Egg-spectations: What’s a Normal Egg Count in IVF?

How many eggs should you expect during IVF? Is 8 enough? Is 20 too many? In this episode of Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday, Dr. Mark Amols cracks open the real data behind egg retrieval numbers and answers the question everyone’s asking: “Am I making enough eggs?”

We break down what’s normal by age, what counts as mature, and why having more eggs isn’t always better. Learn how AMH, antral follicle count, and stimulation protocols impact your results—and why quality beats quantity every time. From global practices to your personal golden egg, we’re setting realistic egg-spectations and busting fertility myths, one follicle at a time.

Whether you're preparing for IVF or supporting someone who is, this episode brings the facts, the stats, and a few laughs to lighten the hormone-fueled ride. 🥚✨

👂 Listen now to learn:

• Average egg counts by age
• What really matters: total vs. mature eggs
• Why more eggs ≠ more success
• Global egg retrieval differences
• How to advocate for yourself during IVF

📢 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a 5-star review if your ovaries felt seen.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of 'Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday' with Dr. Mark Amols. If you found this episode insightful, please share it with friends and family who might benefit from our discussion. Remember, your feedback is invaluable to us – leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.

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Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us at TBFT@NewDirectionFertility.com.

Join us next Tuesday for more discussions on fertility, where we blend medical expertise with a touch of humor to make complex topics accessible and engaging. Until then, keep the conversation going and remember: understanding your fertility is a journey we're on together.

