Fewer follicles on 2nd egg collection

[thislittlebird]

I’m on higher stims for this EC but so far have fewer follicles, I am 9 months older than the first attempt and nearer to 40 now. Has anyone else had this and it worked out ok? Positive stories would be appreciated. This is our second EC and I’m not feeling very optimistic about our chances of success on the second or third (if we need it) attempt at egg collection. My husband has poor motility so we need options in case they don’t fertilise.

Hello ! Sorry, I'm not in your situation but I did have my egg collection a couple of days ago, and they saw more eggs in subsequent scans than the first one, and ended up retrieving even more.

So you can still end up with more than whatever they see on screen.

Also, fewer eggs sometimes means better quality.

Hi - I had 3 egg collections before my transfer and results below:
1st EC - 6 eggs collected with 1 day 3 and 1 day 5 frozen
2nd EC - 4 eggs collected 1 day 3 frozen
3rd EC - 2 eggs collected 1 day 3 transfered fresh and 1 day 5 frozen
Consistently my egg collections produced fewer eggs. But I am now 17 weeks pregnant with day 3 from my last cycle.
As previous poster said fewer eggs can mean better quality. And it really only takes one!
Also I am 36 years :)
Wishing you lots of luck xxxx

Hi @thislittlebird , I only had what looked like 6 follicles on the first scan at my second egg collection. But by the end of scanning I had 12 and then 15 eggs at collection. But it didn’t matter anyway because out of the 15 eggs we got one blastocyst and so far that blastocyst is going strong and is now a fetus. I know it sounds like a cliche but the ‘it only take one’ is really true. The best of luck to you. X

Thanks to everyone here for replying.

They got 10 eggs in the end, 6 mature, 4 fertilised and one is a bit iffy so there’s 3 or 4 in the running to make it to day 5. A big come down from cycle one but hopefully a couple make it.

@Marmiteontoastyum that’s great news. Did you have a fresh transfer? Had you had any previously? I’ve had three failures including a chemical so my hopes aren’t super high.

@Scarlett868 another great story, thanks! I hope it means better quality, we said we’d PGT-A test some but there’s not looking like there will be much to choose from.

@thislittlebird That’s great news. I think I read somewhere the average is 2 blastocysts for every 10 eggs collected.

Yes I’ve had a transfer before. In our first cycle we got 14 eggs and one blastocyst. We had a fresh transfer and it was an 8 week miscarriage although we knew much earlier on the embryo wasn’t growing normally.

In the second cycle we got one blastocyst again from 15 eggs but this time we PGTA tested and froze the embryo. I know sometimes they say not to bother testing with one embryo but I wanted to avoid the pain and limbo of another miscarriage as much as possible. My egg collection was only two months after the miscarriage so I think it was still very raw. We didn’t transfer till 6 months later though.

@Marmiteontoastyum it feels like most people get more on here, it's really hard to look at it and think it's a good outcome ifkwim. Then they have make it to Saturday and survive PGT-A.

I know the feeling, understandable for it to be raw. I don't want another chemical (had one at 5 weeks and started this cycle the next month) or miscarriage but am concerned we'll have nothing good when tested so they are going to transfer one untested for me if all is ok.

I am sorry to hear you also had an early miscarriage.

There are so many stories you hear about women getting fewer eggs and them being higher quality. I do believe into the quality over quantity idea. As with the 29 eggs I got only 1 was decent.

I know how easy it is to feel it won’t work. I was convinced the embryo we got in the second round was abnormal. Sometimes life has a funny way of surprising you and turning out to be okay when you least expect it though. I’m really rooting for you. Please keep us updated.

@thislittlebird

@Marmiteontoastyum thanks. I really hope that's the case, nervous about the call tomorrow where I assume they'll tell us the grading. We had good grades before, they just didn't take. I agree quality over quantity is ideal, just worry about his severe low motility and how good those sperm will be.

I bet that was a nice surprise that it was normal! Fingers crossed life surprises me when they call tomorrow with an update 😳

@thislittlebird Got everything crossed for you!! Let us know how you get on tomorrow xxx

Not a great update. 4 embryos have become 3, and one of those fertilised abnormally but they said that doesn't rule it out. They also said 1 in 3 survive on average to day 5, so that's a cheery start to the day. They gave me all the gradings but it doesn't mean much when there's two day left still.

I would like @Marmiteontoastyum's averages stat to be true so we have something to pgt-a test after.

