High FSH Level

Hi M.,

My recommendation would be to see Dr. Charles Miller(reproductive endocrinologist) in Naperville. He is excellent! He has succeeded when other doctors said that they couldn't help. ###-###-####. Best of luck to you.

Hi M. -

Here's the deal with FSH. To be the most accurate gauge of fertility, the level needs to be drawn on days 2-4 of your cycle (day one being the start of period). Your FSH level goes up throughout your cycle, so unless it is drawn on days 2-4, it is not an accurate gauge of fertility. There is a good chance this is the case, but if it was not drawn that way, don't lose hope. There is also a blood test out there for anti-Mullerian hormone, which many reproductive endocrinologists are finding out is more accurate than FSH. The only drawback is that it's an expensive blood test.

Many infertility clinics are focused on getting you pregnant, but not so much on fixing what might be causing the infertility in the first place. For example, they don't recommend people with endometriosis get treated before starting infertility treatment, and they are much more likely to be successful treating the endometriosis first. I would highly recommend you see a reproductive endocrinologist - they specialize in all of the things that may be causing the infertility & working on those before trying to get you pregnant (it does not have to be a lengthy process either). The whole point is to not waste your money trying to get you pregnant if it's not going to work anyway. In other words, they work on the pregnancy side after they fix the other problems, if that can be done. I see that many people made recommendations already. I know of one that works out of Rush hospital in the city and she also has an office out in Palos Heights. If you would like her name, please feel free to e-mail me.

Good luck to you.

L.

Hi M.,
Your story sounds just like mine. After years of trying for a second child, the docs did some testing and found out I had a high FSH level and POV (premature ovarian failure). I was 39, so I was pretty devastated. They call it secondary infertility. My regular OB was very negative about my chances of having a second baby. We went to Northwestern to see a fertility specialist and decided to go ahead with treatments. Skipped clomid, too late for that, and went straight for injectables to stimulate the ovaries. Well after several months of trying other methods, we decided to go ahead with the IVF. We had 3 fertilized eggs inserted and got pregnant the first round. I know I was very lucky but you need to know it DOES happens. We have a beautiful 5 year old boy who I know is our miracle baby. Good luck and stay positive. I highly recommend Northwestern for fertility treatments if you are in the area.

Don't lose hope. At 26 years old I was told that I had gone through premature menopause. I wasn't ovulating and my FSH levels were extremely high. And they kept getting higher. We were told our only option was donor egg. We were on a waiting list that on average was a 14 month wait. Ten months after being given this devastating news, I found out I was pregnant. To us, a miracle....especially since we weren't scientifically "trying" with measuring my temperature and calculating ovulation (since I wasn't ovulating). I asked the doctor if that meant things turned around and he said I could just as quickly go back into the menopausal state. So after having our son, we weren't sure if I would be able to get pregnant again. Well, I got pregnant very easily after that...on the first try. We had a daughter and 2 1/2 years later we had another daughter. I feel very blessed to have the three children, especially since I thought I may never have kids. I wish you the best!

Hi M.,

The OB/Gyn doctor that delivered our first child was awesome! I experienced problems with both my pregnancies and she was for informative and helpful. She said if I ever needed help in the future to please contact her. Her name is Dr. Shamim Patel and she has a location in Dupage County. I think she helped save my daughter's life!
Don't give up!

Blessings,
D.

Hi M.,

I can sympathize with you on so many levels. I was in the same boat -- I had one child and struggled to conceive another. I didn't understand how it could work once and not again. Everyone around me seemed to be having no problem having 2,3, even 4 children! I went to see a reproductive endocrinologist and found out my FSH was on the high side too. The medical path I took was rather long and sordid (I'll spare everyone on here the details). However, what became more important in the end was the spiritual path I ended up embarking on.

What really helped me get my head in the right place and moved me from devastation to coping to acceptance was participating in the programs at Pulling Down the Moon (www.pullingdownthemoon.com). When I was there (2-3 years ago) they claimed a 75% success rate in terms of helping women conceive and complete a healthy pregnancy.

They help support the emotional side of the journey to conceive a child. So much is possible when you get your head in the right place -- it's important not to focus on what's not working, and instead, focus on all that is working. A lot of the women that go there have no children. I felt both guilty and blessed that I had one healthy child!

I wish you all the best - everything will work out the way it is meant to be. Believe me when I say I know how you feel. Please feel free to email me anytime if you want to discuss further offline.

I had freinds with a 12 and 15 and I had a 10. Are you on Metformin? That can wake up the ovaries and lower the fsh level a bit. Go for the IVF and I would consider doing PGD if the office does it, please know that more than half of your embryos will be genetically abnormal so put them all in. Lets say you have 5 embryos at 8 cells put them in you becaue the chances of them implanting and growing into a normal baby is about 2 of them, more than half will not work. does that make sense? Did you sayhow old you are?
Who is your RE, who have you seen? clomid will not work but there is a great dr that does a specail protocal for older women and trust me i was only 30 at the time but high fsh and premenopausal symptom etc is name is Dr SHer and he is out of NY and Vegas but you need to have your free consultatin with him and ask him about his gosh some kind of estrogen priming protocal and if he still uses it, it just starts our ovaries and all my old RE's made 5, 3 eggs when stimulating and this guy made 12 for me, so when yiou say the chances are low yes unless you find the right dr to stimulate your ovaries the right way. i think he is your guy. IVF is nt a big deal but I did 7 iuis and 5 ivf and manyother crazy things to get pg. I did eventually have a live birth with boy girl twins but I had MANY problems besdies premenopause/high fsh, i had everythig you could think of and htis man got me pg and had a live birth. this can happen stay positive and do your research, and e-mail me if you want.
J. :)

