OHSS! 😫

[Whatelsecouldibecalled]

Agh! Egg collection today. 14 eggs collected. It was painful and hard. I was awake throughout the whole thing. Turns out I’m at high risk of OHSS. Oestrogen levels through the roof apparently. So even if we are lucky enough to get an embryo they will now not do a fresh transfer because of OHSS. Now panicking because what happens if we don’t get an embryo to freeze? All this for nothing 😫 just feeling a bit down and sore!!!

Wow how were you awake?! No wonder you're feeling fragile, be kind to yourself!

The relationship between number of eggs/ ohss and number of embryos isn't clear cut, in our first cycle I had 19 eggs that resulted in 2 X day 5 embryos (and no pregnancy), in the second cycle I had 14 eggs and 9 X day 5 embryos, the difference was an adjustment to my stim meds as the eggs apparently grew too slowly 1st cycle. Both times I had ohss. So anything could still happen, don't despair!

Also there is apparently some tentative evidence that frozen transfers have a higher success rate than fresh, because your body has a chance to recover, so although the wait is hard it could work in your favour... good luck!

Thanks that’s really helpful. I was given a mild sedative that took the edge off but didn’t make me asleep or anything. Had local anaesthetic and gas and air but very much awake and aware of what was going on! Just praying some make it through! X

Did you have to freeze all with the OHSS. How long did it take to go x

I don't know if this helps but OHSS isn't unavoidable even if you have a lot of eggs - I had 26 collected and 24 the second time (and they left some behind!) and didn't develop it so it's not inevitable - make sure that you consume water, protein, salt!

The first time I had a fresh transfer (miscarriage). The second time, I had an FET (currently 16 weeks' pregnant). My body was in a far better condition the second time x

I've not heard of people being awake for egg collection but maybe that's just me!

If you have OHSS even mildly, then your clinic will not encourage you to do a fresh transfer as the danger is if you do get pregnant that your mild OHSS becomes severe. And it's pretty serious stuff if it gets to that. Potentially fatal, intensive care shenanigans. Also if you were considering transferring more than one embryo they'd almost certainly say no as if you got pregnant with twins your OHSS symptoms would in effect double (simplified but that's the gist). And you could be in even more bother.

I had OHSS (over 30 eggs!) and at first I was disappointed that we had to press pause on the process. But actually it gave my body a chance to recover and we had a bit of a breather a little holiday and then when we went again all the focus was on getting my body ready for embryo transfer. Which they can't do when all the focus is on producing eggs and stimming. I much preferred it to our first round where we went straight for transfer.
Also agree re the frozen vs fresh point made above, it does seem like now the freezing and thawing process is so much better that actually they might have a slight edge. Whether or not they get to day 5 blastocysts or whatever is nothing to do with OHSS or freezing, they will or they won't.

They give you drugs to try to reduce the risk but they will scan you a couple of days or so post EC and they can see from the size of your ovaries if you have it. And at that point you have a discussion about next steps. It didn't take ages to go maybe a week or two and was totally back to normal within one period cycle and then we started the prepping for transfer so it maybe created a 2-3 month break. I can't remember now but i think we pushed it longer to have a breather as we were a bit ivf d out by that point.

We also got pregnant from the FET and not from the fresh transfer. And we have a little menace refusing to go to bed now to show for all of it :)

@Whatelsecouldibecalled

Despite the ohss I did have a fresh transfer both times. The first cycle was NHS and I actually regret that it was fresh, I felt rotten from the ohss and was still sore & swollen but they deemed it not severe enough to warrant freeze all. In hindsight I don't think this was the right decision for me. The second cycle was private, new clinic, and I had injections to calm down the ohss so by the time I had the transfer I had virtually no symptoms. This cycle was successful. IVF is so unpredictable, you just have to take it a day at a time, I know how hard that is though.

I had egg collection on sedatives only. God it hurt.
It is too early to know what will happen OP.
Fingers crossed.

I had severe ohss but was still implanted with two embryos. Both implanted successfully but I was so ill from the ohss that I lost them both at 12 weeks. I was then told that my body wasn’t well enough to have sustained the twin pregnancy which begs the question why they even implanted when I was already showing ohss symptoms!!! I had previously had the same condition the previous year so it’s not like it was something new. My advice would be to freeze any embryos. Good luck and take care. 💐

I was at risk of OHSS as had 21 eggs collected (under deep sedation- felt like a GA to me)
I was given cabergoline to try to prevent it.
I read a lot on the Internet and ending up drinking a lot of fluids and writing down how much, then measuring my urine output in a measuring jug and recording that too so I knew I wasn’t retaining fluid. Lots of salty snacks and protein too.
I had one blastocyst put back and he’s now 7. I didn’t get OHSS.
Good luck

Thanks all for your replies. It really helps. We’ve had the call this morning to say 12 have fertilised. Just praying some make it to the freezer!!!

You’ve produced a lot of eggs, some of them will def freeze don’t worry. Just focus on recovering. I found the electrolytes in coconut water really helped me but mine was fairly mild.

My wife had the exact same problem as you, we had our egg collection on the 7th Jan, they collected 21 eggs and she was very aware of the procedure and came through to recovery in tears. Her oestrogen levels were triple the normal so they said there and then it’s a freeze all cycle due to the risk of OHSS. 5 of our eggs fertilised and made it to freezing (day 2 frozen). Although disappointed at the time, so glad she had time for her body to go back to normal and for the drugs to be out of her system. She drank loads of sports energy drinks after egg collection and luckily didn’t develop OHSS.

We have just had our frozen embryo transfer, they put back in 2 x 4 cell embryos of our 5 Frosties on the 22nd May and we took a pregnancy yesterday at 8dp2dt and got our BFP!! So don’t give up hope!!

I hope you get some in the freezer, baby dust to you