Hang in there @thislittlebird Know you’ve done everything you can up to this point and you’re in the running. That one blastocyst (if there is just one) could be an ‘absolute cracker’ as my consultant said. I’m thinking of you and hoping for a similar result in 2 days x

Sorry to hear that, I’m on my second cycle too and have fewer follicles so far than last time. The whole process is so stressful and the numbers only ever go one way We’re hoping to do PGTA as well and at the moment I just feel like it adds a whole extra stage where things can go wrong! Hope things work out for you and you get one for transfer and some to test/freeze

Thanks @Marmiteontoastyum

@CharlotteYorkMacDougal oh god, yeah it’s so stressful. I don’t even think we’re gonna have anything to PGT-A tbh, and if we do it might not survive. It all feels like such tiny odds when there’s so few embryos in the running. What stage are you at?

@thislittlebird I’m on day nine of stims, scan yesterday seemed slightly more positive but still fewer than last time, I think they don’t like to give really precise info about how many follicles because it’s so difficult to be sure and they want to manage your expectations! My consultant and her team are really good and part of the reason we went with them was that she was honest and realistic about our chances, rather than just trying to sell their services. I’m guessing from what you said that you’re on day four today so if that’s the case fingers crossed for positive news and a transfer tomorrow

@CharlotteYorkMacDougal yeah it's very unpredictable on the follicles front, it seems. We got a couple more in the end but it wasn't exactly a success.

We had a transfer today. It was definitely not a quality over quantity scenario for us. Every stage of this cycle has been below expectations. Poor number of eggs compared to the first, half the number of mature eggs, problems with the sperm prep on the day, couldn't do imsi, and then we got zero embryos that made it to blasts vs 4 last time. We got one morula, some other embryo also hadn't developed to a blast and they didn't think it would make it to freeze tomorrow so transferred both today. One more in the lab but it's not looking good, unlikely to make it freezing. On the whole, a giant shitshow of a cycle.

@thislittlebird Really sorry to hear that, it’s heartbreaking and so unfair when you go through that much and work so hard to get to the egg collection and transfer stage to then end up with results below the expected levels and below what you’d had previously. With my previous round everything was going well until we got to the embryology lab, starting with a much lower than expected level of fertilisation on day one. A couple of the close friends and family members I’d told were doing the “it doesn’t sound that bad, stay positive, you only need one” chat and it really irritated me (though that could just have been hormonal!) so I’m not going to say anything like that but obviously hoping your transfer will turn out to be successful despite everything and if not that you are able to get some productive discussion with the clinic about if and how things could be improved next time if you’re able (physically/ financially/ emotionally/ practically etc) to consider another round.

Im sorry @thislittlebird . I truly hope it turns out to be better than it seems. 🤞

Really sorry to hear this. Since you did have a transfer I'll still cross my fingers for you. My friend's one and only success was a slow-growing abnormal looking embryo, so you're not out of the running just yet.

But still, it's disappointing and it sucks after so much money and all the physical toll IVF takes (dunno about you but I'm still bruised from injections and it's been nearly 2 weeks since I stopped).

Fingers crossed your morula is the stubborn sticky type !

@CharlotteYorkMacDougal It’s frustrating because I know people mean well but I’ve transferred 5 now. Surely 1 of those 5 should have been able to make a baby? It can’t just be age. I’m sick of hearing it’s age when I have friends who conceived within a few months and had a baby 9 months later at 39 with zero issues.

@Jadviga yeah I’m covered in small bruises from clexane mostly. It’s exhausting, emotionally, physically, financially.

@Marmiteontoastyum thanks! I’m gonna be honest and say I don’t think it has worked. I’ve not tested yet but after this many transfers the only different one was the chemical, all the rest were just like this, mostly symptom free beyond mildly sore boobs from progesterone.

@thislittlebird Yes!! I’m 38 and I agree the odds for IVF are really awful but after a certain point you do have to think it’s just completely unfair! Plenty of people your/ my age and older get pregnant naturally or through IVF on the first round with spare frozen embryos. I also think people in general (fortunately for them!) have very little idea of the actual success rates for the different aspects of IVF and tend towards thinking things are positive because they don’t know/ understand how brutal the attrition rates are after egg collection.

Personally going in to it I felt like we were really lucky to be able to do things which would increase our odds (e.g. nutritionist, urologist, big London clinic) so our chances would be better than average but I’m now stuck between “it’s unfair and completely pointless”, “it could be worse and might still work out” and “find a new clinic and roll the dice again ASAP”.