Aged 26 and a high FSH....doctors already decided? Help!

[pandc]

Brand new here so please have patience!

My wife and I (26 and 31 respectively) would really appreciate some help/advice/other peoples' experience. We have been trying for a baby for the past 19 months. My wife had a series of routine blood tests taken at our local medical centre and nothing came back as worrying or problematic. I should explain that I am in the forces and we are currently serving in mainland Germany. Before being referred to Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea hospital, she had a laparoscopy and again, the doctor/specialist said that there was nothing to worry about and the tests that they performed were successful (something to do with dye to ensure certain tubes were free from blockage). I have done 2 sperm samples, the 1st came back normal count with slightly reduced motility and the 2nd came back with slightly reduced count and motility.

We were referred to Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea hospital for further specialist advice and fertility treatment. Having reviewed the information that had come from our medical centre in Germany (which he said was, at best, inconclusive), the doctor there said that they wanted my wife to go for an ultrasound scan and for her to come back for a 3-day FSH test. We got the results of the 3 day FSH test and the ultra sound and quite frankly we were gutted with the results.

The doctor explained that with a FSH level of 22 and the results of the ultrasound, that conceiving would be incredibly difficult. She suggested that my wife may be going through early menopause and asked if there was any history of premature menopause in the family (which there isn't). She said that if my latest sperm sample came back and was low or questionable, that the NHS would not fund further treatment as the chances of success would be around the 5-10% mark.

Naturally we are gutted but having done some research I have seen that FSH can fluctuate with stress and infection and/or thyroid peculiarities (which run in the wife's family). The doctor didn't ask if my wife had any of these issues but she was still recovering from a horrendous throat infection and was taking antibiotics and had experienced an incredibly stressful month or so prior to the FSH test due to family issues.

Are we clutching at straws here or is there still some room for manoeuvre? Our next appointment is on Wednesday in London to obtain the results of my latest (3rd) sperm sample. I would dearly love to ask the doctor to allow my wife to conduct another FSH test maybe at Christmas or so and for me to submit a couple more sperm samples for analysis. We've both been tested for Hepatitis, HIV, Chlomidia etc and all -ve.

We are worried that the hospital have already made their mind up and are already ruling out certain treatments on the back of these results. It seems too soon to be making those sort of calls.

Does anybody out there have similar experiences or advice? We'd love to go with more information to the appointment next week.

Thanks a million

[pandc]

Come on guys! Where is this support and advice! We only have 2 days before the next appointment!

[lt81]

Hi

You could try asking your consultant to do an AMH test (anti-mullerian hormone) which will give a better idea of the egg reserve. I am 29 and have been diagnosed with likely to go through premature menopause. The FSH results are less reliable than AMH. The AMH test can be done at any time of the month and I don't believe it fluctuates with stress/illness etc.

It's not available on the NHS so you have to pay for it. I paid £76 but the NHS consultant sorted it out for me. Because of my AMH level, they were able to see that I would be a low responder to the treatment so could tweak my plan accordingly. I do have a family history of premature menopause which is why I knew to push the issue.

I have found that the NHS will just run the standard tests - I had to push for the AMH test and am now glad we did. It told us much more about my circumstances than the FSH test alone. My husband also has slightly less than average sperm results so we were offered ICSI (where they inject the sperm into the eggs to fertilise rather than just let them do their thing in a test tube).

Good luck - I hope it goes well for you. A lot of the PCTs seem to be slashing their IVF budgets which may be why they are being so reluctant to offer treatment. Stick to your guns and make sure you take charge of your treatment, don't let them dictate it to you.