Low AMH and IVF: What You Need to Know Beyond the Numbers

When AMH results come back low, many women are told the same story: “Your chances are slim, and IVF with high doses of stimulation drugs is your only path forward.”

But AMH is not the final word on your fertility. It is one marker, and like any biomarker, it deserves context. Understanding what AMH really means can change how you approach your fertility journey.

How IVF Clinics Use AMH

Clinics often use AMH to predict how many eggs they may retrieve with stimulation drugs:

• High-dose gonadotropins: aiming to push the ovaries to produce more follicles

• Mild stimulation cycles: lower doses, sometimes combined with letrozole

• Dual stim protocols: two stimulations in one menstrual cycle

• Experimental add-ons: growth hormone, DHEA, androgens

This “numbers game” approach focuses on egg count. But here’s the truth: no stimulation protocol can improve egg quality. IVF can only retrieve what is already available.

What the Research Shows

• High-dose vs. low-dose: A meta-analysis in Fertility & Sterility (Sunkara et al., 2011) found that women with diminished ovarian reserve did not produce significantly more eggs with higher gonadotropin doses compared to lower ones.

• Mild stimulation benefits: Reviews in Human Reproduction Update (Nargund et al., 2017) found that mild stimulation may produce similar pregnancy rates with fewer side effects, less stress, and lower cost.

• Egg competence matters most: Harris et al., 2022 confirmed that while AMH reflects ovarian reserve, pregnancy outcomes depend more on egg quality, which is shaped by mitochondrial health, inflammation, nutrient sufficiency, and hormone balance.

The Four Functional Fertility Pillars

Conventional IVF focuses on drug protocols. A functional approach looks at the environment in which eggs develop.

Mitochondria: The egg’s powerhouse

Eggs rely on mitochondria for energy during fertilization and embryo development. Research shows mitochondrial health is linked to egg competence. Nutritional support such as CoQ10 (ubiquinol), omega-3 fatty acids, quality sleep, and moderate exercise can make a difference.

Inflammation: The silent disruptor

Chronic inflammation disrupts hormone signaling and can damage ovarian tissue. Biomarkers such as hsCRP and homocysteine help reveal hidden inflammation. Anti-inflammatory nutrition, gut health repair, and stress regulation are evidence-based strategies to reduce this load.

Nutrients: The building blocks of egg health

Deficiencies in vitamin D, ferritin (iron storage), folate, B12, zinc, magnesium, and selenium are common and impact ovarian and embryo development. Functional testing provides clarity so these gaps can be corrected.

Hormones: The environment for egg growth

Thyroid, prolactin, cortisol, and progesterone shape ovulation, egg maturation, and implantation. Even mild thyroid imbalance can reduce fertility. Supporting adrenal health and ensuring progesterone sufficiency helps create a healthier reproductive environment.

Client Story: Finding a New Path 

Diana had one ovary, endometriosis, low AMH, and high FSH. After several unsuccessful IVF cycles and protocol changes, she felt discouraged. Instead of beginning another round, we focused on her overall health:

• Supporting digestion and gut balance

• Addressing adrenal stress and sleep quality

• Optimizing nutrient absorption

In time, Diana conceived naturally before another IVF cycle began.

Her story illustrates what can happen when underlying health is addressed. Every case is different, and outcomes cannot be guaranteed, but her experience shows that low AMH is not always the end of the story.

Next Steps in Your Fertility Journey

Subscribe to Get Pregnant Naturally for evidence-based guidance on functional fertility, and share this episode with anyone on their fertility journey.

Not sure where to start? Download our most popular guide:  Ultimate Guide to Getting Pregnant This Year If You Have Low AMH/High FSH it breaks everything down step by step to help you understand your options and take action

For personalized support to improve pregnancy success, book a call here.

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TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:00] Does low AMH really mean IVF is your only option?

Most women are told IVF or donor eggs are the only path forward, but AMH is more than a fertility “score.” Here’s why it’s misunderstood

[00:02:00] What IVF protocols are used for low AMH?

High-dose meds, mild stimulation, dual stim, and add-ons like DHEA are common. But do they actually improve outcomes?

[00:04:30] Why do repeated IVF cycles often fail with low AMH?

