u/blduffie1474

TW: high AMH & AFC

First time posting so bear with me.

Me: 41, turning 42 in May. Husband 36. MFI, DFI 22%. AMH 6, usual AFC 20. No PCOS. TTC journey since 38.

I'm on my 2nd back-to-back cycle this year (which I basically had to beg for) and my baseline AFC came in at HALF what it usually is, and I'm pretty sure I know why.

I believe I was overly suppressed from a lack of communication in my protocol.

They put me on BCP 1 day after my last ER (3/14) because my next cycle was supposed to start in 2 weeks. Then they delayed me by another 2 weeks for scheduling, but nobody told me to stop the BC. So I was on it for 31 days instead of my usual 10. Triple the suppression I'd had in my other cycles.

STATS

ER #1 (Oct 2025) — 10 days BCP

21 AFC → 24 retrieved → 23 mature → 15 fertilized (ICSI) → 3 blasts → 1 euploid, 1 LLM

FET Jan 2026 — chemical

ER #2 (March 2026) — 10 days BCP, added Omnitrope

19 AFC → 31 retrieved → 22 mature → 17 fertilized (ICSI) → 8 blasts → 3 euploid

ER #3 (current, April 2026) — 31 days BCP

11 AFC baseline. Now at Day 12 of stims. 14 on the left, 18 on the right, but lead is only 14.5mm and cohort is 11-13mm. They want me on at least 3 more days.

This is what I think happened.

I'm normally a high responder. This cycle they bumped my stim doses UP and my baseline follicles are still growing like molasses. The weird part: on days 10 and 12 there was a huge new wave of follicles that showed up and are responding great. My E2 went from 1453 to 2562 in 2 days.

My read: the original cohort got hammered by the extended BCP and can't recover. The late recruits weren't in the selectable pool during suppression, so they're responding like normal. Which is cool, but I'm also now looking at 15+ days of stims, and everything I've read says that correlates with worse maturity rates, fert rates, and LBR.

Please tell me if I’m just being psycho.

I'm furious. This feels completely preventable. At my age, with my husband’s DFI, my numbers have been the thing keeping us in the game. My high response was the edge. And now I'm sitting here on day 12 with a lead that's barely 14.5, feeling like shit, looking at another 3-5 days of this, and I can't stop thinking about the fact that if somebody had just told me to stop the pill, I wouldn't be here.

I'm exhausted. I'm nauseous. I'm pissed.

Has anyone else been through extended BCP suppression followed by a long stim? I’m on 350 Follistem, 150 Menapur, .1mg Omnitrope every other night. And now Centrotide to prevent ovulation. How did your cycle actually turn out? With my risk of OHSS and high estrogen, having my eggs stew at that level of estrogen never helps with egg quality. I want to hear the real numbers, good and bad.

TW: high AMH & AFC

First time posting so bear with me.

Me: 41, turning 42 in May. Husband 36. MFI, DFI 22%. AMH 6, usual AFC 20. No PCOS. TTC journey since 38.

I'm on my 2nd back-to-back cycle this year (which I basically had to beg for) and my baseline AFC came in at HALF what it usually is, and I'm pretty sure I know why.

I believe I was overly suppressed from a lack of communication in my protocol.

They put me on BCP 1 day after my last ER (3/14) because my next cycle was supposed to start in 2 weeks. Then they delayed me by another 2 weeks for scheduling, but nobody told me to stop the BC. So I was on it for 31 days instead of my usual 10. Triple the suppression I'd had in my other cycles.

STATS

ER #1 (Oct 2025) — 10 days BCP

21 AFC → 24 retrieved → 23 mature → 15 fertilized (ICSI) → 3 blasts → 1 euploid, 1 LLM

FET Jan 2026 — chemical

ER #2 (March 2026) — 10 days BCP, added Omnitrope

19 AFC → 31 retrieved → 22 mature → 17 fertilized (ICSI) → 8 blasts → 3 euploid

ER #3 (current, April 2026) — 31 days BCP

11 AFC baseline. Now at Day 12 of stims. 14 on the left, 18 on the right, but lead is only 14.5mm and cohort is 11-13mm. They want me on at least 3 more days.

This is what I think happened.

I'm normally a high responder. This cycle they bumped my stim doses UP and my baseline follicles are still growing like molasses. The weird part: on days 10 and 12 there was a huge new wave of follicles that showed up and are responding great. My E2 went from 1453 to 2562 in 2 days.

My read: the original cohort got hammered by the extended BCP and can't recover. The late recruits weren't in the selectable pool during suppression, so they're responding like normal. Which is cool, but I'm also now looking at 15+ days of stims, and everything I've read says that correlates with worse maturity rates, fert rates, and LBR.

Please tell me if I’m just being psycho.

I'm furious. This feels completely preventable. At my age, with my husband’s DFI, my numbers have been the thing keeping us in the game. My high response was the edge. And now I'm sitting here on day 12 with a lead that's barely 14.5, feeling like shit, looking at another 3-5 days of this, and I can't stop thinking about the fact that if somebody had just told me to stop the pill, I wouldn't be here.

I'm exhausted. I'm nauseous. I'm pissed.

Has anyone else been through extended BCP suppression followed by a long stim? I’m on 350 Follistem, 150 Menapur, .1mg Omnitrope every other night. And now Centrotide to prevent ovulation. How did your cycle actually turn out? With my risk of OHSS and high estrogen, having my eggs stew at that level of estrogen never helps with egg quality. I want to hear the real numbers, good and bad.