diagnosis guide
If you’ve just received a medical diagnosis, or you’re concerned that something in your present or past health history might be jeopardizing your fertility, check here for quick info on common medical conditions and how they can affect conception and pregnancy.
Directory Content
High FSH (also referred to as diminished ovarian reserve)
What It Is
Levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) are an indication of how many eggs are left in a woman’s ovaries. A high level means a woman doesn’t have a lot of eggs left, because the body producing more and more FSH in an attempt to stimulate the ovaries. FSH levels rise as a woman approaches and enters menopause.
Who Gets It
High FSH is usually found in “older” women as they reach the end of their procreative years. But even younger women can have a high FSH level. And while it might mean they’ll experience menopause early, it may still be possible for them to get pregnant. Risk factors for diminished ovarian reserve are age, single ovary, family history of early menopause, or prior chemotherapy or pelvic radiation treatment. Eventually, every woman reaches menopause and has highly elevated FSH levels throughout the menstrual cycle.
Symptoms
None, apart from a woman’s age.
How It's Diagnosed/Detected
A simple blood test can indicate an FSH level, but since the levels may vary, it’s more accurate to do a clomiphene challenge test, in which women have their FSH levels measured on days 3 to 5 of their cycle, then take the drug (brand name Clomid, Serophene) on days 5 through 9, and have FSH levels retested on day 10. This test can provide an earlier warning of diminished ovarian reserve than baseline testing alone.
How It Affects Fertility
Even women with high FSH have a diminished number of eggs, the quality of the eggs that remain could still be good. Doctors say they’ve seen patients in their early thirties with significantly elevated FSH levels who have still been able to have babies. Age is an important factor – a woman in her early 40s with moderate FSH levels may still not become pregnant, because the quality of her eggs is no longer good enough.
Treatment
Higher FSH levels are a natural process of aging, and there is currently no treatment to undo the effects of aging on a woman’s ovaries. However, in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment (often combined with ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection of eggs) may still offer a woman with elevated FSH levels a chance at motherhood, often via donor eggs (which means she is not the biological mother of the child she gives birth to).
Pregnancy Prognosis
High FSH levels make conception and a healthy delivery less likely. Infertility specialists usually give patients three options: (1) They can either continue to attempt conception using their own eggs. If preliminary testing is substantially abnormal, the probability of conception with IVF or ICSI is generally less than 5 percent per treatment cycle. The delivery rate is likely less than 1 to 2 percent per treatment cycle. (2) Couples can opt for in vitro treatment with donor eggs. The pregnancy rates achieved by leading teams generally exceeds 50 percent per cycle, and delivery rates average about 45 percent per cycle. (3) The couple may choose to use donor embryos, if available.
High FSH levels make conception and a healthy delivery less likely. Infertility specialists usually give patients three options: (1) They can either continue to attempt conception using their own eggs. If preliminary testing is substantially abnormal, the probability of conception with IVF or ICSI is generally less than 5 percent per treatment cycle. The delivery rate is likely less than 1 to 2 percent per treatment cycle. (2) Couples can opt for in vitro treatment with donor eggs. The pregnancy rates achieved by leading teams generally exceeds 50 percent per cycle, and delivery rates average about 45 percent per cycle. (3) The couple may choose to use donor embryos, if available.
Reader Faves
A few months after my first child was born, I wanted to be pregnant again—as soon as possible. I wanted my children to be close in age, the closer...
You might have spent most of your life (and an excruciatingly embarrassing high school health class) learning how to avoid getting pregnant, but...
There’s no need to feel deprived when you’re trying to get pregnant. Quite the opposite. Check out these foods that taste great and can help keep...
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 15 stories
You’ve only been trying for a few months, but you’re already starting to get annoyed rather than excited when you see a pregnant woman. Or you’ve been trying a lot longer. . . and you can’t even bear to look. Here’s how to get over it until it’s your turn.
Eileen Garvin of Susanville, California, became a client of a fertility clinic the way most women do—she was referred there by her ob/gyn.
Everyone knows about maternity leave, but sometimes women need to take time off before a baby arrives. If you’re having fertility treatments or trying to adopt, here’s what you should know to get the time off you need. Whether—and when—to tell your boss that you’re undergoing fertility treatments or arranging an adoption depends a lot on your relationship with your supervisor. While most workplace experts caution against revealing too much personal information, how do you explain being late for work because of blood tests and ultrasounds, and then needing to get home for hormone injections? Or what if you must travel abroad to bring home a baby, and then want three months to bond with your adopted child?
In an effort to attract patients and compete against the more-than 400 fertility centers providing IVF nationwide, fertility clinics today routinely...
As kids, we all learned about the birds and the bees. But we probably didn’t learn enough about fertility to know how babies can be conceived when nature doesn’t work perfectly.
When a couple is having trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy, sometimes a “third party” is enlisted to help. These women—egg donors and surrogates—are giving one of the greatest gifts of all. Find out why they do it.-
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
No one wants to hear a doctor utter the dreaded word “infertility.” But couples can use the diagnosis as an opportunity to learn the skills they...
