Hi
I just wanted some advice on Frozen Embryos. I cycled my first IVF treatment in 2004 (ICSI) and gave birth to twins in July 2005. We were lucky enough to get 2 embryos good enough to freeze when we cycled, and they have been frozen for 4 yrs this winter. Time is ticking on as we are lion a 5 yr limit and we need to start thinking about making a decision.
its so hard to now what to do, on the one hand I feel so blessed with my beautiful 3 yr old twins. on the other hand, those little frozen embies are my babies too. i dont think i can bring myself to destroy them and i also dont know if its greedy of me to want to try again and have them implanted? We discussed donation but i also know that would not be an option for me - Im sorry if that sounds harsh but I would spend my life wondering if my baby was out there.
Lately i have been getting a bit broody when i see newborns. and before i found out we had problems conceiving naturally i always saw 3 children in my family.
Im just so confused i dont now what to do and i guess im just looking for somewhere to vent and to get some advice on FET
How sucessful is it? does it depend on how long they are frozen for whether they will survive thawing? has anyone else gone through FET after already having a success story with their IVF cycle?
Im sorry if this is babbly ....
Toni x
FET
Toni,
I can only imagine how you're feeling with twins and two little frosties waiting for you. I don't know if time affects the success rates but I will tell you that I'm pregnant from a FET. They were only frozen for 5 months. It still blows my mind that this baby inside me was frozen in time for a while. Wierd. We froze 4 good quality embryos (blastocycts). My Dh and I were both in agreement that any and all embryos we made deserved a chance at life. On the day of thaw we asked if we could thaw and transfer all 4 and my RE somewhat reluctantly agreed. All 4 survived but 2 didn't look as good/strong, 2 looked great and were already hatching at the time of transfer. So, I guess you just don't know how well they're going to survive the thaw. If it were me I would thaw both since they're not both guaranted to do well in the thaw.....or they could both do beautifully. Even if they both survive there's a chance you will end up with 1 implanting......but then there's the chance they both will, too. Odds are...in my humble opinion....its more likely that one will make it to implantation than 2 so I would give them both a chance. Of course, the only people who can decide this are you and your partner and it is a tough one. I hope you find peace and make a decision you're both happy with. Is embryo adoption an option for you if you don't want any more? I know my RE says we have to have at least 6 embies to be able to give them up for adoption.
best of luck.....congrats on the 2 little darling you already have!
I can only imagine how you're feeling with twins and two little frosties waiting for you. I don't know if time affects the success rates but I will tell you that I'm pregnant from a FET. They were only frozen for 5 months. It still blows my mind that this baby inside me was frozen in time for a while. Wierd. We froze 4 good quality embryos (blastocycts). My Dh and I were both in agreement that any and all embryos we made deserved a chance at life. On the day of thaw we asked if we could thaw and transfer all 4 and my RE somewhat reluctantly agreed. All 4 survived but 2 didn't look as good/strong, 2 looked great and were already hatching at the time of transfer. So, I guess you just don't know how well they're going to survive the thaw. If it were me I would thaw both since they're not both guaranted to do well in the thaw.....or they could both do beautifully. Even if they both survive there's a chance you will end up with 1 implanting......but then there's the chance they both will, too. Odds are...in my humble opinion....its more likely that one will make it to implantation than 2 so I would give them both a chance. Of course, the only people who can decide this are you and your partner and it is a tough one. I hope you find peace and make a decision you're both happy with. Is embryo adoption an option for you if you don't want any more? I know my RE says we have to have at least 6 embies to be able to give them up for adoption.
best of luck.....congrats on the 2 little darling you already have!
FET April 18th
1st heartbeat 6w3d 115bpm, 9w2d hb 171bpm
MATTHEW ARRIVED DEC 19TH....8 lbs 9.7 OZ
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/2;12;51/st/20081219/n/Matthew....baby+%232%21/k/ab96/age.png[/img]
1st heartbeat 6w3d 115bpm, 9w2d hb 171bpm
MATTHEW ARRIVED DEC 19TH....8 lbs 9.7 OZ
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/2;12;51/st/20081219/n/Matthew....baby+%232%21/k/ab96/age.png[/img]
Toni,
I can relate a little with your situation. I had one ivf baby after few rounds of ivf cycles and had 5 embryos frozen since 2005. My husband really did not want to deal with them anymore since he really loves our PERFECT ivf DD and he also thought one was enough to make a happy family. He even told me that if I wanted another child so bad, just go on adoption! I could not see the rationale behind this, why would we adopt knowing that we still have 5 embryos in the freezer? Anyway, I could not live on worrying about our embryos and could not make the decision of discarding them either. Our embryos were from my 43 year old eggs which would not qualify for donation or adoption. Early this year, I decided to start my FET process without DH's knowing - I still cannot believe my clinic let me do that. Anyway, he slowly came around after finding that out and we were pretty lucky, all 5 embryos survived the thaw and we put all 5 back in but only one implanted and I am now 12.3 weeks pg.
FET success rate has improved dramatically in recent years and many clinics in fact have better FET pg rate than fresh cycles. Age affects successful rate the most. I don't know your age but I guess your egg quality is definitely better since you had healthy twin pg last time by transferring less number of embryos (this is my guess since very few clinics would transfer 6 embryos).
