14 eggs, 13 mature, 2 embryos. What happened?

[Rjp518]

Hi there,

I’m just posting as I would like any opinions/thoughts on my first IVF cycle.

I had a lot of follicles in the run up to egg retrieval so the clinic decided they would need to ‘freeze all’ a few days before egg collection as I would be high risk for OHSS.

They collected 14 eggs. The next day I found out 13 were mature but only 2 fertilised. A couple of days later they said 1 was a ‘good quality’ embryo and the other was ok and both have been frozen.

They said later that maybe my mature eggs weren’t actually mature and that’s why so few fertilised.

I was so upset and disappointed with only 2 eggs fertilised. I am a realist but I really thought I would have had more/a better chances based upon how many eggs retrieved. I keep wondering if the clinic did something wrong or whether it was just bad luck.

Am I being silly being upset or unrealistic? It’s obviously my first cycle and I know people go through so much - I’m just already finding this process so difficult.

Thanks so much in advance.

X

[Joeysjourney]

Hello lovely. Sorry you've had to go through this. In my first cycle I had 13 eggs, 12 mature and 2 fertilitised. Both transferred on day 3. I understand why you feel as you do, I was so shocked and upset and felt my chances were dwindling away! I was a bag of nerves!

There can be lots of reasons why there is low fertilitisation, from egg and sperm quality or incompatibility, to hard shells, and just plan bad luck. It might give you a little insight into why you haven't had any luck so far.

All being well, one of your two is the one! It really only takes one. But if not, I've recently done an icsi round due to my low fertilitisation rate and got 10 eggs and 7 fertilised. So there are things can be done to improve things including diet, protocol, method of fertilisation and maybe just better luck! Your clinic will be able to tell you more around what happened hopefully.

Fingers crossed once you transfer your frosties, you won't even need to worry about another round. But for now, you've done all you can. It's brilliant they were good enough to freeze so dont beat yourself up and try to focus on getting healthy again for your frozen transfer xx

[Rjp518 in reply to Joeysjourney]

Thank you so much for your reply and wise words! Hopefully the clinic might be able to give me some answers and that transfer goes well 🤞

[Savvy_teapot]

Totally understand the feeling of dwindling numbers. I didn't realise how emotional those phone calls would be and I didn't even know if there would be a transfer until sitting in the room. It's so hard and heart breaking. Be kind to yourself!! 💜On my 1st Round I have 11 eggs. I ended up with 1 day 3 transfer. Next time I had better results but still 1 blastocyst. I tried as much as possible to see 1st time as them finding out more about my body and how it responds. They said that my follicles needed to be bigger than the average ladies to have mature eggs. So waited a bit longer before egg collection. They did seem to make a slight improvement 2nd time around. Also it seems my egg quality isn't great although blood tests show good AMH. You only find out about egg quality once they do the IVF. My partner has poor morphology so is now taking supplements ready for Round 3. Fingers crossed for this time! Hopefully you will have a follow up soon so you can ask lots of questions!

[Rjp518 in reply to Savvy_teapot]

Thank you for sharing your story with me. All the best with your next round 🤞

[sun-and-rain]

My first round gave 19 eggs (and moderate OHSS - they had to drain 6,5 dl if liquid from my belly, and they said that was little, but the relieve was huge! - and a "freeze all", of course), three eggs to freeze - and only two survived the thaw. Next round they changed the protocol a little for me to avoid being overstimulated again and changed fertilisation tecnique to ICSI, and that round gave me 11 or 13 eggs (I don't remember exactly) and four eggs to transfer eventually. Most of them frozen third day. But the one sticking was that slow egg frozen fourth day, which was my last egg when they transferred. For sibling trial four years later I got four eggs and none fertilised first round similar to the second round back then, but second, changing to short protocol gave me 9 eggs, 5 fertilised, also by ICSI I suppose - I forgot to ask 😆, 3 surviving the first 24 hours and only one reaching blastocyst. And with that one and only egg I'm now 9w pregnant 🥰🥰🥰 So don't lose hope, and don't panic ❤❤❤ It's possible ❤❤❤ Happy Easter 💛💛💛

[Rjp518 in reply to sun-and-rain]

Thank you for sharing your story. What a rollercoaster! I have more hope now. All the best with your pregnancy x

[McQueeny]

I’m really sorry, I know how disappointing it is…. We had good fertilisation but bad embryo survival. First round got 17 eggs (freeze all cycle too), 14 fertilised but only 2 made it today 5…. We were devastated, I knew that survival rates would normally be around 50% but that was much lower than expected. Both FETs failed.Second round was the same - 15 eggs, 13 fertilised, only 2 made it to day 5 - but one of them gave us our little boy! So it really just takes one good one….

Now trying for a sibling and last round we got 16 eggs, 3 made it to day 5…. We suspect sperm quality but could also be an egg issue 😒 but we’re trying! 🍀🤞

[Rjp518 in reply to McQueeny]

Thank you! You must have been so devastated with that many fertilised! Huge good luck for your next cycle 🤞

[McQueeny in reply to Rjp518]

We really were. Then by the second time we expected it…. Thank you - and the best of luck to you 🤞🍀 x

[HollyT7]

We had 24 follicles, 16 collected, 9 mature, 3 fertilised.... but we've had a bfp from all 3, chemical with the first but still.

it's gutting, I was beyond upset, but the ones you have got, could be your lucky ones.

All the best 🍀🍀🍀❤️❤️❤️

[Rjp518 in reply to HollyT7]

Thank you so much x

[Jana483]

We have male infertility so we can only do ICSI with third day transfers.I had 4 fresh cycles and always get around 12 mature eggs but due to my husband's poor sperm only 3 or 4 would fertilize (day 3)

I understand how you feel but I do have a toddler and currently pregnant so really number of embryos doesn't matter.

You really only need one!!!

[Rjp518 in reply to Jana483]

Thank you for your kind and wise words! All the best with your current pregnancy x

[Stevie85]

I really sympathise with the feeling of disappointment after numbers going down. My first round was terrible. Only 1 out of 7 eggs fertilised normally and didn't make it to transfer. Fast forward to our 4th round where we had 10 eggs and 5 fertilised normally. For me, switching to a mix of Gonal F and Menopur, rather than just Menopur, made a massive difference to amount of eggs and quality. The biggest difference that probably affected fertilisation however was doing ICSI. Turns out my eggs weren't fertilising properly as they were letting additional sperm in after fertilisation. ICSI prevents this. So for us, that resulted in our first BFP.I know everyone is different but it might be worth asking about whether or not your eggs actually failed to fertilise or fertilised abnormally, in which case ICSI might be worth discussing x

[Rjp518 in reply to Stevie85]

Yes I will do that. I think the embryologist mentioned it to my partner a few days ago.Thank you for sharing your story. X

[Hidden]

Hey, just wanted to share my experience as I always found it helpful to hear others stories, on my first round I had 9 eggs collected, 8 fertilised so we were over the moon (90% fertilisation rate) which docs said was great, but none of my embryos made it to blast 😒 they all survived to day 5 and one transferred but BFN and the others not good enough to freeze, so we were really really gutted after that. But I’m literally starting 2nd round from scratch this week and feeling hopeful again. I’m same protocol but changing meds, so we will see. Btw I have low AMH (9.9pmol) and I’m 38 so who knows, but think I’ve got just as good a chance as anyone else, lots on here with worse stats than me and they’ve had take home babies. All the best to you for your next cycle ❤️ It’s a tough journey. Take all the support you are offered. xxx

[Rjp518]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Best of luck with your next round! 🤞🤞🤞