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Trouble TTC
TatyNYC
member
IVF & Low AMH Questions
TatyNYC
member
in Trouble TTC
Hi all. I wanted to reach out to see if anyone has been or is currently in the same situation that I am in and to see what the cycles have been like and what steps the doctors took to get a successful outcome. I just turned 29. We went to a fertility specialist in September of last year. After 4 IUIs and 3 failed IVF cycles we are feeling very defeated. It turns out that I have a low ovarian reserve, which affects the quality of the eggs. The other factor is that with the stims, my response is not great by my standards. We never had a good number of fertilized embryos to choose the best ones from, just dealing with 2 or 3 that were of average quality.
If anyone has had a similar factors and had a successful outcome, what steps did your doctors take to overcome these short comings?
1. What were the cycles like? (Follistim/Menapure dosage)
2. Did you do acupuncture? If so for how long?
3. Did you change your diet? If so, what did you cut out/add on?
If anyone is currently being treated and has the same factors, what are your doctors changing in your protocol? And what have they done since?
My history:
TTC - 2 & 1/2 years
4 IUIs - unsuccessful
3 IVFs - unsuccessful
IVF #1 - 8 retrieved, 6 mature, 2 fertilized, 1 transferred (Foll 125, then 75, men 150)
IVF #2 - 9 retrieved, 6 mature, 4 fertilized, 3 transferred (Foll. 300, Men. 150 then 225, 150) (I did two weeks of birth control before IVF #2)
IVF #3 - 11 retrieved, 7 mature, 3 fertilized, 2 transferred (Foll. 300, Men. 150 then 225, 150) (I did a combination of Estrogen patch and Ganirilex shots for a week prior to starting IVF #3).
Any insight would be helpful!
Thank you!!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: IVF & Low AMH Questions
Sig Warning
Hope you don't mind my jumping in (I have undetectable AMH), but wanted to let you know there is a DOR weekly check in on the IF board and those ladies have a lot of good info.
Also, you might try searching High FSH forum 54 and High FSH forum 54 over 40. Both of those boards have some women on them that are some of the most knowledgeable I have encountered about supplements, good High FSH friendly/DOR friendly RE's, treatment protocols that work in DOR ladies, etc. You can post on the "over 40" board even if you are not over 40. I know there are a lot of women on there right now doing low or minimal stim IVF. There is a thought process among some that because they have to give DOR patients such high dose meds to stimulate us, that it hurts egg quality...this is just one "theory," though. Clearly, some ladies have had success with high doses. Also, there are some clinics that are thought to specialize in working with DOR ladies like Dr. Check at Cooper.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
Siggy Warning / PAIF Response
I hope you don't mind me responding. We had success after our third IVF but had really disappointing results for cycles 12. I am on mobile and don't remember all the exact stats of how many retrieved, mature, fertilized, etc but you can check my siggy for exact numbers. My AMH before our first cycle was 1.17 and I was 30.
Cycle 1 187.5 GonalF, wasn't responding at all by 4 days of stims, so it was upped to 300 then 450. I believe we got 7R, 3M, 3F. At day 5 we only had two poor quality embryos to freeze. We were doing PGD so didn't transfer any and decided to do another cycle to get more for testing.
Cycle 2 got a second opinion and went with a more aggressive RE we liked better than the first. He wasn't sure if the poor quality was due to the poor response to stims or if I had egg quality issues. Did Estrogen Priming and 450 GonalF and 150 Menopur. Had 11R, maybe 7M and 6F. All of them arrested by day 3. RE thought I had an egg quality issue and agrees to do another cycle before looking into DE.
In between the second and third cycle I changed my diet cut out breads and pastas, ate a ton of fruits, veggies and lean meats and fish. Also worked out a ton and lost 15 lbs. I did acupuncture weekly for 1011 weeks before our third cycle and during it as well. My acupuncturist told me to eat an egg everyday and walk 45 mins daily. I did that maybe 4 days a week. I also took Ultra CoQ10, Royal Jelly, and daily wheatgrass shots.
For our third cycle we did Estrogen Priming, 600 GonalF, and 10ius low dose HCG. GonalF ended up going down to 450. We had 8R, 6M, 6F I think and 5 were still going strong for PGD testing. We ended up transferring one and it stuck. I am not sure if it was the protocol or any of the changes I made, but I was shocked to see such a huge difference in quality. Sorry for any typos mobile bumping sucks. Good luck!!!
ETA: I have heard of REs using Saizen (HGH - human growth hormone) to help improve quality.