Hi, me (35) husband (33) have been trying to conceive naturally for 2.5 years, all initial tests came back fine apart from Husbands morphology (has been between 2-8%) over various tests! Was referred for IVF at Newcastle where on our first consultation appointment was told my AMH level was extremely low (1.4) from the off they started talking about doner eggs 😓 which was a shock as local hospital fertility department had never mentioned this to us! We quickly got started with our first round of IVF and as expected I didn’t respond great to the stims but we got 1 egg that made it to day3 but had stopped developing by day5 so no transfer, had my review phone call this morning and they are talking again about doner eggs again and not trying again with my own eggs I had said that we were not ready to give up using my own eggs yet (we will not be using doner eggs as agreed by both myself and husband) and strongly suggested that we’d like to give it another go as it’s only been 1 round (was told we were entitled to 3 rounds) nurse said that it would have to go to consultants for review and they would get back to me later in the week? We just feel like they are giving up too easily? What’s the likelihood of them offering us another round? Could I switch clinics to somewhere who would take a different approach to the low AMH? Could that be done under the NHS or would it have to be private? Just feeling very disappointed that we seem to be being written off after only one round and just finding out about my low AMH a couple of months ago it has all been a lot to take in!!
Thank you in advance for any comments/suggestions 🩷
Written by
EER89
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Hi Diane, May I kindly ask why you say quality will be affected too? 35 is still a good age so perhaps less eggs but of good quality ? I’m asking as I often read that AMH is not necessarily an indication on its own of egg quality so asking to have a better knowledge of it.
I had 1.7 amh and had conceived every few months 3 times in 2023, unfortunately ending in miscarriage. I thought low amh meant low quality, but recurrent miscarriage experts like Dr Regan and Dr quenby have reassured me that low amh doesn't mean low quality. Since I have conceived another time and now am pregnant, hoping all goes well 💚
I also have a son from 2021
Everytime conceived naturally. We were going to go IVF way but we got lucky. It just shows that it's a lottery.
Firstly regarding AMH, I’ve had mine tested three times now, I went from 2.9, to 3.9 to 6.4 - although 6.4 is still low for my age (34) it was a whole year after id got 2.9, so it does fluctuate. Have you had your other hormones tested? I was told that the other hormone levels are actually a better indication of your fertility. All my other hormones were normal levels and I was told that this means I should have many more years of eggs (although IVF would likely prove more challenging - we’ve done one round of egg collection with moderate stims - they told me I’d be lucky to get 2 or 3 eggs and that we’d need ICSI - we got a eggs and all 8 eggs fertilised with standard IVF - so it does help to be as informed as possible so you can insist on things you feel strongly about).
Secondly are you taking supplements to improve your egg quality? It is quality that counts, and, it really does only take one! There are lots of women on here with your AMH levels and many who are older than you who have succeeded. Search for AMH in the posts and you will see that.
In my opinion, if you really want to have the best shot at it, it would be worth finding a clinic that specialises in low AMH. Do as much research as possible, ask lots of questions about how to increase your chances, what dosages would be best and don’t go back and forth for too long (I wish I’d just got on with it a year ago as we’ve ended up here anyway!). Xx
As you're still young but not responding well to stimulation it's worth to consider natural modified IVF, where you'll get less stimulation which will lead to higher quality egg/eggs. The problem is they don't have it in many places and probably only private like Create fertility.If you still have 2 more funded rounds you can discuss choosing slightly less stimulation with something that promotes egg quality (they said menopur to me).
Also, you can read It Starts With The Egg and see if you can increase AMH, egg and sperm quality/morphology.
Hey - just to reiterate what others have said: AMH is not the be all and end all; there's some evidence it's about your ovarian function not your egg quality - and mine has been at a high of 12 and then low of 2 this year after COVID. So it can be affected by illness and quality of your diet. Youve not relayed your diet or supplement regime but in case you've not considered I'd also look at ISWTE by Fett and at a minimum consider removing plastics from diet and making sure makeup and skincare is non endocrine disrupting (I like the Yuka app) if you haven't done this already. Then once you've (both) followed some of Fetts recommendations for 3 months or so go back and try testing AMH again and I reckon you'll be having a different discussion with your consultant. Good luck xx
If you are still ovulating perhaps trying IUI a couple of times will be an option. A friend of mine (36) has AMH <1 and after two egg retrievals with no eggs retrieved , her doctor has recommended donor egg or IUI, maybe ask your doctor if this is an option. Also, AMH tests on blood taken from day 3 of your cycle in the most accurate. My number from a day 3 AMH test was the exact number of follicles I had during my cycle. Hope this helps!
I'd recommend checking out Emma the Embryologist on Instagram or via website.
