Question for DOR ladies

pillowass

I keep reading that the biggest factor influencing egg quality is age. If that's the case, shouldn't we be able to get pregnant at the same rate as anyone our age, assuming no other issues? Aren't we, in a sense, unexplained as well?

Edwina.McDunnough

I've seen tons of DOR girls get pregnant with 1 embryo, so yes, it happens all the time. That's (sorry) why it's so annoying when people think DOR is the kiss of death. We're not even talking ovarian failure, we're just talking diminished as in fewer than a FH  but still a respectable response, for the most part. Doing IUI with DOR doesn't make much of a difference, most people can make a few eggs so numbers don't really impact the cycle. I'm generalizing, of course some women will be outside of the statistical norm.

That being said, some people just have crap eggs, even lots of them. Unexplained doesn't mean there's nothing wrong, sometimes it just means no one can figure it out. Anyone that says DOR and EQ are linked is misled. You have to do IVF to assess EQ and even then there are so many variables that it's not a sure answer.

mtlaurel

Like Edwina said, my RE always stressed that being DOR did not necessarily mean I had egg quality issues. It wasn't until we got poor quality embryos from IVF a couple of times that he said I had quality issues. So, I think there may be other issues, yet to be identified, for some DOR women going through tx primarily because of DOR.

MandaS08

I agree with both of the pp's.  I think that DOR contributes to a lower change of pregnancy simply b/c you have less eggs.  If you have a normal percentage of good vs crap eggs, you still have less good eggs than someone without DOR.

My AMH is the only factor that pointed to DOR, so 5 years ago I would be unexplained and they just wouldn't know what was causing our issues.

Mrs.McIrish

There are varying degrees of DOR. I have read (but don't have it with me) that the egg may not mature properly when it is flooded with too much FSH.  The receptors on the follicle try to protect the egg from the influx of FSH (think of the follicle putting on a raincoat to avoid the fSH) and then the egg does not mature correctly and is ovulated too early in the process.

joules12

My RE certainly hasn't treated my DOR dx as giving me less of a chance of IVF working.  It has, however, made cycling a bit more tricky because my response to stims is reduced and the number of eggs they've got to work with is fewer.  We have to do IVF because my husband has azoospermia.  However, if that weren't an issue, my RE said that getting pregnant without assistance would very likely be just as possible as it would be for any other woman my age. 

All that said, we really don't know what sort of egg quality we're dealing with on my end (we've only had 1 ER to date, and only 1 out of 4 mature eggs fertilized).  Could it be an egg quality issue?  Quite possibly.  I'm obviously hoping that we won't be having a WTF appointment this cycle but, if we do, I assume those questions are the sorts of thing to be discussed further then.