Empty Follicles

My egg retrieval was this morning and I had 2 mature follicles that we were banking on (I'm low AMH). When the doctor retrieved the follicles he found that they were just empty, fluid-filled cysts with no eggs. Has this happened to anyone and is there anything within my power that I can do to prevent it if we opt for another IVF cycle?

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I’m so sorry this happened! ❤️

Was that your first epu?

For my first epu in Feb I had 8 follicles. We got 5 eggs, with one being too immature to inseminated. This cycle im on a different stims regime.

Are you taking any vitamins? Try CoQ10

I’m so sorry that happened. Perhaps you didn’t respond well to those meds and this happens quite a bit. Ask your doc to place you back on the meds you used before.

I didn’t respond well to Gonal but did much better with follistim. 🤷🏽‍♀️ the 2nd ER.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say we have all had a bad cycle. But don’t give up and even taking a break in between cycles works wonders. I’m just now beginning my 3rd cycle (another egg retrieval but no transfer yet) and 2 months off really helped.

Good luck to you 🥰 🥰

Sorry that happened Jessica. Maybe you had already ovulated? Or the trigger dose was too low?

I had something similar happen in our first cycle.

I don’t think it’s something that’s in your power but rather your RE. This is where his expertise as a doctor should come in. Not sure how many cycles you’ve done with this Dr. But I switched clinics after that first disappointing cycle bc of falling through cracks at that clinic/Dr not paying attention to my doses/triggering too soon.

We switched doctors and had better results but still waiting for a baby.

I'm so sorry this has happened. It happened to me as well in 2019.

I had 10 mature follicles each side prior to EC. They advised I use a softer trigger than HCG to avoid OHSS. However as the trigger helps to mature the follicles, this softer trigger somehow didn't mature mine. When they did the EC I woke up to be told by the surgeon there were no eggs when they went to one side.

So they put me back on menopur for a few days and I had another EC with the HCG trigger and I got 11 eggs, 9 fertilised, 4 frozen. One of those was my beautiful girl and I'm using the other three for a sibling.

EFS - empty follicle syndrome - is rare but does happen. I did a lot of research and the most common reason is actually the surgeons fault - they didn't collect the eggs correctly. In this instance I'm not blaming my surgeon but it can happen if the uterine environment isn't what they are used to. You should investigate why. It's heartbreaking but there are solutions, depending on the reason. Good luck 🤞🏾

in our community

I'm so not meant to be a mother.

My kids won't listen to me get into stuff when they know they aren't supposed to. Telling me no all the time. Only listen to their dad. Laughs when I correct them. I spend most of my time yelling at them because they don't want to listen to me at all. My husband said that I shouldn't have kids. And I am believing him on it. I was never meant to be a mother now. I won't hurt my kids I just want to disappear and make everyone else's lives better without me.

One and done… or not?

32ftm. I’m starting to feel so much pressure to have another baby soon as I wean from breastfeeding so they can be close in age and be friends, but I don’t feel ready for pregnancy and newborn trenches again 😭 my husband and I are all we’ve got. Having just one baby without a village has been really tough. Am I being unrealistic wanting another one soon?

Baby #2??

I really want baby number 2 and am thinking of doing it via IUI as a solo mama!
Has anyone had any experiences with it 👀

Tests

So I had a blood test at the drs bc I keep getting positive tests when the blood test was negative what could this mean? Hubby says the tests are negative and said he can’t see anything. Negative image down below.

Am I pregnant?

I lightly spotted almost 5 days ago, which is not common for me before my period.
My period was supposed to come today. I should have tested in the morning but its 5:30pm.
Is there a second line??

Anyone have this happen before?

We were not trying to conceive, used protection and had sex on week 2 of my cycle (accidentally on my peak ovulation day). Week 3 we had Flu A. Week 4 my period did not come (it’s very regular). I tested and it was negative (2 different brands).
What should have been week 2 of my next cycle (now 6 weeks post last period), I had light red/ pink spotting for one day when I wiped. The following week, I tested again, still negative, but this time almost all the dye was in the negative space, which I’ve never seen happen before. The area where it shows one horizontal line for negative and a plus sign for positive, the horizontal line was super faded at the 3 minute mark, and the negative vertical line in the next window was VERY dark. Now I’m on week 8 of all this, period did not show up yesterday. Nothing in my life has changed (no additional stress, no other illness, no changes in diet or exercise, etc).

Has anyone gone through this and NOT been pregnant? I’m super nervous as we thought we were done having kids.

PS. I know I should go get a blood test, does anyone know if urgent care will do that? I’m past being convinced by a pee test.