I only have one ovary, and recently stopped having periods. Is there a chance that a doctor could still help me with egg retrieval? (Ask the Egg Whisperer)

You know that I love taking your questions on Ask The Egg Whisperer! Recently, Natalie wrote to me from Florida. Here’s what she said, “Hi Dr. Aimee. I am 39 years old and I have been dealing with PCOS after I had my son four years ago. Last year I had my left ovary removed due to a torsion of a very large cyst. The plan was after I recovered I'd see a fertility specialist to possibly do IUI asap since I will be 40 this year and my husband and I want to have another baby. Well, after lots of blood work it appears my AMH is 0.1, FSH 78, and when I had a sonogram done it shows only 3 follicles. 

I have not had a period since November. So it's showing I'm in menopause and my next option is an egg donor. Is there no chance of trying to retrieve any eggs? 

And though my hubby and I are wanting to go forward with looking into egg donors, what should I prepare myself for? What is the path ahead?”

This is so hard, because you've been told that you have this diagnosis of PCOS. And, you probably know that I call PCOS “please confirm this ovary syndrome.” I have a feeling that maybe the reason why your periods were irregular may not be from PCOS, but it’s possible your periods were irregular because of, decreased ovarian reserve.

With period irregularity, sometimes people just say, “Oh, it's, PCOS,” when you're a young woman and they forget to confirm it and to check an AMH level. It's such an easy hormone to check as you see your level was 0.1. So I imagine four years ago is probably maybe 0.3 or 0.4. And now you're seeing that rise in FSH, making it a lot harder to get pregnant with the healthy pregnancy.

 My recommendation to you is if you feel like you want to try once with your own eggs. Go through a cycle,  take medications as if you're going to go through IVF and see what happens. If you're able to grow an egg and you want a chance for pregnancy and you want someone to retrieve it, I think that's fine. However, if you want to give yourself a much higher chance, around a 65% live birth rate, then I would seek an egg donor.

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