Transcript

0:01

Today we talk about egg specations. What's a normal egg count in IVF? I'm Dr. Mark Amols, and this is Taco about Fertility Tuesday. One of the questions I always get asked is, am I making enough eggs? This is a common question. I've had people make 20 follicles and they'll say, am I making enough? Do you think that's good? So everyone always wonders if their ovaries are overachievers or if they're just clocking in part time. Well, today we're going to crack open these numbers on egg retrievals in IVF cycles because understanding these numbers help set realistic expectations. And hey, it's always nice to know if your ovaries are punching above their weight. Now, before we jump into the numbers, I think it's important to always understand that when you're looking at data, it may look a lot different than what you expected. And that's because when we hear about information from the public, we get a bit of a bias of information. Let me give an example I've talked about before. If you have a Pap smear and it goes great, you're not going to go run to the Internet and say, oh my God, best Pap smear ever. Five star for sure. Unbelievable. Doctor. No, because that doesn't make sense. But if that doctor is horrible and that pappar was horrible, you're going to write about that. Because that makes sense to write about. No one wants to hear about how everything just went normal. Plus, you're going to sound pretty weird saying you had the five star pap smear. And that's not any different. When it comes to egg numbers, no one's go going to write about, oh, Yeah, I got 12 eggs. That doesn't sound very good. But the person who had, let's say, 40 eggs, they're gonna be like, oh my God, I got so many eggs. And that's great. But in reality, that's not the normal thing. That is the bias of reporting. You're only hearing what's being reported, but you're not hearing all the reporting. It's no different than when people think that women who are 50 years old can have kids. Because again, there's the bias of, reporting. You have Janet Jackson out there saying she got pregnant but not telling the whole truth. And so when all you hear is reporting of one thing, you start to believe that is the norm. But in reality, you're not getting the reporting of the people who weren't doing well. So let's start first by talking numbers. And let's break this into age groups. Let's start first. If you're under 30, if you're under 30, your ovaries are going to feel like they're bustling egg factory. And they're going to typically produce around 18 to 20 eggs per retrieval. Now that doesn't mean all those will be mature. About 15 to 16 mature eggs are going to be ready for fertilization in that age group. But things start to change by the time you're in your early 30s, they're still in great shape. They look awesome. But now you might only get 15 to 18 eggs retrieved. And of those we expect about 12 to 14 mature. Now this is when it gets real. Once you go across age 35, those numbers start the dip. Women between 35 and 37 usually see around 13 to 14 eggs. About 11 mature. At age 38 to 40, you're typically looking at around 11 total eggs. With about 9 mature and over 40, your orders might be putting in fewer hours. With 41 to 42 year olds getting around 9 to 10 eggs, 7, 8 mature. And if you're over 42, you might average about 7 to 8 total eggs. About 6 mature. So yeah, the ovaries after 40, they kind of like their free time. I tend to tell everyone that on average normal amount eggs is going to be somewhere around eight to 12 mature eggs. Now that is a bit of a summary of all the age groups, but that's a general role. When people make between 12 and 16, I would say they are above average. And if you are making more than 16, like 16 to 20, I would call you an overachiever. Now it doesn't mean people don't get less than this and that people don't get more than this. We're talking about a bell shaped curve. Where does the majority of people fall into? And so I would say anyone who gets eight to 12 eggs, and if you're under 38, you have a very high chance of coming away successful. After 38 to about age 40, you still have a good chance, but it's possible you may need another cycle. After 40, there's a very good chance you'll need at least a second IVF cycle with eight to 12 eggs. And so when people make more eggs it just helps them have more chances, but it doesn't make you abnormal if you don't make that amount of eggs. Age isn't the only factor in play here. Let's talk about AMH levels, anti mallarin hormone. This is basically the ovarian inventory number. If you have higher MH levels, it means you probably are going to get more eggs, while lower MH levels are going to mean you'probably get fewer eggs at retrieval. AMH is a good predictor of how many follicles you're going to get in the retrieval. But there's more factors here. Your angral follicle count, you can have the greatest EMH there is, but if there are only four follicles on your ovary, that's only X you're going to get. You can't get more eggs than they are there. It doesn't matter what the image shows. The aimage is just kind of an association between the number of eggs you'll get and your AMH level. And if you listend to some of my podcasts in the past, you know that high FSH levels can also limit how many follic call you're goingna get because you may not respond this well. But then there's even a step further. That's your doctor. Different doctors, are willing to be more aggressive. And so some doctors give the same protocol for everyone and that's okay. But some doctors might even increase the medication doses for some people. And I do that. Now, we're not trying not to get ovarian hyperspimulation, but if I know someone's doing IVF for PGTM M and I know they're going to lose a lot of embryos because they have a disorder affects 50% of their embryos, I'm going to push them to try to make a lot more eggs. I do want to be in that 20 range. Whereas if I know someone's just going through regular ivf, I may not take that much risk. I'm going to shoot around 16 eggs on them if they're younger. And this is where I always talk about talking to your doctor. If you want a lot more eggs, let them know, hey, I'm okay. Being a little more uncomfortable. I know I might have a slight risk of ohss, but I really like to get more eggs. And that's not a reasonable discussion. Doesn't mean they're going to do it. What's a reasonable discussion? And don't be afraid you're