We did two egg retrievals almost two months apart and these are the results. Sharing in hopes that it will help some and more importantly highlight how different each cycle can be so do not lose hope after one (or two) bad ones. We got outrageously lucky on our first round but I know many clinics will use that for a reference point to then tweak any future retrievals and protocols.

Couple of other reference points - both retrievals done shortly after I turned 41, AMH of 1.6 at last testing back in December, conventional insemination for both (sperm quality good), and lower Gonal dose on the second cycle per my request. I was also taking more supplements and higher doses of CoQ10 prior to the second one and apparently that didn't make a positive difference in my case.

Best of luck to all in the IVF trenches.

Cycle 1 vs Cycle 2 - Final Results

Metric	First Cycle	Second Cycle
Gonal-F Dose	300 IU	225 IU ↓
Menopur Dose	150 IU	150 IU
Peak Estrogen	3394 pg/mL	2438 pg/mL ↓
Eggs Retrieved	17	10 ↓
Fertilized	7	5 ↓
Fertilization Rate	41%	50% ✅
Blastocysts	5	2 ↓
Blast Rate	71%	40% ↓
Tested Embryos	5	2 ↓
Euploid Embryos	4	0
Euploid Rate	80%	0% ↓
Aneuploid Embryos	1 (monosomy 15)	2 (both aneuploid)
Embryo Grades	5AA, 5AA, 5AB, 5BA	N/A