Empty follicles during retrieval - help!

[Winnie_38]

Hi everyone, I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to me and can advise on what questions I should be asking of my clinic?

I have just had egg retrieval for 2nd stage of duo stim. 1st phase I had only 2 follicles, 1 egg, fertilised and got to day 3 before stopping development. 2nd phase I had 4 follicles but was told they retrieved no eggs.

I am concerned that I do not have the full picture and the clinic are not telling me everything- as I don’t feel as though I’ve even had a procedure I.e. at the first egg retrieval I experienced some painful cramps straight afterwards and for the rest of the day which I treated with paracetamol. This time I’ve had no pain at all and no evidence a retrieval has taken place.

What questions should I be asking? This was my only try with own eggs before we move to donor eggs.

Thank you for any advice in advance

[JA-fnuk Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Sorry to read your post- hope you have people around you for support Might be an idea to speak to your clinic /embryologist about your concerns They are best qualified to answer your questions as they know your history , results

Thinking of you

Janet-Partner

[Kitkat10]

hi, I had 6 follicles and 3 were empty. My consultant told me that sometimes if they are under or over mature then the eggs don’t seperate from the lining properly or if the eggs are not normal they don’t release properly into the follicle.

It was my only cycle when I had empty follicles and weirdly it was my only successful one. I had mild pain afterwards I think which was settled with paracetamol.

Might be worth asking about protocol tweaks to see if there could be more follicles? I moved to DE when I was 42 in pursuit of a sibling, and I knew that my OE were done. I can say that it’s much less pressure with DE and I felt absolute relief that I didn’t have to go through more egg collections. I found them really exhausting. Good luck going forward, it’s a tough time to navigate and I hope the clinic have some answers and advice for you. Good luck xx

[Wuhu85]

I had the same issue. I had from

5 folliculles just 2 eggs stimualted with Meriofert and one trigger injection. In my second round I had a long protocol and different medication Menopur what I know that I react good to it + double trigger. I had 8 eggs from that protocol with AMH 0.8. In my opinion the protocol and medication maybe but also the trigger what counts.

[Tinkertinkerbell]

Hi, I had empty follicles too. It was something that wasn’t explained to me was a possibility beforehand so it was a big shock and upsetting- but it turns out it’s common. My first egg collection I was excited because I had at least 22 good sized developing follicles. So imagine my surprise when I came round and heard they only got 9 eggs and only 3 of them were mature. I was expecting at least 22 eggs and hadn’t even been told about eggs not being mature. But the consultant explained that they can have no idea really if your follicles contain mature eggs or any eggs at all until they do the egg collection. So your follicles can look good but can be empty. I tried again and got the exact same result. I had plenty of healthy looking follicles the second time and again only 9 eggs and only 3 of those were mature. More than half of my follicles were just empty and despite lots of follicles, I had poor egg quality. I am currently pregnant with a donor egg Good luck to you x

[Sarslouise]

I am sorry to hear this, it is tough what you are going through. I recently was put forward for duo sim (2 months ago). They use a specific trigger injection with duo stim (cannot remember name of it). I had 12 follicles and Dr told me she wanted to get 10 eggs. They got 2 from the 12!!! I was also devastated. Researching into it - it seemed others had had empty follicles with this type of trigger. Dr also did said there was a possibility it could have been the trigger. I felt angry for some time after this but have come to terms with it now, and like others we are now going for donor eggs, in Spain. And it is a relief, albeit you go through a process of accepting that. But it is exciting now

My other initial IVf cycle at start of year (not duo stim) i didn't have the empty follicle situation and did get pregnant, although we lost this at 6 weeks. In all i have had 4 losses, some of which were natural pregnancies.

Now booked in for Emma and Alice testing and also to check for 'endometritis' which is well worth doing before going towards egg donor, to ensure all is ok!

I am 44. Still believe it could happen naturally, i think half of it for me - is letting go of the control and stress

Fantastic podcast out there for egg donor called Donor Egg Support with Adele. Really helped me

Good luck, you will get there. x