Pregnant After 3 Failed IVFs and 2 Miscarriages: How Heather Conceived with Low AMH and Diminished Ovarian Reserve

Discover how this couple conceived and had their daughter after 3 failed IVFs, 2 Miscarriages, and diminished ovarian reserve

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)

"AMH and AFC have only a weak association with qualitative outcomes such as oocyte quality, clinical pregnancy rates, and live birth rates". (ASRM)

We know these biomarkers can be scary and may have you feeling that you need to rush to IVF or that donor eggs are your only option.  But what we know for sure is that when we follow a functional fertility fertility approach that looks at your health we see AMH increase, antral follicle count (AFC) improve and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) decrease and pregnancy outcomes improve.  

From Donor Egg Recommendation to Natural Pregnancy with Low AMH

After 5 years of trying to conceive, 3 failed IVF cycles, 2 miscarriages and being told she only had donor eggs left, Heather was exhausted. At 38 with a diagnosis of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), she reached out to Fab Fertile for a new way.

What IVF Missed: Underlying Imbalances Blocking Conception

She had a 10-day luteal phase, excessive bleeding, vaginal dryness, daily fatigue, anxiety, and a history of HPV - all signs her body was stressed and potential gut microbiome dysfunction. Meanwhile, her partner Peter had poor sleep, headaches, muscle stiffness, and sperm DNA fragmentation.

How Gut Health Affects Egg Quality and Ovarian Reserve

Recent research shows that gut health may play a critical role in ovarian reserve. A 2024 study found that women with diminished ovarian reserve had gut microbiome imbalances linked to inflammation and oxidative stress, factors that can impair egg quality and hormone balance.

Functional Fertility Testing Revealed the Real Issues

In this episode, we go through how we used the Fab Fertile Method (using testing such as food sensitivity, GI MAP, genetic testing, vaginal microbiome and blood chemistry review) to uncover hidden imbalances.

Healing the Body Before IVF: The Fab Fertile Method

They started an elimination diet, we provided a gut support protocol that addressed H. pylori, nutrient depletion, fat malabsorption, leaky gut, and immune dysfunction.  They committed to foundational changes in nutrition, nervous system regulation, and targeted supplementation. Which ultimately improve egg quality and sperm quality and hormone balance preparing their body for a successful IVF retrieval and transfer.

The IVF Worked: Pregnancy Success After Functional Prep

We addressed gut infections, hormone imbalance, nervous system dysregulation, thyroid imbalance, circadian rhythm dysfunction, blood sugar imbalance and toxic load.  With one embryo, that had a successful IVF transfer and a healthy pregnancy.

We believe in miracles, but you've got to meet your miracle partway. Using a functional fertility, personalized, whole body approach to prepare the body for pregnancy even when the odds are against you.

This episode is for you if:

You’ve experienced miscarriage before 12 weeks and want answers beyond “everything looks normal.”

You’ve been diagnosed with low AMH, high FSH, or diminished ovarian reserve and are looking for a deeper approach.

You want to explore functional strategies like gut health, immune balance, and advanced bloodwork to improve pregnancy outcomes.

In this episode you'll learn:

How low AMH, short luteal phases, and hormone imbalance can impact IVF success and getting pregnant naturally

Why gut infections like H. pylori and fat malabsorption are often overlooked in preconception planning

The role of sperm DNA fragmentation in recurrent miscarriage and poor embryo quality and why testing for the partner is essential for pregnancy success

How inflammation, food sensitivities, and immune dysfunction affect egg and sperm health

Practical steps to improve fertility naturally using the Fab Fertile Method - even after IVF failure or a REI tells you donor eggs - getting pregnant with your own eggs is still possible

Timestamps – IVF Success After 3 Failed Rounds, 2 Miscarriages and Low AMH

[00:00:00] IVF Didn’t Work - Now What? Why Failed IVF and Miscarriage May Signal Deeper Imbalances
A look at what your body could be telling you after repeated IVF failure or pregnancy loss

[00:01:00] Low AMH, High FSH, Diminished Ovarian Reserve - What Your Doctor May Be Missing
Why conventional bloodwork isn’t enough and how functional fertility testing fills the gap

