At what FSH level do you just give up?

[Anonymous]

What FSH level would you decide to just give up and say your infertility journey with your own eggs is over? 15? 20? 25?

[Anonymous]

How old are you? I remember reading that most women with high fsh did end up getting pregnant, many naturally. That said, i did not, but i was over 40.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Age 41.

[Anonymous]

I got pregnant naturally at 39. I was beginning the process of fertility testing when I got pregnant. FSH was 11.9. I always thought that was bad, but my OB (not RE) said it was fine. She seemed more interested in my AMH, which was 1.36.

[Anonymous]

11.9 is pretty bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11.9 is pretty bad.

No, it's not. My clinic said anything under 10 is good and 11.9 is not that far off. I've heard of people getting pregnant with much worse.

There are also ways to suppress and control the FSH at Day 3 when you are doing a controlled treatment cycle (BCP, estrogen priming).

[Anonymous]

12 is not hopeless but it is pretty bad. “Under 10 is good” but 8 is not as good as 5 and 10 is not great while 12 is 20% over that. so quite a bit off the upper boundary.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think people are getting the point - people get pregnant with an FSH higher than 10. So talk to your doctor about your FSH level. Don’t decide to quit trying based on someone on this forum’s opinion of whether your FSH is good or bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think people are getting the point - people get pregnant with an FSH higher than 10. So talk to your doctor about your FSH level. Don’t decide to quit trying based on someone on this forum’s opinion of whether your FSH is good or bad.

yes - people get pregnant with FSH over 10. they also get pregnant at 49 and deliver beautiful babies. it happens!

however 12 is not a good number to have (it could also be worse).

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm 41 and just got my FSH tested and it's 20. This is way worse than it was 2 years ago when I last got it tested (it was 5 then)! I'm 41 now, I was 39 when I got it tested last, 4 years of infertility.

[Anonymous]

i'm not sure i'd use FSH alone as my decision to quit. have you tried any treatments, OP?

[Anonymous]

High FSH is bad if u need ART bc the RE can only give u so much FSH. If ur body already needs lots to get 1 egg, u won’t be getting many eggs with IVF or IUI drugs (injectible FSH). And past a certain level REs won’t treat u bc it’s essentially pointless. It doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant naturally though. Or do NCIVF.

AMH can be a better indicator of egg reserve. Age is an indicator of egg quality.

If u have high FSH, low AMH and r over 40, it’s time to think about alternatives or stopping. I had great #s, but over 40 and did DE after several years of IVF for #2, so good FSH isn’t any sort of guarantee. A friend under 40 who had FSH too high for IVF or IUI got pregnant naturally and gave birth during that time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High FSH is bad if u need ART bc the RE can only give u so much FSH. If ur body already needs lots to get 1 egg, u won’t be getting many eggs with IVF or IUI drugs (injectible FSH). And past a certain level REs won’t treat u bc it’s essentially pointless. It doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant naturally though. Or do NCIVF.

AMH can be a better indicator of egg reserve. Age is an indicator of egg quality.

If u have high FSH, low AMH and r over 40, it’s time to think about alternatives or stopping. I had great #s, but over 40 and did DE after several years of IVF for #2, so good FSH isn’t any sort of guarantee. A friend under 40 who had FSH too high for IVF or IUI got pregnant naturally and gave birth during that time.

This!

[Anonymous]

My day 3 bloodwork showed an FSH of 20 and AMH of 0.1 at age 38, with 4 follicles. I learned from my RE that those were terrible numbers but was so new and determined with all this that we proceeded with timed intercourse then IUI. IVF was never an option for me because in those cycles I never had more than 4 follicles grow, so it wasn't worth the cost for a high likelihood of failure.

After 3 failures, we took a break. I had some baseline bloodwork done during that time and my FSH had shot up to 37. I was devastated and our RE talked about perimenopause. The next cycle, we planned to start the bloodwork rounds to see if I actually was in early menopause. My FSH that month was 19, the best it had ever been, but terrible for anyone's standards. I had ordered too much Gonal-F that we had no other use for, so we did another IUI just because it couldn't hurt. I had zero expectations but knew I would regret it if we didn't try again especially as we had all the extra meds.

I made 4 follicles, the most I'd ever made, still zero expectations for success. I ended up conceiving triplets. Long story short, after a pretty terrible and terrifying pregnancy with lots of complications and difficult decisions, I delivered a healthy baby. My RE said he wouldn't see this particular scenario again in his career.

But, even with DOR/premature ovarian failure, I still got pregnant and went to term. Peri-menopause can be funny sometimes, making you feel that your well has gone dry, only to spring up randomly and unexpectedly. I really think it's about luck and timing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My day 3 bloodwork showed an FSH of 20 and AMH of 0.1 at age 38, with 4 follicles. I learned from my RE that those were terrible numbers but was so new and determined with all this that we proceeded with timed intercourse then IUI. IVF was never an option for me because in those cycles I never had more than 4 follicles grow, so it wasn't worth the cost for a high likelihood of failure.

After 3 failures, we took a break. I had some baseline bloodwork done during that time and my FSH had shot up to 37. I was devastated and our RE talked about perimenopause. The next cycle, we planned to start the bloodwork rounds to see if I actually was in early menopause. My FSH that month was 19, the best it had ever been, but terrible for anyone's standards. I had ordered too much Gonal-F that we had no other use for, so we did another IUI just because it couldn't hurt. I had zero expectations but knew I would regret it if we didn't try again especially as we had all the extra meds.

I made 4 follicles, the most I'd ever made, still zero expectations for success. I ended up conceiving triplets. Long story short, after a pretty terrible and terrifying pregnancy with lots of complications and difficult decisions, I delivered a healthy baby. My RE said he wouldn't see this particular scenario again in his career.

But, even with DOR/premature ovarian failure, I still got pregnant and went to term. Peri-menopause can be funny sometimes, making you feel that your well has gone dry, only to spring up randomly and unexpectedly. I really think it's about luck and timing.

OP here. Thanks for sharing your story, very interesting and very inspiring! I've been TTC #2 since age 37. At age 37 my numbers were great! Now at age 41 they are not good, with my FSH being 20 and my AMH .20. However, I've been TTC for 5 year now and when I started my numbers were still good, however I have not been able to get pregnant at all.