is it normal to go through the bladder wall for egg retrieval?

[Maggieboo]

hi everyone,

I am 43, had my 4th egg retrieval, yesterday morning. My clinic is abroad in Denmark and the laws here state that I need to be awake when going through retrieval. They give a small dose of morphine before the procedure.

During the latest retrieval, the consultant said that she could not reach my left ovary so she had to go through the bladder wall (this btw was never an issue with the other doctor who did my previous retrievals). It’s now 36 hours after the retrieval but there is still some fresh blood in the urine and I’m still in pain. There are blood clots and fresh blood still coming out but the clinic doesn’t seem concerned. They also want to do a fresh embryo transfer on Monday so I have had to start cyclogest. I really do not feel it should be done until all the bleeding stops. Should I be asking the doctor questions as I was not really given a choice, she just did it then and there. There was no additional morphine given. Just some antibiotic post procedure. I was in so much pain that she kept saying sorry and then stopped the retrieval midway so I don’t even know how many follicles she took out of the left ovary. No issues with the right ovary.

Has anyone experienced a situation that the bladder wall had to be punctured to get to their ovary? Is it normal to bleed so much?

Any replies would be really appreciated xx

[TTC0011]

Firstly I’m sorry you were awake for all that - I’ve been very fortunate to have been sedated for my collections, which seems more common in the UK. On my ‘risks’ form that I signed with my clinic it does have bladder wall and perforation etc but it’s treated as a complication rather than ‘we will go through it if we need to’. Their view was if they can’t access and ovary, they can’t get the follicle.

Everyone is different but I would be asking questions of your clinic about it, if it were me.

[Boo718]

hello. Sorry you went though all this. Our clinic is if you can’t get to it, you can’t get to it. Same as ttc0011. They will try but if they have to abandon they will xxx my clinics in Spain xxx

[Someonehere1]

I have issues with my left ovary. My first egg retrieval they went through the uterus to get to it so I couldn’t have a transfer that cycle and had to have a freeze all cycle in case of risk of infection.

I would totally be asking questions around infection, I just had a small hole and they were concerned enough not to transfer. it’s your body and your money after all.

I ended up having surgery the following cycle, laparoscopy and hysteroscopy to check if there was a reason they couldn’t find it and ended up having endometriosis and fibroid removal. The ovary was in a weird position as it had stuck somewhere due to endo.

Was hoping my current transfer that they’d find the ovary easy after the surgery but it’s still hard to find apparently the position of my uterus is why. I did ask the nurse and she said your uterus can be in a sloped position sometimes so it’s normal to not always see the ovary. Local anaesthetic is an option for mini ivf here in Australia but I can’t have it as it’s too tricky to get to the left ovary so I imagine would be too painful incase they had to go through something.

My clinic went through to the left ovary as they didn’t want to waste eggs, at the time I was frustrated as I couldn’t have the transfer but also was glad they made the decision to retrieve as many eggs as they could as at my age and with low amh I don’t have many so every egg counts!

Sorry you had to be in so much main. Some things you’ve mentioned do definitely happen but you should always feel comfortable asking any questions and the process should be completely transparent. If they say it’s ok say why is it ok? Can I get infected etc. if they say no say why not. Don’t just trust someone because they’re a doctor.