Many women get stuck in the loop of “protocol tweaks” while underlying health issues go unaddressed

[00:05:00] Can IVF improve egg quality?

Research shows protocols change egg quantity, not quality, here’s why mitochondrial and cellular health matter most

[00:07:00] What functional strategies support mitochondria for egg quality?

From CoQ10 and omega-3s to sleep and stress balance, these are the foundations of better egg competence

[00:09:30] How does stress and nervous system dysregulation affect AMH?

Graduate school, 50-hour work weeks, and perfectionism can suppress ovarian function, here’s how to spot the signs

[00:12:00] Which labs uncover hidden inflammation affecting fertility?

Markers like hsCRP and homocysteine reveal systemic inflammation IVF clinics rarely check

[00:14:00] Which nutrient deficiencies impact ovarian reserve and embryo health?

Vitamin D, ferritin, folate, B12, zinc, magnesium, selenium, subtle gaps can change outcomes

[00:17:00] How do thyroid, prolactin, and cortisol influence egg development?

Hormonal imbalances upstream are often missed, yet they shape ovulation, luteal support, and implantation

[00:21:00] Can you conceive naturally with low AMH?

A client with one ovary, endometriosis, and high FSH conceived naturally after addressing digestion, adrenal health, and nutrient absorption

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TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] If you've been told your A MH is too low, you've also likely been told that IVF is your only path forward. But here is the truth. A MH isn't just about IVF protocols, it's reaction to your overall reproductive health. And here's why I wanna keep talking about a MH. It's one of the top search topics in fertility right now, and the test itself has exploded in popularity.

It's available in fertility clinics, but also a direct to consumer kits you can order online. And the global A MH testing market is growing fast. What most women don't know and aren't told is that what the numbers really mean, what they don't tell you, and what to actually do if they're low. So today we'll explore how conventional medicine interprets A MH in the context of IVF.

Why tweaking IVF protocols without addressing health rarely changes the outcome and what the research says about stimulation strategies for low A MH and why health always comes first, let's go.

Welcome back. I'm Sarah Clark, founder of Fab Fertile. For over a decade, my team and I [00:01:00] have helped hundreds of couples improve their chances of pregnancy success, either naturally or through IVF. We specialize in supporting those with low A MH, high FSH, diminished ovarian reserve, premature ovarian sufficiency, and recurrent pregnancy loss through functional lab testing and personalized fertility strategies.

This episode is for you is if you've been told low A MH means donor eggs are your only option. You've had multiple failed IVF cycles and with only small changes in the protocol, and you wanna understand what's missing when IVF is the only solution offered for low a MH. Thanks so much for listening and so thankful that you're here.

Make sure you hit subscriber follow, and if you know someone else who's on the fertility journey, please share this podcast with them. We're talking about the conventional side of things with a MH. So with IVF clinics, they use a MH to predict the response to stimulation drugs. So especially how many eggs you can get retrieved.

So with low A MH, the conventional options include they wanna do higher doses of medication. Sometimes clinics are doing lower doses of medication. Some studies showing now that if you've got diminished ovarian reserve, that you might do better with lower [00:02:00] dose mild stimulation protocols. They can do a dual stem, two simulations in one cycle.

And then adding in growth hormones or DHEA or androgens. The reality here is that clinics are rarely asking why your A MH is low in the first place. They're just like, it's low. We better rush you to IVF if they can do it, or they're gonna tell you donor eggs. And so you just get stuck in this loop of repeated cycles with small protocol tweaks.

So we don't have a medication deficiency. Your body, she's yelling to you, trying to say something's happening. We're not anti IVF. It's powerful technology. I had both my kids using IVF, but it is also a business and there is an incentive often to move quickly to another round and not to step back to optimize your health.

They sell the IVF. See, I hear so many people buying three cycles, and if it doesn't work, then it's a guarantee they'll get their money back. And that's a cost of $60,000 [00:03:00] typically for three cycles, and there's still no guarantee. But then we haven't looked at the health. So being able to sustain the pregnancy, having a good postpartum period, being able to bond with your child because you wanna have good breastfeeding if that's something you choose to do.

And then also the health of your child. Although IVF is there, we need to make sure that we deploy it when it makes sense and not just we get the A MH diagnosis. They look at the follicle count, tell us it's low, and next thing you know, I'll ask people, how'd you get the IVF? They're like, I don't even really know.

