maximum dose they can give me of Gornal F. There is I believe a different medication they could try but they haven't yet told me anything about it.

You have brough up some really good questions that I need to adk them though so thank you.

Thank you, I wish you lots of luck too 💗

[jengi in reply to sparkle183]

No problem, glad it was useful. Every cycle is different, hopefully on the next one you’ll have more follicles. After our first, we cancelled 3 cycles, on our 5th, we had 4 follicles! Best of luck Xx

[Marisa32]

Hi, I'm also low AMH, poor responder. Did 2 cycles on max stims and also got only 1 egg. The egg made it to blast but not good enough for PGT test and ended in BFN. Apparently mild or natural IVF works better for us ladies, as we don't respond to high stims well. I gave up IVF after those 2 cycles and did IUIs instead. (As there were no male fertility issues on our end). Got pregnant on 1st IUI but MC, then randomly got pregnant naturally right before arranging for donor egg transfer. My AMH was 0.16 a year ago and I'm 41. Almost 19 weeks now and hoping for the best. Try few mild/natural IVF rounds if possible and bank your embryos. The very low AMH number just means you won't respond to stims, it doesn't mean you have no good eggs left. Also a good idea is to do a DNA fragmentation test for your husband to know exactly what you are working with on his end. And check your thyroid, TSH should be below 2. Wishing you best of luck.

[BECIO]

Hey sparkle I literally just wrote a similar post!!! I am in the exact same boat as you.... there are ladies who have had positive results I was just reading to give me some hope Countrymouse56 is one! Good luck, hoping things will improve for us both x

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi sparkle. If egg collection doesn't look good, then perhaps abandon this cycle and try again. If you go for egg collection, then that cycle is used up if you are having NHS treatment. A few days can make a huge difference, so keep everything crossed that another couple of follicles mature. Good luck! Diane

[Latetotheparty38]

Similar experience..1st ivf round cancelled as only two follicles. Second round two follicles but went to egg collection got two eggs both fertilised and one made it to day five and became a pregnancy but miscarried but my point is it only takes one egg! I did a third round two follicles but sadly one had no egg abs the other wasn’t mature. It’s all such a gamble but my advice is to think of it as a journey not a one and done answer. This is your first cycle so they are still learning hope you respond to the drugs and may increase these. How many mm are your follicles currently? They grow about a mm a day and the trigger injection helps boost growth abs mature them at the end. If you have 1 by egg collection it is a big gamble so no harm in waiting another cycle as you might get 2? I try to always go in with very low expectations then I’m not disappointed and pleased with the small wins! Dhea, Coq10 and melatonin may help increase quality and number of eggs retrieved. I’ve just started this so will let you know if I notice a difference at next ivf round in June. Xx

[Latetotheparty38 in reply to Latetotheparty38]

Too add I was 37 when I did first round now 38