# What causes empty follicles at egg collection ?



## BigSis (Nov 6, 2005)

Does anyone know why it is possible to have follicles but no eggs inside at egg collection ?

I had 4 follicles aspirated but there was only 1 egg retrieved and the man who did the procedure said the others were 'empty'. I am at a loss and don't understand the reasons for this. Did I ovulate too soon perhaps ? Or did I not respond to the drugs very well ?

I would be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this.

Thanks

BigSis


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## Sam2995 (Apr 26, 2005)

This seems to be one of those very unclear areas.  It happened to me to.  At my scan two days before my last egg collection they were convinced that all my follies contained eggs.  But they only got half the eggs they expected.  I never really got a satisfactory answer as to what happened to them other than that it was probably because I was "coasted".  So I would also be grateful for any insight.

Sam


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## little nell (Sep 19, 2005)

I too had reasonable follicles (9 and 6) but only got 1 egg from each retrieval. I was told that this was down to ovarian reserve and that, for me,  it was more likely to be due to the age factor. There are some good articles on it if you google empty follicle syndrome or something similar.


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## Sam2995 (Apr 26, 2005)

Thought this was quite an interesting link re EFS

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?

Is there anyone reading that had empty follicle syndrome one cycle but went on to have a more successful one next time round?

Sam[br]: 19/08/06, 19:08And this one:

http://rh.serono.co.il/uploads/files/HR1999_Penarrubia1703.pdf

I think they are both saying that EFS is a drug related problem and it is likely that a subsquent cycle will be fine?

Sam


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## HollyB (Sep 14, 2004)

Hi BigSis, Sam and Little Nell,

I had a cycle in August 2004 where I had somewhere in the region of 15 follicles - but got no eggs at all. However, I have had 3 cycle since and had 13, 10 and 6 eggs respectively. 

I hope this gives you some hope. I know it is devastating - and I was told by my clinic at the time that the reason was because I had no eggs, but obviously that was not the case.

Good luck to all of you,

Holly


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## ☼♥ Minxy ♥☼ © (Jan 13, 2005)

Hi

Even in natural cycles, not every follicle will have an egg inside...a follicle is a fluid filled cyst and sometimes they just don't have an egg.

Probably not helped much  but wishing you lots of luck 
Take care
Natasha


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## BigSis (Nov 6, 2005)

Hello
Thanks for your replies, maybe there's hope yet.

I'm only 34 so in theory should be yielding lots of eggs but I think that the endometriosis is interfering with the drugs. Also, I was only on 150mg a day of Puregon which is quite low I gather. Also, my clinic were 'shoe-horning' me into their schedule so perhaps more time stimming may have yielded more ? Its all still rather unclear but I gather that cycles can be different and it may be drug-related so that is encouraging.

Still don't know whether to try again.
Thanks again anyhow.

BigSis


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