Just had my egg collection this morn and feeling confused and disappointed
First time round was ovaleap 225, we got 11 follicles and 7 eggs
Second time they upped my stims to 300 menpur saying they wanted "to get as many eggs as possible"
However, with this higher stims we got 13 follicles but only 5 eggs I thought this higher stims would guarantee more eggs. Ill find out tomorrow how many are mature/fertilise.
Has anyone else had their stims upped, but ended up with less eggs? xx
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MollyHar
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Yep, it doesn't always work the way the clinic said. Higher stims can sometimes mean more eggs, but can also mean fewer, sometime affects quality sometimes doesn't. Everyone's very different and it can even vary from collection to collection. I had very low stims as they thought i was at risk of OHSS but nothing happened so they upped it during the round, stimmes for 2 weeks and got 9 eggs but poor fertilisation and 2 blasts one which ended early (they dod later say they thought this was a one-offsperm issue so who knows). Then new clinic started higher and still went up by end (2 weeks again) but that time I got 5 eggs all to blast so much better and I have a daughter from that and frosties. Then a further round (original clinic) on highest stims for a short time and I got 1 egg which did fertilise but that was a never viable and ended in a PUL. I think for me the ideal would have been starting on the lower or middle stims then increasing gradually over a long time. But I can only guess at that and it's trial and error and sometimes just your body's response that particular cycle. As all my 5 eggs went to blast I wouldn't rule yourself out or be disappointed as sometimes fewer eggs = better quality.
thank you for your kind reply. And so wonderful you got your daughter <3. It really is a guessing game, even with all these variables and the clinic saying one thing, and it being the opposite. Just wish my clinic was a bit more informative as never knew upping it could acutally result in lessers numbers x
It's disappointing when all the promotional material and what they promise is about getting loads of eggs so it makes you feel like anything lower than about 20 is a disappointment. But a lot of this is just eggs and sometimes egg banking only (not IVF), not quality or fertilisation and ultimately having success. It's better if they can give you all the info and chances and explain why they're going with a particular option but even then it may not work how they expect. I do wonder if you did a poll on here whether you'd find much of a correlation in reality between number of eggs and success.
Completely agree. I've always been a bumper crop egg producer (15 and 9 mature eggs on each of my rounds with only 225-300 iu) and yet I struggle to get barely any blasts. Proof that it's about quality not quantity.
hiya - sorry you’re going through this. This happened to me, my stims dosage was too high so I was pushed too hard too fast and actually got a low number of eggs/mature eggs. We lowered my dosage and I stimmed longer for my third round and had a much better result.
With an AMH over 19 I wouldn’t have thought you’d need a high dosage. Good luck with your consultant. It really does just take one so wishing you lots of luck x
Thank you my love. Yes I queried the high dose and iwith my amh being good for my age. All they could say was it’s down to your age and the more we can get the better. I was never too confident with the change. But fingers crossed and like you said only takes one xx
yes just happened to me I only got 6 eggs this round and only 4 were mature I normally get 8or 9 and mostly mature. I only stimmed for a week and had lots of follicles so I was really disappointed. I’m eating to hear today if any of the 2 still in the running at day 3 made it to blast for a transfer. They have said it’s due to my age increasing it’s only been 5 months since my last collection but I am 41 but I honestly feel going a wee bit slower would have been better! They said that was too risky though and we might not get many eggs and advised me against it. 🤷🏻♀️ xx
My AMH was a lot lower than yours (2), but I went from 225 ovaleap where I got 5 eggs to 450 ovaleap and only got 4, none of which fertilised. It was a very expensive experiment! I’m surprised with your AMH level they are pushing for higher stims though, so much of it is luck x
hi sorry you are going through this I agree with what the others have said and think everyone is different in how they respond, My stims were upped on my second round from 225 to 300 in the hope that I would produce more eggs. My AMH was 16.9 at the time so lower than yours. My first round I got 10 eggs but none fertilised, my second round on the higher dosage I only got 7 eggs but all fertilised and 5 made it to blasts and I have a son from that round so although less eggs the quality was much better for me on the higher dosage, although I did also push for a double trigger too on this round and believe this did help with ensuring all the eggs were mature. So much is a guessing game which is so frustrating! Praying for good fertilisation results for you and wishing you all the luck in the world for successful transfer take care xxx
How many follicles developed when you were in down reg phase? When I had that I had 5-6 follicles during down regulation and only got 2 eggs from that round. I normally get 7 eggs. So the follicles that developed didn't respond to stims and had no eggs.
With my clinic, it was split with 225iu meriofert and 225iu fostimon which worked well. Also even though your amh is really good, what is your fsh like? As your amh is good, they could have done the long protocol which would have turned everything off to ensure more even growth of all follicles? As you have male factor infertility, IMSI might be better than icsi.
thank you for all you lovely replies ladies, it is appreciated. So after long protocol which was extended by a week and upped stimms, we got 5 eggs and just found out none have fertilised (ICSI) we are heartbroken. We have had total fertilisation failure! Which I’ve heard is super unusual
With our good result first round and my good amh I wish I had put my food down and said I didn’t want the higher stimms that I was never really comfortable with. I think intuition is always right. And I feel at a loss now as to what could cause full fertilisation failure my review appt isn’t until some weeks off
Oh I’m so sorry to hear this update, was praying for a good outcome for you today sending you big hugs. Our first round was zero fertilisation from 10 eggs so I know how devastating it is to get that call 😢 Please don’t lose the faith as some little changes can make all the difference next round. For us following total fertilisation failure we both took ubiquinol and went for a double trigger on the next round, we also only abstained for 2 days before sperm sample rather than the 5 days on the first round as read some studies that suggest shorter abstinence can have better results in terms of ivf outcomes and ended up with 100% fertilisation on round 2. Stay strong and be kind to yourself sending you lots of love xxx
Thank you for your sweet words, they are comforting. As it is male factor and frozen sperm unfortunately life style changes won’t make a difference for OH, but I will add the double trigger to my list of questions. It’s the not knowing why that is sometimes the hardest xx
Aw so sorry didn’t realise it was frozen sperm, I agree the not knowing is the hardest. I do believe the ubiquinol helped my egg quality and the double trigger helped to ensure all my eggs were mature I’ve also know others who had used Artificial oocyte activation (AOA) which has helped with fertilisation so definately worth asking about at your review meeting. One thing I’ve learnt from this awful process is we need to be our own advocates so ask the specialists as many questions as you can. You’ve got this sending you so many positive vibes and the biggest hugs XXX
If you go again, I would recommend asking about using Calcium Iphonophore if you haven't already had it - they add it in during the fertilisation stage (also gets called AOA) but apparently it is worth it for frozen sperm. We have frozen sperm and used it and had normal fertilisation rates (which we were pleased with). Haven' tried without it so can't guarantee it's that that makes the difference but I suspect it's worth a try (compared with everything else, its not that expensive .
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