Hormone Levels, I am in tears, any advice

[Anonymous]

Just got a call from the nurse at ob's office, asking me when exactly in my cycle was my blood drawn. It was on CD3

LH 6.3
FSH 21.47
Prolactin 11.5
TSH 1.47

I googled and according to the FSH numbers it will be very difficult to get pregnant??!?!
I have one daughter and had one miscarriage last year. I am 29 years old.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

That is a high FSH, but several REs told me that age is a better predictor of success than FSH (they have better success with younger women w/high FSH vs. older women with low FSH). Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Please don't worry. FSH is just one piece of the puzzle. If it makes you feel any better I've gotten pregnant twice with similar values through IVF. I went to Shady Grove and I was also around your age. I was sucessfully cycled by Dr. Levy at Shady Grove...he heads the IVF program. He was amazing.

[Anonymous]

FSH is an indicator of ovarian reserve - not necessarily the quality (which should be ok since you are young). An older woman with low FSH means she still has a lot of eggs, but they are still older eggs. A younger woman with high FSH might not have as many eggs, but it only takes one! You might need slightly higher doses of the fertility meds. Try not to worry.

[Anonymous]

"You might need slightly higher doses of the fertility meds."

Or, you may not respond to normal IVF and may need to do mini-stim IVF, but as PPs have said, given your age if you can transfer 1 or 2 good embryos you will have a really good shot.

[Anonymous]

FSH is an indicator of how a pt will respond to fertility medications which contain FSH so high doses of FSH are NOT the answer. I am slightly older with a high FSH and my RE, Dr. Gordon recommended natural cycle IVF and it worked so don't give up hope. Also, AMH is a better indicator of ovarian reserve than FSH.

[Anonymous]

Fertility doctors will tell you that younger with high FSH is better than older with low FSH. In fact, that is what Dr Sacks told me yesterday at my appointment with him. Unfortunately, I am in the older (41) with the low FSH category.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FSH is an indicator of how a pt will respond to fertility medications which contain FSH so high doses of FSH are NOT the answer. I am slightly older with a high FSH and my RE, Dr. Gordon recommended natural cycle IVF and it worked so don't give up hope. Also, AMH is a better indicator of ovarian reserve than FSH.

This is not correct for young women with high FSH. They may give you max doses of FSH during a cycle which is what was done with me. I had 2 sucessful antigon cycles where I was on like 600 IU Gonal F a day. It was crazy...luckily my insurance covered the meds or they would have been close to $10K each time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FSH is an indicator of how a pt will respond to fertility medications which contain FSH so high doses of FSH are NOT the answer. I am slightly older with a high FSH and my RE, Dr. Gordon recommended natural cycle IVF and it worked so don't give up hope. Also, AMH is a better indicator of ovarian reserve than FSH.

This is not correct for young women with high FSH. They may give you max doses of FSH during a cycle which is what was done with me. I had 2 sucessful antigon cycles where I was on like 600 IU Gonal F a day. It was crazy...luckily my insurance covered the meds or they would have been close to $10K each time.

Another young high FSHer here -max does FSH also worked for me.

[Anonymous]

OP here.
Thanks all.
Still waiting for doctor to call.... could this have been a mistake? Or i got really lucky with my 2yo and the pregnancy I lost 6 months ago?
In any case I have an appt. with Dr. DiMattina in 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

I would also recommend seeing Dr. Levy at Shady Grove for another perspective. He did my two max dose FSH IVF cycles that were successful. I'm a young high FSH'er here.

Also, it's highly unlikely the test was wrong.

[Anonymous]

10:45 how old and what is your FSH?
And you got pg twice on the first try?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:45 how old and what is your FSH?
And you got pg twice on the first try?

FSH around 15....29 years old for first baby and 32 for second. FSH had stayed pretty stable. I had 10 total antral follicles when checked at 29 and 8 antral follicles at 32.

I did very high stim FSH, antegon cycles at SG. I maxed out at 600 daily IU's for several days when stimming on my second cycle.


Dr. Levy was my doctor at SG. He heads the IVF program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FSH is an indicator of how a pt will respond to fertility medications which contain FSH so high doses of FSH are NOT the answer. I am slightly older with a high FSH and my RE, Dr. Gordon recommended natural cycle IVF and it worked so don't give up hope. Also, AMH is a better indicator of ovarian reserve than FSH.

This is not correct for young women with high FSH. They may give you max doses of FSH during a cycle which is what was done with me. I had 2 sucessful antigon cycles where I was on like 600 IU Gonal F a day. It was crazy...luckily my insurance covered the meds or they would have been close to $10K each time.

Another young high FSHer here -max does FSH also worked for me.

I'm another young (32 and 34 at the time of cycling) patient with poor ovarian reserve who had IVF success twice on high doses of stims.

OP---your high FSH may make TTC challenging but certainly not impossible. Your young age means everything. Younger women with high FSH tend to do fine with stims and many conceive on their own. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

previous poster (11:58).
I should add that I was also a SG patient (aged 32 and 24 at the time of cycling) and was on 600 of gonal f a day as well. Which is a crazy high dose but it worked both times.