Anonymous wrote:BCP can over suppress women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), so those patients are put on estrace instead of BCP. Your numbers don't indicate DOR, but it could be that your system is sensitive and BCP is too suppressing for you. I would switch to estrace priming and see if that brings your AFC back up. I would be very hesitant to let them talk you into starting stims with that diminished AFC. That could be the difference between retrieving 10 or 5 eggs in your cycle, and I would absolutely not be okay with that.

exactly this. BCP is supposed to quiet the ovaries and then get all the follicles to start at the same stage (very small) - theoretically they should all grow around the same rate. if you have diminished ovarian reserve you can get oversuppressed - it happened to me. when i switched to estrace priming i got a better yield.

AFC varies by month and between the ultrasound techs. It is not easy to count a 3d image on a 2d screen.

I would abort this cycle and ask to do next cycle without the BC. I think BC is for young women to keep one of the follicles from getting ahead of the others

I had your numbers when I started IVF (I was 42). I did BCP for 2 retrievals and each time they retrieved 6 mature eggs.

OP here It dropped in one cycles monitoring. I went in on 2/12 where they found the cyst and high estrogen, and was told to stay on BC and come back for monitoring. I returned 4 more times (most recent this morning) in a 2 week period, the cyst remains but estrogen has gone down.

On the 2/12 visit I had 12 follicles, today I had 7. I have been on BC for 5 weeks now, would've been about 3 at the first appointment.

Can you clarify if your AFC dropped during one cycle’s monitoring, or if you are comparing AFCs between two cycles? It wasn’t clear from your OP.

AFC varies per month. You shouldn't always get the same amount. I had around 6 follicles with your AMH. On the other hand, you could have been suppressed somewhat with BC. If you are worried, you can start again another month.

BCP can over suppress women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), so those patients are put on estrace instead of BCP. Your numbers don't indicate DOR, but it could be that your system is sensitive and BCP is too suppressing for you. I would switch to estrace priming and see if that brings your AFC back up. I would be very hesitant to let them talk you into starting stims with that diminished AFC. That could be the difference between retrieving 10 or 5 eggs in your cycle, and I would absolutely not be okay with that.

On my first cycle, so I may use some of these terms wrong.

I was put on BC and then a few days before I was supposed to start stims, my estrogen was over 350 and I had a cyst in one ovary. I then had 3 follow-up appointments (I was kept on birth control) and the cyst remained the same size, and my estrogen dropped each time, now around 90. We have not yet started stims. In each appointment, my visible follicles went down from 6 in each ovary (total of 12) to now 3 in one ovary and 4 in the other. This seems very low to me. In the beginning they said they like to see above 10, and I was just at 12 - now I'm at 7 after so many weeks of BC and follow-ups for the cyst. Has anyone else experienced this? Have you gone through with stimulation? What were your numbers?

age <35, I think my AMH was 1.9