Does IVF Remove All Your Eggs?

As with any medical procedure, it’s natural to have concerns about IVF. One of the understandable concerns is does IVF remove all your eggs? because you don’t want to proverbially put them all in one basket. Fortunately, the answer is no. However, egg retrieval is an integral part of IVF, so it’s important to understand the procedure

All About Your Eggs

At birth, your ovaries already contained all the eggs you will ever have, around 2 million. While that sounds like a huge number, your body steadily loses eggs as you age. At puberty, your egg supply has already dwindled to around 300,000 to 400,000 eggs, and you continue to lose approximately 800 to 1,000 eggs each month.

Once you begin your menstrual cycle, your body chooses a group of eggs every month that each have the potential to mature. Ultimately, just one egg typically fully matures and is released during ovulation. The others are discarded, and the process is repeated until you reach menopause.

During IVF,  your doctor gives you medicine to stimulate more of your eggs to mature. These eggs would have otherwise been discarded as a normal part of your menstrual cycle and don’t impact your ovarian reserve. 

How IVF Works

If you’re using your eggs and your partner’s sperm, you’ll both play active roles in the process. IVF can also be done with donor eggs or donor sperm, and reciprocal IVF offers lesbian couples a way for both partners to have a biological connection to their children. Certain steps in the process will be different if you’re using donor eggs or doing reciprocal IVF.

Prior to beginning your treatment, your doctor will check your ovarian reserve and run tests to make sure you’re a good candidate for IVF. You may need to take medication to regulate your menstrual cycle. Lesbian couples may also need to take medication to sync their menstrual cycles. 

Next, you’ll begin hormone injections to stimulate multiple eggs to mature. You’ll take these injections for about 10 to 12 days, and you’ll be monitored closely during this time. When your eggs are close to maturity, you’ll have a final “trigger shot” to stimulate your eggs to fully mature. 

About 36 hours after you receive your trigger shot, your doctor will retrieve your eggs. Your partner will provide a sperm sample, or you’ll have donor sperm available that will be injected into each mature egg, and the embryos are given time to grow. 

If you’re having a fresh embryo transfer, your embryo will be transferred within seven days. Otherwise, your embryos will be frozen, and you will need to take medication to prepare your uterus for the transfer. Frozen transfers are necessary if you plan to do genetic testing.

How Is Egg Retrieval Done?

The egg retrieval itself is a simple outpatient procedure. Once your eggs are mature, you’ll come to the clinic and be given anesthesia so you won’t feel any pain. Your doctor will insert a needle through your vagina and into your ovarian follicles, and the liquid and eggs within them are removed. 

An embryologist will examine your eggs and begin the process of fertilization. You’ll be able to return home as soon as you have recovered from your procedure, but will need someone to drive you.

Does IVF Affect Your Future Fertility?

IVF is one of the most successful treatments available, but many people also have concerns about whether it will affect their future fertility. Again, the answer is no. Because IVF only removes the eggs that would normally have been broken down by your body, there’s no impact to your ovarian reserve or your future fertility. 

Your age and ovarian reserve do impact IVF’s success, so as you age, you simply have fewer eggs to work with in each cycle. 

In general, the more eggs your doctor is able to retrieve during IVF, the more likely you are to have viable embryos, and ultimately, to have a successful pregnancy. 

The RISE Difference

At RISE Fertility, we take the time to get to know you as a person and a patient, and schedule a thorough fertility assessment to help determine which treatments are best for you. As a concierge fertility clinic, RISE offers unparalleled care and access to your team during IVF and all fertility treatments.  

We also believe in empowering our patients to be active participants in their care and are always happy to address all your concerns about IVF and other procedures. Schedule a  consult today to begin your fertility journey.