I just went for the OB GYN and went to the fertility clinic. They said they could do it and off they went. Or maybe they started doing medicated cycles. Maybe they started with an IUI or they started right with IVF. We need to be our own advocate here and understand some of these things are here to help us, but we need to look at our health and the elephant in the room of so many people telling me that either they're in healthcare, they're in a very stressful job, working more than 50 hours a week, they decide to do a graduate program.

I cannot tell you [00:04:00] the number of people I speak with that are doing a graduate program, going through IVF, trying to have their child, and then also working 50 hours a week and wondering why things aren't working. And so that's an extreme case, but I do see it as a theme. So the stress piece, we cannot ignore it.

Our whole thesis, is it your actually early menopause or is it your adrenals that impact your thyroid? That impacts your A MH, your FSH in your follicle count? And from an IVF standpoint, so some of the research here, so high dose stimulation doesn't always yield better results. So a meta-analysis and fertility and sterility found that women with DOR diminish ovarian reserve did not produce significantly more eggs with high dose stimulation compared with lower dose.

So mild stimulation may reduce risks. So reviews in human reproduction updates suggest mild stimulation. Mild stimulation can produce similar pregnancy rates with fewer meds, lower cost, and less stress on the body, but no stimulation protocol improves a quality [00:05:00] IVF can only retrieve what's available, so the health of the eggs is determined before the simulation begins.

That's where the functional fertility lens comes in. Being able to look beyond the A MH and look at the other biomarkers that can really help us dig deeper and improve a quality 'cause they can't measure for that mitochondrial support. So each egg cell is packed with mitochondria far more than most other cells in the body.

And these mitochondria, they're gonna power fertilization, cell division, early embryo development, and as women age. Or if there's oxidative stress, the mitochondrial function declines reducing your egg quality in conventional medicine. So IVF medications can stimulate the ovaries to release more eggs, but they cannot improve the mitochondrial health.

So if the mitochondria are weak, even retrieved eggs may fail to fertilizer develop normally. I hear that all the time. It didn't fertilize, it didn't make it, it was abnormal quality because we haven't worked. On the [00:06:00] mitochondria, everything we do from a functional standpoint is gonna improve the the quality of your eggs.

We see people that all the retrievals failed, all the transfers failed to implant, and when we start working on our health, they go on to succeed. Not everyone, so not every single person we work with goes on to conceive. Sometimes it doesn't work and people decide to look at other options. Maybe they do decide to move to donor eggs or donor embryos, or maybe they decide to adopt, but.

Just looking at the A MH and the FSH and thinking IVF is your only option without looking at the quality of your eggs. 'cause they won't test it. Most people have made some diet changes, thrown out the toxins, tried to reduce their stress, bringing in some fertility yoga, but those are just very generalized recommendations.

We've gotta look at it. Through your biomarkers and your testing and your genetics. It's not just the karyotype and they're doing at the fertility clinic. We've gotta really take our health under our own hands here. For the mitochondria side of things, looking at some coq 10, especially in the ubiquitous, we can improve mitochondrial [00:07:00] energy.

It's been shown in clinical studies to enhance some ovarian response and embryo quality. Most people I speak with are already taking that, so that's. Done deal. And that is one of our foundational supplements. We start with a methylfolate prenatal. We do a coq 10, we do an Omega-3, we do a magnesium glycinate, we do a vitamin D three K two, we do a probiotic and the men's multi, and then we do an omega.

And so those are the foundational ones. And then we use testing to determine the rest for the mitochondria, we wanna get consistent sleep. If you've got insomnia or waking up every night or can't fall asleep or waking up in the early morning, so your cortisol's spiking and the adrenaline's coming in.

That can impact mitochondria. So we don't just ignore the sleep issue and pound down a bunch of melatonin or take some benzos or some sleep aids. No, that is your body telling you there's something going on. The stress regulation, if your nervous system is regulated and there's signs that we see, we have a whole mindset checklist where we can look at if your food sensitivity test is blown up and you're intolerant to all your favorite [00:08:00] foods.

That can be a nervous system dysregulation. So that predisposes you to a leaky gut and body mounting and immune response to all the avocados and the blueberries. And the same, working on things to help with the mindset, to reset your mind, doing progressive muscle relaxation techniques, doing meditation, breathing, getting outside, taking a break, even taking your lunch.

