Another question for Ghost please..

[Lisa SC]

Hi - first of all I would like to say THANK YOU for all your incisive comments and assistance with this site. Your advice is really really great.

I have just had another IVF/ icsi cycle - 17 mature eggs were retrieved yesterday and I found out this morning that 11 have fertilised.

We have had one fresh cycle and one FET (in 2006) and I got a BFP from the FET (altho it was a trisomy 22 m/c). I note in your comments there are two major ( and probably lots more) factors affecting pregnancy rates - quality of embryo and also the right 'window' for the endometrium.

I am a little hesitant to do the ET with this fresh cycle given that my last fresh cycle was not sucessful and possibly the lining is not as good as with the FET. So... I am contemplating letting these embies go to blast (fingers x'd if possible!~) and then freezing them if any make it, then doing a FET next month.

Is this maddness????

BTW, I cannot comment on the quality of embies yet but last fresh cycle I got 14 fertilised and 8 were grade one, 8 cell on day 3. We still have 6 frozen from this cycle. The last 2 ET's have been 3 day , 8 cell grade 1's (the best rating we have here in Singapore) but still no successful pregnancy.

Thanks Ghost, I would welcome your thoughts. Again thanks again for all your support to this site.

[Ghost]

I am a little hesitant to do the ET with this fresh cycle given that my last fresh cycle was not sucessful and possibly the lining is not as good as with the FET. So... I am contemplating letting these embies go to blast (fingers x'd if possible!~) and then freezing them if any make it, then doing a FET next month.

Is this maddness????

Perhaps... But then we must be equally mad, because we do that all the time, and from what we can tell, the patients are better off for it, on average. It depends heavily on the freezing program at your clinic.

BTW, I cannot comment on the quality of embies yet but last fresh cycle I got 14 fertilised and 8 were grade one, 8 cell on day 3. We still have 6 frozen from this cycle. The last 2 ET's have been 3 day , 8 cell grade 1's (the best rating we have here in Singapore) but still no successful pregnancy.

Thanks Ghost, I would welcome your thoughts. Again thanks again for all your support to this site.

I'm curious why you would go through another stim if you still have six frozen embryos?

Thank you for your very kind words. You may be the first from Singapore to post here.

[Lisa SC]

Ghost Hi - THANK YOU so much for your thoughts. Sorry for the tardy response but I have been 'resting' and trying not to spend time at the PC.

To answer your question - and this may seem illogical but anyway... The frozen embryos are left from a fresh cycle in 2006. We also had a FET (2006) from the same embies. Each transfer was of three embryos which is the norm here in Singapore. The embryos were all 3 day, 8 cell grade 1 (1 is best in Sing, Grade 4 is the not so good) and from these I had 1 m/c due to chromosomal problems. So I'm not convinced that the remaining embies are that flash. There are still 3 x 8cell day 3 embies plus afew other not so good.

My other rationale, and this will seem mad but ... If I was to get pregnant from a FET cycle with our existing embies I will be 40 before I give birth. If we wanted another child, I would be looking at a fresh cycle at 42 (ish). I was thinking that it will be easier on your body to do the fresh cycle now (at 39) and have lots of additional frosties for after no.1. I appreciate that talking about No.2 is odd?? but I am very optimistic.

Anyway, we ended up being convinced by the RE to do a day 3 transfer as she was concerned that we wouldn't be left with any to freeze on day 5 (apparently they only go to blast for over 15 embies!!). They transferred (day 3) 1x10cell grade 1, and 2x8 cell grade 1's. We have 7x 10/8 cell grade 1's frozen .

I apologise for the waffle however I do have another question please. I was given a maturation inj of pregnyl 10,000IU 36 hrs before EC. EC was Monday, ET Thursday. I was given a blood test this morning, saturday (2dp3dt) and my hcg level is 41 which is 2 higher than it was 2 days ago at ET. I have not been given any other HCG shots at all ( there were 30 follicles aspirated and they didn't want to OHSS me!) Sooooo... is this a good sign or is it way to early to tell anything and I should calm down a bit!!

BTW - the blood tests are for E2 and progesterone to see if they need to alter meds. The nurse just let slip about the HCG as I didn't realise that they were testing for this too.

Also - I didn't get any 10 cell embies at day 3 last time - does this mean this lot may be better than the last?

I think that I have seen another poster from Singapore?? DH and I are actually both New Zealanders and have been here a couple of years. If you're looking for a family holiday, Singapore is lovely and hot!

Again many thanks and take care
Lisa

[Ghost]

My other rationale, and this will seem mad but ... If I was to get pregnant from a FET cycle with our existing embies I will be 40 before I give birth. If we wanted another child, I would be looking at a fresh cycle at 42 (ish). I was thinking that it will be easier on your body to do the fresh cycle now (at 39) and have lots of additional frosties for after no.1. I appreciate that talking about No.2 is odd?? but I am very optimistic.

That makes perfect sense. You are banking embryos for later, and allowing for the desire to have a second child which would be more difficult at age 42.

I apologise for the waffle however I do have another question please. I was given a maturation inj of pregnyl 10,000IU 36 hrs before EC. EC was Monday, ET Thursday. I was given a blood test this morning, saturday (2dp3dt) and my hcg level is 41 which is 2 higher than it was 2 days ago at ET. I have not been given any other HCG shots at all ( there were 30 follicles aspirated and they didn't want to OHSS me!) Sooooo... is this a good sign or is it way to early to tell anything and I should calm down a bit!!

BTW - the blood tests are for E2 and progesterone to see if they need to alter meds. The nurse just let slip about the HCG as I didn't realise that they were testing for this too.

It's way too early for that hCG to be from implantation. The embryos would not have implanted yet!!! Odd that they even test for it. I can imagine a few reasons for it, but all seem unlikely.

Also - I didn't get any 10 cell embies at day 3 last time - does this mean this lot may be better than the last?

More is generally better. It reflects faster development.

Best of luck to you.