Realistic amount of eggs??

[PGY7]

Hello. I've just had my paperwork appointment and getting ready to start my icsi cycle.

Im 37 with an AMH of 15. Realistically how many eggs should I expect at retrieval. I'm worried

I had 4 egg collections with an AMH of 15 and got the following amount of eggs:
13, 16, 9, 13.

However try not to get hung up on the amount of eggs. Too many eggs can actually mean they are not as good quality. I know someone who had only 4 eggs collected and all 4 made it to blastocyst, whereas some people get loads of eggs and end up with one blastocyst, or none.

Take vitamins and try as much as possible to relax (I know it’s hard). Good luck xx

Thank you. That's reassuring. ❤️

@PGY7 I had an AMH of 16 age 37 and we got 16 eggs. I completely agree with @lemons44 though- it can vary massively between cycles and also quality is more important!

We've had 3 rounds now. Our first was age 37 and AMH was 16. We got 16 eggs and 2 good quality day 5 embryos. Our first transfer is our son.

Second round age 39, AMH 11. We got 16 eggs again, 3 embryos but only 1 of those was day 5 and all lower quality.

Third round straight after we got 19 eggs, 7 embryos - 3 day 5 and 4 day 6. Again lower quality than our first round! Our fresh transfer was not successful so we're going again with a FET shortly.

Good luck!!

Thank you for replying and again, this sounds reassuring. Good luck with your next transfer 💗

i had two cycles.
first cycle - AMH 17.5 resulting in 9 eggs collected, 8 fertilised and 1 embryo ending in a chemical.
second cycle - AMH 7.5 resulting in 12 eggs. Only 4 fertilised and ended up with 2 embryos. Currently sat here cuddling my first transfer from this round.
Try and not get caught up on numbers. It really is quality over quantity x

i was 39 approaching 40 for both rounds x

Just for another perspective, at 32 I had an AMH in high 20s/low 30s. First egg collection I only had 2 mature eggs collection (both high grade day 5 blasts, 1 BFN, 1 CP). Second egg collection got 6 eggs, all mature, all made it to day 5 but only 3 suitable to freeze. I had 2 live births and 1 BFN.

So, AMH levels are not everything, as people respond totally differently to stims. But also even with very few eggs, you can grow your family ❤

My AMH was 16 at age 35 and we got 25 eggs, of which 17 mature. Just echoing other comments that smaller cohorts can sometimes yield better results so don’t worry too much about the number

Remember too that clinics aim to collect between 8-15 as a safe target as over responding can have harmful side effects like OHSS

Also whilst hoping for the best try to keep in mind that the first round is a test to see how your body will respond and they can adjust as needed. Everyone responds differently and the clinic just makes an educated guess of what will work for you based on your profile. I was put on a very strong protocol as was doing the retrieval 2.5 weeks after endo surgery and they thought I would be a poor responder. They had to reduce my protocol part way through as my oestrogen was almost 30,000. I then thought my chances had probably been scuppered and everything had been fried!

I have a friend who has very bad endo, they collected one egg and got one baby from that egg 💕

I really felt quite depressed going into it and kept my expectations very low and was very pleasantly surprised. I found chatGPT actually quite helpful to understand likely attrition rate and some of the data

Good luck xx

As another comparison, at 34 I had an AMH of 1.2 and only retrieved 3 eggs. However all 3 fertilised and I'm currently 19 weeks pregnant with 2 of them. So I agree with others comments, don't get hung up on wanting high numbers, you can absolutely get success from lower number of eggs. Best of luck x

Thank you all for your replies. I feel better hearing your experiences and thoughts x

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I was looking for positive stories and these really helped. I’m 31 and going for my first egg retrieval tomorrow. I don’t know my exact AMH but have been told it’s lower than expected and I have a low ovarian reserve, I only had 2/3 follicles measuring within range at my monitoring scan on Monday so have been really worrying about retrieving no eggs tomorrow. The line that this is a test to see how our body responds was really helpful, thank you! It’s also very helpful to hear that people have had good results with lower egg numbers. We’ve focused on quality as much as we can and have been preparing for months. Praying tomorrow we get some eggs, we only need one 🤞🏻

Good luck, I hope all goes well!

It would be great to hear how you get on if you feel comfortable sharing x

Thank you! I got 5 eggs!!! We’re absolutely over the moon with that as I expected only 1 or 2 if we were lucky but mentally trying to prepare for 0. Now we just have to hope and pray that they fertilise and grow 🤞🏻

I will keep you posted.

@sunsu great news. Sending you all the baby dust. If you feel up to it, keep us updated x

That's wonderful new. Fingers crossed for you x

We have 2 eggs that have fertilised. Happy that there’s progress but nervous the number will reduce. Praying we get an embryo and blast!!

Praying for you x

This is the toughest wait in all of the process. Thinking of you x

Thank you all, it is definitely hard just waiting around but very much appreciate your support! I don’t have many people to talk to about it in real life so this is a lovely space ❤️

Hi all, just wanted to give you a wee update! It’s been an absolute rollercoaster. On Friday morning we receive a call saying only one of our embryos had developed and it was unfortunately showing a high amount of fragmentation so they expected it to stop growing and we were to be prepared for a negative update the following day. On Saturday, the update was that it had continued to grow unexpectedly but they doubted it would reach the next stage. Sunday morning came and the embryologist called, she said she couldn’t believe it but the embryo was compacting and despite everything she was hopeful for a blastocyst! It was the most positive she sounded but she still emphasised the potential of it not reaching the blast stage. Well, it did! We had our transfer today and now I’m home and resting with our embryo on board 😭 the embryologist this morning said he thought it looked a good quality blast today which was just wild considering the weekend. We are so grateful and have prayed all weekend for a positive outcome. Still got a long way to go but delighted to have reached this stage ❤️

thank you all for your well wishes, I truly believe they’ve all helped x

Good luck @sunsu I’m praying this is your lucky one

I'm so happy to hear this...athough that does sounds like a rough ride! Hope the next stage of waiting is kind to you x