This is my first IVF cycle and I'm feeling a little lost.
I had my last monitoring scan today and my retrieval is scheduled in 3 days. I have 6 dominant follicles (3 on each side) and a few more smaller ones. They didn't really go into much about those. The biggest on the left is 18mm and 17.7mm on the right. My endo lining is 9.7mm.
I know it only takes one and the quality is key but has anyone had success with such few follicles? I feel like it isn't a lot and most people seem to have more than 10. I'm 35, AMH is a little low for my age but isn't considered in the low range for poor response etc.
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roisin_d
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That's a good enough number for success. I have come across loads of successful stories from that number of follicles. Try to relax and stay positive (and well hydrated!) that can have an actual impact. All the best💕
I would say that is a good number, they never really told me how many follicles I had, so don't remember that stage, but I did have 7 eggs retrieved last time. Out of those 7 we had 2 becoming blastocyst embryo's.. and I am now 17 weeks pregnant. (this was my first time placing an embryo back). Numbers don't say it all, as 8 months prior to that, we did a freezing only round (as we couldn't do a transfer back as at the time they thought I needed an operation), and we had 15 eggs retrieved and also only 2 blastocyst embryo's.
Just saying you need one good one! Keep hope and keep hydrated, as that will help! (I am 35 as well, btw, which might give you some re-assurance!)
Also give yourself time to relax, I took some time off during all of it, especially after retrieval and embryo transfer.
Thank you! It might be worth mentioning that I have severe stage 4 endometriosis.. and that I have endometriomas cysts on my ovaries of 7cm and 5.4cm.. hence second collection they could only access one of my ovaries. But also means my eggs are more damaged due to this. And it still worked. So maintain hopeful! I know that is hard.
hi! First time I was 34 and 7 months.. but we haven’t used those as they where for freezing. Second time I was 35 and 3 months. First time was self paid.. second time was NHS funded.
Hi Roisin, I was 33 when I had my egg retrieval (34 now), also with low AMH. I had 6 follicles, 4 eggs retrieved and 3 of those fertilised.
I had a Day 3 embryo transferred at the time, because the other 2 were developing slowly, which didn’t work. But the other 2 made it to blastocysts by Day 6 and were frozen.
I’m currently 14 weeks pregnant with one of those Day 6 Frosties
I can absolutely relate to how you’re feeling at the moment, because I remember asking the same questions, but there is definitely hope! Wishing you so much luck!
Hi, I can only speak from my own experience but i only have one ovary with low AMH (32 at the time) the clinic were only measuring 4 follicles but I ended up with 8 at EC, all 8 fertilised and I was lucky enough to have 6 blastocyst!
Unfortunately my fresh transfer failed but after 3 years I’m finally ready to start again and heading in to have 2 4bb blastocyst transferred this afternoon 😊
I don’t think you can ever really know until after egg collection, Wishing you lots of luck 💞
If this is your first round it's normal to have much higher expectations as it's often what the news stories etc talk about but generally it gets conflated with egg freezing numbers as opposed to those going through IVF. Plus many clinics tend to predict really high numbers before they see how you actually respond, and very high numbers definitely doesn't mean succes, often it can be the opposite. I started this process in my early/mid 30s, with a sky high AMH, high follicle count each month, regular ovulation... and was being predicted 25-35 eggs on low dose stims and to be prepared for OHSS. Nope. Body 'ignored' the first lots of meds and it was cancelled. 2nd round on a new protocol almost nothing happened and they kept madly upping the meds until I was at max and stimming for two weeks. Same thing on the 3rd round. But I got 9 and 5 eggs on those, which I was a bit disappointed with given the clinic's predictions but the second round they all went to blast whereas with higher numbers often there's a big drop off. One of those is now my daughter, plus I have frosties. So my view is 6 good sized follicles is great, and I definitely wouldn't see that as only a few, more a good number of potentially high quality eggs, which all have a chance of making it.
thank you to everyone for your comments and feedback. They helped lower my anxiety. Had my retrieval today and there was 10 viable eggs and a few more that weren’t viable! Now we wait until tomorrow to find out how many fertilized 🤞🏻
during my scans they have predicted 8 eggs, based on the number and sizes of the follicles. When I came through after the retrieval they told me that they gut 11 eggs, 10 of which were mature. Sometimes you get more than what Is anticipated. Besides, my sister had 6 mature eggs at the retrieval and one of those is now her sweet little baby boy. Best of luck to you!!!
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