Egg retrieval

[Wadey98]

So I’ve recently started a cycle of kind IVF, before egg retrieval the doctor said I had 18 follicles and they would need to delay my transfer a couple of months to let my body heal due to the start of OHSS. I have been told all week how well I responded to the treatment until this… I had my egg retrieval yesterday and they managed to retrieve 11 eggs, I’ve then a phone call this morning to say only 3 have made it through the night and fertilised. I’m so disappointed and trying to remain hopeful as im aware that it only takes the one to make it to the blastocyst stage and result in pregnancy however on the phone call from the doctor i felt the doctor wasn’t positive at all about this, as though she was maybe suggesting to prepare for bad news. She also said it is a very low outcome for this stage to what they would expect. I’m so disheartened😭 I’m looking to hopefully hear from somebody with a similar outcome as this, thank you in advance.

My friend got 10 eggs only one made it through and that one is now 8 months old.

She was upset about having none to freeze but that one worked.

Don't give up hope.

11 eggs from 18 isn't terrible, but your fertilisation rate does seem low (usually 90%). Assume sperm have been tested recently? Unfortunately it is what it is now. As you say, you do only need one. I only ever got 5 or 6 eggs collected and on our first round our only embryo viable for transfer resulted in our daughter. It can happen. Try and stay hopeful for now.

Three embryos is pretty good. The awful thing about IVF is the swings and roundabouts. You think they got a bunch of eggs so you’re happy and then not many fertilise so you get sad again. It’s an emotionally exhausting roller coaster.
There are things they can do to increase fertilisation, every round they do let’s the doctors tweak the process so they will actually have ideas to talk through with you.

She doesn't have 3 embryos - 3 fertilised. Highly unlikely all will make it to day 5 blast. Usually at least a 50% drop off from number fertilised to number viable at day 5.

OP I had 9 collected but only 5 suitable for ICSI. 3 fertilised so I had a day 3 transfer of an 8 cell embryo. She's now 2.5! The other two made it to day 5 (well, they were frozen on day 6) where they remain in the freezer. I too was distraught and felt like it was all over, but it wasn't

First cycle for me 3 eggs all fertilised and told text book quality. 1 in fresh ended in miscarriage.

Second cycle 17 eggs and only 1 fertilised! So they took the 1 and a frozen 1 and inmost have an 8 year old treasure.

It's such a rollercoaster of emotion and hard to be tangible. Please stay positive for now and good luck.

We used donor sperm for the cycle so I couldn’t say much about that unfortunately. They did say the next day that when they’ve looked through everything they noticed 7 of them being empty follicles and 4 did fertilise however one was abnormal. I would have been thinking positive that the ones that were actually eggs did fertilise however the doctor just seemed so downbeat about it which isn’t filling me with any hope😭 I’m so frustrated as the nurse told us after the egg retrieval that they know straight away if they are looking good and the lab just told us it was really good as they collected 11 eggs so I don’t know whether they should have told me straight away about the 7 that were not viable. It’s so confusing as it it’s the first round of ivf we have done. We did have 3 rounds of IuI in the past which the first resulted in a pregnancy, unfortunately it was an ectopic.

Try to remember it only takes 1! I had egg retrieval in September. Only 8 were collected, 5 fertilised overnight and 2 made it to day 5. I'm currently 10 weeks pregnant from a fresh transfer of 1 (so obviously still early days, though a scan at 7 weeks showed good development) and the other is frozen to use if this cycle ends up not working out further down the line. Best of luck and try not to worry. It's quality over quantity.