About Sarah Conlon Expertise I can answer questions about to trying to conceive, as well as infertility related questions, pregnancy issues and emotional issues that coincide with all of the above.
Experience I am a licensed psychologist and have personally dealt with infertility and pregnancy loss. I would like to share my knowledge, psychological training and personal experience to help others.
Education/Credentials Master's Degree in psychology
Question I have recently performed a FIV cycle.
I am 31 years old (secondary amenorrhea for 3 years / 54 Kg and 1.65m) and my husband is 32 (no problem, good semen quality).
We previously attended 4 AI with negative result in all of them.
The treatment I received in the FIV was the following: Procrin (0.15 ml during 15 days, then 0.07 ml until the last day of stimulation) / Menopur (75UI) + Gonal (225 UI and the last 3 days 150, 150 and 75 UI) / Ovitrelle.
Doctors checked me by ecography and estradiol levels. Everything seemed ok as follicles were growing synchronized and estradiol levels were acceptable. After 13 days of treatment, doctors saw about 20 follicles of about 15-25 mm by ecography. That day they told me to administer Ovitrelle and two days later the recovery was programmed.
The bad surprise was that they only recovered 6 ovocites of the total 20 follicles. They told me that I probably had the empty follicle syndrome.
5 of the 6 ovocites were good and used to fertilize. 3 were fertilized by ICSI (2 were successfully fertilized) and 2 were fertilized by FIV (all fertilized).
Of the 4 fertilized eggs 2 were of quality I (the best one) and used in the transfer. 1 of them didn't evolutionate and the other one was of quality III and so neither transferred nor frozen. Transfer was performed 2 days after recovery and so embrios had 4 cells
Relating to all of this I have some questions:
- I had never heard about empty follicle syndrome. What does it implies (my ovocites are of no quality, I have some other metabolic problems)?
- If it is not an empty follicle syndrome but spontaneous ovulation, does this can affect the implantation of the two embrios?
- Do you consider the fecundation rate and the embrio evolution rate corrects?
- Do I have to worry about anything? I start the FIV with a lot of hope but after the recovery I was very sad and upset.
Thank you very much
Answer Dear Laura,
I am not a physician, so you may want to ask your RE many of these questions. I can give some generalizations from personal experience. You really only need one or two good embryos to have a successful IVF cycle. I recently did a cycle and only had 6 good embryos, of which they implanted two, and got pregnant. I'm surprised that they transfered them only 2 days later, as many clinics do it three days later, when they have 6 to 8 cells. However, clinics may vary in their practices. I would stay positive, as it will not help your body to get stressed out. There is nothing you can do at this point, so worrying will only lessen your chances. If this cycle does not work, please consult with your RE about what they could have done differently, so as to create fewer follicles with better quality, and more eggs, rather than just follicles that may have been immature. good luck!
