IVF Follicle Growth

[CoolSummer89]

Hi all,
sorry for the noob question but this is my first round of IVF. I am very lucky to be NHS funded but this does mean that I am not getting a lot of advice/guidance after my check ups.
I am 36, unexplained infertility, been TTC for two years. The clinic put me on short protocol, with their standard dose of Gonal-F 225 IU.
When I went in for my first monitoring scan after 6 days of stims I had one lead follicle at 20mm and all the rest were 10mm or less.
They upped my dose to 300 IU. After 4 more doses at this level I had another scan where my lead follicle was 25mm and all the rest were between 10mm-15mm.

Now that they are growing a bit should I expect them to accelerate in their growth? I am stimming another three times before my next scan on Monday which will be 13 days of stims in total. I’m not usually an anxious person but I am worried that they won’t meet the 18mm required and the cycle will be cancelled.
😫

Hey pal, I’ve always been told they grow around 2mm a day, so it does sound like they’ll reach 18? And there’s also growth time from when you take your last stim and do a trigger shot, as it’s around 36 hours after trigger to egg collection. Sounds like they’re aiming for that cohort to get up to 18. Beat of luck!

In your case, you mentioned they are 10-15mm now so I'm assuming they are growing? Which is a positive. Often they will sacrifice the lead follicle.

In my situation it turned out to be a disaster increasing the dose later in cycle. I was similar the main bunch of follicles kept growing while the smaller group were still only 4-10mm. They doubled my dose near the end a few days before EC and this was the absolute worst decision they made. It didn't help my smaller follicles grow, it just boosted the larger follicles and this resulted in me spontaneously ovulating ( despite being on the injections to prevent premature ovulation) I lost 5 follicles that were empty on ec , no eggs inside and I ended up pregnant naturally but it resulted in a miscarriage. Only 3 follicles were left with eggs at collection. We were devastated as I'm now 40 and we don't have time for these kind of bloops. I'm now awaiting to start another fresh cycle next year

If it makes you feel better, it sounds like you're getting a totally standard amount of advice/guidance!

Hi all,
thanks for getting back to me.
@VioIetMoon I’m so sorry to hear about your EC and the premature ovulation, was that your first cycle?

my follicles did grow over the weekend, the ones in the 10-15mm range on Friday grew to 14mm-22mm on the Monday scan and I had my egg retrieval today (Wednesday). Will wait to see what maturity/fertilisation rate was but I was happy with the number I got.

God @VioIetMoon what a terrible story… I do often have a few small follicles that don’t respond but they never aim to get them when there’s a perfectly responding cohort… I’m so sorry. For your mc and for the loss of those egg. I’m low amh and just about 40 and I know how that number looms over fertility stuff. Best of luck in your future treatment.

@CoolSummer89 good luck with the next few days, I hope it all goes well for you.