High FSH...Despite acupuncture and diet changes!

[Anonymous]

Help! I went to Pulling Down the Moon which is an acupuncture place across the hall from Shady Grove. I have been getting acupuncture there for the past 2 months at least. For the past month I have increased my acup. to twice per week. I have also been on a fairly strict diet that they put me on - reduced wheat, increased protein intake, increased egg consumption, taken all the supplements the recommended, etc...

My FSH tested last year was an 11. My FSH in May, 2008 was a 7. And now...despite being on this strict diet and doing so much acupuncture my FSH is a 14!!! How did that happen? I'm getting worse, not better with acupuncture and diet.

Now I'm at a point where SG may not allow me to do IVF this month because of this high FSH. I am about to cry.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry that you're dealing with this. I have nothing to recommend re. lowing a FSH level (our our infertility issues are different) but I wanted to let you know that other infertility practices in the area (GW, Columbia, Dominion) seem to be far more forgiving of a high FSH than Shady Grove is. I'm a Shady Grove patient and while I love my doctor, I've found that the practice at large is pretty inflexible when it comes to outlying patients and esp. patients with higher FSH values. I think some of the smaller area practices are more likely to cycle you despite having some higher values.

[Anonymous]

The level of your FSH from one cycle to another commonly changes, especially for those of us in our 30's or 40's.

Acupuncture can help improve your response to the medications used for egg retrieval, which is what your RE should be concerned about, not necessarily the FSH number for that specific cycle.

If my experience is any predictor, the fact that you have been doing acupuncture for two months might result in your producing more mature follicles (and higher quality eggs) in response to the ovarian stimulating medications.

Are you saying that Shady Grove cancels IVF cycles based on 3-day FSH blood levels alone? If so, then I would seek out another RE practice since there is no way to predict the number of eggs that would be produced once the medications are begun based on that test result.

My RE was in NYC, and none of the major practices there (Cornell, NYU, Columbia, RMA) would cancel an IVF round based on an FSH test result. They would, of course, convert a cycle to a medicated IUI if there were not enough mature follicles emerging, if necessary. Or they would cancel a cycle if someone were overstimulated due to the health risks. But not based on your 3-day blood FSH.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

16:21 again

Fwiw, I was on my second cycle using acupuncture and doing medicated IUI (my fifth cycle of this - I was not a candidate for IVF due to my poor response to the meds prior to adding acupuncture) and my FSH for that cycle was 14. I produced four mature follicles (the most I ever had, prior to that it had only been one mature one) and created one healthy db.

[Anonymous]

Thank you - it does indeed help. I also received a phone call from the nurse informing me that the RE will move forward with the IVF. Because of my husband's sperm factor, we were never successful with IUI before. This is my third IVF cycle now. But the nurse warned me that I may not produce many follicles this month.

I am 41 years old. I feel as though I have just a few months left to try IVF.

I, too, am a poor responder to meds. In the last two IVF cycles, I would start out with 8 or 9 follicles and end up with 2 or 3 mature ones!

[Anonymous]

I'm glad you're able to move forward. To be honest, I think fsh just fluctuates from month to month and it's not necessarily related to any lifestyle decisions. In the past 16 months I've had my fsh tested every cycle, it has ranged from a low of 3 to a high of 24. It's usually in the 10-12 range, but it really has varied. And my response to stims? Pretty much the same, no matter what the fsh that month.

[Anonymous]

I also go to Shady Grove and have a higher FSH than you, and my doctor is still open to IVF if our IUIs don't work - he is more interested in antrical follicle counts.

Also, to give you some encouragement, my AFC went down this month, despite doing several months of acupuncture and making other dietary changes which I'd attributed to having go up the month before. However, I ended up with 4 mature follicles (I only started with 6) on this IUI cycle. I'm early in my 2ww so don't know if the cycle worked, but my response gave me hope and reaffirmed my view that you never know what your body will do.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I hope it works for you.

It is hard to accept that there are so many unknown variables. It makes me feel like there's nothing I can do.