# News i wasn't expecting.............



## Gersende47 (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi Ladies, i am new to the site and at the minute im a bit confused and i suppose sad at what my doctor told me yesterday.  Im currently 47yrs old and we had our last IVF with my own eggs at the end of last year.  Despite my age we got 2 embies each time and all was looking good until the day before test date when i lost them.  Amazingly i only had a proper internal scan and laproscopy with dye after IVF (Apr this year) and was told that there was no reason why i couldn't have a spontaneous pregnancy although i had slight endometriosis and my left fallopian tube was a little more resistant to releasing the dye.  Of course i was always realistic that at my age it would be a miracle if it ever happens and we have started to talk about DE and adoption.  The reason why i am posting is because i went to see my doc for routine blood tests (nothing to do with fertility) and it just happened to be day 24 of my cycle - when i went for the results the other day my doc casually said oh and i doubt there is any chance of you conceiving naturally now as your levels of FSH and LH indicate the menopause!!!! I was so taken back because i didn't know these tests had been done ALSO ive only ever had my FSH tested on day 3 of the cycle in the past.  Anyway my FSH was 65 u/L and my LH was 33.9 u/L but what is confusing me is that when ive done a bit of research it seems the FSH should be high around this time!?!? Can any ladies shed some light on this - to add to the situation i am now on my 40th day of the cycle with no sign of AF - Hope you can help, many thanks and best of luck to you all xx


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## Frangipan (Jun 4, 2006)

Hi Gersende
Sorry to hear you had some upsetting news   . I am NO expert but I have always understood that FSH needed to be tested on days 1,2 or 3 of your cycle. That is certainly what I have ever done in the past. Unfortunately, G.P's are not experts in the field of infertility. When we began investigations we had routine sperm and hormone tests done and when we rang the doc for the results he said my DH results were normal!! He had morphology of 6% which meant we needed ICSI so he was completely wrong! Anyway, if I were you when AF does appear (and maybe she won't eh?   ) I would go and get FSH re-done. 
Good luck though and sorry your previous treatments havent worked 
Best wishes
Angela xxxxxxxxx


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## daisyg (Jan 7, 2004)

Gersende,

Firstly, Frangipan is right.  Fertility testing should be done on days 2-4 of menstrual cycle and you should FSH/E2/LH and prolactin measured at same time.  However FSH is not as relevant as age as an indicator.  All FSH can do is tell you how well you might respond to ivf meds.  You may well be well into perimenopause and this could be indicated by your blood tests...

Sadly though you are 47 and the chances of a natural birth are very low and frankly pretty much zero for ivf.  Only a handful of women in the world have had live births at age 47 via own egg ivf.  This is a very tough message and I do understand how hard it is to move forward and give up on your own eggs.

I would urge you to get a move on with DE or adoption because age is still a factor, even in DE, and if you have any health issues they may stop you getting pg with DE as well.  Also your age will be a factor in adoption as well sadly (unless paying for international adoption).

If you still want to continue to try naturally or start on DE, I would get some basic infertility/miscarriage/implantation failure testing to see if you have any other issues other than age preventing a pregnancy as these issues will stop a DE pregnancy as well.

Tests should include:-

Uterine (polyps/fibroids)
Have you had your thyroid tested recently? TSH, T3, T4 and antithyroid antibodies
Make sure you do not have any infection in your fallopian tubes as this will also affect pg.
DH sperm - dna fragmentation - has he been karyotyped??  Have you been karyotyped??
Clotting disorders
Autoimmune issues - endometriosis is a huge red flag for problems getting pg.
Infection test for you and DH (group b strep, chlamydia, mycoplasma, ureaplasma)

These are the basics and a GP or ivf clinic can carry out most of these.

It is very hard making a decision to move on.  I would also advise you to have the fertility testing done at an ivf clinic as GPs are clueless when it comes to fertility.

In my opinion, it is wrong to give hope to you for an own egg pg at your age...  What is your fertility history?  Have you had children before?  Any pgs or miscarriages recently?  This will give you more clue as to where you stand.


Daisy
xxxx


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