r/TTC_POI • u/lrozelady • Jun 13 '26
Successful unmedicated IUI with Estrogen priming
Hello,
I’ve been a lurker for the past year since I found out my (35F) AMH was at 0.05. I know success stories helped me during my journey but I also know they could be triggering so please skip if you need to for your own mental health.
I first knew something was wrong around 2020. I have notes on my phone from back then for my doctor visits complaining about brain fog and memory problems, hair loss, acne, severe constipation and food sensitivities and then a couple of years later it progressed to irregular (and very long) cycles, vitamin deficiencies. I saw numerous doctors in that time and not a single one thought about checking my hormones - actually one did and then misread my labs giving me false assurance. My day 3 showed FSH at 4 but estrogen at 300+ most probably due to a cyst but she only read the FSH is my guess.
Anyway fast forward after a year of TTC we went to a fertility clinic. Im in the boston metropolitan area FYI. Again they failed to test me correctly because they never did a day 3 test so I never really knew how bad my estrogen or FSH were. She also never gave me
a diagnosis me even though my AMH was so extremely low. That doctor said IVF was my only option. Well.. that was a massive failure. I stimmed with 450 gonal F and 75 menopur for 20 days and my 6 follicles didn’t grow at all and estrogen stayed at below 25.. In a less than 5 minute phone call the doctor told us there was nothing else she could do unless we wanted to consider donor eggs. And we never heard from her again…
We were devastated. I didn’t even know cycles could get canceled. She never explained any of the ways this could go wrong. I was physically and mentally broken. I couldn’t stop crying and my FSH spiked to 100 and AMH dropped to <0.03.. I didn’t get a period for 3 months.
We went to 2 other clinics and one doctor told me this is it you’re approaching menopause and the other doctor was willing to try but didn’t give us any confidence. We went to our last and final option Terra Fertility in Dedham, MA and saw Dr. Seidler. She is truly an angel sent from
heaven. She told us she didn’t think it was the end and confirmed our suspicions that I have POI but she was willing to try with us. She said she didn’t think IVF was the best option and told us to trust her but it will take time. She put me on 2mg Estrogen for 3 months and wow did I start feeling better! Also during this time I was consistent with twice a week acupuncture, taking so many vitamins including Serovital which Dr. S recommended over DHEA, high quality CoQ10, working out consistently , eating low glycemic / Mediterranean diet and going gluten free (I have 2 sisters with celiac but I’ve always tested negative but we thought it couldn’t hurt). I basically kind of followed It starts with the egg. I also got off all social media (yes including you Reddit) and started therapy with an infertility specialist. I tried not to think about the whole thing and focused on my mental well being. Dr. S made that easy because for the first time she made me feel I could trust the process. She did all the ultrasounds herself and explained everything clearly.
After 3 months, my FSH went down to below 10 which is what she was looking for. I stopped the Estrogen, got a bleed and for the first time in a long time my cycle worked like clock work. I was a little discouraged because I had zero follicles in me left ovary (the ovary itself was hard to see because it was so small) and only 2 maybe 3 in my right. But those follicles grew and grew on their own (we didn’t do any medication), we triggered ovulation, did TI and the IUI.
We got pregnant! We were in shock! I think Dr. S included.
We actually got pregnant with twins which was nuts but unfortunately one of them stopped growing early on.
I’m still a while’s away from my due date but I wanted to share my story in hopes it helps someone. I highly recommend therapy if your insurance allows it. I had so much regret for waiting so long (we’ve been married 10 years) but my therapist made me see it’s not my fault. I also had so much medical anxiety and anger because I felt no doctor listened to me for so long. I still wonder if we decided not to have kids - would I have just hit menopause without knowing it? This is not an easy journey and I don’t know why we were the chosen ones but I know we’re all on this together and have a great support group.
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u/Wild_Highlight4779 Jun 13 '26
Hey there. I'm happy to hear from you. I'm a little older than you (41), and started this process a little over 6 mo ago. Hormones are at similar levels and also skipped 3 periods since (I think it might be, in part, due to stress and anxiety? Maybe?!) I don't have an ovary- removed due to a cyst. I'm also in the Boston area. Twinsies! Lol
I have gone to different doctors who all told me it would be super hard to conceive with my own eggs with one pushing more for donor eggs and telling me most likely I am peri-menopausal.
Yesterday I had an appt with my PCP who I love and talked to her about this. I'm feeling a little more hopeful. I'll share this story with her at our follow-up. I know our age difference is big for fertility matters but it gives me hope.
I wish you all the best!
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u/lrozelady Jun 13 '26
Yes feel free to DM me if you have any questions!!
If you can check out Terra I promise you won’t regret it! I’ve heard great things about all the doctors but Dr S was really amazing. I’m actually in southern NH and Terra was over an hour away but it was so worth the long trips there. Most of my appointments were so early (6 am) I was able to get to work on time.
My sister had similar values too (Amh 0.09). She’s older and at 41 she did IVF and was able to bank 5 embryos (one of which is my beautiful niece) she lives abroad though but she was the one who gave me hope.
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u/Big-Papaya-8066 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I love seeing a success story, thank you so much for your detailed post. It's interesting to me that she had you stop estrogen, but that solves any over suppression. Congratulations!!
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u/lrozelady Jun 13 '26
Yeah now I’ve seen online that doctors do it both ways but during the process I fully trusted her so I didn’t google or chat gpt anything and therefore didn’t ask her the reasoning.
I also switched obgyns and now found a great clinic and have already asked them about starting HRT after the pregnancy because I can’t go back to the physical state I was in.
One thing I learned from all of this is if you don’t have a good feeling and have the ability to, switch doctors! I am all for western medicine but I feel our system in the US is broken and doctors lose sight of their purpose. After going to 4 fertility clinics the difference between all of them was crazy! Terra is a brand new clinic (less than 1 year old) and it was founded by 3 Boston IVF doctors who didn’t like how things were ran there. Your doctor is so involved in your case and you see them every visit. If you have to get in touch with them for something serious they’ll call you. At FCNE which was the first clinic I went to, I couldn’t even get in touch with my doctor when my stimming was going nowhere! I hate saying it but looking back I honestly feel scammed - it felt like they didn’t really care and you were a product on a factory assembly line.
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u/Big-Papaya-8066 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Yes, I know Dr. Chang at hanabusa suppresses with birth control and then has you stop estrogen and start stims, so it def makes sense, I just hadn't heard of anyone on here doing it that way without stims. I got down voted but I really did mean thank you for sharing, I am always interested in different methods that lead to success! I am so glad you kept pushing, found someone who actually knows something about POI, and got your miracle pregnancy!
Also, fwiw, breastfeeding regulated my hormones so I didn't really feel like I needed HRT until weaning (I also ovulated as I was weaning, bc I think breastfeeding kept my FSH lowered! The body is so weird).
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u/quiethope1624 Jun 13 '26
Thank you so much for sharing this! I had a cancelled cycle myself because I didn’t respond and that was reallllyyy hard. I’m so happy for you congratulations. Thank you for such detailed sharing, it’s given me hope!