First follicle scan

[Shm93]

can anyone offer any advice because the nurse wasn’t helpful at all. I have previously done ICSI 4 years ago and had 8 follicles, 5 mature, 3 made it to blast but only one good enough to use.

anyway fast forward to today, I’ve had my medication dose increased but I’ve just had my first scan after 8 days of injections. I can’t stop crying because of such low numbers. I had;

one 18mm
one 16mm
one 11mm
one 10mm
and then 7 that are so low she didn’t even measure them.

im so anxious and I’ve asked to stop the cycle but she said they won’t because they’re happy to use the two! Has anyone else been in this situation where the other smaller follicles had caught up :( any advice or stories would help right now

Heya @Shm93 So I was slightly different, in that I had 2 clusters of follicles in terms of size, I had 8-9 that were 18mm - 33mm and a cluster of 5-6 that were 12-14mm on my last scan before EC (3 days before) I was really concerned that the small ones weren’t going to be mature, but turned out some of the large ones were cysts and out of my 15 follicles they only got 7 eggs, mostly from the small cluster that had cause up over the last few days that they had said probably wouldn’t. Not sure if that helps but hopefully
your 2 smaller ones may just get there in time for ER 🤞🏼 sending lots of luck your way ❤️ and just remember, it only takes one 🤞🏼

My scan today they only saw 1 follicle that they seemed to count. Were a few tiny ones but only seemed to be the 1 that was of any interest. Pretty worried now.

Hi @HopefulHead that sounds like you have a good number of eggs!! Have you felt anything while taking the injections? Nausea? Headache etc as I haven’t felt a thing. I don’t even have any bloating which is why I had a feeling nothing was going on in the first place. How many days of injections have you done so far?

@IVFlife it’s such a horrible feeling isn’t it, I thought with upping my dose and having 16 AFH follicles and a good AMH of 30 I’d have such a better response this time. The nurse made it so much worse for me also with how she was confirming I should have done a lot better and saying about my age when I’m only turning 30 in June :( how old are you if you don’t mind me asking

I'm 38 and I also have premature ovarian insufficiency since I was early 30s. Odds not in my favour here

@IVFlife what tests did you have done to confirm the premature ovarian insufficiency. Maybe a change of meds could help us?

@Shm93 My egg collection was in March.
I only had bloating to be honest, I was the same that I felt like it wasn’t working because I felt nothing but aparently a lot of women don’t really get symptoms.
Your AMH is really good and so is your age, I’m 33 with amh of 14 so it’s strange they are just accepting low amount of follicles? I would think they would try upping your dose to see if the smaller ones could catch up!

That’s what I’m hoping happens tomorrow in my next scan. I’d love for them to at least try and up the dose for the small ones to actually respond. She just said they haven’t responded at all and cause I have the one that’s so big (18mm) I don’t want to loose that one

I had similar. First round they were so worried for OHSS that they kept me on low dose. At baseline I had 46 follicles. I only had 4 at the next scan and only 6 follicles at the egg recovery and only 5 mature eggs. We had 3 make it to blasts but 1 didn't freeze right. I was really upset because I was expecting loads of eggs. The quality of ours appeared good and they kept telling us quality over quantity. We had 4AAs as they don't let them grow more in the clinic. Transfer worked then miscarriage at 6 odd weeks.

The whole process is a game of chance.

We got told anything less than 10mm a few day before trigger then they won't grow. It looks like they will continue as you'll have 4 follicles and potentially 3 mature eggs if this isn't baseline scan.

Do you have PCO or PCOS by any chance? I was told I have cystic ovaries without having any cysts or PCOS symptoms so therefore I don't respond well to stims. They also didn't up my meds which annoyed me but this next round (assuming the next embryo will fail) I'll be on high doses

@Fox01 im so sorry to hear about your miscarriage! Yes same for me so when I first started they were so optimistic saying that they think I’ll respond really well to the stimms.

because I had 6 follicles on the first go & only had one egg to transfer & then none to freeze. This cycle I was praying I’d have more eggs seeing as they upped the dose so this just really threw me!

