Premature Ovarian Failure or Low AMH – don’t want to do IVF .. What are my options?
Transcription :
Premature ovarian failure, POF and low AMH is something that we see often with the members of my fertility coaching program, and we help them figure out what the root cause is of what is contributing to this, what is causing the POF and the low AMH, so that they can start to make changes to that and see the improvements that they need to get pregnant.
If they’ve done it, I know that you can do it too, which is why in this video I’m going to talk more about the root causes of POF and low AMH, and more importantly, what you can start to do to improve that. If this topic interests you, then give me a thumbs up and like this video. If you’re not already a subscriber, then subscribe so you can get more information about videos and topics just like this. And more importantly, if you’re ready to start to make changes to your fertility, then check out this free fertility guide to help you get started. All right, so let’s get into it right now.
Hi, I’m Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as The Fertility Expert, and I’ve been working with couples for over 20 years through my coaching program and right here in San Diego at my clinic. And if you want more information on how to improve your fertility, then I’ve got a free training. That’s right, a free training coming up on May 8th that I want you to join me for. All you have to do to join is click the link in the description below to register and join me for the free training.
All right, so premature ovarian failure or POF and low AMH is a very important topic, especially for all of you watching because this is exactly what you’re interested in. But more importantly, the reason why it’s such an important topic is because this issue is being found more and more today in younger women. That’s right. I have so many women who reach out who are in their early and late twenties and even early thirties who are reaching out and saying that they’ve been diagnosed with premature variant failure or low AMH, and what can I do about it?
And so that’s exactly what I want to discuss in this video. I want to dive a little bit deeper into this topic and give you some of these important resources to help you start to make some of these decisions to help you hopefully make changes to that diagnosis and get pregnant the way you want.
The first thing I do want to talk about when we’re talking about POF and low AMH is that typically the number one treatment option that you’re being given is in vitro fertilization or IVF. And that is always an option, but it’s not an option for many of you. Many of you would just like to try naturally because that’s where your heart is at. That’s the way God intended it to be, right? And you’re not ready yet to make that decision about IVF, let alone what many of you hear, which is you need to use a donor egg and you’re definitely not there yet.
So if you are younger and you are starting to contemplate what are your options, how do you go about this? Then the first thing we need to decide is first and foremost do you or don’t you want to go towards IVF? I’m always of the opinion that I want to try things naturally first and foremost. I hope that you are as well, which is where I want to start in our conversation.
So interestingly enough, as we are starting to dig deeper or you’re starting to hopefully dig deeper, one of the biggest things that I find happens when we are told that we have POF and they have run these labs, is that I find that the labs are inaccurate because they were done on the wrong cycle day. Okay. And we tend to base all of our judgment off of this one set of labs or this one imaging.
And so the first step I want all of you to take is to actually redo the labs and make sure that they’re run at the right time of your cycle. I have plenty of videos on what labs to run and where to run them in your cycle on this YouTube channel, so you can check those out. But if you’ve got more questions about this topic, then I want you to comment below and let me know what those questions are, what labs you’ve had done so that we can dive deeper into that as well. And just as a heads up, this is something that I dive deeper into with all the members of my coaching program and all of them have to have a foundational lab testing done so that we can have a good understanding of where they’re at today and make sure that everything was run at the right time of their cycle.
So all these scans, all these labs, if they’re not done at the right time, they’re going to give us inaccurate information. If you’ve had procedures done that might impact the health of your ovaries, let’s just say it’s like a surgery to remove a cyst or something like that, that’s going to impact your follicle count, your AMH levels and how your ovaries function. And if you’ve had a lot of stress, been impacted by a major illness or virus, these are all things that can absolutely impact your numbers. And so if you’re doing these labs and these images around those issues, then that’s going to impact the results and you might have a false reading.
So, the first thing is we need to make sure that we have an accurate reading, which means retesting all of these things, making sure that it’s accurate and consistent, and then understanding the ramifications of all these other issues that might impact those numbers as well. So because IVF or donor are really treatment option much further down the road and they’re really not looking at the root issues of what is going on, they’re not really trying to address some of these main issues, the first thing we need to do is figure out what those main root issues are, which is actually step number one. We’ve got to dive deeper. We need to figure out what’s going on and what is contributing or causing your AMH to be lower or your follicle count to be lower and to be given this diagnosis. And that’s really crucial when we’re making a plan on how to move forward.
