Dealing with feedback during your cycle

Clinic staff need to provide patients with updates about how treatment is progressing, whether the news is positive or negative. While patients want this information, receiving unexpected or disappointing feedback during treatment can cause significant emotional impact.

Receiving negative feedback during treatment can cause people to feel anxious, worried, or to blame their body for not working properly. Many people internalise these updates, feeling personally responsible for outcomes that are largely biological and outside their control. These feelings can become stronger when there is limited explanation about why the result occurred. Because all stages of IVF are closely connected, disappointing news in one phase can also lead to frustration or worry about what may happen next. Some patients may fear the cycle will not succeed, even when treatment is still continuing.

Patients can receive ‘bad news’ at any point during IVF treatment. Bad news is any information that seriously and negatively affects a person’s view of the future. However, many types of negative or unexpected feedback do not end the cycle. Research shows that treatment outcomes can vary widely between individuals and even between cycles in the same person. Patients may still continue treatment, produce viable embryos, and achieve pregnancy despite receiving difficult updates along the way.

Common types of medical feedback in IVF cycles

The following sections explain three common types of feedback patients may receive during IVF treatment: information about AMH levels, ovarian response to stimulation, and the number or quality of eggs collected. Understanding what these findings might mean can help patients feel more informed and supported during treatment.

Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) levels

Before or during treatment, patients may receive feedback about their AMH level. AMH is a hormone measured in a blood test that gives an estimate of ovarian reserve, meaning the number of eggs that may remain in the ovaries.

Research shows that AMH can help clinics plan stimulation medication and anticipate how the ovaries might respond to treatment. However, it is important to know that AMH does not predict IVF success on its own.

Some people with lower AMH levels still produce eggs and achieve pregnancy through IVF, while some people with higher AMH levels may still face challenges during treatment. AMH is only one part of a much more complex biological picture that includes egg quality, sperm factors, embryo development, and implantation.

Ovarian response to stimulation

Patients may be informed that their ovaries are producing fewer follicles than expected, or that their hormone (estradiol) levels are lower than expected. It’s also possible to have more follicles than expected which can lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).

According to research, low or unexpected ovarian response to stimulation can happen for several reasons including, natural variation in how ovaries respond to medication, age, underlying fertility disorders, or individual biology. Even with the same medication, different people and even the same person in different cycles may respond differently.

Learn more about Ovarian response to stimulation.

Low number or quality of collected eggs

After stimulation, eggs are collected from follicles in a procedure called egg collection. The number of eggs collectedmay sometimes be lower than expected, even if the scans during stimulation looked promising. This can happen because not every follicle contains a mature egg, or because some eggs are not ready at the time of collection. The number of eggs collected varies widely between patients, and even cycles with a small number of eggs can still lead to viable embryos.

The number and quality of eggs collectedcan vary for many reasons, including natural differences in how ovaries respond to stimulation medication, age, ovarian reserve, and individual biology. It is also common for the number of eggs to differ between IVF cycles.

Learn more about low number of eggs or quality of eggs.

Help and support for dealing with negative feedback

If you need help understanding your results or what they might mean for your treatment plan you should speak with a fertility specialist.

If you feel you would benefit from some emotional or psychological support in dealing with feedback you should speak with a fertility counsellor or a psychologist

Complete this self-assessment questionnaire to identify coping strategies that can help when you have received difficult or negative feedback during IVF treatment. It will help you understand how you respond to these challenges and highlight ways to support you in managing stress, uncertainty, and the emotions that may follow.