About DHEA

 THis is a comment I wanted to write to the blogger Karma Born. She was asking about DHEA etc.But I didn't manage to publish the comment.
If any of you know how, you could tell Karma Blog that I wrote this comment for her.


I also have low AMH and high FSH, which seems a combination that makes IVF doctors tell you to look for an egg donor. In my blog I wrote about this topic (you'll find it easily, there are only 2 entries so far..)
I have had already 7 IVF's and once did a genetic test, a new one, where they test if there are 23 chormosome pairs, ie, if the egg is euploid. and from 7eggs 3 were euploid. Which is not bad at all, considering that I will turn 40 this year and have all these "wrong values".
That would corroborate what they say, that AMH and FSH values tell you about quantity not quality. I insisted on self cycling. Dr. Shivani also recommended me to take DHEA. I was scared as well - but after a lot of googling and doubting - I decided to give it a chance - and max. take it for two month. (I was going to India 6 weeks after starting to take it). I also ate "gelee royale" and pollen and wheat grass..and tried to be really healthy.... All of that could at least not do any harm. So when I got to India in the end of February, my FSH level was actually fine. I didn't measure the AMH again, but maybe it had come up, who knows. Dr. S. gave me 450 from the start, a rather high dose. And I didn't produce much more eggs than usually (usually they can collect 7 or 8) 10 eggs. Of which all fertilized and 8 were grade A quality on day two. 4 were transfered to our two surro moms and both got pregnant....
So at least so far our case can give self-cyclers with low AMH some hope.
Yesterday we got the report of the 6 week scan of M. and there were TWO heartbeats. L. will have her scan tomorrow... Of course we are still nervous - it's almost too good to be true - and we have to get through the dangerous first trimester etc etc etc...
Anyway - I made a really looong comment. Ah and still forgot to tell you about the DHEA. I only noticed that it increased my libido after a few days - it serioulsy did. Was quite funny. But then it got back to normal. Otherwise I didn't notice anything. Only when I stopped taking it - after the egg collection. Because even if we would have had a BFN, I would have taken a break off it. Well, when I stopped taking it, I felt a loss of libido and actually quite depressed. I don't know how much of it was the DHEA, or the two week wait and the jet lag and the after effect of all the other hormones - but it was rather strong for about a week and then went away.
But as far as our stimulation cycle goes - perhaps the DHEA DID help in some way. you can not no for sure - but we've never managed to get pregnant before....and the only new factors were DHEA and different uteri...
ok, the best of luck to you!!!!!!!! Jasmin