IVF No Eggs At Retrieval.

[apricotpraline]

Hi, so I just turned 42. Just did first cycle of IVF. Follicles looked rubbish. Dr had to trigger because my follicles were 26.5, 24, 15, 13.5, 10, 8, 7.5. Did egg retrieval this morning then cried a little when Dr said he tried so hard but didn't get even one egg. After all those needles I had to push in my stomach, all those mornings I had to get up at 4am to go get blood drawn and ultra sound, all that driving, all that stress and expense and we have nothing to show for it. Such a disappointment.

Retrieval Dr says my estrogen was crashing - had been 8,000 and was 6,000 on last blood test and perhaps my Dr had talked to me about a cycle cancellation (which he had not). Have any of you out there had plenty of follicles, had nothing at retrieval and then went on to have a normal harvest? I don't know whether to give up already :(

I haven't had the same, but similar. I've 4 failed ivfs and am 38.
On my first ivf I got 2 eggs from 4 good follicles, but these eggs were not in the follicle, but had been released into the pouch of Douglas. The same thing happened on my second cycle, although I got 6 in total. 3 rd cycle I got 3 from 11 good sized follicles and none of this fertilised. You are not alone. Often a follicle can be a cyst/ empty/release egg before collection.

I hope you are being kind to yourself and take time before deciding next step x

Make an appointment to see your IVF specialist to discuss what happened . Certainly with only two reasonably sized follicles the possibilites of no eggs , no fertilisation even if there were eggs should've been put to you before going ahead with a collection . Perhaps it might be possible to have another cycle with a higher dose of stimulants - if they haven't already made an appointment please make one with your IVF specialist to discuss your options and next steps ( including donor eggs ) - so sorry and good luck

So heartbreakingly disappointing. On one of my cycles eggs were collected but none of them fertilised I was devastated when the embryologist called me.
It's your first cycle though, I wasn't successful till twins cycle 4. They will adjust your drugs you obviously need a higher dose.
My 4th cycle we changed clinics and threw everything at it and it worked.

I really feel for you. That's a very broad range of follicle sizes, though. Were there no eggs or was it a case of natural usable eggs (ie overmature or immature?). Do you know your AMH and a trail follicle count on a normal cycle?

*case of no usable eggs

Hi OP, sorry to hear this. I haven't had the same, but similar and it's totally crushing. I've had several previous attempts and on 2 of them only 2 eggs were retrieved from about 10 follicles each time and the rest of the follicle were empty. It was so disappointing.

Looking at what you've posted above, only 2 (or maybe 3) of your follicles were likely to be large enough to have a mature egg. I think they probably did your collection even though several of your follicles were quite small as your oestrogen levels were falling and they didn't want to potentially miss the 2 big follicles (which they would have done had they left it longer for the bigger ones to try to catch up).

Have you got a follow up appointment to discuss things? Your consultant can advise you re your next options which none of us can as they have all the information e.g. Your fsh and amh levels, what dose of stims you were on and what type of protocol you were on.

I second what spinduffy says, be kind to yourself and don't make any decisions re next step until you've spoken to your consultant.

Hi. That's a huge diff in sizes. They all should be around the same size with maybe the odd very small or very large one

I would ask for an after consult

What was your amh and fsh

I havnt had the same and no eggs but have had 4 failed private

The first two fresh cycles I only had a few eggs each cycle and first cycle one embryo left to transfer out of 5 - and 2nd 3 left out of think 6

tho the 5th hit the jackpot - a fet from fresh cycle 3 and I'm very lucky to have a 5mth daughter. Was just under 44 when born

To be blunt your age is against you / I was 39 at first failed and was told I had good eggs quality and quantity for my age so continued

Have you spoken about de? I would seriously think about it due to your previous outcome

If all our frozen had failed - have 3 left - then we would have tried de as the last chance

I'm sorry you had a failed cycle. It really is tough and yes be kind to yourself but do discuss options soon due to your age x

Really sorry to hear this happened to you, its devastating

This also happened to me. I had nearly 20 follicles and upon egg collection, no eggs. The consultant tried to tell me i might have something called "empty follicle syndrome" which if course was devastating to hear. I decided to research this, went to see the top endocrinologist in the country and it turns out that "empty follicle syndrome" isn't technically correct, but rather what can happen is that the eggs can be immature, too mature or reabsorbed into the body. But i digress. My 2nd ivf attempt worked, resulting in my DC so all is not lost!

