Egg collection - reassurance

[LilyPoppet1]

Good morning,

Just looking for reassurance really,

Had egg collection yesterday with a view to do a transfer on Monday,

They collected 19 eggs so said that fresh transfer is not possible

We've had the call this morning to say that 9 were immature, which I was quite shocked about. Then 1 wasn't viable, and 3 didn't fertilise. So we now have 6 on day 1.

I'm quite shocked by this drop off, then I see on social media people getting 50 plus eggs

Has something gone wrong? Is this a normal drop off?

I'm sorry to hear this. Sounds similar to my experience.

We had 19 eggs, 12 mature, 5 fertilised and we ended up with 1 blastocyst on day 5 and 1 more on day 6. We lost the other 3 as they stopped developing.

We did have a fresh transfer on day 5 though, so only 1 has been frozen.

Fingers crossed you get a good number make it to day 5. I do understand how shocking it can feel. I'm not heard of anyone getting 50 eggs though - feels dangerously high. You should know roughly how many is 'expected' for your age range But everyone is different. I'm 37 with a normal amh and was told that they would expect 10-15 good eggs from me.

There are so many factors, it's hard to say why it wasn't as successful as we hoped. We need to grill the clinic on it if we end up having to do a second round.

Me and my husband are both what I consider on the younger end of IVF - 37/38 and we have male factor infertility. Despite this, I thought we'd have a higher fertilisation rate that we had as we were doing ICSI.

Hi OP,

I think that drop off rate is fairly high. But collecting 19 in the first place is a lot, I think the target is 10-15 eggs for under 35 years. But of course this is about quality not quantity!

I have low ovarian reserve so only collect ~5eggs a time, but my first round only 3 were mature so they increased the dose of my trigger injection to increase the maturity rate for the later rounds, which seemed to help.

In terms of stats once collected, when I had my first collection I was told that for my age group (30-35 years):

• of eggs collected roughly 80% are expected to be mature
• of those mature eggs 80% expected to fertilise
• of those embryos still alive on day 3 30-50% are expected to make it to blast/day 5 or 6
• of those blasts that make it 40-60% expected to be euploid (bit of variation depending on the embryo grade here)

You didn’t mention your reason for IVF, but of course the above stats can be impacted depending on what is going on with your DP’s sperm parameters, as this could affect fertilisation rate.

People getting 50 eggs are at a seriously high risk of OHSS and I would think this borders on negligence for a clinic allowing it to get to that stage. Again - quality not quantity!

50 eggs is a seriously bad number in all the senses - too high risk of OHSS, too many also often means less quality (empty / not mature / low fertilisation).
Generally your drop off rate seems to be on a higher side (but that depends on your age and other factors).
Having said that, for me it was very similar my first 3 IVFs with 15-17 collected and only 1-2 surviving to day 3 (and transferred on day 3) - this was age 25-26. I changed the clinic and then had 17 collected and 7 made to blasts - this is when I was 31.
Your doctors need to review your file and suggest what could be the reason behind.
With all that being said, you are still in the game and you only need 1. Quality over quantity.

@LilyPoppet1 totally understand you feeling shocked, it's really hard to get news like that!

I only got 8 eggs in round 1, lower than expected, 7 mature, 4 fertilised, 1 day 5 blastocyst. We were unpleasantly surprised esp as the clinic had expected to get 10+ eggs and it felt like a big drop

2nd egg collection (immediately after) I was put on different stim drugs for longer and had a different trigger shot. 9 eggs, all mature and fertilised through ICSI. We got 7 day 5/6 blastocysts, 5 of which are euploid.

I know we were super lucky on the results there but shows a different round and protocol can make a difference so its worth bearing in mind and talking to your clinic about tweaks they can make

Sorry to read you are disappointed. IVF just seems like one big gamble and roll of the dice. My first cycle I got 4 eggs, all mature, none fertilised despite using ICSI. No one was expecting it. It’s mind blowing.

Thanks for your replies,
We have male factor so we're using ICSI, im 35 with an amh of 26.6
We retrieved 19, 9 mature, 6 fertilised, and we now have 1 to freeze
We're bitterly disappointed as we were expecting this to be the easy bit
We have a follow up with the doctor in 2 weeks time

I know it can be really disappointing but honestly all it takes is one little embryo to make it! ❤️
We had a somewhat similar drop off rate and to be honest we’ve done three rounds and each one has been very different in terms of fertilisation. We have been doing ICSI and for the last two rounds we added AOA to help with fertilisation and I think it has worked for us as our fertilisation rate has gone up.
First time around we had 16 eggs and only one made it to day 5, second time we had 12 eggs and only two fertilised but the two of them made it to day 5 and one of them is now our one year old ❤️❤️❤️. The last round we did we had 9 eggs and 3 made it to day 5 and one more to day 6.

wishing you the very best with your FET.