Can someone explain the diff between FSH and AMH? Also, does antral follicle count matter too? I always have around 16 at my baseline ultrasound.
Also, does an elevated FSH mean that you aren't fertile at all? Does it affect current fertility or just a snapshot of where you may be in your reproductive "life"?
FSH is a measure of how hard your body needs to work to produce a follicle, if your body has to work hard, it indicates it's a bit of an effort to push an egg out, as there are fewer of them left - your ovaries are a bit liek a tube of toothpaste - when it's new and full, a slight squeeze anywhere will get sometoothpast on to your brush, as you ovaries get older (and you use up the toothpaste) it gets to the point where you have to really squeeze and squish the tube to get even a little bit out - it's an effort, but there is toothpaste in there. AMH gives a better idea of how many eggs you have left, but I don't have a good story to go with it! AMH also seems to give a much clearer idea of how many follicles you can be expected to produce using IVF drugs.
A high FSH or low AMH are not idications of egg quality - only age effects the quality. Young ladies with a low AMH may not produce many eggs, but they should be of decent quality, whereas older ladies like myself, it's a bit more hit and miss!
Antral follicle count ia the maximum number of follicles that can be matured during an IVF cycle. It's also the number of eggs your ovaries pop out every month. Your ovaires are like the start line of the 100m race; during a regular cycle there is only one winner of the race (occassionally a tie), and nobody remembers the others, but in an IVF cycle, all the athletes take performance enhancing drugs, and so all finish at the same time. This is also the reason why doing IVF doesn't use your eggs up any quicker than not doing IVF.
A count of 16 seems like a great number to be working with. The antral count can vary from month to month, but the trend over time is downwards.
Hope this helps!