Empty Follicles

[Greenleaves1]

I posted last week about my 3 out of 4 follicles being empty.

In my clinics FB group there appears to be a few others that this has happened to over the past few weeks. One of them had 16 follicles and got 4 eggs. The other 10 follicles and 3 eggs. Neither of these girls had eggs make it to blast.

I'm finding it strange that this happened. The only difference in this round for me is triggering with Zivafert alongside Buserelin.

Do you think this is a strange coincidence?

[G0106]

Hello - my first round they retrieved 8 eggs from 16 follicles or so. I was on bemfola stims and buserelin trigger - they advised a non hcg trigger due to being OHSS risk. My second round with a different (NHS) clinic retrieved about 20 eggs from a similar number of follicles and I was on meriofert stims and zivafert trigger which obviously worked much better for me.

When I queried with my new clinic my previous low egg/follicle ratio, one nurse consultant said to me that they didn’t have great results with bemfola which is why they use meriofert, and another said that triggering with a non-hcg trigger like buserelin can result in fewer eggs so they prefer to use zivafert. How much of this is true I don’t know.

Wishing you the best x

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi. Probably just need different medication. Sadly, this can happen, so hopefully it will come right next time. Good luck. Diane

[StarThree]

hi, this happened to me, i’m so sorry for you, i was crushed. i had 9 follicles and only 2 eggs collected, one which was immature and was told the others were empty. The lack of explanation provided by my clinic has made ne really suspicious, we were swiftly moved onto donor eggs and i was told it was me not producing eggs. The DE round failed (it went worse than our two ivf rounds) so i feel i have lost all trust in my clinic. I’m seeking consultations at other clinics which financially is a big problem butmy clinic just keep saying tgey don’t know/can’t explain

My clinic don’t do any bloods throught ivf or before a transfer. I think with bloods they may have picked up that the follicles weren’t all full. Do your clinic do bloods? Do they do egg collection every day of the week? Mine only do mon, wed, fri and that can have a big impact too.

[Endofitall]

I’m really sorry to hear this. I know how gutting it is. I had this happen when an inexperienced trainee did our egg collection. Only one of 4 collected. After that we had the top bloke do each one and he always got egg out of everything. Used double flushing needle too.

When I had double trigger with HCG and Busrelin I had no blasts. When I’ve used HCG only at 10,000 units I’ve had blasts from almost all eggs.

I do think different meds suit some better better than others xx

[Kitkat10]

I’m sorry this happened, it’s very disappointing. I had identical meds during 2 cycles and on the first cycle got 7 follicles but only 3 eggs. Amazingly, this is the only cycle which gave me success. But when I asked the consultant why they were empty, she was dismissive snd just said sometimes the eggs are under or over mature and don’t seperate properly from the follicular lining to be released into the follicle for collection. Not helpful but I didn’t pursue it further as it was the only round that worked.

I had another cycle, same meds and got 6 eggs from 6 follicles, made 3 blasts and all BFN. I never got to the bottom of the empty follicles but I was told it wasn’t medication related just how my body ‘responded’ .

It’s frustrating that there are so few answers, sorry you are going through this x

[Amy2106]

My first round I had 10 follicles and only 3 eggs and 1 blastocyst. For my second round we increased my Zivafert trigger from 10,000 to 15,000 and triggered at 37 hours before instead of 36. My second round I managed to get 8 eggs from 12 follicles resulting in 5 blastocysts. I have a low AMH also.

I do think meds massively vary from person to person and can be a bit of trial and error.

Wishing you all the best.