Follicles Not Responding? Is Low AMH the Whole Explanation

Follicles not responding? Cycle cancelled? Told it is your low AMH? Book a free Functional Fertility Second Opinion before your next IVF decision → fabfertile.com

You have done the injections. You have gone in for monitoring. They may have increased the medication already.

And then you hear it again. The follicles are not responding. There are one or two growing. Maybe the cycle gets cancelled. Maybe you make it all the way to retrieval and get one egg.

When you ask why, the answer comes back the same way every time. It is your low AMH. It is your age. You are a poor responder.

Those are real factors, and I am not going to tell you the AMH does not matter. But if you are about to put your body, your finances, and yourself through another cycle, there is a bigger question worth asking. Is low AMH the whole explanation?

Because these are two separate statements: I have diminished ovarian reserve, and low AMH explains everything that happened during that cycle. They are not the same statement.

In this episode I walk through what AMH does and does not tell you, what I would want to understand about the 90 days before stimulation started, and what to ask your clinic before you go again. The full thyroid panel, including antibodies rather than TSH alone. Blood sugar and how it moves across a day. hs-CRP and unnecessary inflammation. Vitamin D you may be taking and may not be absorbing. Gut health, food sensitivity, the vaginal microbiome, nutrient status, and an autoimmune issue that gets mentioned as an afterthought when it belongs at the front of the file.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The follicles are not responding
01:00 About Sarah and the team
01:20 What AMH does and does not tell you
02:00 Two statements that are not the same
02:20 The 90 days before stimulation started
02:40 hs-CRP and unnecessary inflammation
03:00 Optimal, not normal
03:20 Blood sugar regulation across the day
03:30 The full thyroid panel including antibodies
03:50 Nutrient depletion and secondary infertility
04:10 The vitamin D you may not be absorbing
04:30 An autoimmune issue is not a by the way
05:00 A clean diet that may not be the right diet for you
05:30 Hypervigilance and nervous system load
06:20 One client who did not have enough follicles to qualify
06:40 What I am not claiming
08:00 Annie and Miles. AMH 0.15, FSH 33
08:40 What Your Clinic Missed
09:00 What to ask before another IVF
09:40 Thirty days without medication, and doing this in parallel
11:00 Book a Second Opinion with your partner

WHAT YOUR CLINIC MISSED

If you have no idea which of these markers to run, we have a checklist called What Your Clinic Missed. It is a list of markers worth reviewing before a donor egg decision or before another IVF, so you can look at your own results and go from there. Email hello@fabfertile.ca with MISSED in the subject line and we will send it to you.

FUNCTIONAL FERTILITY SECOND OPINION

Book with your partner and load your labs into the secure portal. Before the call I review your fertility history and bloodwork from both partners, looking for patterns, unanswered questions and gaps. We are not diagnosing. Sometimes the review confirms that moving forward with the next IVF makes sense. Sometimes there are questions worth addressing first. Book your call with your partner at fabfertile.com

If you want to know whether the call is right for you first, email hello@fabfertile.ca with FERTILE in the subject line and tell me a little about your situation.

ABOUT THE HOST

I'm Sarah Clark, founder of Fab Fertile and host of Get Pregnant Naturally, a podcast with over one million downloads. My functional fertility team works with couples navigating low AMH and failed IVF, reviewing functional lab results, gut microbiome, food sensitivity, vaginal microbiome, nutrigenomics, HTMA, DUTCH, toxin testing, and bloodwork alongside nervous system work, to help identify patterns that may not have been considered. We work alongside your medical team, not instead of them.

Sarah Clark, founder of Fab Fertile, host of Get Pregnant Naturally (1M+ downloads), and author of Fabulously Fertile.

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