She is, as you'd expect, an embryologist. Her view is that errors in development after day 3 atlre more likely (statistically, so definitely not always) due to sperm as sperm DNA kicks in at that point. Up until day 3 it's just the egg.
I'd say it's worth asking clinic this directly -why are they sure it is egg quality and not sperm, given the above?
If they use time lapse, ask how development was looking -was it dividing normally or issues from the off?
Ask if you can speak to embryology team, they are the ones that really know about the development, the doctors focus on the meds, so you want to speak to the right part of the ivf team.
Obviously, neither of these answers will change the current outcome, but they might help to give you more useful information to consider as you go forward.
For what it's worth, and entirely my own opinion, I think medicine is biased towards seeing the issue as being on the female side, simply because that's the bit they've researched more (and still, not a lot).
I'm really sorry to hear about your challenges. In terms of NHS funding, this would be dependent on the criteria laid out by your trust. Unfortunately the ICB policy for area indicates that access to 3 cycles is not an automatic right, the outcome of any previous cycle will be taken in to account. Treatment must be medically indicated at the start of each cycle. It might be that the consultant would review your previous treatment and consider that medical intervention with IVF will not have a successful outcome and therefore the NHS would not fund continued procedures based on your AMH results. When meeting with your consultant you could discuss the option of using a different protocol for an additional treatment but unfortunately they are not obliged to do so. If you want to reach out for additional support, or perhaps connect with people in your area who have had similar experiences you could try our support groups fertilitynetworkuk.org/acce...
Hi EER89 i am sorry you're in this situation. If it was me in your shoes I also wouldn't want to give up on my own eggs so early on in the game; 35 years old is quite young in IVF terms so you have time to try with your own eggs and see how it goes, before switching to DE.
Don't be pushed into a decision by your NHS Consultant; a lot of NHS decision making is governed by finances and there is much less involvement of patient decision making than in the private sector. Whilst there might be a lower chance based on your AMH, it is not impossible! And I'm sure there are plenty of success stories out there. I agree with the reply suggesting to consider natural IVF which focusses on the one egg released that month.
The door is definitely not closed for you and there are options to choose from! Good luck with whatever you choose X
35 is much too young to be told to move to donor eggs, especially when you've only had one round!
Given your young age and the fact that your embryo stopped developing after day 3 (when the sperm DNA comes into play), I think it's FAR more likely that there's an issue with your husband's sperm that hasn't been found yet. This is what happened with me...my husband's semen analyses always came back great except for slightly low morphology (around 2-4%) but everyone waved away that result and said that morphology didn't matter. Come to find out 2.5 years into our journey that my husband actually had high sperm DNA fragmentation which pretty much made conception impossible, even with IVF. Once he finally found out the cause of the fragmentation - which was in his case a varicocele - and had it fixed, we conceived naturally.
Most IVF clinics offer sperm DNA fragmentation testing so I would ask your clinic to have that done. If they don't offer it, there's a lab called Fertility Solutions (fertilitysolutions.co.uk/dn... that you can self-refer to and book the test.
I highly, highly recommend doing the test before proceeding with any more rounds. It's super important to know about any issues with the sperm beforehand because it often can be addressed pretty easily but you can't fix it if you don't know about it!
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your replies so helpful! I have actually received a message from our current clinic who are willing to do another round of IVF haven’t actually spoke to anyone yet to see if they are willing to try something different have also contacted another clinic who specialises in low AMH but need to speak to those (have been struck down with the dreaded cold/flu all week so have been unable to chase anything up yet) so feeling hopeful we still have options! I have read the book it starts with an egg and we do try to be as good as possible with everything, we have been taking good quality supplements for years as we started trying in our early 30s so we just started them from the off (way before finding out about the low AMH or morphology) my husband has had a couple of ultrasounds over the years regarding a varicocele who said that he had one and referred him to a urologist who said he could find one 🤷♀️🤷♀️ and discharged him! To be honest trying to get to the bottom of my husbands low morphology has been stressful nobody seems interested so after he was discharged from the urologist we gave up on it? I do think maybe going private would be the better option for us as they’d look into things a bit more which I feel would really help us? Seems on the outside everything is fine, my periods are regular, get positive ovulation tests each month, 21 day progesterone test came back I ovulated that month, HSG X-ray all fine, thyroid fine, all other hormones are fine (endocrinologist was actually the one who advised us to urgently refer ourselves for IVF when we told her our story as she said all my hormones looked fine I’m assuming she maybe didn’t have the AMH result at that point?) vitamin D level was also fine! I had also read that at day 3 it could be a sperm issue? And I totally agree everything/everyone seems to direct the issues to the female side 🙈
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
IVF vs trying naturally with low AMH 
Low AMH
Positive BFP over 40 stories 
Any ladies out there positive natural pregnancies low AMH/ovarian reserve? Feel like giving up
Failed Fertilisation with ICSI
