Sudden AMH drop?

[50shadesofblue]

Hi everyone,I'm so pleased to have found this group and to be able to see I'm not alone on this journey. No one I know in person can understand what it's like and I find it very hard talking to anyone, even my husband.

I had my first AMH test in February 2022, I was 37 then, it came back as 8.5 and we were approved for the NHS funding (AMH has to be above 5.4 for that). I had my first IVF cycle this past spring, 2 embryos, 1 failed transfer, 1 miscarriage. However disheartening the loss was, we could then see a pregnancy was possible and we were determined to do another round (we were eligible for 2 on the NHS). Our clinic tested the AMH again this September as it is a requirement for the NHS funding, and it came back as 3.8! It was an absolute shock. Not only do we now have to put all of our life savings into this, but we also know our chances are much much lower this time. We both feel like we can't stop now, we have to try one more time, otherwise we will regret it for the rest of our lives.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the AMH drop. It's not normal. I haven't really had any massive life changes since the first test, if anything I've only got healthier (aaand turned 38 🙄). However, between the two tests, I had the most stress of my entire life, including a death in the family, the fertility treatment itself, the first heartbreaking failed transfer and the crushing miscarriage. I'm wondering if this could be stress-related? Google is vague on this. Might be just the age. Has anyone experienced a sudden AMH drop? Or not qualified for the NHS funding? Hugs to every one of you xx

UPD My repeat AMH two weeks later came back as 3.2. We are now considering doing a multi-cycle IVF package (2 cycles, unlimited transfers) at our clinic, which will hopefully save us some money in the long run. Thank you to everyone who commented and good luck to us all xx

[NemoFish]

Mine dropped from 11 to 2 in just over a year, I was gutted. I’m not sure about stress though. No one ever gave me a reason. I only had one cycle on the NHS so it didn’t impact that as I was paying anyway by that point, but it definitely takes the wind out of your sails x

[50shadesofblue in reply to NemoFish]

Oh wow! That's a big drop. Thank you for sharing xx

[Joeysjourney]

Hiya, I suffered a massive drop too in the space of a year amd 4 months and its really hard news to take. I took it really hard and it felt like the end if my journey. So I sympathise entirely. I was in floods of tears.

We only tested it again because my body wasn't responding as it normally did to stims and I had very few follicles. Dr put it down to covid at the time.

Decided to try again and up the stims a bit and what do you know, my ovaries kicked back into action and I got 11 eggs on my next round. Every single follicle had a mature egg in it. We've no idea why or how or what happened. Check my profile and youll see the rollercoaster!

It doesn't always work out like that for everyone of course, but just wanted to tell you my story for a little hope that not every cycle is the same and amh doesn't mean everything anyway. One good quality embryo is worth a lot!

Best of luck

Joey xx

[50shadesofblue in reply to Joeysjourney]

Thank you Joey! I actually saw your post from 2y ago after I posted mine. Again, however horrible all of this is, it's comforting to know you're not the only one. My doctor said the same, by the way, it's quality, not quantity. One egg, one embryo might be the one. I hope it all ends well for you xxx

[Tnthketnf]

I am so sorry for your loss and that you are going through this now. From what I have been told AMH drops with age. Unfortunately for some women this drop is steeper.

When I had mine tested first time at 36 it came back high. And high were the hopes. Since then it hasn't dropped dramatically but it has and it is within normal-ish parameters for my age. Despite this it hasn't resulted in a single positive test! I never got to see that implantation is even achievable. Anyway what I am trying to say is that many women with low amh even at the age of 38 can have success. And many with high don't.

I was told that stress can affect the quality which isn't what AMH measures. But i would guess as with anything in the ivf world there is no straight answer.

As for the NHS bit, yes it is unfair.

Take care!

[50shadesofblue in reply to Tnthketnf]

Thank you! Nothing is fair, and nothing is straight in this matter. I hope you get to see that positive test and all the good things after that!