My advice would be to take this matter up with the manager of the clinic. ask for you file (or at least copies of your follicle growth charts) and don't let it rest til you are satisfied with their answers. If you want, you can even go as far as reporting to the HFEA and try and get a refund as the clinic might have screwed up your cycle (its suspicious as the doctor seems to be covering his backside by saying you were advised to abandon cycle - which you say you weren't). Firstly, i wonder why they let your larger follicles grow to 26.5 and 24? This is way, way over the standard trigger size of 17. As I understand it, once the follicles grow past a certain size, the eggs inside can become too over-mature to be of much use. It is pretty much standard in clinics to trigger at 17 as the common belief is that this is the goldilocks zone for fertilisation and egg quality. IVF/ICSI work best when the follicles are around this size at trigger. If the clinic are delaying triggering because they are hoping for the other follicles to catch up, they are running the risk of losing the larger follicles as once they grow past 17 its likely the eggs they contain are over-mature. I have had treatment at 4 London clinics (trying for a sibling) and trigger at 17 has been the rule at each clinic.

It seems like there was a big difference in follicle size in your case, so the clinic were really taking a risk not triggering when your bigger follicles were around the 17 mark. Even though you may have only got 2 eggs, 2 is better than none. Another explanation might be a dodgy batch of Ovitrelle, resulting in early ovulation. This was a likely explanation given to me by another Consultant when i explained my failed egg collection cycle, he said at his clinic they would have investigated the failure, as opposed to laying blame.

When i had my failed egg collection, it was my first cycle and I knew nothing about ivf. i trusted the team to do their jobs. I didn't have the confidence to complain or demand an explanation. Now i'm 6 cycles along and 4 clinics later, I feel like a bit of an old hand at this and if it happened to me now i would definitely kick off and demand answers. IVF is one of the only things in life that you throw money at blindly with no guarantee of a result. There are many people amassing fortunes off the back of infertility and the clinics should be answerable for poor practice and mistakes (if there have been any).

On the other hand, you might not need the stress of the complaints process and could decide to just move on to your next cycle without the stress of a failed cycle at the forefront of your mind. Put it behind you and all that. Its up to you

Sorry for the mammoth post. I hope it helps and I'm happy to answer any questions x

Hi @apricotpraline I am sorry you had to go through this. I have just had an egg collection this morning and the one follicle has not produced an egg. I need to speak to the consultant next week but as I understand it from the embryologist, when they emptied the follicle this morning, it drained ok, and they recorded one egg collected. Then I got a call to say it had been stripped and there was actually no egg inside. I am very sad, and confused. Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know why there would be no egg? When she came into see me she said it flushed well and they got one egg as expected. If there was no egg - then what did she get?
@Weedance that is fantastic you have your child. Do you have any thoughts on my situation as you have had a lot of experience.

I had this.

I had my first DS through IVF, second cycle in 2019.

Tried for sibling in 2021 and first fresh resulted in no eggs. Completely unexpected. I think perhaps my cycle wasn’t tracked well enough… in hindsight my cycles were 27 days but I said 28 without thinking carefully. Not sure if this would realistically make a difference but plays on my mind.

Next frest cycle resulted in 5 eggs (not loads but relative to my follicles I think) and now have my second DS. The consultant did more bloods & scans this time around so think this must have helped too.

Try not to let it get to you. It’s one bad cycle. I’d be having conversation about what would be different next time. I felt it was worth sticking with same consultant as he knew all the background but if I’d had a bad outcome again was ready to move on.

I was 38 btw

@RedLeicesterRedLeicester thanks for this. Good to know it’s not just me. I have since spoken to the consultant and apparently these things do happen. I am having a 3 cycle package with the clinic. So it is onto the next cycle in January, hoping it yields a better result. I think there will be more scans like you said.

Good luck for January 🙌