?? about # of follies

I was curious about something b/c I keep seeing such a large variation between posts and even what my RE is telling us.

I've seen quite a few # of posts where people are reporting that 20+ follies were retrieved at the time of the ER

However, when we spoke to my MD, he said that, on average you normally get about 10-12 follies. We have, quite literally, just started the IVF/ICSI process and I'm not even on any meds yet. Working out doing some final blood work, SA and other testing before getting there, but that is where we are headed.

I'm so encouraged to hear/read stories about ER coming back with 20+ follies and being able to fertilize 15+, however I don't want to get my hopes up. Is it just sheer luck that some of you are having that is yeilding such awesome #s or is it something in particular that you are doing? I would love to know so I can push my #s up if possible.

Also, I don't know if this matters or not, but we're doing IVF/ICSI b/c of severe male factor infertility. Not to place "blame" or anything even remotely like that on DH, but all of my test are coming back that everything for me is working great. Will this help that chance of an increased #? When we met with the RE for the first time and he did a sono on my uterus/ovaries, he said that one of my ovaries was "very active" with lots of follies. I'm assuming this is a very good thing?

Sorry to ramble so much! Just trying to get a feel for all of this and find out about the wide variation on #s!

Re: ?? about # of follies

I just had my ER on Sat and had a total of 26 embryos with 19 of them being fertilized..I followed their instructions dead on so I could have just gotten lucky and my body reacted really well to the meds...When I was on Clomid I never got more than 2 follies no matter what the dose was..My RE said the injectables was maybe the jump start my body needed..I go back Thu for my day 5 transfer.

I was on Gonal and Menopur (150m) for the first 8 days straight..Than bc I was responding so well they cut my Gonal back to 75 and kept my Menopur at 150..the next day they cut out my Gonal all together..I went thru only one pen of gonal.

So I really dont think I did anything different than anyone else, I think I got very lucky!

Best of luck!

Re: ?? about # of follies

i "think" that those higher numbers you hear about are coming from women with PCOS, who are prone to higher number. that is all I know

Re: ?? about # of follies

Posted by curiousO

i "think" that those higher numbers you hear about are coming from women with PCOS, who are prone to higher number. that is all I know

Re: ?? about # of follies

I dont have PCOS

Re: ?? about # of follies

higher # of follies tend to come from PCOSers but not exclusively. also, high numbers of eggs come with a price called OHSS which is extremely uncomfortable and when severe can be dangerous. so its not all that great to have high numbers. in general i was told that 10-15 is a good number.

also, keep in mind that the number of follies vs the number of eggs actually retrieved is often QUITE different. i had ~30 follies at my last appt 2 days before ER. they ended up retrieving 18 eggs. all were mature and all fertilized with ICSI (no real male factor other than really mild morphology issue, AFS just does ICSI standard). i ended up putting 2 back and freezing 8 embies, so out of 18 we got 10 nearly perfect keepers.

Re: ?? about # of follies

i had 17 retrieved (more than what they could see during monitoring), 14 fertilized and 9 made it to Day 3 for transfer/freeze. everyone and every cycle is different. my doctor was very happy with the number of eggs from that cycle.

Re: ?? about # of follies

We are supposedly only MFI as well, all my tests came back normal. At my ER they got 38 eggs, 30 were mature, 20 fertilized with ICSI, transferred 2, 11 were frozen. I had mild OHSS but they were nervous it was going to be bad because of the high #. I don't know why I responded so well, sometimes I wonder if I have mild PCOS. The amount of meds they gave me was low compared to what I see some people on so it wasn't like they gave me extra to produce so much.

Good luck! One thing I've learned is that you can never predict what your body will do based on others!!

Re: ?? about # of follies

OHSS is no fun! I do not have PCOS and I was on a really low dose of Follistim and had 24 eggs retrieved with lots of little ones that weren't large enough to retrieve - thus creating a very high etrogen level, making me unable to do a fresh transfer. Next cycle I am REALLY hoping that I do not hyperstim and can go ahead with a fresh transfer. So, more eggs is not always a good thing.

Good luck!!!!!!

Re: ?? about # of follies

I asked my RE when I was going through the process. He said that they shoot for 10-15 because more of the follies tend to be of a better quality.

I had 18 at my harvest. 10 fertilized. 2 transferred. 2 frozen. At my transfer, I was told that one was clearly of best quality.

<------- Here he is.

Re: ?? about # of follies

Thank you girls so much for sharing your experiences. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Good luck to all of you!