Egg collection cancelled due to early ovulation - advice needed please

[Rumi40]

Dear all,

I am in need of some advice. Yesterday i was meant to have my eggs collected. I have waited since august 2020 for this moment and switched clinic in the meantime.

I have low AMH 2.56 so i went with a more nautaul/mild IVF clinic.

I was told to take my trigger injection (ovitrelle 250mg x 2) at 11pm sat and was due to collect my eggs on monday at 10am. I went in and was in the theatre room ready for the procedure only to be told that my larger follicle had already ovulated. i was really sad and angry challenging the surgeon how could this be as i was working off your timeline. She advised me next time we should only give you one does of ovitrelle and i was like well its a bit late now. she then said i had another follicle at 14mm that she could retrieve but couldn't say for sure if that egg would be of good quality.

i am so upset as i only had 2 follicles and have had 3 failed IVF cycles. this was the furthest i had got only to be told i had ovulated. They then suggested to switch this cycle to IUI as i would be charged anyway fo the injections and scans. i had 30secs to decided, all alone as I'm using a donor sperm. in the end i went with the IUI procedure. I am still in shock and not feeling myself. i wasn't mentally prepared for this.

has this happened to anyone before? do i have valid reason to ask for a partial refund? i am yet to contact my clinic and complain.

The original plan was to have 3 mild IVF cycles back to back. that's gone out the window now.

[Papillonblue]

I can’t offer any advice but I didn’t want to read and run. 🤞🏻For you that IUI worked , I’ve read others that have ovulated early unfortunately I think it’s just one of the many things that can go wrong along the way

[Purpledoggy]

Firstly, I am so sorry this has happened to you. I can't imagine how frustrated and sad you must feel right now. Premature ovulation is pretty uncommon but does happen from time to time, I believe usually due to a premature increase in your own natural LH that overcomes whatever you are taking to suppress it (ie GnRH agonist or antagonist). I think it is more common in older women as they have naturally higher LH. I had a panic about premature ovulation in my own cycle a few weeks ago and it seems it happens much more often in short (antagonist) protocols; I am not sure anyone on this forum has reported it in long (agonist) protocol. Your clinic may have a refund policy on cancelled cycles regardless of reason so it is definitely worth talking to them about it. It is hard to know whether you have a case for complaint as I think sometimes it is unavoidable, but you should definitely ask them if there was any way it could have been avoided. I hope you get some answers xx

[Running79]

This is absolutely devastating!! Especially as it takes time physically and emotionally to prepare oneself.

Like purpledoggy said, this isn’t a very common occurrences but unfortunately it can happen and there are some ladies on here whom it’s happened to!

I think if I was in your position, you need to have a meeting with your consultant to get some rationale as to why what’s happened has happened, after all it is they who wrote your plan! I do find it odd though that you have been given 2 lots of ovitrelle to take, I’ve not seen that on here. I’ve used both ovitrelle and supecur- but I haven’t got low AMH - again it maybe worth asking why you needed 2?!

With regards to refund, if your clinics anything like mine you will need to pay for what treatment you’ve had so far, so that will be scans and I would suggest theatre time, along with the IUI procedure.

🤞the IUI works and you can put this experience behind you

[Hope321]

I’m so sorry this happened to you. It is devastating after all the physical and emotional strain of IVF to lose eggs and not something you prepare yourself for as one of the many things that can go wrong. I know as sadly this happened to me too. I came round from being sedated for egg collection to be told I had already ovulated and lost three eggs. I was on natural modified IVF too and I was told later that does increase the risks of early ovulation. The things we did to prevent this in later cycles were 1) much more frequent blood test monitoring, particularly in the week leading up to egg collection to check if LH was rising. If it was, we would sometimes use double doses of cetrotide to try and bring it down. 2) I continued using a double trigger but we moved to 34 hour rather than 36 hour egg collection. I did get LH surges in other cycles, but at least then it was picked up by blood testing and we could take the decision to move to IUI without getting our hopes up that we would reach egg collection. I think the key thing is to insist that your clinic monitors you very closely. And if you didn’t have regular blood tests in this cycle you may have a case to ask for the cost of egg collection to be refunded. That’s what I agreed with my clinic. Again, I am so sorry you’ve had to experience this. I know just how hard it is. I do hope sharing my experience might be useful. And I’m sending you so many good wishes that the IUI will be successful x

[JoyfulStar]

I do feel your pain and disappointment. My advice is not to give up on your back to back cycles if you still have cycles left. I can relate to having a disastrous round during my back to back cycles but 2 out of the 3 turned out well relatively speaking.

I think it is worth using this as a learning round and yes do ask tough questions and push them to see if they will concede on discounts and so on.

All the best with your journey and future rounds 🙏🏾

[Rumi40]

Thank you all for your love and support, it means a lot. I have requested to speak with the clinic today as i need answered to understand exactly what went wrong. I agree with you Hope that i should have been monitored more closely and that my LH results should have indicated to them an early ovulation. I am definitely going to be more insistent should the IUI not be successful. My monthly follicles are like golden nuggets to me and i don't want to see them pass me by especially as i have low AMH and have been told i only have a 6% chance of conceiving.