Journey to the Crib Episode 6: High FSH & Your Biological Clock

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[text on screen]: Journey to the Crib. Fertility Talk with Pam and Dr. Dave Pamela Madsen: Hi. I'm Pamela Madsen, and welcome to another segment of Journey to the Crib. And I'm here with Dr. Dave Kreiner, who is the founder of East Coast Fertility. Thanks for joining us! [text on screen]: Episode 6: High FSH and Your Biological Clock. Pamela Madsen: You know, patients get diagnosed with FSH. They don't know if it's a high number, a low number, what it means. Can you tell us a little bit? Dr. Dave Kreiner: Yes. Pam, if I had one wish as a doctor in infertility, it would be that my patients or all prospective patients understood the impact of age; the impact of FSH. Unfortunately, though the word has been out, it's not getting down to the patients who still will try on their own for years and years, go to their OB-GYN, and oftentimes not initiate any aggressive fertility treatment even though they're over 35, approaching 40 and sometimes even past age 40. There doesn't seem to be enough of awareness of the effect of age on your fertility. Pamela Madsen: So I go in to the doctor and he says I have high FSH. What is that telling me, as a patient? Dr. Dave Kreiner: The FSH is a pituitary hormone that will respond to your ovaries' production of estradiol and inhibin. And if the number of eggs is decreasing and the number of cells that produce estrogen and inhibin is decreasing, then there's less negative feedback on the pituitary production of FSH, so FSH goes up. Pamela Madsen: A high FSH is really telling them their eggs have aged. You can't, like, fix it, right? Or can you? Dr. Dave Kreiner: Well, Pam, it's not exactly that the eggs have aged. It's that they're running out. There aren't as many. And if you're young and your FSH is going up, well, that's not nearly as bad. Because when you're young it's still likely that most of the eggs are healthy, most of the eggs are genetically normal. And with the help of a reproductive endocrinologist, we can capture those healthy eggs, fertilize them, and hopefully get you pregnant. There's still a pretty good chance. Pamela Madsen: So, a high FSH is not necessarily a death knell for your fertility? Dr. Dave Kreiner: It's never a death knell. Pamela Madsen: It's never a death knell. I like that. So, let's close on this, then. That a high FSH level is not necessarily the end of the game. It doesn't mean, necessarily, that you can't have a baby. Is that true? Dr. Dave Kreiner: That's right. Pamela Madsen: I love that. [text on screen] To Learn More Visit: www.thefertilitydoc.com www.thefertilityadvocate.com For a Free Fertility Consultation Visit: www.eastcoastfertility.com