What is the Retrieval Day Like? Who Will Be There?

During the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation phase of an IVF or egg freezing cycle, regular blood and ultrasound examinations will monitor the development of the ovarian follicles. When they’re ready, your care team will schedule your egg retrieval procedure and you’ll take a hormonal “trigger shot” to signal to the body to mature the eggs. 

Thirty-six hours later, the eggs are ready to be removed from the ovaries. You will arrive at one of our full-service IVF centers that have surgical facilities needed for this minor outpatient surgery. You will have an IV placed in your arm and change out of your regular clothes. After speaking with your care team, including the anesthesiologist and reproductive endocrinologist performing the retrieval, you’ll be wheeled into the operating room. 

A light anesthesia will be administered and while you’re asleep, the doctor uses a transvaginal ultrasound probe the visualize the follicles in your ovaries. A tube above the probe allows the doctor to advance a needle, which is used to suction out the egg-containing fluid from each follicle. This fluid is passed to the embryologist, who looks under a microscope in the lab to find each microscopic mature egg. 

After all mature eggs have been retrieved (typically in about 20 minutes), you’ll wake up in a recovery room with your post-op nurse by your side. Usually your support person can also be with you as soon as you’re in recovery, and you’ll find out right away how many eggs we were able to retrieve. After about an hour in recovery, most people are good to head home for the day with a partner, friend, or family member to drive them.