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September 16, 2013

There Is A Way To Find Out How “Many Eggs You Have Left”

September 16, 2013
I’ve touched on the issue of infertility before – or rather fears of infertility. It was in this post about an episode of New Girl where CeCe finds out she has so few eggs left that she essentially needs to get pregnant yesterday if she wants to have kids. I wrote about being frustrated that the show didn’t explain the testing process for finding out this critical info. They essentially scared the beejesus (sp?) out of an audience of 20-something women (and men maybe?) with shotty and incomplete info.
At the time, I didn’t even know you could have your viable egg count assessed. And – shame on me – I didn’t go digging for the information. I’m sure that’s the result of some mental block – like if I continue on not knowing if it’s possible to be tested then I don’t have to think about ever having the test!

But a few weeks ago I got contacted by someone organizing a forum around infertility issues in conjunction with a documentary film by Irina Vodar. The event/group is called The Cycle: Living a Taboo, and you can read more about the event, which will be held in New York City this coming September 27th. Please take a look if you’re interested in the topic or experiencing this process in your own life.

The group organizers just wanted me to post that information I’ve included above, but I asked if they could help me answer that scary question about infertility that I had way back around the time of the New Girl episode. My question: Is there a test you can take to find out how many viable eggs you have left, therefore how soon you should try to get pregnant? 

Here is the interesting and very helpful info they provided, paraphrased for ease:

  • Since conception is such a delicate and complicated process there are many, many factors that can cause or contribute to infertility. Because of this, there is no ONE test that can determine whether a woman will have trouble getting pregnant.
  • For women who think they may want to have children in the future, and don’t have any known health factors (like PCOS or Endometriosis, which are two conditions that can be associated with infertility) there are two specific hormones levels, FSH and AMH, that can indicate whether their ovarian reserve is sufficient or diminished (aka how many eggs they have left in stock). The science of it: it’s best to have low FSH levels and high AMH levels
  • Here is a link to some information about how this works and here is another. 
  • But again – and I can’t  be clear enough about this – there are MANY OTHER FACTORS to fertility, so these tests are NOT a fail-safe method of knowing if you’re fertile or not. 
  • TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR if you are interested in any of the above tests. They’ll know much, much more.  

I hate to go heavy on a Monday, but I’ve felt uncomfortable about the lack of info in my last post on this issue, and I serendipitously got a second chance at setting the record straight. My Mom would call that a “God wink” which I’m not sure I believe in but absolutely love the idea of, mostly because I am a chronic winker myself, though not God. 

    And now – to bring so MUCH needed levity this yucky real-life stuff – enjoy!

    Jessie Rosen resides physically in LA and mentally in NY. She writes scripts, books, articles, sex stories, branded content and killer e-mails.

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