Once you have found the root issues and you are prepared to start to address those things, the second thing that I think you need to do is actually give yourself some time to impact that, right? To really make change. And those things take time. And I’ll explain a little bit more again in just a moment about that.
Some of the root cause issues, which I just mentioned, I’ll dive deeper again right now into it, when we’re talking about the structure of the ovaries, we talked about surgery, a procedure that’s meant to impact maybe some other abnormal growth on the ovary that impacts the tissue of the ovary and impacts your follicle count. But also chemotherapy and radiation that can also impact the quality of your eggs and your ovarian function and cause POF. So that is something that’s really specific. Aside from issues to the ovary itself, which I just mentioned, then there is a chromosomal issue called Turner’s Syndrome, which can impact POF and cause that and also a gene mutation called Fragile X, which can also impact POF and ovarian function.
These are things that we don’t see too often but are there or can be there and do need to be ruled out. Autoimmune issues we mention, or I mention many times on this channel for many different reasons, and this is another one because autoimmune issues to your parathyroid, your thyroid and your adrenals can absolutely impact ovarian function and cause POF as well. And this actually accounts for 20% of all premature ovarian failure diagnoses. So, definitely these are areas that need to be ruled out.
And I talked about stress previously, which is tied into your adrenal glands because your adrenal glands are your stress glands, they’re in charge of your stress response. So if we’re having a lot of stress, that can absolutely impact ovarian function. And as you’ve probably heard me say many, many times on this channel, thyroid function impacts your fertility and can absolutely impact ovarian function in POF as well.
And so these are all areas that we need to rule out, dig deeper into so that you know how first and foremost what is impacting your ovarian function. And then two, you can start to make plans on how to move forward from that. The key to everything is understanding why, because then you can actually create the proper plan. And this is exactly what I do for the members in my coaching program that support that and make change so that you can see the results that you want.
And I want to share this story from one of the members in my coaching program because that’s exactly what happened to her. So she says, “Big fertility win, actually huge for me.” And we ask all of our members to share their wins on a regular basis because we want to focus on the positive. And she says, “I want to share here with all the ladies struggling with AMH, it is possible. Don’t let clinics and doctors convince you it’s not possible. Please. Mine was ultra low at 0.05 and after all the work I did, yesterday, this is my result, 0.58. It took time, like 10 months, wasn’t an overnight journey. I am even expecting it to go up. My goal is 1.5 and it will go. I still haven’t done some different treatments.” I’m just trying to be concise here. “I’m feeling so excited and hopeful and full with life now knowing this has become reality and without even using any hormonal therapy.
Still need to work on my FSH and estriol but LH and AMH are now naturally balanced. Mark [inaudible 00:09:30] do I need to change my supplements?” So she was asking for additional support here and she was really excited with the progress.
But I want to highlight here one, that it is possible and she shares that in her own words what’s possible. But two, the other piece which I mentioned earlier is that things like this take time. When we have all these major things that can be impacting like adrenal issues, like thyroid issues, surgery on your ovaries or anything like that, all of these things can absolutely impact your fertility and your ovarian function and they take time to address. So you need to be realistic with yourself, you need to be patient with yourself, which isn’t always easy and you need to give yourself time to make the necessary changes and see the impact of those changes.
If you want my eyes on your case like she had, and if you want to get the results like she has on her POF and AMH levels, then I want to invite you to apply to join my Hope Fertility Coaching Program. This is where you get me and my team as your private coaches to help you figure out, one, what’s going on. And two, we create the plan to help you get the results that you deserve like she was able to get. If you want more information on that, just use the link in the description below.
All right, everybody, all the links that you need that I talked about in this video are all in the comments section in the description section down below. If you’ve got comments for me on this video, I want to hear it. If you’ve got questions about your fertility, I definitely want to hear those, so comment below and let me know. And until the next video stay fertile.