How many follies at first scan?

So, I'm currently on my first cycle. It's CD 8 and I'm on my 6th day on Puregon 275 and 2nd day on Orgalutran. I just had my first scan and the doctor said there were 7 decent-sized follies (5 on the right and 2 on the left), plus some smaller ones he didn't count. He kept the Puregon dose as is and said it looks like EPU will be on Tuesday (subject to another scan in 2 days). I'm doing my BT tomorrow to check E2 levels, which I suspect will be fine considering the low-ish number of follies.

So, since this is my first cycle and I have no basis for comparison, I'm just wondering how these numbers sound. I should mention I have fairly low AMH (6.9), so I think the doc was happy with the # of eggs generated. I'd love to hear how many follies other people have at their first scan. Does that # usually go up by the second scan? (Ie, do some of the smaller ones get big enough to be counted?) I'm also going for acupuncture tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. :pray:

Thanks for reading and for any replies!

KitKat72

Hi,
From what I've heard it's not always easy to tell what you'll end up getting at EPU. I had 30 follicles at first scan then 32 but only managed to retrieve 10 eggs, 5 of which were mature enough to fertilise. I know of someone who had much less follicles at her scan but got lots more eggs on the day of pick up (have a look at the thread called 'First Scan Date) Then I have a friend who over-stimulated with 40+ follicles and got no viable eggs.
Seven sounds like a good number and it may increase before EPU. Your chances of developing OHSS are also reduced with this number.
Good luck with your cycle.
Maggie

Hi Maggie,

Thanks for that. :) I tried to join you guys in your thread but saw it's been locked. Maybe I'll jump in to the other thread for those of us who are cycling.

Best of luck to you!

KitKat72

Hi KitKat,

I agree with Maggie in that everybody responds differently and there's no telling about the quality from the number of eggs.

I went through two antagonist cycles and at my first scans had around 8 follies. This number didn't really increase greatly, and at my two EPUs we collected 5 and 7 eggs respectively. First time only 3 fertilised (although we had problems and had to cancel the cycle) but second try 6 fertilised and we transferred two top quality embies which resulted in a BFP (i'm now 30 weeks pg). So I guess what i'm saying is (and much easier said than done I know!) don't stress too much about numbers as at the end of the day it's quality over quantity.

All the best with your journey xx

Thanks for that, Lise! That is great to hear! And woo hoo -- you must be stoked to be 30 wks pg!! :confetti:I

I'm especially happy to see your post b/c I just had my 2nd scan and there still only seem to be 7-8 follies worth counting, and, of those, only 3 are 20mm or bigger (plus an 18, a 17, 16x2, and a 13). I was a little disappointed that things hadn't progressed more. But now you are giving me hope.

I guess we'll see at EPU . . .

Good luck with the remainder of your pregnancy!

I can't actually remember how many follies I had at my first scan, but at the scan I had before my tirgger shot and then EPU I had about 30 follies of good size. From those 30 I got 10 eggs, 7 of which fertilised. We are having PGD and unfortunately none of my precious embies were suitable for transfer (chromosome problems). We have just started our second cycle and are aiming for more eggs to give us more chances at healthy embies. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many follies you have as long as you get at least one egg that turns into a healthy embie. Best of luck!!!

Oh, I also wanted to mention (because I was never told before EPU) that apparently the doctors generally aim for between 8-12 eggs from EPU. I didn't realise that sometimes they can't retrieve an egg from a follie, so I went into my EPU thinking I was going to get 30 eggs from my 30 follies, and found myself a bit disappointed when I was told there were only 10.

Hi Mylitta,
This was my experience too. I had 32 follicles so thought that was how many eggs I would get. Like you though, I only got 10.
I was really disappointed! It was easter in the lead up to this and I kept calling myself the Easter Bunny because I thought I had so many eggs.
Of the 10 they got only 5 were mature. What I'd like to know is- if FS had waited a day or two longer before trigger, would I have had more mature eggs?
I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't use your embryos. That must have been so sad. I hope that you have better luck next time and they are able to find you some perfect ones to implant.
Maggie

Kitkat-my 1st scan i had 14 follies i was on 200 of puregon and responded really well the next scan i had 24 good size follies but my E2 skyrocketed to 16,000 so had to go for EPU a few days earlier so the smaller follies didn't have the extra days to catch up i ended up with 10 eggs all 10 were mature 100% fertilisation but as we were doing PGD they had to be a grade 1 or 2 and we only had one grade 1 which was effected with our disorder and the others were grade 3 to much fragmentation for testing so now we are going to try a normal cycle of ivf in june as we have had no luck concieving naturally since we lost our bub and pray the next one is healthy.
Good luck to you.

