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A lot of lots of hormones play a role in fertility treatment or infertility per se. Even in couple trying naturally (and you will hear quite a few of those) those hormones, a hormone called FSH, LH, estrogen, progesterone, thyroid function tests – these are the main hormones that are relatively associated with fertility and they are the same names of hormones that are present in men and in women (mainly FSH and LH that might be related). Any hormonal imbalance, any problems of hormones whether in men or in women, they might attribute to fertility and your doctor would be requesting those hormones at a specific time during your menstrual period to tailor the treatment accordingly. Just as an example, an imbalance or a low progesterone, in what we refer to as the luteal phase or the other part of the cycle, might be associated with miscarriages, might be associated with fertility issues. Another example of hormone imbalance causing fertility problems is ladies who suffer from a condition called polycystic ovaries where they have all of these hormones but those hormones have a little bit of imbalance causing ladies not to ovulate properly or not even to ovulate at all. Your doctor will be investigating those hormones and the treatment will be tailored based on that imbalance in order to achieve the optimal outcome.
Answer from:
Hormone imbalance or better said hormones’ problems is a very frequent problem in fertility. Hormones are responsible for well functioning of the ovaries and of the hormone access of the woman.
Let’s begin from LH and FSH – hormone imbalance in these two could be a sign of PCOS – Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Imbalance of Thyroid hormones could be a huge problem in conceiving naturally or also in IVF. In cases of hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, problems with TSH, FT4, FT3 should be regulated in order to conceive or to achieve pregnancy in IVF.
Prolactin problems – when women have high levels of prolactin – this is a huge problem and it could be a cause of insuccess in IVF and of course this hormone makes it impossible to conceive naturally.
Hormone imbalance in androgens is very important. We should always test androgens – they could give us the idea of how severe is PCOS or in the very rare cases, fortunately, cases it can give us information that there is cancer in surrenal gland.
All the hormones play a very important role and all hormones should be tested when one woman comes to consultation for the IVF.
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Sometimes, with the referral it is quite obvious that there is a hormonal imbalance, like especially women who are on the heavier side, who are getting very infrequent periods, have other problems such as excessive hair growth, acne. So, these things are obvious that there is a hormonal problem and sometimes the general practitioners do the blood tests as well to check for this. So, it could be obvious or we don’t mind repeating all the blood tests to check for this and arrange an ultrasound scan so, we will be looking for polycystic ovaries on the scan and the hormonal imbalance for that sometimes it can be only a mild irregularity which could be because of thyroid problems or prolactin levels which can be checked when they attend the clinic.
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Hormonal imbalance is a very important factor in infertility treatment and management. Example, in assessing ovarian reserve. So, if a woman has a low ovarian reserve, this will be reflected by a hormone called FSH – a follicle-stimulating hormone or a hormone called Anti-Müllerian hormone- AMH. We test that to give us an indication if there is a low ovarian reserve.
Checking your progesterone level is also important; just to check your ovulation. That’s a test that we do in the second part of the cycle.
The other hormone that we check is your (milk hormone) or prolactin hormone because if it is high, it can also lead to the suppression of ovulation and there are certain tests and treatments for that.
Also, it’s important to check your thyroid level, especially if you have had a thyroid problem before or if you have a problem with irregular cycles. These are important to be optimized and you have a normal TSH level or thyroid hormone prior to achieving pregnancy.
Conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome PCOS will lead to hormonal imbalance and that means an increase in your male hormone; testosterone or androgen will have an imbalance and that will lead to irregular ovulation. So, we test your testosterone to rule out PCOS and other conditions that will lead to suppression of ovulation. Other adrenal androgens such as adrenal hormones can be tested also, which can lead to hormonal imbalance and delay in achieving pregnancy.
In summary, hormones are very important and having the correct balance of your hormones is important to maintain your ovulation in achieving pregnancy.