I have PCOS without the symptoms but they’ve always said that because of this I should respond even better? Where are you with it all at the moment? How are you finding everything :)

@Shm93 they said the same to me but I read that those with PCOS without the symptoms are likely to be non responders and I think different drugs are needed. I'm nhs so it is very strict. I am due the next frozen transfer soon but I have no hope that it'll work and I'll have to wait for the next round of ivf where I predict it will be exactly the same even with increased meds.

Did your first transfer not work? What meds were you given for your ivf?

@Fox01 See if they had said that to me it would have made me feel so much better like you just have. Sometimes it’s just so black and white with them isn’t it! I have heard though that FETS have a higher success rate from all the reading and chat forums I’ve stalked :D

So my first transfer I was 25, I had 8 follicles, 6 eggs retrieved, 3 made it to day 5 I think and I had a 5BB transferred but didn’t work and then the rest weren’t good enough to freeze

I was previously on 150 meriofert I THINK but they’ve upped my dose to 225 meriofert this time but they said they would have scope to increase :( I’ve never felt more sad and depressed today as this is my last chance and everyone around me is now trying for their second child :( what meds and dose are you on???

@Shm93 i totally get you! I started at 31 and I'm away to be 34. We waited because dh wanted to wait until after we were both 30. I resent him for that a lot. We have been told we are unexplained and it's like come on!!! I'd rather have an answer because I've done so much and nothing has helped. My friends are also onto baby 2 or even 3 for one. It's horrible. Totally distanced myself from most.

I just have a feeling the FET won't work. Like 100% feel it. Again I have distanced myself from it. This time off between the mc and FET I've managed to lose the weight from ivf and get back into a good gym and running routine and now I'm going to have to drop it all for FET, gain the weight with more meds and then have to repeat the cycle. Such a thought.

I was on 150 menopur and I asked to up it and was told no. I think 225 is the next dose up. I'm assuming I'll get that next time round. I remember that stage of being told it wasn't going to be many but the last 3 days I did get 1 more mature egg than expected. The injections were just depressing to do. I filmed it all and it was just like stabbing myself with them to try and feel physical pain to match the emotional pain. It's not easy but you might get better quality eggs/embryos with less. It's so unknown

@Fox01 I feel your pain, it seems like the years are flying by and I can’t ever imagine being pregnant now but then I want to try my best and stay positive and not put negative energy out there but it’s really hard! We will get there I can feel it. Yeah I’ve been trying my best with gym and stuff and trying to eat healthy but you have to put your life on hold and it’s my 30th coming up soon so I won’t even be able to have a wine or celebrate if this doesn’t happen cause I’ll be preparing for the next cycle :(

Anyway I had my day 10 scan today and these nurses were so much nicer. I have an 18, 17 and then 7 smaller ones ranging from about 9-12mm so she said she thinks the biggest ones may now be cysts? When last time they say they only want to focus on the 2, they didn’t up my meds she said they want to see on Friday if the smaller ones grow and if they don’t we’ll be cancelling this cycle and trying again on new meds. I weirdly feel more relieved today but secretly hoping these smaller ones can catch up. I’d love to be pregnant for my birthday, there’d be no better present so I’ve got my hot water bottle now, trying to drink as much water as I can and lots or protein but just want Friday to be here now

@Shm93 yeah they wouldn't up mine dose because there were ones that were big and they said that if they were to up the dose then the bigger ones feed off it and not the little ones and they didn't want them too big. I had more scans due to ohss risk. My day 11 scan I had 20, 20,18,16,16, 13, 10 and 8 and smaller. Of those, the 10+ ones grew and they took from 6 follicles but only 5 were mature. I would think you've got 2 eggs from the 18 ish and then your 12 ones might keep going. Just depends when they want you to trigger. My trigger was day 13. They didn't want them getting too much bigger. Hope that might help a bit. Try not to worry because you cannot change the situation. I've heard every retrieval is different and I'll see what happens in months to come with my next ivf round.

I heard its best to go to a good private place where they tailor it more to you and you get better and more embryos but again everyone is different.

If this is your nhs and last round then (in a nice way) they won't care too much. Our nhs has a policy so if they retrieve 3 eggs or less then that's the end of all funding and they won't go further. Silly but I don't think our nhs really cares about getting lots of embryos, just a couple to try.

When I called them about my positive going to a negative I got told aw that's horrible when that happens, well someone will be in touch with you next month to see if you want to continue for your next round. Thanks...