One ovary responding much more than other - any experience?

[Galgal15]

Hi, i'm on day 6 of stims with 187.5 of menopur. Focusing on quality over quantity this cycle so aim is around 10 eggs. Had first scan today. On right ovary was one follicle measuring 16mm and one or two more too small to measure. On left ovary were 10 visible follicles. Four measuring 9-12 mm and six smaller ones. Last time had 6 measurable on each side at this stage. Has anyone had one ovary respond much more than other? Did second ovary catch up, or were there enough good follicles on one side? Or did the large leading follicle get too big before others caught up?

They will scan again Wednesday to decide if cycle goes ahead but would love to hear of similar experiences please!

I always had one side more responsive and the US tech said that's normal

If there's one follicle racing ahead they will often let that one overripen to get a better yield on the slower ones

I started with about 8 more follicles on one ovary but by the time of the last scan the other ovary had caught up and had about 2 less, I think they like the follicles about the same size

Great thanks @elsaesmeralda and @indub. My nurse wasn't very informative but helpful to know that this doesn't seem unusual! Hard not to over-think every little thing in this process

I was told it's quite common to have 1 ovary respond more than the other! The nurses called it a 'lazy' ovary! In my case it did start to catch up a little. I wouldn't worry too much xx

One of my ovaries always responds and the other barely does - in fact during my failed IUI's, my dominant follicle each month was always on the one side (I think they are generally supposed to alternate each month if you have 2 healthy ovaries).

The "non-responder" looks okay on the scans and typically has 3-5 follicles on it each month but they never get very big on the meds. This is really annoying for IVF as it drastically reduces my egg numbers. I'm wondering if it could be caused by undiagnosed endometriosis around the ovary on that side? But I think only a laparoscopy would find that out, and there's probably long waiting lists...

I had one ovary more active than the other, but both had a decent number. On my last scan before egg collection, I had quite a few smaller follicles (I was disappointed) but the nurse said she wouldn't wait for those to grow before EC as they deemed it likely my best eggs would come from the early dominant follicles anyway (no idea how true that is but I guess it depends on whether you have a worthwhile number of large follicles). They gave me an extra injection to take to boost the smaller follicles and in the end, not only did they catch up, I got OHSS (but for me it was worth it). 25 out 27 eggs mature which were much greater numbers than anticipated and came as a surprise. So in my experience, it is entirely possible for them to catch up. Good luck!

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I actually got ohss last time, hence the move to lower stims. Egg collection is scheduled for tomorrow with expectation of just 5-6 eggs. The leading follicle was 21mm yesterday so they don't want to risk delaying collection! I am praying it will be quantity over quality.
Last time i had 23 eggs, 17 fertilised normally but only ended up with 3 average blasts (1 double transfer ended in MC, 1 chemical) so i'm not hung up on getting a large number of eggs though consultant had been aiming for around 10 which now looks unlikely.

Good luck @Galgal15 - sometimes egg numbers don't correspond with the numbers of blasts so even with only 5 or 6 eggs you could still end up with 3 or more blasts!

Best of luck for tomorrow 🤞🏻

Sorry to hear about your past experience. Really hoping it works for you this time 🤞
Like a PP said, if your blast rate is high this time, you could end up with several quality blasts.

Good luck tomorrow. Let us know