High FSH, 29 years old, POF? Help!

[RazbErryC]

My DH and I have been ttc for 9 months. I don't appear to be ovulating based on ovulation strips. We have one son, just turned 2. We conceived him on the first try. I went to a RE who found that I have high FSH and he started talking about ovarian failure and early menopause and IVF and I was shocked and confused and I am still am.
I just need to hear from someone out there that I am not alone...

[FtMPapa]

Originally Posted by RazbErryC

My DH and I have been ttc for 9 months. I don't appear to be ovulating based on ovulation strips. We have one son, just turned 2. We conceived him on the first try. I went to a RE who found that I have high FSH and he started talking about ovarian failure and early menopause and IVF and I was shocked and confused and I am still am.
I just need to hear from someone out there that I am not alone...

You're not alone. I just turned 29 and I'm going in for my embryo transfer today. I don't have POF, exactly, I have the dreaded "unexplained" infertility diagnosis. I've been TTC for nearly 3 years, including IUI + Clomid cycles, injects + IUI, IUI "natural" cycles.

Was your FSH taken on the third day of your cycle? Day 1 is the day you start bleeding, so day 3 is two days later. (Common mistake is that people go in three days after they stop bleeding.)

A repeat FSH is in order, it could be a one-time fluke. You are very young to have a high FSH. Do you know what the number was?

There's a lot to learn all of a sudden, but if you want this to happen with difficult lab numbers, you don't have a lot of time to waste.

for you.

[KCMichigan]

(children mentioned)

Hi!

I am 31 currently. At 29 my FSH was 13 (I have not had it checked since) and was told that I was most likely headed toward POF and early menopause. AT the time, we were preparing for a FET at our local clinic so FSH did not matter. The FET did not work. It was suggested if we did IVF again to do donor eggs since most likely mine would not produce quality/enough embryos.

We have twin 4 yr old DD (from IVF) after 3 years of trying ourselves! My FSH at 27 was 8.7. It is amazing that it changed that much in 2 years.

Unfortunately, we can not afford IVF again and have been trying for a surprise conception for 3 yrs and no luck, but we are dealing w/ male and female infertility factors and have only done IVF (not IUI/clomid, etc).

Get a second opinion and some IVF clinics are very good w/ high FSH, esep if you are under 35.

[RazbErryC]

Thanks for the replies. I did have it checked on day 3 and the FSH level was 15. I also had a ovarian ultrasound and found that my ovaries are small and I have 5 follicles total (10-20 per ovary is normal.) I'm still trying to process all this. I'm seeing the best RE in Houston and he's an expert in high FSH, so I'm not sure it would make much sense to get a 2nd opinion, especially since we have already spent so much money on labs and the HSG and such. My RE put me on estradiol, although I don't really understand why b/c my estrogen levels were not low. But he did take another FSH reading and the level was 6. He said it was because of the estradiol. I go back to see him on Tuesday and he's suppose to sit me down and talk to me then. Sigh.

[JFTB1177]

Hey there, just wanted to see what your doc said and also wanted to offer you some real hope!

A very good friend of mine was dx with high FSH when she was 26 after ttc her first baby for a while (we are both 32 now). I believe her first FSH reading was in the teens, and her second was much higher than that. She was told the same thing as everyone above- pregnancy would prob not be possible, etc. She asked her RE if she could try IVF with her own eggs, he said she could but that it prob wouldn't work and not to get her hopes up...

Well... it worked the first time! Not only did it work, but the one embryo that took (they implanted 3), split, and she had identical twin boys!

It gets better...

Thinking she couldn't get PG on her own, of course she wasn't careful. When her twins were about 8 months old she found out she was PG- naturally!! Boy were her doctors shocked! Baby boy #3 came 9 months later. And about another year later she got PG again, naturally, and had baby boy #4. Her DH finally told her he was getting snipped!

High FSH does NOT mean you cannot have children. Hang in there, and don't ever give up!

[quetinha]

I was just looking for a thread on this topic... seems like they are hard to find!
I'm 38 but also have been diagnosed Diminished Ovarian Reserve. We did the injectibles and the first u/s showed only 3 antrafollicles (sure I butchered that word) which is not good at all, but we wound up with 3 eggs. We weren't doing IVF, just intercourse so that number wasn't bad... but it didn't work.
Did a few more months of meds with no luck.
I'm taking a break from it (I have enough left over to try again) and in the meantime taking 75 mg DHEA in hopes that that will help.
It took us 2 years to conceive ds2 when I was 36 so I suspect I had the high FSH then too but they never checked.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you, would love to hear how you are doing.

[lalalola]

I'm 26 and have never been pregnant. My FSH on Day 3 (did it twice) was in the 7's or 8's. The words early menapause scared the crap out of. But the weird thing with my ultrasound is that I had 13-16 eggs so my DR was a little confused....

Good luck to you.

[jb2012]

Hi there - I am sorry to bump an old post, but I just got back from the gynecologist, and he says my FSH is very high. It's at 15, and I

 am 29 years old. To get personal, my fiance and I have not been using any method of birth control for over a year (personal choice) and I was starting to get worried as to why I haven't gotten pregnant. We certainly do not worry about when is the best time to have sex, and we are not intentionally working on having a baby, we liked the whole "surprise" aspect of not knowing and not planning.

I am wondering if anybody who is dealing with this personally can tell me if it's going to be impossible for me to have children? I just don't know how to process this. It's a lot to chew on.

[boozheemama]

Hi jb2012,

I don't have answers for you, I've come here trying to find some myself but my situation is very different because I've only recently been diagnosed with POI (primary ovarian insufficiency) from a treatment I had for cancer in 2005. I am lucky I had a child before that treatment but my husband & I really want a second child and I'm about out of hope. Anyway, through the Stanford department that I'm working with I learned about this organization and maybe you will find it helpful.

http://www.stanfordivf.com/poi.html

If you scroll down the page, you will see five links at the bottom for more information.

Maybe start here:

http://www.rachelswell.org/

I hope this gets you on a path to some answers.

Good luck,

Jess

age 40, 4x lymphoma survivor, mama to one