Amy Schumer Shares IVF Results and Thanks Fans as She Continues Journey

Like all women who choose to undergo IVF, Amy Schumer‘s journey to baby is a marathon, not a sprint.

The 38-year-old actress and comedienne revealed the results of her first egg retrieval on Friday night. She had taken ovarian stimulation medication and undergone the procedure last month, in a bid to create embryos with her husband Chris Fischer‘s sperm that would be used to conceive a sibling for their 9-month-old son, Gene Attell Fischer.

“Hey! So ivf went like this for us. They retrieved 35 eggs from me. Not bad for the old gal right?” Schumer wrote on Instagram. “Then 26 fertilized! Whoah right? 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 her age, having 35 eggs retrieved, with 26 fertilized after one day, is an excellent result. She did not reveal how many total embryos were created. They were biopsied and samples were sent to an outside lab to find out if the embryos possessed the correct number of chromosomes or contained a gene problem. Only one was conclusively deemed normal, which means it has the highest chance of turning into a healthy baby.

That “drop off,” as she put it, can be attributed to factors such as the woman’s age, the medication regimen used on her, the man’s sperm quality and even Schumer’s history of endometriosis, in which tissue that lines the uterus grows on other pelvic organs, such as the ovaries, and which many researchers believe has a negative effect on egg quality and quantity. Should Schumer choose to undergo another egg retrieval to create more embryos, the “drop-off” will be different, for better or for worse.

Schumer announced in early January that she was undergoing IVF to try to give Gene a sibling and encouraged her fans to contact her to share their own experiences with infertility. Scores of women did.

“I have so appreciated everyone sharing their Ivf stories with me,” Schumer wrote on Friday. “They made me feel empowered and supported. So I wanted to tell you how mine went down. So many women go through many rounds of ivf which is painful and mentally grueling. I heard from hundreds of women about my their miscarriages and struggles and also many hopeful stories about how after rounds and rounds of ivf it worked!! It has been really encouraging. Thank you.”

“Anyway I am so grateful for our son and that we have the resources to get help in this way,” she continued. “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.”