Egg collection

During your treatment planning appointment you will be given an approximate date for your egg collection.

However we will not know the precise date until we see how your ovaries respond to the follicle stimulating hormones (FSH). We will confirm your collection date at least 2 days before the procedure.

What happens during egg collection?

Egg collection is usually performed under general anaesthetic and takes about 30 minutes. You should not eat or drink anything from midnight of the preceding evening.

On the morning of your collection day please report to main reception at your appointment time. A ward clerk will escort you to your room.
On the ward the nurses will perform routine pre-operative checks. You will also meet with the anaesthetist. A member of our ACS team will also meet with you. Be sure and ask any questions or raise any concerns you might have. We understand this might be a stressful time.

During this procedure you will be given antibiotics to decrease the risk of an pelvic infection. Be sure and discuss any allergies to antibiotics at this pre-op meeting.

Once you are under anaesthetic you will be wheeled into the operating theatre. The consultant will use an ultrasound probe with a fine, hollow needle attached. The probe allows the consultant to view the follicles in your ovaries. They will insert the needle through your vaginal wall into the follicle. Each follicle will be flushed with fluid which is then sucked out through the hollow needle into a glass tube and quickly passed to our embryologists for examination.

While you are in theatre our embryologist will be examining the contents of every tube passed to them and separating each egg collected. By the time you leave the theatre we will know the final quantity collected.

While you are in theatre

On the day of collection your partner or donor will need to produce a semen sample after abstaining from ejaculation for at least 2-3 days. If you feel there may be difficulty in producing this sample please let us know so that we can make other arrangements for production and storage before egg collection. In donor cases we will use frozen semen.

After egg collection

After your egg collection you will be observed in a recovery area until the anaesthetist is happy with your recovery. Everyone recovers from anaesthetic differently but you should return to the ward about 30 minutes after your procedure.

Before you are discharged a member of our ACS team will tell you how many eggs we collected. You should be able to go home about 2-4 hours after egg collection. You will not be able to drive for at least 24 hours so please arrange for someone to drive you home and stay with you overnight.

You may experience some vaginal bleeding abdominal discomfort but it should not be excessive. Please call us if you are at all concerned.

Hormone support (Luteal Support)

To maintain your endometrium (inner lining of your uterus) your body needs Progesterone. This is usually given as pessaries to be inserted twice daily in the vagina or rectum. Sometimes progesterone is given as an injection.

For some we prescribe human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) to stimulate your ovaries to produce their own progesterone.

We will call you

One of our embryologists will telephone you on the morning after your egg collection to inform you of the number of eggs that have fertilised normally (number of embryos). Occasionally none of the eggs are fertilised and transfer cannot be performed. Please ensure we have a current contact number for you.