I just got out of my doctor’s appointment and she recommended that I start the process of prenatal screening. She’s testing my AMH levels, which for me as a graduate from a reproductive medicine program, is interesting!
The layperson will have no idea what AMH is. AMH stands for anti-Müllerian hormone and is a measure that is positively correlated with the ovarian reserve, the amount of eggs you have left in your ovaries. In other words, a high AMH level means that you have a better chance of getting pregnant.
This was my 8 week follow-up after starting Zoloft. When I did the questionnaire, I still tested borderline for anxiety, but had improvement in both anxiety and depression scores. She wants to see how I would feel increasing the dose to 75 mg. Thus far, the only side effect I have noticed is a drop in sex-drive. While I am not overly concerned about that part, and it may only be temporary, it can affect your drive to getting pregnant.
In additional to starting the prenatal screening, I have been tracking my ovulation, another recommendation from her. I'll have my LH measured. But a single time-point for LH actually won't say much. You need to have multiple time-points to understand your LH secretion. I told my doctor about this app that I started using to track my ovulation. The app is called premom so if you’re in the TTC community, you may find it helpful! The app is free and I used amazon to purchase the easy @ home ovulation test strips. I can't say how accurate it is, but when it's free, it's worth a try!
For all of you TTC, hang in there... My husband and I joke about how everything with come in time, even if we have to adopt a Latina teenager (see the movie Instant Family to understand).
I forgot to mention, AMH is high in prepubertal calves! My colleague just finished her PhD in the same department, under the same supervisor as my Master's and she did some measurements in some of the calves we were using for our research. Anyway, we know that AMH declines with maternal age. So as you get older, your ovarian reserve is declining more rapidly. So I'll be interested to see where my AMH is at.
To read about my test results, head here.
For more on my fertility journey, click here.
A new article was posted on My Mind Body Baby on this topic AMH.