[00:03:00] Signs Your Hormones and Gut Are Off: PMS, Fatigue, Anxiety, Body Aches
Symptoms that seem “normal” could be key fertility red flags

[00:05:00] Functional Fertility Testing That Made the Difference: GI MAP, Food Sensitivities, Genetics
The tests we use to personalize protocols for low AMH, egg quality, and miscarriage risk

[00:08:00] Male Fertility and DNA Fragmentation: Why His Health Matters Too
How sperm quality and inflammation affect embryo success and pregnancy outcomes

[00:11:00] Personalized Fertility Plan Results in IVF Success and Healthy Pregnancy
How addressing inflammation, gut health, and hormone imbalances led to conception

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] You've done IVF, maybe even multiple rounds. Each time you've followed every step and it still has not worked. You might have even experienced pregnancy loss and now your doctor wants to adjust the meds and try again. This isn't just about medication and that your body is desperately trying to tell you something.

This is exactly where Heather was after five years of trying. She had three failed IVFs, two miscarriages, and she was told to use donor eggs. So instead she decided to address the real imbalances that were holding her back and after one final round of IVF. She got pregnant and had her daughter. So if you're feeling dismissed, if you're feeling stuck, this episode will show you what to explore before another IVF cycle and how pregnancy is still possible.

Let's go.

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

Today we're talking about a couple who followed our Fab Fertile Method. Before coming to see us they had three failed IVFs. Two pregnancy losses. They went on to conceive their daughter. This episode is for you if you've experienced pregnancy loss before 12 weeks, and you want answers beyond everything looking normal.

You've been diagnosed with low AMH or high FSH, or diminished ovarian reserve, and you're looking for a deeper approach. You want to explore some functional strategies like gut health, immune balance, and advanced blood work to improve pregnancy outcomes. Thanks so much for listening. I'm so thankful that you're here. Make sure you hit subscribe or follow, and if you know someone else who's on the fertility journey, please share this podcast with them.

 Let's get into the episode. Today we are talking about Heather's story, and this is that she was trying to conceive for five years, and we work with a lot of people that this is not your first kick at this. You have typically tried over a year, you've probably made a lot of diet [00:02:00] and lifestyle changes already followed the blogs and the podcasts and trying naturally.

Then you may have gone to IVF and that may not have worked. So today we're talking about Heather's story and really how that this could have you look at your journey differently. So for her, she had the three failed IVFs. And she had two pregnancy losses. And she was actually told her only option to conceive was donor eggs similar to mine.

I was diagnosed with POI at 28 and told my only way to have my children was donor eggs. And I didn't get a second opinion. I had no clue there was things I could do to improve my health. And I did go on to have both my kids with donor eggs. But my daughter's 23. My son's 20, this is over 25 years ago.

I'm about to turn 55 coming up in about one month. Can't believe it. Years later, my health took a nose dive. And that's why I discovered all these health things, everything we can do to improve our own health, which ultimately will improve our fertility. That's why I started my business Fab [00:03:00] Fertile over 10 years ago, helping hundreds of couples improve pregnancy success.

With Heather, she told us she was feeling just okay. So a lot of times people come to us and they're not a sick population where you're just crawling outta bed. Sometimes people, you know are not feeling their best, but you don't know how poorly you're feeling until you can feel amazing.

And when she looked deeper, she found out that her body was under a tremendous amount of stress, and sometimes that tipping point and just tips your body on the wrong direction. So she was 38. She was diagnosed with that diminished ovarian reserve, low AMH. She had a 10 day luteal phase, which isn't typically long enough to sustain implantation.

She did have excessive bleeding, which could, point to some hormonal or uterine lining issues that vaginal dryness. Sometimes people come to us with those perimenopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or insomnia or mood swings, vaginal dryness, and so bioidenticals can be part of it. We need to make the targeted diet and lifestyle changes along with it.

Otherwise, it's just a bandaid [00:04:00] approach. We didn't use the bioidentical hormones for Heather. So she did have some vaginal dryness, but that can suggest low estrogen or inflammation. So for her, we were able to make those diet and lifestyle changes because sometimes people just can't make the changes 'cause they feel so poorly.