Sorry just checked over my cycle info it was 8 eggs all 8 fertilised

Very interesting, thanks for the information.

Mylitta and ferrals4, I'm so sorry to hear that despite your good follie counts, you each had no embies suitable for transfer. That must have been terribly disappointing!

Maggie, I have similar thoughts for you that so few of the follies had usable eggs. I think you raise a good point: would waiting another day or two to trigger have led to better numbers? Are you planning on asking your FS about that? It would be interesting to hear the answer. On my end, at my last scan before EPU (last Friday, my EPU was today), I had 8 good follies and some smaller ones. I asked the doc if it made sense to wait another day or two for those smaller follies to develop, and he said that the problem was that since I had a few follies that were already 20-22 mm, those eggs would become overmature if we waited too long to collect them. Since the biggest follies are likely to contain the best quality eggs, he said that we were better off collecting them. BTW, you're currently in the TWW, right? I remember seeing from the other thread that you were concerned about your beta levels. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that everything develops into a successful pregnancy.

Good luck, everyone,

KitKat72

Hi there,

My first scan in my first IVF cycle on 150 Puregon I had 5 follies. 2nd scan I had 7 but my clinic only considered 3 of them viable at that point (bigger than 10). 3rd scan I had 7 again but only 5 viable (1 was 7 and 1 was 24 so too big).

At EPU I had 4 eggs. I was devastated as our FS had said when asked that "a good result was 12 and a not so good result was 3). Having said that, it was my 1st cycle so my Puregon was relatively low dosage to see how my body would react.

Fortunately for us, they said the eggs that were collected were "textbook quality" and really did ramp up the message of "quality over quantity". Of those 4 eggs, 3 fertilised and all 3 of those made it to blastocyst stage.

I had 1 transferred and that is how I got my BFP and the other 2 are "on ice" - our family in the freezer.

I recount this story not to sound smug but to offer hope to those who maybe don't get the initial results they hoped for.

Good luck to all :goodluck:

Hi everyone,

Interesting to read about doing egg pickup when you only had a few large ones and alot of little ones. I had my pre egg pick up scan on Wednesday and had a 21, 20, 19, 18 and then around 10 between 12 and 16. I was told I had the choice of trying for egg pick up on Friday when I might get 3 or possibly 4 eggs, or I could wait and stay on the hormones for a couple more days in the hope that the smaller ones will grow and I might have the chance of 10 eggs. The nurse suggested that waiting was better so that is what I am doing - Egg pick up on Monday (the larger ones will be gone by then). I'm very anxious and hoping I have made the right choice as I wonder if the ones which have grown faster might have provided the better quality eggs. Oh well too late to stress about it now.

This is my first cycle of IVF and I have been on 225 gonal-F and had no side effects (thankfully).

Lori
DD 13
Started donor search Dec 06, AI Jan 09-Jan 10 with known donor, now IVF with anon donor sperm.

Well from all my follicles I ended up with 12 eggs but only 3 fertilized. Have had one transfered and they are letting the other 2 grow before deciding whether to freeze them or not (because they aren't good quality at this stage). :-(
Just got to hope I do get pregnant this time so it won't matter that I don't have any other embryos. :-)

Good luck dreamrise. I ended up with 21 eggs from my pickup (was aiming for 20, so that was good!), but then only 11 fertilised. I was pretty disappointed. On day 3 only 10 of the 11 were suitable for biopsy. They couldn't get results for 2 of them because the cells they took had no nuclei. Seven of them all had chromosome problems, so we were left with one precious little healthy embryo. It was transferred last Sunday and I've got my fingers crossed that this little miracle is growing strong!

Hi Mylitta,
I wish you the best of luck in these next couple of weeks. I'm having my last two embryos transferred today so am going to join you in waiting to see what comes.
-Maggie

The best of luck to both of you, Mylitta and Maggie. I am keeping my fingers crossed for both of you. (Trying to find the four-leaf clover icon but can't figure out how to do it . . . ;( ) For what it's worth, I just found that that one of my only 2 embies just gave me my BFP, so it's definitely possible with only 1 or 2!! FX for you both.

Oops, sorry, that applies to you, too, Dreamrise. FX!!!

Kitkat72

Congratulations Kitkat, that's wonderful news!!!

Best of luck Maggie!