Egg collection, the procedure where the eggs are collected from your ovaries is scheduled when follicles have a reached a certain size during hormonal ovarian stimulation. This is checked with an ultrasound examination and usually takes place ten to twelve days from the beginning of treatment.

Typically, IVF treatment starts with menses, so an egg collection is expected close to the expected ovulation time, usually just a few days earlier. However, there are other cases where IVF treatment and ovarian stimulation may start at a different time with regards to the start of menses. For example, women at advanced age may already have follicles grown to a certain size by the time their period starts, and occasionally, an egg collection may be scheduled during their period, with a much shorter treatment of ovarian stimulation.

Over the past few years, ovarian stimulation protocols that combine both the first and the second half of a menstrual cycle have been introduced, taking advantage of the different waves of ovulation during the same cycle. In the so called “duo stimulation” protocols two egg collections are taking place during the same cycle, one in the middle and another one near the end of it. Results so far are very encouraging, as more eggs are collected during one cycle, in a shortened period of time. 

Moreover, experience keeps growing from medical treatments in women diagnosed with some form of cancer that go through ovarian stimulation to freeze their eggs and embryos, before going through chemotherapy. It appears that stimulating the ovaries with hormonal treatment can be effective at any point during the menstrual cycle of a woman, with good results and numbers of eggs available to cryopreserve, regardless of the day of the cycle.

It is important to note that while egg collection can take place at nearly any point of the menstrual cycle, embryotransfer can only be scheduled during certain dates of the cycle, depending on hormonal levels of the cycle and changes in blood levels of progesterone, in specific. So, having an egg collection scheduled at any point during the cycle may provide ease and flexibility for many women, with the limitation that an embryotransfer may not be always possible in that same cycle.

©2021, Nicholas Christoforidis, Fertility Matters
Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.