going to burn out your eggs. That's not a thing. We put donors through very high doses and we push them, make lots of eggs and their eggs are still great. Now, outside of your doctor, then there's going to be conditions. So if someone is a polycystic ovarian syndrome patient, they're going to make more eggs. Because they have more eggs doesn't mean theygs going to be better. They're just going to make more of them. And if someone with severe diminished ovarian reserve, it doesn't matter what their age is, they're also going to make less. So then the question comes up, is more always better? The point is no. Sure doesnzen egg sounds great, but what matters most is quality. It doesn't matter if you get a billion eggs if only 10 are mature, you only have 10 capable fertilization. Now, that doesn't mean there isn't a sweet spot. Studies show that the optimal sweet spot for retrieval is about 10 to 15 eggs. That's kind of what I was talking about earlier. Eight to 12 eggs usually is going to get you pregnant unless you're in the further years of your life. But what about fewer than five? Well, that will show that you'll have lower chances. What about having over 30? Well, sounds great, but that does increase your riskso oarian hyper stimulation very high. But the real thing is what is the goal? And the goals get pregnant. And so it doesn't matter if you get 12 eggs, 20 eggs or even 30 eggs. What matters is are you going to be able to get pregnant. And that's the good news. When we talk about that sweet spot of 10 to 15, it just means getting a viable embryo to transfer. And so if you get a viable embrber the transfer and you only had, let's say, eight eggs, who cares? You're still in the same spot as everyone else because now you have a chance. In the end, if you're the guy who bought 12 lottery tickets or the guy who bought one, if the guy who bought one won the lottery, he's not embarrassed that he didn't get a bunch of lottery tickets because he still won the lottery. And that should be your goal, winning the lottery, not worrying about how many tickets you got. Sure, you might feel better than your chances because you got more tickets, but the guy only bought one and one, he's still happy. Now, here's some interesting information. If you look at it globally and wonder, do we make more eggs or less eggs than other countries? What you're going to find is we actually make more than most countries now. it's because as Americans, we're better. I mean, of course that's why, but in reality, no, we're not better. It's because of different practices of fact that some countries, they even do mild ivf, purposely retrieving fewer eggs and so if you're someone who's going to another country to maybe do IVF because it's less cost, keep in mind that they might only make six to eight eggs. And so although it may be less cost, you also actually low your chances by not getting as many eggs. In other countries, such as in Israel, where a lot of young people are doing ivf, they actually get more eggs because there's more people who are younger doing an ivf. It's a little bit different there that people go into IVF a lot sooner because it's part of the medical system there. In the end, ovaries age everywhere, but practices vary widely, giving us egg specations that differ globally. So in the end, what you should remember today, yes, there is a general number of eggs that most people get, but in reality, it's probably not what you thought. Ask yourself that question. Did you think that the sweet spot would be 10 to 15? Did you think that most people will come away successful with that number? Or did you think you need around 25? Many times I've heard from people saying, well, this woman, she got 24 eggs and only got two embryos. And that's the fear, because you probably only heard the number of eggs they got. But what you didn't know is that 24 eggs they got, maybe only 16 of them were mature. And that's really the dumb number you need to be looking at. How many mat eggs do you get? That's why when I talk to patients, I don't even really tell them how many egs are re going to get. I said to them, you're probably going to get around 15 mature eggs. And then they get nervous, say, well, what if those aren't mature? And say, no, those are the mature eggs. I tell them, don't worry about how many eess you get. It doesn't matter. What matters is how many mature you get, because those are the ones who can be fertilized. There's no question there's going to be differences. People with different AMHs, Andra follicle counts, even stimulation protocols are going to be different. But egg quality trumps pure quality every time. Trust me, I have proof. My wife was never a quantity person. She didn't make a lot of eggs, but when she made them, she produced that golden ticket. So the point is, averages are just averages. Your story might be different. It only takes one golden egg to change everything. So although lots of liary tickets make us feel better and feel like we have a better chance of winning in the end, the winning ticket is what makes us win. I, know it's scary when you don't make as many eggs because it feels like it won't work. But I can assure you 8 to 12 eggs is normal. And if you have less than that, don't be worried. It doesn't mean you don't have that winning ticket, it just means statistically it might be a little bit lower. So keep those egg expectations real and don't stop trying. Hopefully this podcast was helpful for you. Maybe you know someone's going through ivf, but setting those expectations are very important. Most of the depression, the stress and the disappointments we get are from setting unrealistic expectations. And so informing yourself and, gaining the knowledge of what's normal will help you with those stress levels. Don't get me wrong, I want to have a ton of EG when my wife went through, but setting those expectations are what helped us make it through it with less stress. And that's what you should do as well. Remember, the goal is to come away with a baby, not to see who won who makes the most eggs. As always, I greatly appreciate everyone who listens to this podcast and thanks for joining us again. And don't forget, ovaries can't read statistics, so there's always room for surprises. If you love us, tell your friends about us. Give us a five star review on your favorite medium, but most of all, keep coming back. I look forward to talking you again next week on Talk About Fertility Tuesday.