IVF - 20+ eggs retrieved, none fertilized. What would cause this?

[Anonymous]

No known male issue. Supposedly all eggs were mature.

Why? I’m so confused

[Anonymous]

Age?

[Anonymous]

31

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry. Yes age can make the egg’s harder to penetrate so that might be a factor. Did you do conventional or ICSi? You’ll want to hear from your doctor about what the embryologist observed. Eggs can be mature but not look good. I think total fertilization failure is normally an egg quality issue, but not always. Have you had a DNA fragmentation test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sorry. Yes age can make the egg’s harder to penetrate so that might be a factor. Did you do conventional or ICSi? You’ll want to hear from your doctor about what the embryologist observed. Eggs can be mature but not look good. I think total fertilization failure is normally an egg quality issue, but not always. Have you had a DNA fragmentation test?

Sperm* dna frag test that is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sorry. Yes age can make the egg’s harder to penetrate so that might be a factor. Did you do conventional or ICSi? You’ll want to hear from your doctor about what the embryologist observed. Eggs can be mature but not look good. I think total fertilization failure is normally an egg quality issue, but not always. Have you had a DNA fragmentation test?

Sperm* dna frag test that is.

No, I haven’t. We did conventional, not ICSI.

[Anonymous]

PCOS, by chance?

[Anonymous]

I was going to say pcos or overstimulated? Sounds like too many eggs at the sacrifice of quality. Sorry! It’s definitely a learning curve

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you were overstimmed and the eggs were a little burned. I bet that they will adjust your protocol next time to get fewer eggs that are higher quality. Are you very light weight? My RE said it can be harder to not overstim on women who are very small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you were overstimmed and the eggs were a little burned. I bet that they will adjust your protocol next time to get fewer eggs that are higher quality. Are you very light weight? My RE said it can be harder to not overstim on women who are very small.

I am average weight (5’4” / 135), but as others guessed, I do have PCOS. How frustrating! I feel like the doctor didn’t take that into account sufficiently, based on what you’re saying. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you were overstimmed and the eggs were a little burned. I bet that they will adjust your protocol next time to get fewer eggs that are higher quality. Are you very light weight? My RE said it can be harder to not overstim on women who are very small.

I am average weight (5’4” / 135), but as others guessed, I do have PCOS. How frustrating! I feel like the doctor didn’t take that into account sufficiently, based on what you’re saying. Ugh.

Another factor with PCOS is that the outer layer of the egg can be a bit tough for the sperm to penetrate. That, in addition to overstimming/frying the eggs. Ask for a low/slow antagonist protocol, and do ICSI.

I’m sorry, OP. I know this has to be incredibly disheartening.

[Anonymous]

What was your dose of stim medication? Did you start off the cycle on birth control pills? I expect they’ll lower the stim dose for your next cycle. It’s better to have 8-10 eggs of good quality than 20+ of poor quality, as you’ve experienced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was your dose of stim medication? Did you start off the cycle on birth control pills? I expect they’ll lower the stim dose for your next cycle. It’s better to have 8-10 eggs of good quality than 20+ of poor quality, as you’ve experienced.

Birth control - yes

150 iu Gonal F and 150 Menopur per day

[Anonymous]

Hard eggs. Do icsi.

[Anonymous]

Over stimmed. Do.icsi next time. Good luck.