A friend of mine had been told she had less than a 1% chance of conceiving (even if she went the IVF route) due to high FSH. That was almost 7 years ago - she is now the proud mom to 3 beautiful children all conceived naturally. I think in her case taking the stress off of trying to conceive with drugs and interventions (they gave up after being told the bad news) enabled her body to come back into a natural balance.

I with the best for you in whatever route you to take to completing your family.

Hi M.,
Unfortunately there is not much hope for high FSH level and yours is very high.I went through IVF myself(had a baby,but FSH was not my problem) and know the problem.IVF Doctors will not even take you with FSH more then 12 into their programs if you want to use your own eggs(unless if they want just take your money and be dishonest).The other side-they dont want their statistics god down.If you researched this matter you know what high levels mean-poor egg quality and diminished reserve,witch means failure to conceive,chemical PG,miscarriages and stillbirth-all because of chromosomal abnormalities in eggs.Sometimes short protocols in IVF with high hormone doses may succeed ,but it might take # of tries .
I don't want to scary you,there is other ways to improve the situation(maybe).Chinese medicine,for example,acupuncture(spelling?).And sometimes miracle.Good luck to you!

Fertility yoga is being provided in Naperville. It is used along with your medical support team. Acupuncture is also being used for fertility. Email me if you want details.

Hi M.,
I'll try to make this short, but hopefully it will give you hope. After many unsuccessful attempts of getting pregnant on our own (including clomid) my husband and I sought a fertility expert. His first plan was to do exploratory surgery and he did find quite a bit of endometriosis. He thought we would get pregnant right away after that. Upon further testing he discovered my fsh levels were very high and recommended an egg donor. We then went to another RE for advice and he said it was too early for that decision. He did one round of IVF which didn't work and then we sought the advice of a 3rd RE who wasn't really intersted in taking me on. The 2nd and 3rd REs did say that our chance of getting pregnant, even with IVF were slim. Anyway, in the meantime I had been having acupuncture treatments. We went back to our 2nd RE to attempt another round of IVF and we were already pregnant....on our own, no drugs!!! We had a baby girl in Oct 2004, got pregnant again and had another baby girl in June 2006 and had a little boy in July 2008. All of this was on our own. I am 100% convinced that the acupuncture helped. Like I said, I did it for 7 months before getting pregnant the first time, once before getting pregnant the 2nd time and didn't go at all before getting pregnant the 3rd time.

Don't give up hope, just try other alternatives and stay positive. Believe me, I spent many nights crying because I thought I couldn't have kids.

Best of luck to you, your hubby and your baby!!!

Sue

You have a lot of good information here. I wish you the best of luck!

Hi M.,

I don't have answers for you on FSH levels, but I can truly sympathize about Secondary Infertility. We've been trying for about 2 years to give our (now) 3 1/2 year old son a sibling. I remember the first time I called the fertility specialist, devastated, and it was all I could do not to sob through the entire first conversation.

Just hang in there and know you're not alone in this quest. If there is one thing I recommend most highly of all is, get support. Whether it be family, friends, or women that reach out to you dealing with the same thing. It's a hard road, and one that should not be traveled alone. And, talk to your husband about how you feel. This issue can be h*** o* marriages, so make sure you keep your lines of communication open.

Best of luck to you, I hope to see good news from you after your trip to the fertility doc!

T.

In the meantime, you may wish to consult either www.fertilityfriend.com or Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It certainly can't hurt to try out some of the recommended techniques - I mean, what is the worst that could happen? You get pregnant? Sounds like a good plan to me! I have PCOS (I'm a fertility mess!) and have never been regular in my life, but I used BBT charting and mucus to determine fertile times and managed to get pregnant without interventions. It's worth a shot.

I had my hormones tested two months ago and my FSH was 8. My OB/GYN said I was in perimenoapuse. I am 36 years old. I have less than a 10% chance of getting pregnant naturally. I am keeping my fingers crossed for one more pregnancy.

I don't know that I ever had a high FSH level, but my husband and I also struggled tremendously with trying to get pregnant with our second child. We tried for over a year. In that time, I got pregnant twice but miscarried both times. After the 2 miscarriages, I couldn't seem to even get pregnant. Before going the route of seeing a fertility specialist, I decided to start having acupuncture done. I had heard by word of mouth and also with things that I'd read that acupuncture can work wonders for any female issues, especially those regarding infertility. It's also supposed to help you avoid miscarriage. It can be a little costly, but I found a Dr. who would work with us and lowered his cost, since you need a lot of sessions in the beginning. Anyway, I started having acupuncture done around the middle of January and found out at the end of February that I was pregnant. We are now due to have the baby in a little over 3 weeks. Look into it. Don't give up hope. There is still light at the end of the tunnel.