But she did have daily fatigue. PMS, your cycle should come, you shouldn't have a painful period or bloated or breast tenderness. So for her, she had PMS symptoms, she had anxiety, a lot of body aches. You're not supposed to wake up every day and feel like all your joints are inflamed,

your body hurts. But that was just brushed off as normal and not even thought, wait a minute, that's a clue for your fertility. She did rate her energy at about a six, out of 10, so she was dragging. She was taking hormonal birth control for over a decade and she had a history of HPV, which all could impact her hormone levels and her cervical health.

So she started our Fab Fertile Method. We did our testing. We do food sensitivity testing using blood, stool testing, looking at the DNA of the stool. We do vaginal microbiome testing. We also do genetic [00:05:00] testing, so we start with the food, stool and genetic testing. Then we can add in the vaginal microbiome and seminal microbiome and heavy metals.

We start with those three food, stool, genetics. For her. We did blood chemistry review for both her and her partner and semen analysis, and so this is not just a fertility workup. This is a really full body approach. Looking at your gut health, looking at your immune function, looking at your hormone balance and the detox pathways.

And so what stood out right away for her? Similar to me, she did the same thing. She'd taken multiple rounds of antibiotics for her. It was as a child for me. I did it myself. I did it in my twenties. And that can then. Impact the health of your gut. And so her digestion, although it seemed fine, she had floating stools, which revealed fat malabsorption, so that can compromise your hormone function.

She had signs of chronic inflammation similar to me. She had that chronic sinusitis. Stuffy nose, postnasal, drip bleeding gums. No. When you brush your teeth, your [00:06:00] gums should not always bleed. Sores in her mouth, which can be an indication of non celiac gluten sensitivity. We see canker. I know if I accidentally get 'glutened', there's a canker coming up.

And I used to have them a lot when I was a kid. Bloating, you shouldn't have that bloated belly after every time you eat. And she had psoriasis. Which is not a lotion deficiency, the skin is a direct reflection of the health of the gut. So all of these are signs. Is there a leaky gut? So your body starts mounting an immune response to your favorite foods and all the pathogens and parasites are able to get in.

And this all impacts your immune system and then her emotional state. Mood issues. And we ended up chasing this around taking SSRIs, antidepressants. So she had anxiety and a lot of irritability with the hormones, feeling tense. And her nervous system was dysregulated.

We see this a lot. Obviously when she'd gone through three rounds of IVF, she'd had two pregnancy losses. And so your nervous system. That's a lot of stress you've been through. And we do see this [00:07:00] picture a lot with people with diminished ovarian reserve.

So her partner. So it's not just about you working on your health, you're making all these changes, and he's my semen is fine. Or in this case. The semen wasn't fine. Even if it is fine, we need to look at his blood work dot the i's, cross the T's, make sure we haven't missed anything, especially if you had pregnancy loss.

We least need to look at his DNA fragmentation. That could be why that that you're having losses. So he had muscle stiffness, poor sleep, headaches, which signs of inflammation, mineral imbalances. And he did have DNA fragmentation so that can impair the embryo quality and increase the chances of pregnancy loss.

So their bodies were both inflamed. Depleted and they were stuck in survival mode, even though they would, we both say I feel okay. But they were also ready to change and look at this differently. And so they followed our Fab Fertile Method. We did that testing, food sensitivity testing, using blood, stool testing, looking at the DNA of the stool and genetic testing so we can really personalize those gene variants.

So [00:08:00] we can personalize your diet and lifestyle changes here and looking at your gene variants. If you need more support with methylation or if you've got a snip with your vitamin D or your glucose or thyroid, there's things we can do. First priority was the dietary shift. So we had them do that elimination diet.

Send me a message at hello@fabfertile.ca. Subject line 10 DAY and we'll send you that elimination diet so you can get started today. There's never a perfect time, but you don't want do it during vacations or anniversaries or birthdays but having said that, just rip off the bandaid and go.

You do it for 10 days. Systematically reintroduce over 30. So we have our clients do a five day food diary. The 10 day elimination diet together, not just the one together as a team. Even if you have an embryo waiting, he still needs to make the changes with you.

