Antral Follicle Counts

[Anonymous]

Hello all,
DH and I are planning our first IVF cycle, ages 39 and 45.

Today I found out the number of Antral Follicles: 3 in left, 5 in right.

Does it mean I am doomed? I see the success numbers and looks it’s only about 22%.
Is it even worth trying? I am so upset.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry. That does seem very low to me.

[Anonymous]

Not doomed, but do IVF.

[Anonymous]

Without knowing the rest of your situation, is natural IVF an option? Sometimes natural IVF is recommended for women with low ovarian reserve if stimulation is not expected to be very successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Without knowing the rest of your situation, is natural IVF an option? Sometimes natural IVF is recommended for women with low ovarian reserve if stimulation is not expected to be very successful.

OP here,

I am waiting for the rest of the lab results and will talk to dr on Thursday.

Could you enlighten me about natural IVF I am a newby in IVF world.
Does it mean they won’t stimulate it?

[Anonymous]

Are you 39 or 45? If 45, then absolutely better than expected. If 39, thats actually pretty close to what you would expect. https://www.verywellfamily.com/follicle-female-reproductive-system-1960072

Obviously some will have more or less, but that is probably appropriate for your age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you 39 or 45? If 45, then absolutely better than expected. If 39, thats actually pretty close to what you would expect. https://www.verywellfamily.com/follicle-female-reproductive-system-1960072

Obviously some will have more or less, but that is probably appropriate for your age.

I am 39
Thank you for the link...

[Anonymous]

I did one round of IVF at 39 and my AFC was 16 total - but bizarrely, I ended up only getting 4 eggs (I think my doc understimmed me). In the end it worked out because one of those became my DC. Yes, an AFC of 8 is not high, but as a PP said, it's pretty normal at 39. Depending on your stim protocol and your body's response, more follicles could pop up during an IVF cycle. Also, what is your AMH? My RE always believed that was more predictive than AFC (I think docs differ on this).

[Anonymous]

A factor that cannot be measured but is as important as the # of eggs is the quality of eggs (unfortunately your age is not helping you).

You can multiply your chances with more cycles.

If you have the money I'd do at least one cycle to see how it goes. If it is a disaster you can choose what to do from there.

The natural cycle IVFs are cheaper and you can probably do 2-3 of those for the same cost as a full IVF cycle, especially if you RE was planning on blasting you with drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did one round of IVF at 39 and my AFC was 16 total - but bizarrely, I ended up only getting 4 eggs (I think my doc understimmed me). In the end it worked out because one of those became my DC. Yes, an AFC of 8 is not high, but as a PP said, it's pretty normal at 39. Depending on your stim protocol and your body's response, more follicles could pop up during an IVF cycle. Also, what is your AMH? My RE always believed that was more predictive than AFC (I think docs differ on this).

Overmature eggs stick inside the follicle and don't come out when they're aspirated, happens more with older ladies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did one round of IVF at 39 and my AFC was 16 total - but bizarrely, I ended up only getting 4 eggs (I think my doc understimmed me). In the end it worked out because one of those became my DC. Yes, an AFC of 8 is not high, but as a PP said, it's pretty normal at 39. Depending on your stim protocol and your body's response, more follicles could pop up during an IVF cycle. Also, what is your AMH? My RE always believed that was more predictive than AFC (I think docs differ on this).

When did you do your ultrasound? I read everywhere it should be day 5-7 of the cycle, she did it on day 2.
I have a late ovulation and could it be that my follicles did not show yet?

Also I did not like the tech, she couldn’t get around my fibroid and had to call another tech for help.
Should I call my dr and ask for another ultrasound on Friday?

Also I read that number of follicles very month to month.

This is OP

[Anonymous]

Still waiting on my AMH

OP

[Anonymous]

Let us know your AMH. I had 4 AFC and < .01 AMH at 37. Those are horrendous #s. Did natural cycle with dominion and it worked the first try. Don’t give up hope.

[Anonymous]

I had an AFC of 8 (38 yo), all 8 were retrieved, 8 fertilized, 6 to blast, 2 transferred on day 5 (now our twins), 4 frozen (2 day 5 blasts, 2 day 6 blasts)
This was ~10 years ago, so before testing was routinely done on embryos, and I have no idea if the frozen blasts are cytogenetically normal, though.
So 8 seems ok to me. My diagnosis was endometriosis + being old. The RE did an estrogen priming protocol with ICSI and AH.
Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Without knowing the rest of your situation, is natural IVF an option? Sometimes natural IVF is recommended for women with low ovarian reserve if stimulation is not expected to be very successful.

OP here,

I am waiting for the rest of the lab results and will talk to dr on Thursday.

Could you enlighten me about natural IVF I am a newby in IVF world.
Does it mean they won’t stimulate it?

Correct. Another poster mentioned natural cycle at Dominion and I have a friend who had success twice on their first round of natural IVF at dominion (two pregnancies). I don’t know how your age would play into natural vs stimulated so that is definitely something you’d want to discuss.