Only 7 eggs retrieved...

[naomimn]

Just had 7 eggs retrieved out of 20 follicles. I'm absolutely devastated and can't stop crying about it. Anyone had success with such low numbers?
It seems like if I'm lucky 5 mature, best case a couple make it to day 5/6 and then who knows if either of those will even be euploid

@naomimn yes I got 7 eggs in one collection and got 5 blastocyst embryos to freeze from that cycle. It's very much quality not quantity I believe.

Good luck!

I have low AMH too so follicle count was low. I have read of many cases on these boards where people get high follicles, high eggs collected but still end up with low numbers that turn into embryos. So as I said, quality over quantity is the important factor I think

Please, please try to remember in the infertility world, everything is relative. There will be many people on this forum who would be ecstatic to have 7 eggs collected.

I know it is difficult when you may have been hoping for more eggs, but please try to see 7 as still a good number of eggs collected. I would have been very happy with 7 eggs (early 30s, normal AMH, no health issues, but for some reason always a poor responder to stims).

Progression rates from egg collection to day 5 embryos are all averages, and your eggs could do better than average.

My first egg collection was a disaster - found out I was a poor responder despite on paper having no fertility issue (doing IVF due to needing donor sperm). We only got 4 eggs, 2 mature. Both made it to Day 5. Had a BFN fresh transfer and CP.

Second egg collection was ecstatic to get 6 eggs, all mature. All made it to day 5 but only 3 were suitable to freeze. First FET is my DD and I'm 40 weeks pregnant from second FET.

Even with 'lower' number of eggs, you still have a good chance of success. Hope this gives you some hope and perspective. Wishing you best of luck over the next few days, as day 3 and day 5 updates were always the thing I found the hardest about the whole process

I had 7 eggs from my collection in March. I ended up with 4x day 5 blasts of good quality. (The first was transferred yesterday 🤗)
I have known situations where people have had 20+ eggs retrieved and have devastatingly ended up with no embryos. As said before, it’s about quality, not quantity.
🤞 for you xx

It’s very much quantity, not quality. I had 7 eggs collected (I think from 12 follicles), 4 made it to day 5 blastocyst. We didn’t test for euploid. We did a fresh transfer which resulted in my DD and froze the rest. From that batch we had one early miscarriage, 1 BFN and the third is my current pregnancy, which hopefully will have a good outcome (only 9 weeks now). Try not to worry too much (easier said than done I know).

@Frenchie86 @Sunflower360 @Wonderwall1988 @2mumlife thank you for all your responses. Can I ask how old you were for those results?

I'm in my late 20s which makes me sad in the sense that shouldn't I be responding better?! What if half of those are immature and I'm down to 3-4... then 2, then 1, then...

@naomimn I was early 30s when I had my egg collections with normal AMH for age.

You need to look at all the factors, like your AMH as well. As you're so young, you are more likely to have better quality eggs, so hopefully you'll see better progression rates at each stage than may be expected. Try not to worry - just take each step as it comes (fertilisation rate, day 3 update etc etc). And keep remembering it really is quality over quantity x

I was 35 and was diagnosed with unexplained infertility (I also have hypothyroidism). I retested my AMH recently it hadn’t decreased hugely in 3 years so you could be fine too. There is also a lot of research around diet and supplements that can help improve egg quality to an extent. Are you taking any supplements? I highly recommend the book It Starts With The Egg, it has useful research around this and will tell you which diet and vitamins to take.

@naomimn I was 35 at the time of egg collection, I think my Amh was 28.
please don’t worry too much yet, I know the waiting is agony but you are still in with the chance of getting some good embryos xx

@naomimn I am 38, so you certainly have age on your side in terms of egg quality regardless of numbers

What I'm thinking is, maybe I've got some form of premature egg aging (is that a thing?) where egg numbers (clearly low here) go hand in hand with deteriorating egg quality

Sometimes if eggs haven't matured enough they can stick to the follicle wall and not be released. Hopefully you won't need another round but sometimes clinics may alter what they do about the trigger shot in terms of timing or a double/different trigger injection.

Best of luck with the outcome though! Like others have said, you can end up with a good outcome with 7 eggs and many people would be over the moon with 7. I had total failed fertilisation with 24 eggs (19 mature) so a higher number is not always the answer. Thankfully a more recent round had a much better outcome with some tweaks.

@strawberrylaces12 that sounds devastating, I'm so sorry to hear!! Did they ever find out why all 19 failed to fertilise?

Yeah we were hugely affected by it and the clinic were really shocked. Possibly an issue with egg activation which could be an egg and/or sperm issue, they don't really know. We are a same sex couple so we changed the donor and also they used artificial oocyte activation and we ended up with 6 embryos in the freezer. Huge difference between the two cycles!

A little update...
Of the 7 eggs retrieved, 1 was damaged (presumably during egg retrieval), 6 fertilised. Although 1 of the 6 looks like it might have dodgy fertilisation, they said we'll observe.

I had 7 eggs, all fertilised and all made it to day 5 though one slowed down so wasn't frozen. So we ended up with 6 good and excellent grade blastocyst from 7 eggs. The fresh transfer didn't take but the first frozen one did so we have 4 frosties and a gorgeous one year old, all from 7 eggs :) severe male factor too so we're really expecting a high rate of attrition, you just never know :)

@naomimn That’s a great start to have 5 hopefully 6 fertilised 🤞

Also had 7 eggs collected and ended up with 6 embryos :). Fresh transfer failed but hoping my next one works out :). All the best xx

I would have been thrilled with 7 eggs! On my 3rd and last round of IVF I got 3 eggs, went home absolutely heartbroken thinking that was the end. Ended up with 3 quality day 5 blasts. One is now my 5 month old baby and 2 frozen. Everyone is so different, but 7 sounds great to me!

So true! I'm sure some would be thrilled with 7 and others would be delighted to get even 3... so much of it is based on your expectations! For me the hard bit was being told beforehand that I've got 20 follicles which should be around 15 eggs and then getting less than half that.

Yes, I can totally see what you're saying too. And there's so much build up and so much that goes in to it all, you just want the best outcome. All the best, it's an emotional rollercoaster! All sounds positive with your update so far which is great!

I had 8 collected, 5 fertilised and 3 made it to blastocyst, though one was poor quality so got discarded. I've had one frozen and I'm currently pregnant with the other. Quality over quantity, as others have said 😊