This is you eating together and enjoying life together and it's not about you making the changes and he doesn't making any. So it's really important to do this together. And then we have her do the food sensitivity testing. When we look at his blood, we can determine if you want to do food sensitivity or gut [00:09:00] testing for him.

And they took out dairy and gluten. Yes, they did. This helped reduce inflammation stabilize blood sugar. So sometimes we're just starting the day with a whole bunch of oatmeal or grains that you're spiking the blood sugar and no protein we need protein and fat.

So you're not on this blood sugar rollercoaster. We address insulin resistance. So you don't want just the naked carbs. You want to make sure if you have an apple, you have it with nuts. If you have rice and have it with some protein and some fats, so olive oil. Took out the juice.

Don't want to have that. And increasing the non-starchy vegetables and a lot of protein, we need way more protein than we think. I have a protein guide too, so send me a message at hello@fabfertile.ca. Put subject line PROTEIN and I'll send you the protein guide so you can make sure you get enough protein.

We added castor oil packs. To support general detoxification. So improve the liver and the lymphatic system. And those can be really helpful. I've got a whole podcast episode on Castor Oil packs, so check that out. And then also making sure hydration was optimized, supporting your electrolytes, [00:10:00] which is critical for hormone signaling and egg and sperm health.

They did that GI map test. So we've done a number of episodes on gut health . The GI Map test, which again, I caution just doing one. This is a multifactorial approach. I see many people just doing one stool test. We miss all sorts of other factors. So we need to be careful about just doing these one-off a la carte pieces and you're not gonna get the results you're looking for.

So the theme we see with diminished ovarian reserve is that h pylori. So we all have it, but it can go into a virulence factor and overgrow. You pass it back and forth between couples and it can really impact your nutrient absorption. And so your gut's inflamed and you're not absorbing your nutrients.

They did a protocol to address that. So you don't want to DIY that you've got to work with a practitioner on that. We supported adrenal health. So regulating the nervous system, we helped replenish the micronutrients like magnesium and B vitamins. Like we said, a lot of times people have that methylation issue.

They need more [00:11:00] methylfolate more B vitamins to be able to get the hormones up and functioning. Zinc, vitamin D, we see there's studies linking low AMH with low vitamin D. You want Vitamin D3/K2. Making sure that is in the right range. We look at 60 to 80. And so sometimes you're being told it's normal and yours is at 31.

In conventional medicine, anything over 30, they're gonna say it's normal. We want it optimal. We personalize the protocol. I see people taking a boatload of supplements and maybe you just have expensive pee. I've said that before. But we want to make sure that the supplements that are right for your body.

So it's going to be personalized. And then looking at your sleep. So many people taking sleep aids and the sleep is the cornerstone of good health and making sure you're getting that restorative sleep. I've got a whole episode on sleep so you can check that out. And then gentle movement now is not the time to train for the marathon and over exercise.

We need to do things, we need to move our body and do things in a gentle manner. Lifting weights, brisk walking barre, Pilates. So pick something. Her energy started to [00:12:00] rise, her digestion got better. She felt more emotionally stable. We're not like your partner breathes and you want to tear his eyeballs out.

So not as irritable. Her menstrual cycles became less PMS and less symptomatic and more predictable. So the outcome was she decided to do one more IVF. And she did her embryo transfer and it worked. They conceived, had their daughter.

We believe in miracles, we really do. But you've gotta make the targeted, personalized changes. Using the tools to be able to see if you've got food sensitivities or gut infections or environmental toxins. Dysregulated nervous system, which so many people have, and was it stress?

It just tipped the whole thing over in the wrong way. When we make those targeted changes, we can have success. And so hopefully this story from Heather was inspiring for you. And if you wanted to get our eyes on your specific situation and talk about some strategies to help you, send me a message at hello@fabfertile.ca, subject to [00:13:00] line FERTILE, and we can talk about some options.

Take care

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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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.

📩 Get your free PROTEIN guide! Email hello@fabfertile.ca with the subject line PROTEIN to access your personalized fertility protein plan.

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