When I turned 30, I had a freak out moment during which I worried that I was behind schedule in family planning. I wasn't concerned about my fertility so much as the fact that up until that point, F and I didn't think we wanted to procreate. Turning 30 unearthed a desire for a child I didn't know I had. I perceived it as a crisis so urgent that while celebrating my 30th birthday at a bar, I whispered to a friend that I needed to decide if I wanted to have children ASAP. I think I may even have cried.
I've always considered myself a late bloomer. It is ridiculous, but, I am still in awe of high school friends who are full practicing doctors. They seem so grown up. And then I remember that we are 35 years old. It's like I've spent the last 15 years in outer space in a 'Flight of the Navigator' and returned home to advanced maternal age. This really bothers me sometimes.
Before I started trying to get pregnant someone told me that I look "so young for my age" (I get mistaken for a twenty-something all the time). For some reason I replied, "Well, let's hope my ovaries look as young as my face." Intuition is funny.
And fertility has nothing to do with how young you may look on the outside or how young you perceive yourself to be. That stuff about you is just an ironic joke, an inconsistency in your universe, a paradox.
Age is one of the important factors in predicting success with IVF. I was 31when I first started trying to get pregnant.
I was 32 when our first RE said, "You're still young, no
need to rush, you've got time."
But he never tested my AMH, my 'Ovarian Age', in relation to my FSH and antral follicle counts.
I wish the hormone level charts showing normal values for FSH and AMH and antral follicle counts provided ranges based on age. Wouldn't it be great if there was a chart that showed you where the normal values fall based on age (If you know of one, please let me know) or rather, if our doctors actually shared that information with us? You could then compare those to your results and age.
I've been thinking about this because I just happened to read recently that an AMH of 1.5 is normal for a 34 year old and an AMH level of 1 is expected for a 40 year old. If my AMH is 1.1, then is my Ovarian Age closer to 40 than my chronological age of 35?
That information is astounding, don't you think?
So, should we be asking our REs what our ovarian age is? And how important a factor in our chances of success is this information? Does a 40 year old with an AMH of 1.5 have a greater chance of success in one cycle than a 30 year old with an AMH of 1?
Would we have pursued treatment more aggressively when I was 32, moved on to IVF a year earlier?
6 comments:
Jill, this is a really interesting post and a topic I have thought a lot about as well. I have a lower AMH as well, despite my age and the fact that people say I look much younger than I am. In working with my acupuncturist and chiropractor, I have come to the realization that the AMH is just that -- a number... nothing more, nothing less. And I am not going to allow it to rule me (they both say the number can change with alternative treatment). Sometimes I'm mad because my RE never tested this early on in our journey, or has passed it off as no big deal. However, in the last month I have read at least 3 blogs where women were getting ready to go to donor eggs when they have found themselves pregnant. Keep the faith and remember that a number is just that -- a number, not a destiny!
I could have written this post. Although I seem to have rapidly aged in the last 3 years during my battle to get pregnant. I think the answer about the eggs is that chronological age isn't as important. I tried for 4 years to get pregnant with my eggs with no success and then used my sister's eggs (she is 4 years older) and they worked on the first try. Anyways, I hope your situation is different although I will never regret using an egg donor. Have you read about DHEA?
Agree with the other ladies on this. It is a number pure and simple. When you start the ivf or fertility journey there are so many numbers out there. I have personally seen many woman with odds totally against them prevail.
Keep your chin up!
This is so easy to do - start questioning your path, and the decisions along the way, and the questions never asked... I hope all this will be a distant memory very soon - when you finally get and stay pregnant!
Great post. Although AMH level is "just a number," and of course there are many other factors involved in fertility, I think it would be helpful for women to know this information. Chronological age sometimes has little to do with ovarian age, and the more personal information a woman has about this, the better-informed she will be to make decisions about the future.
I agree that AMH is just a number, just one factor in a list of other important factors that help predict IVF success. You have to look at them all together. And REs DO use these factors to determine your treatment options and odds of success. When I list all the factors--AMH(1.1) + FSH(9) +E2(23-38) + antral follicle counts (11)--I'm not looking my age (at least not when I was 32, but now, sadly, age is becoming a factor as well.
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