4 identified and 1 added

4 ID'd- I had the first ultrasound yesterday at 8AM to look at the egg follicles and they also did blood work to look at my hormone levels. They called me yesterday afternoon to tell me there are 4 good follicles ranging from 12-15 mm identified and that my hormone were a really good level. I was a little concerned about the quantity of follicles and that it was too low, since I have heard as many as 20 follicles developed and I thought more was better. The nurse assured me that 4 follicles are fine, since it's common for large quantity of follicles to have low quality egg. So now we need to hope that the 4 follicles that are developing have eggs inside that are good and high quality to get removed safely sometime next week.

1 added- Since my follicles have grown to over 14 mm, I was started on a new medication Ganirelix, which helps from the egg from being prematurely released. This is in a pre-mixed, preloaded syringe with a short needle and I take it in the morning, so pretty easy. I am still doing nightly shots of Gonal-f that help push follicle growth.

I go back for an ultrasound and blood work tomorrow morning, they will hopefully tell me when they will do the retrieval of the follicles. The retrieval process requires for me to be sedated to twilight (similar to a root canal) where they go into vaginally with a small needle and aspirate the follicles to remove. The eggs are then immediately handed to an embryologist, who take and fertilize with a fresh sample.

I will add some more resources about IVF and the specific next steps so you can learn more.