Panic stricken

[rachaelm24]

Hi can anyone help. I am 37years old and have been trying to conceive for over a year. I had bloods taken and my FSH came back as 19.6!! It is supposed to be under 10. They will repeat the test one more time but it is unlikely it will drop below 10 and I have been told I am unable to get IVF on the NHS. Can anyone advise me of my next steps please? Feeling deflated

[suzylee73]

Why won't they give you NHS funding?

[rachaelm24]

They said because I am 37 and it is a high reading. Not sure what to do next

[Shellster52]

I am 37 and I have had a few attempts at IVF over the last two years. In that time I have seen my FSH climb a bit (as I panic that my fertility is going out the window!).

I personally take estrogen from day 20 the cycle prior to IVF. From day 20 is usually when your body realizes you are not pregnant and starts preparing your follicles for the following cycle. And if you don't have many eggs left, it's a struggle for your body to do this so it has to get your FSH pumping high to produce some follicles for the next cycle. Taking 2mg estrogen twice daily until your period actually keeps your FSH low.

So basically what I am saying is is that you could take estrogen 2mg twice daily from day 20 the cycle prior to having your FSH tested next time so that it is suppressed (to hopefully below 10) and you can have a funded round of IVF.

You then take it before your IVF cycle. Not just to 'trick' the NHS that your FSH is lower than it actually is. But because it actually does prime the follicles and produce better quality eggs for the following cycle.

I actually take the estrogen from day 20 the cycle prior to IVF as part of my IVF protocol for a different reason. I am a poor IVF responder and don't make many eggs (which I assume you will be too with a high FSH). Taking estrogen stops your body preparing a couple of dominant follicles for the following cycle so that when I start the IVF drugs on day 2, the few follicles I do have grow at a more co-ordinated rate and I get more eggs. And research shows that this produces better quality embryos. There is lots of research online about estrogen priming protocol that you can read if you would like more info on this.

[Lauren83]

Hello

Same happened to me mine went to 19 and then 23 so I lost funding for own egg and had to do donor

The reason they don't accept under 10 for anyone asking is ivf meds are FSH so if you already have high levels in your body you won't respond to the drugs, your body pumps out more and more fsh when you are near the menopause as its firing on all cylinders trying hard to ovulate

Hi Shell!

[Shellster52]

Hey Lauren! How did your cycle go????????

Today is day one of our cycle and I am about to do IVF again! You must think I am disillusion when you moved on to donor at a younger age and here I am at 37 about to do my 8th IVF attempt. My FSH isn't sky high yet though so I kinda have in my head that I will go all out now before I hit 40.

Anyway, love to hear where you are at now.

[Lauren83]

I was thinking about you the other day, I don't think you're mad at all!

The cycle failed, I got 4 embies last year with own egg, we got 1 from the donor, couldn't believe it. I'm actually at a care today for a review

Are you on short cycle? My DR started in May and test day was aug it was a rough cycle

[Shellster52]

Wow, so 4 with your own and only 1 from your donor. I don't know how your donor cycle went.

Did you only get one because she was keeping a certain number for herself and she only produced one surplus, or did she only produce one? Did you make it to transfer.

From what I remember, I thought even though you didn't have numbers with your eggs, you had great quality and just got unlucky. So I can imagine it a shock if you made the emotional decision for donor to seek improvement and got worse results.

How did your review go?

For my protocol, I took estrogen from day 20 last cycle. Period started today and I start drugs tomorrow. Not that long compared to your cycle starting in May and lasting til Aug, but it feels like forever. I just want to be past egg collection so I can be out of my misery if it's going to work or not.

PS Rachael, didn't mean to take over the thread. Happy to chat with your decision of what you will do about your FSH. Just waiting for your reply

[rachaelm24]

Thank you so much both of you for your advice. I have contacted a fertility acupuncturist as I heard this might help and someone suggested wheatgrass shots(willing to try anything). The estorgen sounds interesting, where do you buy it?
Also can you tell me if there is any other option before IVF? Heard of IUI but not sure if this is an option?

[Lauren83]

Personally I wouldn't waste time with iui with your fsh, I tried wheatgrass but it didn't help although for some it seems too.

Shellster...we shared an altruistic donor, got 8 eggs which is the minimum before they cancel, 1 poor quality 2 cell embie from it! They said today that they will pay for us to have an exclusive donor instead of shared due to the poor response, how you feeling? Please get some good luck for us! When should test day be for you roughly?

