Success with diminished ovarian reserve !

 " I am very happy to see Anisha kutty's photos/videos in FB and in your blog. 

To reintroduce myself:

- I follow your blog very closely

- I have talked to you when i visited Zurich over phone

- I tried to reach you when you were in India

- I have had conversations with you through mail, (i have written it over my old mail so that you get the context)

Good news from my side: We are blessed with a girl baby - Shreya. She is 6 months old today.

I am so happy that we as new mothers are going to travel together bringing up our daughters

My IVFs were a failure. My AMH was so low. In my IVF cycle, there were only 3 follicles, out of that only two eggs were retrieved, out of that only one fertilized, that too was only 3-celled. It did not implant. I did not conceive. Doctors gave me up. I was devastated.

I wanted a baby. I was not ready to go for donor egg option. I was given an option of modified natural IVF cycle and egg-pooling. I was told that it is experimental. I still went ahead, since i had no other choice to have my own baby.

I underwent four cycles of egg-retrieval. Those 4 cycles resulted in 1 or 2 eggs. One of the cycles was a total failure. I came back empty handed. All those eggs retrieved were frozen.

After undergoing egg-retrieval cycles for an year, at the end of it there were 6 eggs for the embryologist to work upon.

With God's grace, out of that 6 eggs, 5 got fertilized, 3(eight celled) were transferred, and our Shreya was conceived from one of them. Two of the embryos(seven celled) are frozen.

It was Dr. X who was of great moral support and technical support during these tough times. She is my friend, doctor, God sent Angel all in one ".

Success stories like these are amazing. These stories teach why you shouldn't give up too soon. Not every women with poor ovarian reserve takes home a baby which is genetically related to them. This emailer is relatively young ( 28 years ! ). She had a doctor who is willing to support her and tailor an individual protocol which suited her need. Many doctors will be reluctant to do so because they don't have the time or interest to invest their energy on a single patient. They treat poor ovarian reserve patients like other patients and send them back with a suggestion of donor eggs when they couldn't retrieve good amount of eggs from their ovaries. 

The message from this story is :

If you are young , poor ovarian reserve will not be a major deterrent for having a baby which is genetically related to you. You can overcome your problem with these ingredients -  lots of patience , perseverance , a good doctor , and of course , money !

But , if you are of advanced maternal age , and produce only a couple of eggs , the chance of having success with IVF is greatly reduced. So , if you are a woman who is above 35 years of age , and who is fighting infertility with diminished ovarian reserve ,  you must have a realistic expectation of your chance of success . This helps to chose your battles wisely !

I haven't published the doctor's name who was mentioned in this email. I do not want that my blog becomes a source of advertisement. But if you are interested , please write to me : manjupadmasekar@yahoo.com. I will redirect your emails to the person who sent the above email  so that she can give you the necessary information.