Having your breakfast. All of these air quotes, self-care, it's not self-care. This is a must. We don't start all of that. If we're over here working 50 hours a week and stuff, our lunch down in between meetings, we don't just say, now I'm going to eat every meal and perfect harmony. No. We need to each day make small changes and they amount to big changes over time.

Maybe at the beginning we're just gonna start to drink more water, maybe then we'll start to get outside to have a walk. Maybe we will turn off the TV and read a nice book or talk to a friend. So it's being able to, small [00:09:00] things, crowd out the stuff that doesn't serve you. It's not about quitting our job, but maybe do we need to be in every meeting?

Do we need to be on every call? Can we delegate? Is there somewhere we can talk to our boss about, wait a minute, this is what I'm going through and being able to offload some of the stuff. It's not about quitting, but sometimes the job doesn't serve us and maybe we might have to quit. Like if your job demands you to work 90 hours a week and there's no way that you can change it.

We always encourage people to go to the current job and see what you can do. Most companies are open to helping you. Sometimes it's us that's put it upon ourselves. Perfectionism, our controlling ways. I've done many episodes on that as well, to have those conversations. So the lifestyle side of things is huge for the mitochondria, which then impacts our egg quality and then limiting the toxins.

Yeah, we don't wanna be slathering toxic skincare on our body, inhaling pollutants and pounding down a bunch of. Non-organic food, but do we wanna go completely organic? And so perfectly, just be mindful of that piece. Probably having [00:10:00] conventional strawberries that the most pesticides on them is not a good idea.

So look at the dirty dozen, the top 12 that are the most sprayed, and make sure those are organic. Making sure you don't drink out of a plastic water bottle and having filtered water start with a Brita, but you can go down a whole rabbit hole of great water. So we just start small. We've been doing all this stuff for 15 years.

In the beginning, I'm like, are you kidding me? I couldn't even think to change my laundry detergent. I was like, that's too much. Now, when if I smell some of that stuff, I'm like, are those blade plugins or some of those different products? I'm like, oh, so stinky and the body just is, I don't think so. So we wanna minimize our exposure to toxins.

We're in a toxic soup, so we just, each day as each product expires, we move on to a non-toxic option exercise. We've gotta move our body. Like for me, I just like walking. Maybe for you it's Pilates or it's bar, or it's yoga. We don't wanna be doing the hot yoga, we don't wanna be doing the running. We don't wanna be training for an ultra [00:11:00] marathon.

We don't wanna be sweating ourselves with hot Pilates or hot yoga. It's too much. But nor do we wanna be sitting on our butt not moving. So over exercising can increase oxidative stress, make it worse. Impact, impact our egg quality, our mitochondria function, but moderate movement is good. If you're like, I gotta do all this heavy exercises, that's how you cope.

That's what we help with our coaching program. It's not about an all or nothing thing, right? We each day, small changes, we wanna reduce inflammation. Chronic inflammation is gonna damage the ovarian tissue. Disrupt hormone signaling contributes to poor egg quality, early embryo arrest, even if you're still cycling.

So silent inflammation may impair conception. So IVF does not routinely check for inflammatory markers. If inflammation is present, the stimulation drugs are not gonna correct it. Meaning the environment for a growth remains compromised. So we're gonna look at that. High sensitivity C reactor protein I've done a whole episode on [00:12:00] that shows systemic inflammation, homocysteine.

Those are linked to reduced fertilization, a higher miscarriage risk. Nutrition. You wanna have anti-inflammatory foods. Eat the rainbow, make sure you have omegas, have some green tea or turmeric. And then gut health. I've done numerous episodes on the health of the gut microbiome, which is key, right? This is another theme.

Its these themes that come up over and over again where we see people that are alternating between constipation and diarrhea. If you're not absorbing your nutrients or you're pooping out little pellets, that's a sign that your gut microbiome is compromised, and either you're not absorbing all the nutrients needed for hormones, or you've got an infection in there.

And we also see constipation tied in with a thyroid. So it's all connected. And if you've got. Gut issues. So you've got infections and a lot of times there's food sensitivities that can drive inflammation in your body. Our goal of everything is to reduce inflammation in a targeted manner, not you going on a parasite cleanse and just pound it down [00:13:00] a bunch of stuff in a generalized manner.

