What's the Deal with Antral Follicles?

I’m back! Let’s face it, if I stayed away until I wasn’t whiny, I’d never write again. Thanks for all of your encouragement of my super ovaries.

But are they really super?

I just read a very interesting page on antral follicle counts and what they might tell you about your success chances for IVF. You have to read down to the middle to end of the page to get to the good stuff. Basically, there was a study done proposing that the number of antral follicles you have at the beginning of your cycle (when they do the baseline ultrasound) predicts how well you will respond to stimulation and how successful you might be overall with IVF. Forgive me if I’m summarizing this poorly—it’s better to read the article for complete details. This also already may be obvious to those of you pros out there. Still, I was interested to see what my count of 8 antral follicles on my first monitoring day meant. There is a handy chart (it reads better on the link):

Total number of antral follicles/ Expected response and chances for success
Less than 4 Extremely low count, very poor (or no) response to stimulation and a cancelled cycle expected. Should seriously consider not attempting IVF at all. Rare pregnancies if IVF attempted.

4-7 Low count, we are concerned about a possible/probable poor response to the stimulation drugs. Likely to need high doses of FSH product to stimulate ovaries adequately. Higher than average rate of IVF cycle cancellation.
Lower than average pregnancy rates for those cases that make it to egg retrieval. The reduction in success rates is more pronounced beyond age 35.

8-10 Somewhat reduced count. Higher than average rate of IVF cycle cancellation. Slightly reduced chances for pregnancy as a group.

11-14 Normal (but intermediate) count, the response to drug stimulation is sometimes low, but usually good. Slight increased risk for IVF cycle cancellation. Pregnancy rates as a group only slightly reduced compared to the "best" group.

15-26 Normal (good) antral count, should have an excellent response to ovarian stimulation. Likely to respond well to low doses of FSH product.
Very low risk for IVF cycle cancellation. Some risk for ovarian overstimulation.
Best pregnancy rates overall as a group.

Over 26 High count, watch for polycystic ovary type of ovarian response. Likely to have a high response to low doses of FSH product.
Higher than average risk for overstimulation. Very good pregnancy rate overall as a group, but some cases in the group have egg quality issues and lower chances for pregnancy.

So, I’m seeming to be a little blow average according to this. Are my ovaries are just C- students? And here I thought they would make the honor roll!

What do you all think? 15-26 antral follicles seems crazy high for “normal.” Did anyone out there have numbers like that?

I think this is like trying to read tea leaves to predict your pregnancy likelihood.