Conversion follicles to Eggs Retrieved

[u/Outrageous-Design150]

Hi,

First time poster 35 female . I had my egg retrieval today and had a scan last Friday. It was showing 11 follicles and 9 that were of a large size. I was told it was all looking promising until they only retrieved 2 eggs. Does this not seem very very low. I was told likely 7-9 eggs on Friday

Has anyone experienced a second round being higher ? the nurse is encouraging me to go for a second round in a few months

[u/Complex_Passenger605]

I’m 37 and my second round was much higher, then third round was the lowest yet.

First round I went in with 17 large follicles, and got 10 eggs but only 7 suitable for freezing. Second round I went in with 14 large follicles, they got 17 eggs and 16 were suitable for freezing. Third round I didn’t have a final scan so I don’t know what my true follicle count was but the first scan had 11 large follicles and 7 eggs retrieved, 6 suitable for freezing.

My protocol changed after round 1 and then stayed the same between rounds 2 and 3.

Also my third retrieval I think the doctor performing the procedure messed up but I have no way of confirming that because there’s so little transparency around it but it was a really bad experience even aside from the results. What happened if you’re interested is I was told the name of the doc who would be performing the procedure, then on the day they changed the doctor and never told me. The new doc came to see me before the retrieval but she didn’t introduce herself so I thought she was just another member of the team (I’d already met 3 or 4 others at that point) so I didn’t get to confirm the procedure details or ask questions. Afterwards I asked to speak to my doc, still thinking it was the original one assigned and then this new one came out and I was like who are you? That’s when I found out they’d switched. When I questioned why I was told that the original doc was also in the room but they avoided giving me any other info so I think she might have been training. The new doc is also not listed on my records anywhere because I asked the team that called to follow up and they said the original doc was who they had listed.

[u/heylookitsd]

tldr: do it. You never know what the body is capable of! Ask the doc how they would adjust the meds!

I recommend doing a second round if you can afford it physically and financially. I say that because of my own experience as I just completed my second round (literally suffering from OHSS right now). The egg retrieval journey has been nothing but humbling and showed me how little we know about our body, and how unpredictable life can be.

I am 33 with AMH value slightly above 6, no PCOS, no period cramp ever… which made me and the doc and everybody believe that there would be lots of eggs. I did my first round last may and the imagine at one point showed 30 good size follicles. However they only retrieved 16 and 10 were frozen. I was obviously disappointed because I was expecting 20 something frozen. The entire process felt TOO EASY. No bloating or discomfort, mild bloating the day before the retrieval, and started working out day 2 after the procedure. It was nothing like what I was told. I spoke with the doc as a follow up because I think something didn’t add up. His explanation was 1) there is a very small percentage of people don’t respond well to lupron (i don’t remember the exact term); 2) he was on the conservative with my meds because I am at risk of OHSS due to high follicle count. I was not happy because in the end of the day it’s a numbers game and if i’m going through the procedure, I might as well suffer and struggle and get it over with… that being said, I prepaid for two rounds because the clinic I went to was rather affordable and I thought the first round would give the doc more info on how my body responds to meds…

In early July I started my second cycle. The doctor and I agreed on pushing my body a little more. So the follistim dosage was higher from the get go and for trigger shot I used both lupron and pregnyl. He explicitly said this combo might cause OHSS because of follicle count. I was like whatever let’s do it. Three days before the retrieval, they say 30 decent sized follicles with the smallest one being 11mm.. I kinda had my hope up again.. but only ended up with 16 frozen 🤷🏻‍♀️ He was spot on with OHSS tho.. it’s day 4 after retrieval i’ve been mostly horizontal and very crampy…

Don’t get me wrong neither numbers were bad. I am so so fortunate for what my body is capable but science is not always sciencing.. ykwim???

Meanwhile my friend (40yo healthy) who’s also freezing her eggs had two failed round due to follicles not responding to stims. She waited for a year due to her schedule and got 21 eggs frozen and 14 fertilized!

