Too fast follicle growth

Hi! I need advice, please.

I am on day 4 of our third IVF cycle and I have already a 15mm follicle and two smaller (normal to the stage of the cycle) follicles. Because of this, we were advised to have a natural IVF cycle, using only trigger. This means that we are targeting the dominant follicle only. The clinic also gave us the option to cancel this cycle.

We cannot decide what to do. We have already had a similar cycle, the first one. That time I had one 14mm follicle on day 5 of my cycle and a smaller one. We had a natural cycle, collected one egg from the dominant follicle on day 8. Although this proved to be a mature egg, and was fertilised via ICSI, it did not develop.

In the second cycle, the two follicles I had were really slow and we abandoned the cycle.

We don’t know what to do. Shall we go ahead and collect this one egg? Would this fast growth impact on its quality? My clinic doesn’t say anything and I couldn’t find any information online.

We did blood tests and my hormone levels are absolutely fine. My uterus lining is also thick already. All this indicates that there is an egg there and it is not just a cyst.

The clinic told me to take ibuprofen to avoid ovulation over the weekend. I will see them on Monday for another scan. Wouldn’t ibuprofen have an impact on the quality of the egg? I’ve been avoiding it for the last two years as I read it impacts the follicles.

There is no guarantee that my next cycles will be different and therefore we don’t know whether to wait or not.

Was anyone in similar situation and would share their experiences, please? Thank you!

[Skittles11]

Hi Fumy, I have had a similar problem with a follicles growing ahead of other ones by quite some way. The last two cycles I tried to do did not go ahead for this reason unfortunately (we decided at our baseline scan not to proceed because one or two follicles were already racing ahead of the group) Its incredibly difficult to make a decision when faced with options like this. Because you don't know the outcome and that lack of control is one of the worst things (in my opinion). Can I ask whether the second cycle was vastly different? Did you have a baseline scan when you started your bleed to see what the lining and the follicles were upto then?

[Hidden in reply to Skittles11]

Hi Slittles, thanks so much for your reply. It is indeed incredibly difficult to make a decision. I am also sad and angry, I feel like my body works against me. I am devastated when I think about the slim chances we have if all we can manage is one egg per cycle.

In the second cycle I had a baseline scan on day 2. They could see two small follicles; none of them was racing like in the first cycle. My endometrial lining was appropriate. Then in day 5 I had another scan. The follicles did not grow and the lining did not thicken. My hormone levels did not increase as expected. The clinic told me that this sometimes happens in back-to-back cycles. We abandoned it.

Did you have other cycles in which your follicle growth showed a different pattern?

[Skittles11 in reply to Hidden]

Hey. I share your feelings and am currently feeling angry with my body too.

I have had cycles where my follicles had a different pattern, yes. I have had better growth on both ovaries without one or two racing ahead. I can't down regulate to get them to grow evenly either because of the low reserve, I had an experience in the past where my ovaries refused to wake back up and no eggs were collected at egg collection.

Did you have a scan yesterday and what did you end up deciding?

[Gerbear22]

Hi there.I had a 13mm,a 10mm and a 7mm follicle come day 7 of stims(low ovarian reserve and endometriosis).Come day 10 they were 25mm,15mm and 2x10mm.I thought cycled would be cancelled due to the dominant follicle.Advised to stim for another day and then trigger.The smaller follicles were empty and from the two bigger follicles we ended up with two grade 1 embryos which were transferred on day 3 and I am currently nearly 9 weeks pregnant.

[Hidden in reply to Gerbear22]

Dear Gerbear, congratulations on your pregnancy and thank you for sharing your experience.

I am surprised that your clinic told you to stim one more day given you had a 25mm follicle. They triggered mine when it was 21mm and were afraid I will ovulate before the procedure.

I ended up not stimming as my dominant follicle was so big already at the time of the baseline scan.

I wish they would come up with a different strategy as I am afraid this is failing us.