One Step Closer

I went to the clinic today for a physical, baseline blood work, pap, and ultrasound. Scott goes for his semen analysis on Thursday and I go next week for my hormone check at the beginning of my cycle. We are one step closer to meeting all of the requirements for the study and being able to start our first treatment cycle next week.
The exam went well today and my ultrasound looked really good. I am in my luteal phase, which is the two weeks after ovulation but before my period starts. Dr. Manny said it was a great time for the ultrasound and he was able to get some really good images of my uterus and ovaries. (Dad, sorry if you're reading this!) The really, really good news is that I had quite a lot of follicles. The last time I had an ultrasound to check antral follicles I only had nine follicles total --that was nine in both ovaries combined. This time I had eight in my left ovary and six in my right, for a total of 14 follicles! 14 follicles is normal! 14 follicles is actually fabulous!!!! 14 follicles without any stimulating drugs!
This is really good because with my previous results combined with the elevated FSH and my low-ish AMH, my follicle count showed a *slightly* diminished ovarian reserve. The 14 follicles today shows that I have more follicles developing this cycle, and more than I've had in any of my previous monitored cycles.
What does this all mean? Well, my elevated FSH means that my body is working harder to produce follicle--my body has to produce more of the Follicle Stimulating Hormone to produce the follicles, which develop and one releases an egg each cycle. My previous AMH level of 0.8 correlated to my antral follicle count of 9. Typically your antral follicle count is ten times your AMH level. So RE's use the AMH level to confirm what they see in the ultrasound when checking antral follicles. A normal AMH level is around 2, but anything under 1.0 is considered on low end. As I explained in my previous posts, this all meant that I had - at best - slightly diminished ovarian reserve. According to my previous RE, and all of the research I've done, this is probably why we haven't been able to get pregnant yet. Diminished Ovarian Reserve (DOR) means that I don't have very many eggs left, and those that are left may not be the best quality, and tend to not 'want' to fertilize. The low antral follicle count means that there aren't that many eggs developing at the beginning of each cycle, so chances aren't very high that there are very many good eggs in the group. Those of us with DOR are just waiting for that one really good egg to develop and hopefully be fertilized. It's not that we can't get pregnant, it just means that each month our chances are lower than the average bear. It takes longer to get pregnant, and time is not on our side because our ovarian reserve continues to lower over time.

Okay, back to my appointment today. If I had my AMH checked this month, it would probably come in around 1.4, which is significantly better than my previous 0.8.
I don't know why my numbers are so much better. It might be due to the fact that I've been taking wheatgrass twice daily for the past few months. The wheatgrass is supposed to improve your egg quality and quantity, so it seems that I am seeing some real results from it. Dr. Manny said it's okay for me to keep taking it, so that is good. And, I really, really like Dr. Manny.

So, that is all for the update today. I am getting more and more excited as we get closer to starting the study.