Expected # of eggs at retrieval vs antral follicle count

vballbaby

Hi ladies, I figured I'd start a new thread so as not to hijack the precious penguins check in. I'm wondering for those that have gone through IVF, was there a correlation between the number of antral follicles you had to how many eggs were retrieved? I had only 7 follies for my IUI and I'm about to start stimming Jan 2nd for IVF. I'm just wondering what I should expect (7-10??) (1-7?). I know there are follies that they "can't see" until you start stimming (or that's what I understand anyway). I was just curious what others have experienced or if it's just a whole different ball game once you start stimming. Thanks!
Edited for comprehension

emmuffy

My understanding is AFC is not a great guide, and that AMH is a better predictor of how many you are likely to see (AFC depends very much on interpretation, which is a little subjective). My AFC for IVF#1 was 12, and I had 8R, 5M.

BootsOrHearts

I have only done one cycle, AFC was 11 (which they said was good for being low AMH) and we retrieved 7. They only saw 5 on the last ultrasound then they 'found' 2 more at retrieval. 

vballbaby

@panda100‌ wow I never even thought about how bcp would affect the AFC. So friday when I go in for baseline I shouldn't be shocked if they see none? Thanks @emmuffy‌ I do have low AMH so I'm keeping my fingers crossed

lilycakes78

I totally thought I would get more eggs than my AFC, which is 8. But I got less - 6. I was so upset at first, but I've since learned that the number of eggs retrieved is not the most important. What's more important is how many fertilize and thrive in the lab. Quality over quantity. Good luck with your cycle!

calbiz

AFC was 9 and I had 9 retrieved. Maybe it was a fluke?

LilyHarper

My afc was in the twenties and at our last u/s before ER we saw 8. We had 11 at ER, 1 over mature, 1 under mature. But I agree with what @lilycakes78‌ said, it's more about what happens with the number you get than anything else. Even though we had fewer to start with, we wound up with more blasts than they expected if it had followed my afc.

mommiesandbabies

My AFC was over 30, and I had 11 retrieved (9 fert). My AMH is high-ish and I'm an overstim risk, so my protocol was adjusted accordingly.

vballbaby

Wow thanks for all the responses ladies. Kinda seems a little all over the map. I'm kinda nervous about how many I will get... :-/

BootsOrHearts

In theory, you can't get more than your AFC but it's really hard to count things that are so small on an ultrasound. AFC can change a lot cycle to cycle too. If you are DOR and your AFC is really low (my last cycle it was 3 or 4!) they may cancel and wait until the next one as it may limit the eggs available. If that happens don't freak though. This cycle mine was 11 or 12 so if we were doing a fresh cycle this time we would have been in good shape! 

vballbaby

@bootsorhearts, sorry what's DOR? I should know all of these by now!

emmuffy

diminished ovarian reserve

vballbaby

Ok so I did know that one at some point lol. Thanks!

BootsOrHearts

Sorry I know the acronyms are redonkulous. ;-)

SweetieShellieH

I posted this very question back in November, before my IVF. This time I can answer ! My antral follicle count was 23. I ended up with 37 follicles total, 11 which were empty, 26 eggs retrieved, and 17 were mature at ER (but they matured 3 overnight so I had a total of 20 mature)

vballbaby

@sweetieshellieh wow what an awesome number!! Good luck with your FET this month! >:D<
I think in my own mind, I would be happy with 7 good ones, with an AF count of 7! I'm hoping all that I read about quality over quantity will pan out for me. But I'm also not getting my hopes up too much (I say that outloud but in reality my hopes are already up, LOL).

SweetieShellieH

@vballbaby I know what you mean. I always tell myself to not get too hopeful, but I do anyway! 

vballbaby

So when I originally asked this question, I didn't realize that even though I had an AFC of 9 when I started stimming, that they all need to grow around the same rate, and now I have 2 lead follicles so they told me today that I have "two" eggs really..... I'm hoping the other little guys can catch up. I've been reading a lot of success stories with very few eggs, and sometimes they find more.One can only hope.

tptbabe

Hopefully some of the others will catch up @vballbaby!

FWIW, they didn't check my AFC at baseline. The cycle prior though, I had an AFC of 11. I had 18 eggs at retrieval, and 14 were mature. I had 3-4 follicles ahead of the others at about the same point in stims that you are though, so I have some hope for a few more for you The RE kept reassuring me that they could get a few more out of me, but I never believed them! I was unbelievably stressed out about it and was convinced that I was only going to have a couple eggs.

vballbaby

@tptbabe‌ thank you! My dr is not encouraging. I think that's half the problem. Maybe he likes to under promise in hopes to over deliver lol but the stress doesn't help. I can't wait to see tommorows scan.

tptbabe

vballbaby said:

@tptbabe‌ thank you! My dr is not encouraging. I think that's half the problem. Maybe he likes to under promise in hopes to over deliver lol but the stress doesn't help. I can't wait to see tommorows scan.

I work the same way really. I don't like to get my hopes up either, but there really is always hope! Good luck tomorrow!

przemosbabe

Mine has never matched. I am always down regulated with birth control or lupron or both and there have been times where they have see zero with me too.

Kbrooke06

Love this thread! its great hearing everyone else's information

 

I just left my u/s and they only saw 4 follies, so we are worried. We weren't told AFC at our baseline, so we didn't really know what to expect. Just crossing fingers at this point.

vballbaby

@kbrooke06 I am with you, crossing my fingers that my small ones catch up to get a few more. Good luck and keep me posted! It's all so stressful, especially when you feel you get bad news or have a setback. It's such a rollercoaster!

Deardra77

*****SAIF response warning******
IVF that resulted in my son I had either 21 or 22 AFC but only 5 retrieved (0 fertilized, carried out a RISCI the following day and had 4 fertilize, transferred 3 due to extremely low chance of a RISCI embyro being successful, was told 7%, and other arrested in the lab).

IVF that resulted in my daughter I had AFC that was pretty much the same, had 7 retrieved, 5 were mature, and all fertilized with ISCI, 2 were immature but matured over night and fertilized with ISCI. Transferred 1 (age 37), frozen 2 (grade 4ba) and 4 arrested in the lab. So for me the number retrieved wasn't predicted by any of the lab work which was all awesome or the AFC and suggested is have lots of eggs. I'm not entirely sure why the number retrieved was so sucky but it worked and that's all that matters. So yeah, I was freaking out at each point through the IVF with my son but all that went wrong didn't matter in the end, it's really the beta that is all that counts. Good luck to you and try not to
Stress too much. I know that's a hell of a lot easier said than done!!!

nowthatsalady

I can finally participate in this thread after getting a second opinion yesterday. My current clinic does not look at AFC, but rather AMH (mine is 0.5)  and FSH (mine is 5.5). I got 4 eggs with IVF #1 and 5 eggs with IVF #2 (and 4 empty zonas). I found out yesterday that my AFC is 10. 

vballbaby

Well I can finally contribute to my own question as well. My AFC was 8 with 2 lead follies throughout my stimming, and  had 4 eggs retrieved yesterday, 3 were mature, 1 fertilized (we used ICSI). Hoping my little fighter hangs on for 2 day transfer.