IVF - follicles don't grow, high FSH

[milena2015]

I'm interested to see if anyone has any thoughts on this or had similar experiences... Trying natural cycle IVF (little or no meds, aiming to retrieve one egg per cycle). This is my third cycle. First - no egg retrieved, egg ruptured during the procedure; second: one egg, one embryo, frozen on day 2; third attempt: something strange is going on, maybe someone can help me understand what's going on/ what to expect. This cycle my D4 results were: Estrogen 31.5; FSH 26.7; LH 12.4; Progesterone 0.5
Usually my FSH has been between 17 and 20, so 26 seems pretty bad and it looks like my reproductive system continues to deteriorate... When I came for monitoring on day 8, I have 3-4 small follicles growing (4 mm), and my results are Estrogen: 24.5 pg/mL; FSH: 46.2 mIU/mL; LH: 23.1 mIU/mL; Progesterone: 0.4 ng/mL. They also saw a small cyst in one ovary.
The doctor told me to come back in one week, which would be my CD14. They don't think my follicles would grow and just want to check on me. I'm trying to understand what to expect. Is this all downhill from here? I've been told I am peri menopausal; I have diminished reserve (AMH undetectable), etc. But I've been getting my period regularly, every 23-25 days; overall no menopausal signs, I'm 38 y.o. Anyone had to deal with anything like that? I'm doing supplements, DHEA, etc and weekly acupuncture. Thank you!

 

[klik]

Ah, here you are, Milena! So glad you got one embryo from your second cycle... Congratulations on that...

As I understand it, it shouldn't be all downhill from here. But if you really are in New York City, I would go for a specialist if you are not already--New Hope should be near you, and they seem to know what they are doing, from what I've heard... Natural cycle IVF or high-FSH specialists have all sorts of tricks to get the ovaries going again. I wish I lived close to one of them! In particular, did you down-regulate before your current cycle? (taking estrogen or the pill, for instance?)

There's a group of forums I've found quite useful, where quite a lot of women seem to be able to interpret numbers very well... search for network54 (I can't post links yet--I'm too new here). The forums are very quiet compared to this forum, but when you do get a response it's usually shockingly knowledgeable.

I'm not so good at interpreting numbers yet, as this is the beginning of my journey. From your story, though, I am annoyed at your clinic, sending you away for a week. How do they know your follicles wouldn't grow? Why wouldn't they? FSH is the follicle-stimulating hormone, after all, so if it is high one would think your lead follicle would indeed grow.

I understand some docs believe that the FSH levels for a particular cycle are indicative of success chances in that cycle, My own doctor is one of those, but he openly admits that many others believe that the fluctuations in FSH from month to month are immaterial, that they are no more than an indication of low ovarian reserve (which you already knew you had anyway). So, please don't give up, and if your clinic seems to be giving up on you, don't let them!

(If you are already with New Hope, though, please ask them to explain their thinking better!)

Best of luck...

 

[milena2015]

Oh thank you so much. Your words are very encouraging. And thank you for the other forum recommendation. I do understand that once you get into numbers and become very specific it's hard to get a response from people... I hope that it's just this cycle is off and the next one will be better. My doctor said "I don't know how many MONTHS you have left..."..... Not a great thing to hear. Thank you again and I'll continue being hopeful.

 

[klik]

Best of luck, Milena! In the other forum, over-40s (including me!) are hanging in there. So hopefully it won't just be months for you (there do seem to be ways to kick-start ageing ovaries), and hopefully they will retrieve some excellent eggs in the coming cycles for you.

I hope you get good information at your scan on CD14, and that the next cycle is successful at retrieving some good eggs!