The Retrieval: The “Eggs” Are Cooked!

After multiple days and nights of shots, several early morning ultrasounds, and endless blood draws, D Day has arrived: it’s time for the retrieval! Your doctor has used the information from these early AM get-togethers to time the procedure perfectly. While the goal is to obtain the highest number of mature eggs (remember, only mature eggs can be fertilized!), we don’t want to risk quality. Therefore, while the shots could go on and on (don’t look so excited!), we stop them when we feel we have hit the sweet spot—the highest number of mature high-quality eggs.

The retrieval (a.k.a. the egg extraction) will occur approximately 35 hours after the trigger/final shot (hCG, ovidrel). The finale of shots and the retrieval are timed so that the eggs have reached their “finale” in maturation when they make their curtain call in the embryology lab!

In nearly all cases, the egg retrieval will take place in an operating room adjacent to the embryology lab. And while it may be cold in there (brrrr, blankets please!), there will be many people ready to make the experience less frigid and less frightening. In addition to the physician, the nursing staff, and the operating room staff, there will most likely be an anesthesiologist present who will administer pain medication to you during the procedure. This will alleviate almost all of the discomfort and erase most of your memory of the procedure. However, because anesthesia will be given, we ask you not to eat or drink anything after midnight on the night of the procedure (a small price to pay for a pain-free experience!).

The egg retrieval is a vaginal procedure; with the help of a vaginal ultrasound, physicians watch themselves as they pass a needle through the vagina into the ovary and ultimately into the follicle. The needle is attached to a suction system which, when activated via a foot pedal, allows the follicular fluid and egg to drain into a tube.

The tube filled with follicular fluid and hopefully an egg is walked from the operating room into the IVF laboratory; an embryologist will be anxiously awaiting its arrival (let the egg hunt begin!). In most cases, the retrieval is pretty short and straightforward and takes no longer than 20 minutes (timing can vary based on how many follicles you have to drain). You will wake up in the recovery room with little memory of the event, asking us when it is going to start!

In many ways, although the egg retrieval feels like the finish line, your journey is only just beginning. And while the stomach/thigh shots will come to a halt as well as the early AM rendezvous, the waiting game has just begun. Much of the real information about egg, sperm, and embryo quality will come over the next several days.

Although the waiting game is the worst, a lot of information will be gleaned during this time period. One word of advice: be aware of the dropoff that will inevitably occur over the course of the next few days. Follicle number does not equal egg number, egg number does not equal embryo number, and embryo number does not equal baby. (LINK: 5 + 5 = 2? The Difference between Follicle Count and Embryo Number) If you are prepared for this dropoff, the loss will be easier. Remember—don’t count your chickens before they hatch!