No, we need to look at the testing and see exactly what we're dealing with and do a targeted protocol and then nutrient deficiencies. So eggs require optimal levels of the key nutrients for DNA stability. Cell division implantation and even subtle deficiencies can undermine your ovarian reserve and the embryo development.

And so fertility clinics may only recommend folic acid or a prenatal vitamin. They're rarely gonna look at your nutrient levels. First of all, do not take a folic acid. So a theme we see with low emission high SH is methylation. Issues. So being able to absorb their B vitamins, you need to make sure that your prenatal is methyl folate.

And because folic acid is a synthetic form of folate and you may not be able to absorb it, and so we see people with M-T-H-F-R gene variant and you're not able to to absorb some of the B vitamins. There's a little more complex than that. We can do genetic testing and dig into that for you. But if your fertility clinic is telling you to take a folic acid.

First of all, run other way [00:14:00] from the functional side of things. You wanna do the vitamin D. I've talked a lot about this. It helps with your ovarian function, your egg maturation, embryo implantation, and deficiency is linked with lower IVF success. We see it all the time, low vitamin D. And yes, you wanna supplement with a vitamin D three K two, but we need to see why it's low.

And a lot of time it's low because you have gut infections in the gut microbiome. So dig in there. We have testing. We ship testing world worldwide. So if you wanted to send me a message at hello@fatfertile.ca, just put subject line testing and we'll set up a call and talk about some options to get it to you.

Ferritin, so the iron storage, so low ferritin, you can impair oxygen delivery and egg development and anemia is often missed until it's severe. So if you already know you have anemia, you got low iron and you're taking iron infusions, we know there's a problem here. And so that can impact your thyroid.

The ferritin, the iron is key. And also it's linked with the health of the gut microbiome and then folate and B12. So that's critical for methylation. We see the [00:15:00] B12, we either see it low or we can see it falsely high. It's actually, they're not, it's, it's so high, you're not absorbing it. So you're like, oh, I'm taking all this B12.

And another theme we see, I can't tell any number of people. They have low A MH and they tell me they're vegan. So at this point, my parents have been vegan for about 40 years. And so I think I said it was 35 a little while ago, but I realized it's been 40 years they've been vegan, so it serves my mom a little more than my dad, but I think on both of them, it's not a long-term diet.

Right? It can impact your nutrient deficiencies huge. And if you feel married to a specific diet, be able to examine that. We're not gonna force you to eat meat. We understand this piece, but we need to see. If you're getting enough protein, especially if you're dealing with IBS or any kind of digestive issues and you're pounding down all these beans, maybe you're not absorbing them and that's impacting your nutrients.

Thinking of one story with Amanda, she a, she's 0.08 and she was vegan before she come to see us, but she had an open mind saying, you gonna start eating meat? Wasn't the meat or was it The whole bunch of other things that we worked on with her health, and then she went on to conceive naturally. [00:16:00] So we have an open mind, obviously for religious reasons.

If you can't eat meat, we understand. But you need to still look at your biomarkers and then determine the diet that's right for you. And then also we see zinc, magnesium, selenium. Those are some co-factors that are important for hormone balance and egg development. So being able to add those in. We look at a magnesium glycinate, which the majority of us are deficient in magnesium, so we need to bring that in and stress will deplete magnesium.

I can't tell you when I'm stressed out, I feel like my leg starts to cramp up. My eyeball starts to twitch and I'm like, Ooh, I need to have more magnesium. Sometimes we have too much and then we have loose stools. We need to be very careful. It's kinda the Goldilocks thing, but we can bring in some magnesium citrate before bed.

It can be very calming, but we need to walk, do that to bowel tolerance. Hormone balance. Hormones don't just regulate cycles. They create an environment in which eggs grow and imbalances can impact ovulation. Your luteal phase implantation. So most clinics are only looking at day three, OL and TSH.[00:17:00]

Subclinical thyroid. So it's not actual thyroid issues, it's the liver or the gut. And so the thyroid is struggling because of the liver or the gut. Prolactin can be high. Adrenal imbalances are often overlooked, but they can impact fertility. So. Thyroid. We've done lots of episodes on the thyroid. You wanna make sure the thyroid's below two.

