Amy Schumer’s IVF cycle resulted in 35 eggs being retrieved after simulation but she got only one viable embryo. The comedienne felt lucky to have one good embryo but was also a little surprised by the steep drop from the number of eggs.
You need only one good quality embryo for a successful pregnancy but having more embryos means you will have more chances and better odds of succeeding.
“I went through the IVF process, which is so hard. People do it so many times. I did it one time and I was like, I’m gonna die. This is awful,” Amy said on iHeartRadio podcast, Dear Chelsea.
“I got like 31 eggs and I was like, I’m Fertile Myrtle. I felt very hot.”
Why did 35 eggs give only 1 embryo?
The 38-year-old comedian, who already had one child with husband, Chris Fischer, had shared the news on her Instagram handle.
“Hey! So ivf went like this for us. They retrieved 35 eggs from me. Not bad for the old gal right? Then 26 fertilized! Whoah right?” Schumer wrote. “For all of those we got 1 normal embryo from that and 2 low level mosaic (mosaic means there are some abnormal cells but can still lead to a healthy baby) So we feel lucky we got 1! But what a drop off right?”
At 38 years, it is quite remarkable to have collected 35 eggs, 26 of which fertilized. However, a lot of patients mistake the number of eggs to be a deciding factor for success in IVF.
It is not the count but the quality of gametes that matters, and poor egg quality is one of the main reasons for failure of IVF.
Infact, some of our clients had only 2-3 eggs in a cycle but they resulted in successful pregnancies because the quality was good enough to result in healthy embryos.
There could be other reasons for such a steep drop, including the quality of sperm or her condition of endometriosis, which Schumer had earlier talked about.
Did Amy Schumer do genetic screening of embryos?
It is quite clear that Amy Schumer had several embryos that were screened using pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT), which revealed that two of them were mosaic and only one was completely normal in terms of chromosome numbers and genes, thus having the best chance of resulting in a healthy pregnancy.
If you have a healthy uterine lining and other health factors conducive for a pregnancy, even one good embryo will give you a good chance at conceiving.
Schumer was aware so she expressed gratitude for that one good embryo. She is also grateful to all the women who shared their IVF stories that lend hope to others going through the same.
“Anyway I have so appreciated everyone sharing their Ivf stories with me. They made me feel empowered and supported. So I wanted to tell you how mine went down,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
Grateful to have the money for IVF
IVF is expensive and most people feel the financial burn quite significantly. Amy Schumer had the resources and is aware of her privileged position.
The actor acknowledged the availability of resources for her to be able to go through this treatment. She also went to the extent of sharing her number for people to send her personal stories.
“Anyway I am so grateful for our son and that we have the resources to get help in this way. I just wanted to share and send love and strength to all of the warrior women who go through this process. my number is in my bio if you are open to text me your experience or whatever you feel like. I read them when I can’t sleep or have time.”
Amy Schumer’s had disclosed her pregnancy news over social media, writing that she and her husband were trying to have a sibling for their son.
Why did Amy Schumer’s IVF fail?
There was only normal embryo and so, she had only one chance, and unfortunately it did not work.
“We only got one normal embryo and we tried and it didn’t work … and now I don’t have a uterus,” she said in her podcast interview.
“So we’re gonna have just one child and we’re just enjoying our little family and I’m just focusing on that,” the actress told Handler of her baby boy. “I’m excited about it but I was sad. And it’s not really something you get sympathy for because it’s like, you already have one bitch, shut up. But you know, that’s a real struggle people go through.”
Endometriosis and difficult delivery
Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer’s son, Gene was born in May 2019 at the Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York, after what she describes as a “brutal” pregnancy and “really scary” baby delivery.
“I was throwing up through the whole first hour of my C-section,” Schumer had said in an interview on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy podcast. “It’s supposed to take about an hour and a half or something but mine took over three hours because of my endometriosis.”
Endometriosis is a painful condition, which is sometimes suppressed because of birth control pills or hormones that one takes. The symptoms of endometriosis are also improved during pregnancy.
“I have since found out that I have endometriosis and adenomyosis, so being off birth control was really tough on my body, and so I was in pain, I was in a lot of pain,” Amy said.
In 2021, to get rid of her endometriosis and its painful symptoms, Amy Schumer underwent surgery to have her uterus and appendix removed.
She has been educating everyone about endometriosis and encouraging discussion and more research to understand and spread awareness about the disease that affects approximately 10% of women in reproductive age.