Many follicles but only 3 mature eggs??

[Pocos]

Hi Ladies, hope you can help me understand what happened in my first IVF, where I developed OHSS.

I had a total of 39-40 follicles, 12 eggs retrieved, only 3 mature eggs. I wonder what happened. Have you ever heard of such a thing??

I am starting my second cycle at a different clinic and hope to have better results. The first doctor wanted to do the same protocol but I refused because it wasn't a good protocol for me. I did the ganarelix protocol and now I am starting the long lupron protocol.

Sometimes I wonder if I was given the trigger shot too soon or if there is something wrong with my eggs. We did IVF because my husband had only 4% of normal sperm. The first clinic did all their retrievals/transfers in the same week, the new clinic does retrievals and transfers everyday, 7 days a week, which makes me less worried about having a trigger shot too early. I had my retrieval on a friday, the last day, but I guess since they do all retrievals in one week, it was that day or nothing, they coulnt wait more.

Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks!

[to_have_fun08]

probably has something to do with the protocol and when you triggered. Would have to know more about your cycle. Also could have been the triggered used. Did you use ovidrel? Some women don't respond as well with Ovidrel. Hopefully you will get a better response with this protocol. My clinic also does all the retrievals and transfers within a 2 week period, but they don't rush it to get all the retrievals done by a certain time.

[Pocos]

Thanks To have fun. I used the Ovidrel. I am really not sure what happened. The doctor said it was my eggs, that there was something wrong with my eggs, but I am 29 and we did IVF because my husband has a problem... Anyways, I think I will find out if the problem are my eggs or the protocol since I am with a different clinic and a different protocol this time.

[silntbob]

I had this same problem at my old clinic and I think it was due to the fact that they had everyone cycle at the same time and they always triggered me too early (I felt like it was to fit into their schedule rather than do what was best for my cycle). I did two rounds with that clinic and I always felt like they triggered too early the ohter thing was the nurse did most of the monitoring. I always had a ton of follicles for example, my second round of IVF with my old clinic I had a peak E2 of 5000 but they only got 11 eggs (my new doctor said they should have been able to get much more with that high an estrogen level). I switched clinics and went to a clinic where they do IVF 7 days a week and had much better results. They got 18 eggs, I had 11 blastocysts from that cycle. I wish you luck at the new clinic.

[to_have_fun08]

pococ - at 29 i wouldn't say it is your eggs just yet. I know lots of Dr's want to blame it on the eggs but the protocol used has a lot to do on how the eggs develop. hoping you have much better luck at the new clinic.

[olim78]

pocos - I know exactly how you feel. I have had three fresh rounds of IVF:
1st - 18 eggs, 15 fertilised
2nd - 33 eggs, 21 fertilised
3rd - 35 eggs - only 3 fertilised

I am currently in the 2WW on our third fresh round, as luckily we managed to transfer 2 embies out of those three that fertilised. However, we were devastated when we found out only 3 had fertilised out of that number, especially given our much better fertilisation rates in previous cycles. When I questioned our hospital about it they said they simply couldn't explain it as the eggs looked mature (we have been having IVF due to DH's poor motility and morphology) and DH's sperm sample was good enough for IVF, we didn't need ICSI so we just don't understand. It's very frustrating as we've alwayas followed the same protocol so it's hard to work out what went wrong this last time.

[Pocos]

Olim - That's very strange. My first doctor blamed my eggs, but I was 28 when I had the IVF done.

Now I am at a different clinic, and they are using a different protocol. I hope I have better results this time.

I see you transferred 2 embies - Good luck! I am probably going for ER Tuesday next week.