WTF follicles shrinking or sonographer error?

[Missl73]

This cycle I’ve got two different sonographers doing my scans and getting a very inconsistent story. Yesterday everything was looking good, 14 follicles all growing well. Today, apparently some have gone missing entirely and all of them have shrunk. I’m on day 10 of stims today. Is it even possible for follicles to shrink?? Or is it that different sonographers are measuring differently, but todays sonographer has measured them as smaller than she herself measured them two days ago and a good 2-3mm smaller than yesterdays different sonographer. Total head**** for me and not giving me much confidence. Apparently a doctor will call me some time this afternoon but my mind is all over the place so wondering if anything like this has happened to anyone else?

[Leebee03]

Hi missl73, this is such a difficult process and thing like this make it even harder. I am the same as you - I had different sonographers measure my follicles differently within a day of each other, with the second measuring them smaller. It is quite disappointing coz you feel that you’re not making progress but even going backwards. I hope you get some useful answers from your clinic. I’ve got another scan tomorrow so just going to wait and see what is happening then. Wishing you all the best xx

[Missl73 in reply to Leebee03]

Sorry to hear this has happened to you too. I’m going back in for a scan this morning so I’ll let you know what happens. So frustrating isn’t it, as if this process wasn’t stressful enough! When I spoke to the clinic last night they said my estrogen levels were still rapidly rising so I guess that’s a good sign xx

[Leebee03 in reply to Missl73]

That’s great you’re having another scan this morning to see what’s going on - wishing you all the best of it and do let us know how things are looking. It is so frustrating and you start wondering if it’s something you’ve done - too much exercise, not enough exercise, didn’t eat enough veggies one day…. 🤦‍♀️ Maybe that’s just my overactive brain 😂 I would say the fact your blood levels are still rising is definitely a good sign xx

[Missl73 in reply to Leebee03]

Oh totally. The night before my toddler was sick so I got less than 3 hours sleep and I was saying to my husband how can my body grow all these eggs on that amount of sleep it’s my fault!

[Leebee03 in reply to Missl73]

Haha, glad it's not just me. We are very good at looking for fault and punishing ourselves! I'm sure it will all be fine in the end and hopefully scan is looking good today.... xx

[Missl73 in reply to Leebee03]

Scan today fine, still growing looks like it was measurement error. Which makes sense given my E2 keeps rising. Trigger tonight with EC on Saturday. 9-10 of a collectible size. Fingers crossed it’s the same for you tomorrow xx

[Leebee03 in reply to Missl73]

That’s great your scan went well today and all seems to be growing well. So frustrating that they put you through that worry though. Sounds like you have a great number and exciting that you trigger tonight. Thank you. I found out yesterday that my clinic doesn’t do EC at the weekend, so will be Monday at the earliest for me now. Hope all goes well on Saturday xx

[Pupster83]

Over 4 cycles, the most eggs I have ever got in any of the retrievals was 5 as I have very low AMH so I have never had the number you are looking at and therefore don’t know if my situation will be similar. However, in my last cycle I had follicles that both shrunk and some that just completely disappeared. I had taken injections for the first week and started going for daily scans and one the second day of scans a consultant called me at home afterwards to advise that some of my follicles had shrunk/disappeared (which I’d already seen when they measured them at the scan) but that my oestrogen level in that days blood test had also gone down, rather than continuing to rise at it should. The consultant advised that it likely showed my body was no longer reacting to the stimulation in the way they would hope. I was given the choice of having a retrieval the next day in the hope of getting one egg or continuing till the following week on the basis if things didn’t improve the cycle would be cancelled. My husband and I talked it through and decided to continue and luckily things improved and we got 4 eggs, 2 which were implanted and 1 which stuck and I’m not 24 weeks. It was by far our worst cycle yet in terms of things not going to plan and stress levels and we thought it was absolutely the end of the road for my own eggs but in the end it got us where we wanted to be. Hopefully your scan results are also just a blip in the road and you will still get a number of usable eggs. Good luck. X

[Missl73 in reply to Pupster83]

Thank you this is so reassuring. Congratulations on your pregnancy!! My estrogen levels have continued to rise and all my follicles were over 10mm so it seems unlikely they’d disappear. My worst cycle to date on paper was the one that brought us my son so I know that things can turn around when you think it’s not looking good. This is our attempt for a sibling so I don’t need lots of embryos for the freezer but I would like to never have to do a fresh cycle again if possible. I’m going in for a scan again today so let’s see what’s going on.

[Marisa32]

It happened to me. Some follicles measured smaller the following day. And by the time I was ending stims, some disappeared all together. Not sure if the sonographer couldn't get the correct measurements or they just shrunk. Maybe your doctor can shed some light on it? I never asked, as I was a poor responder and kind of already expected shit results.