Corpus luteum cysts anyone??

[Antia88]

Hi everyone!
I'm aware this is quite a niche question, but I hope someone knows what I am talking about!

After my egg retrieval (19 eggs) I had medium OHSS and my remaining 2 Blastocysts had to be frozen, so that I could first recover from my OHSS.
A month later I felt great again and I was due to have the transfer very soon but when the doctor checked my ovaries with the ultrasound, she said that we couldn't go on with the transfer from frozen and that I needed more time to recover. I was really shocked because I felt fine but the doctor said I had lots of Corpus Luteum Cysts in my ovaries which "were flooding my body with progesterone", so she told me to go back home and just recover and wait for another month.

I had never heard of this before and when I googled these cysts all I found out is that they are remnants from the retrieved eggs, and that they normally disappear within 7 days... Now my ultrasound was 4 weeks after my egg retrieval, so I feel quite confused about what is happening. The worst bit is that when I asked the doctor if she believed that another month would be enough for me to get better, she just said that it depends on the person, and that's that...

I would really appreciate if anyone who has had a similar experience could tell me how long it took them, for the doctors to give the green light to go ahead with the transfer from frozen!!

Thanks :)

Hi @Antia88 .

I had something similar on an NHS round where I stopped/cancelled the cycle after 10 days of stims as I had a poor response and wanted to see if another month would be better.

I was told I should get a bleed which never happened and when I went back I was told that I had corpus lute I’m cysts growing where the eggs had been released. The flooding of progesterone you described ended up with my lining thickening but not shredding.
I was prescribed provera to induce a bleed with the hope that the cysts would also disappear. But that didn’t work either for me.

I was told that the progesterone was building in my body and confusing it so that it wasn’t producing the hormones it was supposed to. That resulted in more and more cysts - was very frustrating!

Finally I was put on the contraceptive pill for three weeks. I was dubious but after three weeks I stopped the pill and had a bleed. The next scan showed everything back to normal - normal lining and no cysts. It was essentially a ‘reset’ which my body required after over reacting to all the hormones I had taken in the cancelled cycle.

If yours don’t disappear on their own I would definitely recommend asking about the pill option - as I say I was reluctant but it was the reset I needed.

good luck with your cycle - 2 blasts is great!

I had one at my baseline scan for the start of my second IVF cycle. My period started early so I guess my body hadn't absorbed the corpus luteum at that point. I had a blood test to check it wasn't producing oestrogen (which would mess with stimulation drugs). Luckily it wasn't so I was able to start stims and by my first tracking scan which was around 7 days later, it was gone!

My clinic did suggest birth control to get rid of it, if it was persistent etc.