vanishing follicle in IVF

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]This is for anyone who has had a follicle vanish or follicles vanish during their IVF cycle. This is for anyone who has gone into a scan during the IVF cycle and been told that a follicle or two or three, they were counting, is no longer there. What you were told was accurate. One or two follicles, gone. You will likely retrieve one or two fewer eggs than you were hoping for. But here's what research is now proposing about what actually happened. And it matters for how you understand your result. That follicle, as it grew, reached the limit of what the surrounding ovarian tissue could physically accommodate, exactly like a balloon. Not a hormonal failure.

[00:00:41]Not something you did. The tissue encasing the follicle could not stretch far enough, a phenomena that becomes more common as your ovarian cortex elasticity elasticity naturally reduces with age. Happens more often in older women. The follicle ruptured before the retrieval. That's why it vanished. And here's what the evidence says happens next. The remaining follicles continue to develop normally. They have no sensitivity to the progesterone that rose locally in that one follicle. They carry no receptors for it. They're proceeding on their own schedule, completely unaffected. And what does that mean on the retrieval day? Your results will be defined by the follicles that are still there, not by one that wasn't. You've not lost a cycle unless half or more than half of your follicles have disappeared. You've lost one or two follicles. The research is clear, and that's not the same thing. And also, neither should your clinic be worried about it. But what's important is that if you see more follicles grow and disappear, it may be time to cancel the cycle.