Why you may not get eggs during your egg collection

Egg collection is a common procedure in IVF clinics. However, at times, the doctor may fail to collect any eggs at all because of the following five reasons:

1. The rupture of the follicle prior to egg collection due to poor timing of HCG injection or a delay of more that 36 hours in egg collection may cause eggs to be lost in follicular fluid in the pouch of Douglas, so that the doctor cannot find them.
2. Technical difficulties during egg collection such as obesity of the patient or adhesions in the pelvic region making ovaries inaccessible with the vaginal ultrasound probe. This is common in cases where the doctor is inexperienced and the patient cannot sustain pain or tolerate vaginal manipulations without anesthesia.
3. Failure by the doctor to use double lumen needle for flushing each follicle scrupulously . This means that even though there is an egg, the doctor may fail to retrieve it 
4. Inexperienced embryologists doctors may not see the egg within the oocyte cumulus complex even when it is there
5. Due to empty follicle syndrome. Read more here http://blog.drmalpani.com/2011/06/what-is-empty-follicle-syndrome-why.html

        These problems are far commoner in clinic where IVF  patients are treated as a batch and not not given close attention or monitoring at a personal level.

It is important for patients with diminished ovarian reserve to find an experienced doctor who collects eggs under anesthesia, using a double lumen needle.