low ovarian reserve- anyone else

[Ivfenquirer]

Hello all,

Looking for some hope or at least real stories if successful or not.

I’m 32, very low ovarian reserve and AMH levels (3 follicles only). First round of IVF was cancelled at day 9 because my hormone levels weren’t rising and no follicles had grown.

Anyone with super low ovarian reserve seen success with ivf? Or do we need to think about donor eggs maybe? Or just give up!

Thanks x,

[Greenleaves1]

Hi - what is your AMH?

[Ivfenquirer in reply to Greenleaves1]

Hey it’s 2.2pmol or my doctor keeps saying it is nearly 0!

[Greenleaves1 in reply to Ivfenquirer]

I have a friend with an AMH of 1.8 and she recently had 8 follicles & looking like she may get 4 eggs. So there is hope.

Have you looked into taking DHEA?

[Gerbear22 in reply to Ivfenquirer]

Hi there.I had an amh of 2.2pmol/l when tested before my second icsi cycle that resulted in my 14 month old at age 41.Only 2 follicles worth counting but it was about quality for me.I also had a a natural pregnancy with amh of 1.24pmol/l in Feb this year. Although it resulted in a miscarraige it still showed me that I could get pregnant with such a low amh.Wishing you well.xx

[IVFnewbie1]

I have low amh. My first round I had 4 eggs retrieved and 1 fertilised. The second round I was put on a long regime with down regulation and got 6 eggs with 4 fertilised and 4 making it to blastocyst stage. I am now pregnant from that round. I would say if you haven’t already try a long regime-it’s long but for us it worked better. We also had ICSI Xxx

[Greenleaves1 in reply to IVFnewbie1]

QQ how long is long? I haven't heard of anyone in my clinic doing this & it's never been suggested to me xx

[Ivfenquirer in reply to IVFnewbie1]

I haven’t heard of this either, could you explain a bit more about a longer regime?

[IVFnewbie1 in reply to Ivfenquirer]

So my first round I had 18 injections altogether starting from day 2 of my period. Only 3 of the 4 were mature and we had one very strong front runner but nothing else really developed. Unfortunately that round we got one morula which was transferred but nothing happened

The second round I started injecting on day 21 of my cycle-I then had 2 weeks of down regulation which included a period. They told me this way switches off the ovaries (it sounds counterproductive to what we wanted to achieve but went with it. After down regulation they then started my stims which they said as they switched everything off it gives them more control than my first round. I had over 45 injections in total and the process took probably an extra 2 weeks than the first. However our results were so much better using this method. Hope that helps xxx

[IVFnewbie1 in reply to IVFnewbie1]

When I say results better I’m not just saying the positive test but rather than just one egg maturing we had 6 over the baseline at a good size. 5 were mature and 4 fertilised and got to blastocyst-we were delighted this round gave us 3 to freeze as last round we had none xxx

[Ivfenquirer in reply to IVFnewbie1]

Thank you this is so helpful and congratulations to you!

[IVFnewbie1 in reply to Ivfenquirer]

Glad it’s helpful 🥰 we hadn’t heard of it before they suggested it. Xx

[Greenleaves1 in reply to IVFnewbie1]

Thank you. I'm hoping I'm currently pregnant but if not this is something I will be asking about on my follow up appointment. Seems sensible for them to be shutting our ovaries down to save eggs. I remember when I had a fibroid my gynae did this for 4 months so I would stop bleeding.

[IVFnewbie1 in reply to Greenleaves1]

I have my fingers crossed for you that this round is positive. Xxx

[Greenleaves1 in reply to IVFnewbie1]

Thank you 8DP5DT. Not sure if my symptoms are down to nerves at this point lol xx

[IVFnewbie1 in reply to Greenleaves1]

Not long now until you find out 🩷 everything crossed 🤞🏼 xxx

[Anneonimous]

Hey, I'm older than you at 40 and haven't had success yet but my first cycle of IVF I had 4 follicles total at baseline. Throughout stims I managed to get up to 7 follicles and 2 eggs collected. My amh isn't super low but it's not high either. My last scan showed an AFC of 1. Which is very low but I'm going to have a 2nd cycle. As it was your first round, they might just need to tweak some things here and there.

Don't lose hope!

[Sja1981]

I had gentle stims with Pergoveris but I'm 43 so older. AMH was 0.31!

I had 5 collected

4 fertilised

3 are now frozen blasts going for PGTA testing

Do ask specific questions and get verified stats on the results for each doctor and embryologist as it varies so much. Ask specific questions about their experience of treating low ovarian reserve, what protocol they'd suggest etc and do your own research too. I was so passive in the initial stages despite being a holistic health practitioner and a big fan of person led care. I just accepted their word as gospel as fertility world felt so out of my depth, but you can and should advocate for yourself, don't assume they've got it all in hand. My clinic has made numerous admin errors which has caused a ton of unnecessary stress. I've heard similar and worse from women at other clinics. Don't forget this is a lucrative business! X

[Sushiisyum]

Hi there, I can understand how you are feeling right now.

I had low egg reserve and my FSH / AMH levels were the wrong way round (high when meant to be low and vice versa).

I tried IVF with my own eggs despite a single figure % chance it would work. I didn’t even get anything to extract. A single follicle grew to 10mm and it was slow growing on max medication so we abandoned the process.

We went down the route of donor eggs in Cyprus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of organising and work but the team at the clinic was fantastic. There’s been highs and lows, waiting games but as I type this I am currently 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant. (Oh and I’m 40 years old)

I wish you all the luck in the world. Feel free to message me if you have any questions x

[Ivfenquirer in reply to Sushiisyum]

Thank you, this is something we’re considering so glad to hear it has worked for you! Congrats!

[Someonehere2]

I think only you know when it’s your time to give up with your own eggs. I’ve been at that place a couple of times and then decided to try again. I usually get one embryo each cycle if I’m lucky, the last round I didn’t get anything. My low amh we found it is because of endometriosis I had surgery for that and that seemed to make things worse. I don’t have pregnancy success with ivf to share but I have read articles that it takes many more cycles to be successful. I also found I’ve had 3 different types of ivf protocol and I’ve responded different to each so you could talk to your doctor about trying something different. 2.2 isn’t actually zero. Currently trying agonist long protocol as I told my doctor we needed to try something different. I can let you know how that goes in a couple of weeks. I’ve heard you can get more eggs. I also do mini ivf to focus on quality over quantity apparently works better for low amh. I also tried something where you rejuvenate your eggs with your plasma but didn’t seem to do much.

[Kitkat10]

Hi, the numbers might be low but that shouldn’t affect quality?

I had normal AMH for age (40 years old) but only 3 eggs collected, one of which became my son. I was 41 when he was born and my egg quality will have been age-affected by then. I am very very lucky that it eventually worked, but I also felt that it was time to move to DE for a sibling.

It’s a big decision but keep it in your mind as an option. The pressure is taken off your own eggs and donors are often in their 20’s hence the much improved success rates. My DE little girl arrived 4 weeks ago and I love her unconditionally.

I think you’ve still got time with your OE but you’ve got to go with how you feel. DE have much less time pressure so don’t feel like you should give up because you still have plenty of time. Good luck with everything xx

[Ivfenquirer in reply to Kitkat10]

Thank you! And congrats with your little girl!