[Hidden]

have you thought about asking to get it re-tested once more? It can vary and lab conditions can also affect the result. May be worth doing - could surprise you and save you £££ xx

[50shadesofblue in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I went for another test yesterday but I'm not holding my breath at all. Thank you x

[Hidden in reply to 50shadesofblue]

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you xx

[Pnw2020]

Hi. I appreciate it must feel unfair to not qualify for funding anymore but there are fertility packages with companies such as Access Fertility which may work out cheaper than paying a clinic directly.

If you wanted to look at supplements/ further tests for low AMH have a look at ‘It starts with the egg’.

[50shadesofblue in reply to Pnw2020]

Thank you, I will certainly look into that!

[Vik_star]

Hi there, I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I’m too a low AMH-er, however CJohns is correct, it can vary quite a bit from clinic/ labs etc and also I was told it can vary during the month for you, depending on your cycle. So maybe get it tested a couple of times elsewhere at different times of your cycle.

Mine varied significantly, and was low and I just wanted to say as others have you can have success with low numbers, we have so please don’t loose hope!

Read It Start with the Egg book if you haven’t, I followed a few of the lifestyle changes and supplement suggestions. High protein, low sugar, rest, sleep etc.

If you want to chat more then please DM me!

Best of luck xx

[50shadesofblue in reply to Vik_star]

Thank you xx

[Vik_star in reply to 50shadesofblue]

Also we were with Care Fertility & I think some of their package options didn’t all have an AMH level requirement. Maybe worth looking at xx

[50shadesofblue in reply to Vik_star]

We are with Care too. I'm not sure what you mean? They're happy to take us on for the 2nd cycle, but we'd have to pay for it ourselves, NHS will not fund us because of the low AMH. Care are writing up a treatment plan as we speak to give us an accurate quote. They were quite optimistic really, saying my AMH must've been quite low during the first cycle already but we still manage to get 2 embryos out of it. Ah we'll see xx

[Vik_star in reply to 50shadesofblue]

Ah, I see. Sorry, I must’ve misread that part of your post! 2 embryos is really good & Care are brilliant, so wishing you all the very best of luck with everything.. please keep us posted! Xx

[Hidden]

My AMH dropped after 3 cycles in a row and a CP. I think hammered my ovaries. After a few months break AMH was back to roughly where it was before. It’s a stupid and unfair criteria.

I’ve never been able to have IVF funding. Went for an Access Refund package. Best thing we did as now have money to continue after 3 failed cycles. If we’d done NHS IVF and failed we wouldn’t have qualified for the refund package and spent ages waiting (our area very slow!). Definitely look at packages to save money.

Best of luck x

[50shadesofblue in reply to Hidden]

I'm so sorry you have gone through all of this xI have looked at access refund packages, in fact my clinic offers something similar but you have to do 2-3 cycles and we can't do that. I'm almost 39 now, we want to try IVF one more time and if it doesn't work, so be it, we'll start looking into adoption. We don't feel like we can spend another year or longer waiting and hoping, this year has been hard enough. I don't think I can wait to see if my AMH goes up again either, because the clock is ticking and the AMH is more likely to drop even lower as I approach 40. We have to act now, unfortunately.

I hope your next cycle works🤞Big hugs xx

[Hidden in reply to 50shadesofblue]

Thanks. I just had good news that though my AMH went down in July (2.48) it’s gone to 7.42 now (got result today) which is highest I’ve had it tested. So I really hope you get good news at re test ❤️

[50shadesofblue in reply to Hidden]

Woah! Great news! 🎉Have you been doing anything differently, taking any supplements?

I'm still waiting on my retest results.

[Hidden in reply to 50shadesofblue]

Thank you. I’m wary it still won’t help by endo affected ovaries respond any better to stims but still feels better to have a decent number on paper than one that had fallen in space of few months from near 6 to near 2!

