Empty follicules in 2 cycles

[Iduj]

Hi everyone,
i am new here. I have 2 ivf cycles, and in both Cycles I had many follicules on the follow up Ultrasound. But in the retrieval, only 3 eggs retrieved. Do have any similar experience? The number of follicules in the 2 times was around 15. The doctor said it because of your age or you low ovarian reserve. Can you please share you experience?

Hi lduj

That sounds really hard, hope you're ok. I've not yet started ivf so nothing useful to help.

Can I ask how old you are? Have you had AMH test?

Hello,
thank you. i had AMH it was 1.27
and i am 36

Hey. A few years ago now, but I did 2 IVF cycles, and on both I had empty follicules and very few eggs collected. I was in my early to mid thirties during the cycles wth a good AMH for age. I had an unexpectedly poor response to IVF that is still unexplained (clinic just said some people just don't respond well to stims).

After my first round my consultant said he doesn't believe follicules are empty, but that the egg inside is not mature so does not detach from the follicule wall during flushing during retrieval. So the second cycle we did we changed protocol and also let my follicules grow larger and they left more time between trigger shot and retrievel. I got 4 eggs (2 mature) on my first round, and 6 eggs, all mature on my second round. So it did make a difference.

Quality is more important than quantity. All of my mature eggs have fertilised and made it to day 5 blasts, which is almost unheard of not to have a drop off (though only 3 of my 6 eggs on second were good enough to freeze). My first cycle I had a BFN fresh transfer, and a chemical pregnancy FET.

My second cycle (so where I froze 3 eggs) has given me my toddler (first FET) and my baby (second FET) and I still have 1 frozen.

You can absolutely grow your family from a small number of eggs :)

Thank you so much for you words 🙏🏼🙏🏼 I hope it will work for the next cycle even with small amout of eggs. As you said the quality is more important than quantity 🙏🏼

Hello @2mumlife
can you please tell what was the second protocol?
for our second cycle, I had 225 gonal F & 75 luveris. Thank you so much for your answer and your experience
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

@Iduj

How are you getting on? Have any of your eggs made it to day 5?

To be honest, I went through my last egg retrieval in September 2021 so my memory is a bit fuzzy on specific dosages. My first cycle we did a long cycle with prostap injection first and then gonal F and Menapur. I can't tell you dosages to be honest (this was early 2021). My second cycle I switched to a short protocol, and did Ovaleap and had a high dosage. There was some argumnet about dosage as first consultant I think was going to approve 350 but because my AMH was high (we retested my AMH between cycles to try to understand why my response was to poor) it got overuled by another consultant and I think I was on 300iu in the end (because, ironically, they were worried about OHSS given my AMH. Which is a gut punch when you've had rubbish numbers of eggs collected). Second cycle they let me follicules grow larger and we did a double trigger shot, with a longer delay between trigger shot and egg collection (maybe only 1 hour or so delayed).

Hi, thank you for asking. I m not ok. Going through all these challenges with no answers and no hope.
I decided to stop trying.
I wasnt meant to have kids so I will accept my destiny
thank you for you time and kind reply
❤️

My last AMH is 1.28 and I am 36
good luck 🙏🏻

Hi, thank you for asking. no they didnt wait for day 5. They froze 2 embryos on day 3. I dont know why.
I m not ok. Going through all these challenges with no answers and no hope.
I decided to stop trying.
I wasnt meant to have kids so I will accept my destiny
thank you for you time and kind reply
❤️

Take time for yourself @Iduj and see how you feel after a bit of time. Hopefully your clinic provides counselling if you are needing support to work through the emotions x