We need to look at the full panel, including the free T three, the free T four, uh, the reverse T three, the T-P-O-T-B-G antibodies. If you've got antibodies and we're running off to IVF, we need to be able to address that. It's not just, oh, wait, yeah, I've got high antibodies. They're in the hundreds. Five hundreds, nine hundreds.

There's things we can do from a functional strategy to reduce those. We've helped a lot of people with Hashimotos go on to get pregnant and then prolactin. Even mild elevations can suppress ovulation and lower progesterone. We need to identify the cause, either stress or pituitary issues or medications we need to look to see.

Why is that off cortisol stress, though? The adrenal imbalance can disrupt the communication. Between the [00:18:00] brain and the ovaries and nervous system dysregulation. So we gotta do the mind body work, the breath work. We can bring in some adaptogens like Ashwagandha or Rola or a cortisol manager, like I know I need that.

I'm like stressed out right now. We're moving. I'm in my daughter's place again. This place is. So teeny. There's construction. I woke up today. I spill stuff all over the bathroom. I don't know, it was like I had water all over the place. I, I take thyroid medication, I'd spill the whole bottle everywhere. It was just one of those days and then the construction's pounding away on here and I'm like, oh.

And plus the air conditioning doesn't work, so I'm sweating. Anyways, that's a whole bunch of whining. All that stress can impact the cortisol. You know, we're dealing with this on a regular basis. That's why for me, I gotta be outside. I gotta have some nature. I need some calm, I need to hang out with some friends and family that make me happy.

I'm here with my husband and daughter. They make me happy, obviously, but in a teeny, teeny small space. We're in a one bedroom right now as we're getting ready to move. For me, I don't like clutter. All boxes [00:19:00] and junk everywhere. I like things organized. That's my truly natures. So we've done the episode on the perfectionist.

I don't wanna say that's me, but I can skew a little more to, I like things orderly. I don't like looking for things and misplacing stuff. 'cause to me that's just a waste of time. And I do like to control things and especially when you're trying to control a situation or have someone do something and you can only control of yourself.

And so a lot of times in the fertility journey there's a lot of uncertainty. We don't know what's gonna happen, and so it's able to control things you can, that you do have control, you can control your environment to some degree. You can make a change on what you eat, your lifestyle, who you're hanging out with, that kind of stuff, and being able to minimize it.

And first of all, recognize that it's causing you distress. Do something about it. Because that can impact your cortisol levels are going to disrupt the communication between the brain and the ovaries. If your nervous system is dysregulated, that can be why it's not working progesterone, so ensuring adequate [00:20:00] luteal phase progesterone is gonna support your implantation.

Sometimes we do bring in the bioidentical hormones. We do bring in progesterone cream, and it can really help calm things down. So I take a bioidentical, but I'm in menopause now. But bioidenticals can be part of it. We always do the diet and lifestyle changes along with it. Not just a bandaid saying, oh wait, you've got insomnia, you've got hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings.

You wanna claw your partner's eyeballs out when he breathe, or if he's chewing with his mouth open, whatever the heck, heck he's doing to drive you bananas. If you had some progesterone just help calm things down a little bit and we're not so irritated, that piece is key. But we've gotta do the diet and lifestyle along with it.

So it's important to look beyond the A MH, those pillars we just talked about, the mitochondrial support, the inflammation, nutrient deficiency, hormone balance. That's what's really gonna help to improve your A quality when you support your mitochondria health. You can change the environment where your aids are developing and that's where [00:21:00] the real.

Opportunity lies here, not just myopically looking at the A MH without looking at the rest of the body. And to share a quick story here from one of our clients, so we'll call her Diana. She came to us with one ovary, endometriosis. We help many people with endometriosis, one ovary and endometriosis low A MH, high fsa.

She was told that IVF was her only option. This was secondary fertility issues. She had a cyst growing on her ovary was panicking. They're gonna lose the other ovary. So a lot of stress. So we found she had digestive issues, adrenal imbalances, obviously nutrient absorption problems that were never addressed.

And once we supported her body with the right nutrition, stress reduction, targeted strategies, using testing, looking at the nervous system dysregulation, she conceived naturally. And actually she went into IVF getting ready for retrieval, and they're like, you're pregnant. We've had that happen many times where they're like, you know what?