I have tried to reduce stress and been doing mindfulness and acupuncture. Otherwise kept to my 😇 healthy lifestyle I’ve tried to maintain throughout TTC. I have been on ubiquinol 200mg and vitamin E 400iu as well as pregnacare conception max for ages now so not sure that’s the difference.

I did 12 weeks of DHEA before my last stim in July and that seemed to lead to a drop in AMH (maybe as it worsened my endo) but then I wonder if on stopping the DHEA it’s had a rebound effect and it has helped eventually?🤷🏻‍♀️

Really hope you have a good result 🤞🏼

[50shadesofblue in reply to Hidden]

Interestingly, I've seen a few people here recommend DHEA to help improve AMH. My doctors did not suggest any supplements apart from folic acid and vit D, whereas everyone around seems to be taking ubiquinol and other stuff. I'm so confused at this point 😰 Anyway, I'm going to try and chill now and wait for my results patiently. 🤞 for you ovaries to pull themselves together and respond!

[Catswhiskers1]

I haven’t had a drop as only had my AMH tested once before starting IVF. It was 1 at age 34, so sadly I didn’t qualify for any funding which was quite upsetting (I’m still cross about it tbh). However, to offer a bit of hope it may not be the be all and end all and there is a lot of fertility they still don’t understand…. I was ever so lucky and had a positive on my first cycle, baby is due next month 🙏🙏 (3 eggs collected, 2 blasts). So hopefully yours will have come up enough to qualify for funding, but even if not, don’t place too much on the AMH result as for me I was convinced this would mean I would never have a baby, and it isn’t necessarily true

[50shadesofblue in reply to Catswhiskers1]

Thank you for you support xSo happy it worked out for you! 🤞the baby is very healthy and happy!

[Catswhiskers1]

don’t know if it made a difference but I did take dhea and impryl for three months before, melatonin a few weeks before, and things like high dose vit D

[Katsi]

Do you think you can re-do the test? I once had a medical mistake when my AMH came out 0.28, apparently it was mistake as the next test half a year later showed 5.5 ( in the same measurement units!)

[50shadesofblue in reply to Katsi]

That's the dream, isn't it? I've had another one just this week, waiting for the results but I'm trying not to get my hopes up...

[Katsi]

you seems not to be far from the threshold, so as someone mentioned, you could try another laboratory, and I also read that in follicular phase of the cycle the results at 11% higher than in luteal one. Also, vitamin D, ubiquinol could help (DHEA is forbidden in some countries so not sure about this one).

ovarianresearch.biomedcentr...

[50shadesofblue in reply to Katsi]

When the results of my latest test come in, I will report back. Coincidentally, the tests were taken at different phases of the cycle, so we'll be able to compare and see if there's a change. I've been taking vit D and folic acid of course, but none of my doctors have mentioned any other supplements that I've been recommended here, which I find surprising. Probably, something to think about. Thank you! x

[BearPanda]

Hi! Sorry to hear about the result and the stress, that must have been a real surprise! I had a really low AMH reading back in Feb (0.6) and went onto my first cycle couple of months ago. Long story short, we were fortunate and got a lot of eggs out of that round. My doctor said that this was an impossible results for my levels of AMH and she believes my blood sample could have been kept at temperatures slightly too high during transport; she said that gives a false low reading. I haven't retested as I thought, since I'm not pregnant yet and we're on the IVF journey not eligible for funding anyway, this doesn't change much for us. But maybe, if you retested privately you could make sure your second test is definitely correct?

[50shadesofblue in reply to BearPanda]

Wow what a result!I'm awaiting the repeat test result next week. If it is significantly different (in either way), we may look into doing more tests in the future.

I hope "a lot of eggs" is not where your story ends 🤞

[BearPanda in reply to 50shadesofblue]

Fingers crossed for the repeat test! And thank you! My first transfer didn't stick and I'm going in for my second FET tomorrow so hopefully we will get a bit further this time!

[50shadesofblue in reply to BearPanda]

Aw very best of luck to you tomorrow! xx