[Shellster52]

Oh yes rachael. I hadn't considered the fact that you actually need a script for it. I am happy to send you some. If interested, please PM me. Not that I am saying estrogen is the answer to all your problems... if you have an FSH of 19.6, it means your ovaries are really struggling to produce eggs and you may find when you get an ultrasound that they are quite small with very few follicles and nothing responds when you go through IVF.

Nor am I advocating tricking the Dr's into thinking your FSH is lower than it actually is... but if it means you can have one round of IVF and either a baby or at least a sense of peace knowing you tried I think it's important to help you move forward.

I can't see how alternate medicine can help too much. If you're running out of eggs, I just can't see how acupuncture is going to help. There really isn't even any guarantee with IVF. I have done 7 rounds of unsuccessful IVF and my FSH isn't anywhere near as high as 19.6. But perhaps acupuncture while undergoing IVF might up the odds?

Have you had any ultrasounds done to see how big/small your ovaries are and how many follicles are there as an indication to how many/little eggs you might produce with IVF?

Lauren, I thought you might even consider having one more shot with your own eggs seeing as the donor produced worse numbers AND worse quality. But if they are offering to pay for the next round, that's amazing. When will that start happening? Oh, I hadn't calculated my test date yet! I guess it will be day 29 of my cycle which will be 2.10.14. That sounds like a fairy tale that I will be pregnant on that date. Not even going to think about it and get my hopes up. First scan is Monday when I just hope a few are growing at a consistent rate... one step at a time.

[Lauren83]

Sorry its nhs funded thankfully, but nhs fund a shared donor the clinic will cover the cost of us having exclusive, when I got 4 eggs last time my fsh was 8/9, its since been 23 so I'm worried I won't stim with high fsh levels already, I can't wait this nhs cycle as we can't go private after, so now they have said that will try donor again, of money wasn't an issue I would absolutely keep trying mine. God not long at all for you, I can't believe my first injection was 23rd May this time and test day 4th Aug! I have everything crossed for you you so deserve it

[Shellster52]

I completely get your decision with your concerns that you won't respond well. Frustrating that money has to be the deciding factor, but it is. I am too scared to even count how much I have spent so far.

Funny, you are right really that it's not long at all for me. Today is day 3 so EC is less than 2 weeks away. Yet it feels like an eternity over here. First scan is Monday/day 6, and even that feels like forever away.

Any idea when things will ramp up for you again? Do they have to find suitable donor first or do they have some sort of database that you select from? Excuse my ignorant questions - in Australia, we have to source our own donor so I don't know how your system works.

[Lauren83]

They match you and they ring and say....
Height
Weight
Eye colour
Skin colour
Blood group
CMV status
Then you get 24 hours to decide. We haven't asked to be matched yet and won't til next year now. Some donors do it altruisticly and some are having treatment and share half their eggs so you get either type of donor. With us having exclusive this time it will take longer I guess as we will only have the option of altruistic. I'm sure Monday will come round quick! Are you have any time of work?

[Shellster52]

I haven't arranged any time off work yet. They had an early appointment available for Mondays scan so I took that and can still make it to work on time. I am a casual so I can always say I am unavailable if they have me rostered to work but I have an IVF commitment.

Wow, all these extra decisions and things to think about with donor. So those who do it altruistically don't get any financial reimbursement? And women are obviously happy to help if they have a database of donors. The generosity of people. Makes me think they should have that system here as some women's dream must be crushed because we have to find our own egg donor and that's no easy task.

[Lauren83]

Well it used to be there was no payment but since the law changed here meaning that at 16 and 18 the child could apply for info on the donor they started paying a fee at the private clinics, its 750GBP, the clinic pay that but a cycle with an exclusive (non share) donor is approx 9,000GBP

Its crazy as I looked into donating mine years ago not realising I would need them myself, I have always donated blood and I'm on the donor and bone marrow register so hopefully that will give me good 'Karma' for needing something myself

How you feeling? Positive I hope??

[Shellster52]

Actually, the one new thing I was going to try this cycle was to change my mentality. Every cycle I research and try something physically different (supplements, protocol, etc), but I am one stressed out whacko who is just waiting for things to fail and waiting to see at which stage things are going to go wrong. So my plan for this cycle was to be positive... this cycle IS the one.

But it's not an easy thing to do with a history of 7 failed IVF's! I find myself getting scared when I try to think positive... because I will just have further to come crashing down if it fails.

I plan to drink fennel tea during pregnancy (supposed to help with mammary growth for breastfeeding), so I started that already in case it somehow mentally helps me feel that it is happening this cycle.

It is all moving so slowly. First scan tomorrow... finally. Okay, thank you for the positive reminder. Going to go away and make a fennel tea now and repeat some positive mantras to myself!