Heat lamp during IVF stims/Empty follicles

[Sarslou]

Hi all
i went for egg retrieval yesterday and out of 12 follicles only 2 eggs retrieved. Others were empty. I’m wondering if they matured too quick…. (Yet to have a review with Dr next week). I did have two sessions with fertility acupuncturist week of retrieval and he used a heat lamp both times to help maturation. One session was after trigger injection. I’m of course wondering if these eggs kinda matured too early and ‘popped’. Did the heat lamp affect this?. The session after trigger, the heat lamp did leave my tummy quite warm and I worried then on the way home.

I have a lower AMH due to age so of course they will blame that. But I’m wondering if I just tried too hard with other treatments.

this was my best follicle count so I was so hopeful. Had also been doing red light therapy sessions too in London (but not after trigger)

absolutely gutted 😞 .

first time using growth hormone too.

I know no one will ever really have an answer why so many were empty. But thanks in advance for any shared experience x

Sorry no advice regarding the heat lamp but wanted to say I hope the 2 Eggs fertilise well today, please keep us updated 🙃

Another low AMH person here so I can relate, I only had 2 eggs collected too 🙏

Hi, sorry to hear about your outcome. Hope the two eggs lead to good blastocysts. 🍀

As for the heat lamps, I previously had heat lamps prior to egg collections and 9 and 12 eggs were retrieved. But the heat was comfortable to me. Another time heat lamp was not used after triggering and only 5 eggs were retrieved. In any case, I personally don't think the heat lamp was responsible for more or less eggs being retrieved. I strongly believe the time when 5 eggs were retrieved and ended up disintegrating after ICSI was due to wrong trigger being used (it was changed in the last minute).

Hi. When I had my first egg collection we got a much lower number of eggs that expected for follicles on scan. My consultant at the time said he thinks “empty follicle” syndrome is a myth, and that in his view the eggs aren’t retrieved from the follicle because they are under mature, and still stuck to follicle wall. We changed protocol for second egg collection and let my follicles grow bigger and left a longer period of time between trigger and egg collection to give eggs more time to mature, which resulted in a much better round for us.

Thank you @Lil89 one wasn’t mature unfortunately. Our other little one - we will see!

Thank you @Serendipity24 it’s good to hear your experience and helps put my mind at rest. I will chat to the Dr next week re trigger as I’ve read that can potentially impact things.

Thank you @2mumlife thats useful to know. The Dr did ask the embryologist to flush and flush in case any were stuck. The Dr looked as upset as me. I did have oestrogen levels checked Tues, from that and follicle size on the scan - she opted for yesterday (Fri) for retrieval. Maybe I could have done with another scan Weds…….I have read oestrogen levels can impact/ be related to the empty follicles. I have a few Questions to ask her 🤔

xx

@Sarslou There is only so much flushing Will work, as if the egg is stuck, it’s not mature anyway so not going to be useful. Definitely worth asking questions. The 2 mature eggs we got from first round results in BFN and CP. Clinic got me to repeat AMH in case there had been an error (my second amh test was actually higher). We got a much more tailored approach second time around which did help - still not great numbers, but 3 blasts good enough to freeze (did a freeze all cycle). First embryo transfer is my DD, second embryo transfer I’m 36 weeks pregnant, and 1 still frozen. So taking a different approach for our second egg collection worked very well for us. By second egg collection I knew to focus on quality rather than quantity as I wasn’t going to get quantity! Wishing you best of luck.

Thank you @2mumlife
lovely to hear your positive story, and good to hear changes helped in your protocol. 😊

our embryo is at day 5 and hasn’t compacted yet so we will see for tomorrow….🤞

My consultant admits it could have been the trigger (they used a different type of trigger - as I was meant to be doing a duo stim eg starting a 2nd IVF cycle now ish) or she potentially said the acupuncture I had after the IVF trigger, may not have helped things (which has left me beating myself up and tearful). And of course my age.
Next step is to try Mini IVF due to age etc (but a different trigger injection this time). Duo stim is cancelled.

So I have my period arrive today only 1 week after retrieval (due to the type of trigger I had called buserelin). So after next period I start Mini IVF stims 🤞

Such a journey and mind games 🥲

Wishing you best of luck with your embryo for tomorrow, and for your next cycle x