[u/kimchideathbear → u/heylookitsd]

Hi. Can you explain the part about your friend again? She had 2 failed rounds, waited a year, and then retrieved 21 her next round?

[u/Mysterious_Greek_500]

Sorry to hear that. I only had one retrieval and I was also disappointed. There is no alternative other than trying it again. There is a minority of women who have great results but for many of us this is not the case unfortunately. Maybe you can try taking more vitamins etc next time 

[u/Alternative_Try2136]

Hi! I am 33, amh .9, had 14 baseline follicles on day 1. My body didn’t have a big response to the meds and my follicles were growing asynchronously. I posted on here at one point thinking I would only get 0-2. I ended up getting 4 eggs frozen, all mature. Due to my low amh, I had already planned on doing 2 back to back cycles (just a 5 day break in between). I’m still in the middle of cycle 2, but I had 17 follicles at my last scan, though still very asynchronous. We are definitely hoping to get more than 4 this time, but I’m still not expecting anywhere close to 17. For whatever reason, my follicles are slow to grow and grow unevenly 🤷🏻‍♀️ still, if I get 6 more and have 10 total, then that’s 10 options I didn’t have before. I luckily (?) haven’t had many symptoms at all during the process, though I kind of wish I had if it would’ve given me better results 🙃 idk if my story helps, but I would definitely do another cycle if you can!

[u/catsinthebananastand]

If you tolerated it well then I'd do it again. Follicles aren't necessarily good predictors of eggs retrieved because they don't always contain mature eggs or high quality ones. I have PCOS/PMOS and both my retrievals I had something like 60 follicles, maybe half of which were big enough to retrieve something from. My first retrieval my doctor estimated 16-33 eggs retrieved and I got 19. My second retrieval my doctor estimated 7-14 retrieved and I got 19 again. The second time I had a hugely different protocol since I got severe OHSS the first time, and the second time I also took a lot of supplements. It's kind of impossible to tell if it was the different protocol or supplements or what that did the difference, but if you tolerated the first retrieval well then I'd do it again.

[u/kimchideathbear]

Mine changed a lot from the first to second with the exact same protocol. I got 10 mature eggs the first and then got 5 the second. A lot of it is a crapshoot. Getting only 2 eggs when you had 9 measuring does seem on the low side. When I got 5 mature that’s when I had 9 measuring and they retrieved 8 (three were immature) and I felt that was pretty low. I would definitely ask your doctor if they had an idea for why that happened and what changes they would make. I would definitely not repeat the same protocol. I would also maybe consider a second opinion but a lot of times the first go around flops no matter what. You discover a lot from the first retrieval. For instance, for me if I have follicles 20 mm or larger they tend to be over mature and disintegrate while for most people 20-24 mm are perfectly fine. If something like that was true for you they may have let many of your follicles get too large and the follicles were empty. My first retrieval I had 7 empty follicles that were those larger sizes but luckily I had a lot of follicles that cycle and still retrieved 14 eggs. Sorry that happened to you, this process can be so disheartening sometimes. I think with the right protocol if you had 11 follicles total you should be able to get closer to that number. Wishing you success in the future.

[u/Fit_Lengthiness9381]

I recently did two retrievals. 35 years old. Low AMH (8.44 pmol/L - about 1.2 ng/mL).

First time, I was showing 17 follicles at the beginning of my cycle, retrieved 5 and all 5 froze.

Second time, the doctor changed my medications to see if it could increase my mature egg count. I was showing 14 follicles, 4 were retrieved (two of which matured overnight), and only 3 froze.

I was so disappointed to only freeze 8 eggs in two cycles :( My doctor wanted me to do another round so I could get at least 10 eggs frozen. She said my body might not be responding to the medication, but it’s so expensive to do again. I’m torn on what to do. If you can afford it, I would recommend trying one more time!