I'm going to IVF and they go in there, oh, you're already pregnant. They didn't even know. So this story is a reminder that a MH is a clue to look deeper and [00:22:00] not a final verdict for your fertility, like we said. So A MH is one of the most searched fertility tests worldwide. Most people don't really know what it truly means.

IVF protocols can adjust the quantity of eggs retrieve, but they don't change the egg quality. And research shows that higher drug doses don't guarantee better results, and mild stimulation may be. Just as effective. And so the real shift's gonna happen when you focus on your health. You reduce inflammation, you optimize your nutrients, and you balance your hormones.

So IVF can be part of your plan. We just need to be able to work on your health first and decide when we want to deploy the IVF. So health first, protocol second, and that's how you're gonna change your outcomes. So if you wanted to get my eyes down your specific situation, send me a message at hello@fabfertile.ca, subject line fertile, and we'll talk about some options to help take care.

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How to Get Started With Functional Fertility Support

Book your call here to get your personalized plan and options to help improve pregnancy success either naturally or with IVF treatment. 

Check out our Fab Fertile functional fertility program here and learn how to improve AMH levels naturally.  We work with couples that have low AMH, high FSH, diminished ovarian reserve, premature ovarian insufficiency, and recurrent pregnancy loss.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does low AMH mean I can’t conceive naturally?

No. AMH measures ovarian reserve, not pregnancy potential. Many women with very low AMH conceive naturally.

Do higher IVF drug doses increase my chances?

Not necessarily. Studies show that higher doses do not always improve egg yield or outcomes. Mild stimulation protocols can be just as effective.

What can I do right now to support egg quality?

Evidence points to supporting mitochondria (CoQ10, sleep, exercise), lowering inflammation (anti-inflammatory diet, gut health testing), correcting nutrient deficiencies (vitamin D, ferritin, folate), and balancing hormones (thyroid, cortisol, progesterone).

Should my partner also be tested?

Yes. Male factors account for about 50% of fertility challenges. Testing sperm DNA fragmentation, oxidative stress, and seminal microbiome health can reveal hidden barriers.

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Key Takeaways

• AMH is a marker of ovarian reserve, not a predictor of whether pregnancy is possible.

• IVF protocols cannot improve egg quality; they only influence how many eggs are retrieved.

• Egg quality is shaped by health factors such as mitochondria, inflammation, nutrients, and hormone balance.

• Functional fertility strategies address these underlying factors, offering a fuller picture than drug protocols alone.

• While no outcome can be guaranteed, addressing health first may improve both natural and IVF success rates.

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RESOURCES

📩 Get your free 10-day elimination diet plan! Email hello@fabfertile.ca with the subject line 10 DAY to receive your guide and take the first step toward reconnecting with your fertility.

Stop Ignoring hsCRP and the Role of Inflammation in Diminished Ovarian Reserve: https://fabfertile.com/blogs/podcasts/stop-ignoring-hscrp-and-the-role-of-inflammation-in-diminished-ovarian-reserve?_pos=1&_sid=a7e54a7fd&_ss=r

Success Story: One Ovary, DOR, Endometriosis, Low AMH and High FSH: https://fabfertile.com/blogs/education/success-story-one-ovary-dor-endometriosis-low-amh-and-high-fsh?_pos=1&_sid=b000be1f7&_ss=r

Progesterone, Low AMH & Miscarriage: What You’re Missing: https://fabfertile.com/blogs/podcasts/progesterone-low-amh-miscarriage-what-you-re-missing?_pos=2&_sid=32905671e&_ss=r

What you need to know about folate and folic acid if you struggle with fertility, high FSH, and low AMH: https://fabfertile.com/blogs/education/methylfolate-folic-acid-fertility-high-fsh-low-amh?_pos=2&_sid=fa5f3be33&_ss=r

How Iron Deficiency Impacts Fertility, Egg Quality & Low AMH: https://fabfertile.com/blogs/podcasts/ferritin-iron-deficiency-fertility-low-amh-high-fsh?_pos=1&_sid=fa5a823c3&_ss=rlity-session

Our favorite fertility tracker Inito (use code FABFERTILE15 to save 15) 

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