I have not seen any report about whether freezing time affects the survival rate of embryos, but if the procedure is done right, it should not. However, in reality, it depends on how well the facility is managed. If the clinic is giving a 5 year limit, it must have a reason! My guess is there are very limited studies available to show the survival rate of any frozen human embryos longer than 5 years, they need to ensure the quality of your frozen embryos. Which means, you do need to take action soon.
As nicaliw said, the decision is your and your partner's. We are here to tell you that you are not alone. I personally don't think it's greedy to want more than 2 children.
Best of luck in making decisions!
I can relate a little with your situation. I had one ivf baby after few rounds of ivf cycles and had 5 embryos frozen since 2005. My husband really did not want to deal with them anymore since he really loves our PERFECT ivf DD and he also thought one was enough to make a happy family. He even told me that if I wanted another child so bad, just go on adoption! I could not see the rationale behind this, why would we adopt knowing that we still have 5 embryos in the freezer? Anyway, I could not live on worrying about our embryos and could not make the decision of discarding them either. Our embryos were from my 43 year old eggs which would not qualify for donation or adoption. Early this year, I decided to start my FET process without DH's knowing - I still cannot believe my clinic let me do that. Anyway, he slowly came around after finding that out and we were pretty lucky, all 5 embryos survived the thaw and we put all 5 back in but only one implanted and I am now 12.3 weeks pg.
FET success rate has improved dramatically in recent years and many clinics in fact have better FET pg rate than fresh cycles. Age affects successful rate the most. I don't know your age but I guess your egg quality is definitely better since you had healthy twin pg last time by transferring less number of embryos (this is my guess since very few clinics would transfer 6 embryos).
I have not seen any report about whether freezing time affects the survival rate of embryos, but if the procedure is done right, it should not. However, in reality, it depends on how well the facility is managed. If the clinic is giving a 5 year limit, it must have a reason! My guess is there are very limited studies available to show the survival rate of any frozen human embryos longer than 5 years, they need to ensure the quality of your frozen embryos. Which means, you do need to take action soon.
As nicaliw said, the decision is your and your partner's. We are here to tell you that you are not alone. I personally don't think it's greedy to want more than 2 children.
Best of luck in making decisions!
Me, 50 DH, 40
IVF, 11/05, 19 embryos(e), no ET, OHSS
FET, 02/06, cancelled, dominant egg
FET, 04/06, 4e, BFN
FET, 06/06, 6e, DD born 02/07
FET, 05/08, 5e, DS born 01/09
http://yasminachina.blogspot.com/
IVF, 11/05, 19 embryos(e), no ET, OHSS
FET, 02/06, cancelled, dominant egg
FET, 04/06, 4e, BFN
FET, 06/06, 6e, DD born 02/07
FET, 05/08, 5e, DS born 01/09
http://yasminachina.blogspot.com/
Hi Toni,
I understand your situation very well. Although my only pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, I do have 7 frosties sleeping at the clinic right now. I might have twins on our next try with FET and that means we would have a few frosties too much (we want two kids). I totally understand that weird feeling that donating your embryos might mean that your children are alive somewhere... just weird. It's a personal decision.
Like the others said, the success rates are very good with FET. My clinic's success rates improved dramatically when they changed their protocol. One month, about 5 women got pregnant out of 8, with FET! Some say it's because you take less meds with the FET protocol. Some just react better to it.
You know what? It's not that important. Honestly, whether or not the FET protocol is successful or not does not matter that much when you think of it. Same thing for the amount of time your embryos have been frozen. You still have two embryos left. That's what matters the most in your decision process. Even if the success rates were low, even if they had been frozen two months ago, you'd still have to make your mind about those two frosties. It might sound strange, what I said... but think about it. Do you want more children? Can you picture yourself with another set of twins ("worst" case scenario)? If you want more children (and your broodiness in front of newborns is an eloquent symptom), are you ready to go through IVF's roller coaster again? Can you afford it? (you = DH + you of course)
If the answers are "yes", then you know what to do.
Good luck my dear, and do vent as much as you want!! This place is good for all kinds of venting!
Sophie
I understand your situation very well. Although my only pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, I do have 7 frosties sleeping at the clinic right now. I might have twins on our next try with FET and that means we would have a few frosties too much (we want two kids). I totally understand that weird feeling that donating your embryos might mean that your children are alive somewhere... just weird. It's a personal decision.
Like the others said, the success rates are very good with FET. My clinic's success rates improved dramatically when they changed their protocol. One month, about 5 women got pregnant out of 8, with FET! Some say it's because you take less meds with the FET protocol. Some just react better to it.
You know what? It's not that important. Honestly, whether or not the FET protocol is successful or not does not matter that much when you think of it. Same thing for the amount of time your embryos have been frozen. You still have two embryos left. That's what matters the most in your decision process. Even if the success rates were low, even if they had been frozen two months ago, you'd still have to make your mind about those two frosties. It might sound strange, what I said... but think about it. Do you want more children? Can you picture yourself with another set of twins ("worst" case scenario)? If you want more children (and your broodiness in front of newborns is an eloquent symptom), are you ready to go through IVF's roller coaster again? Can you afford it? (you = DH + you of course)
If the answers are "yes", then you know what to do.
Good luck my dear, and do vent as much as you want!! This place is good for all kinds of venting!
Sophie
1st and 2nd IVF = BFN 1st FET BFP! m/c at 7 weeks. 2nd FET BFP! 3rd FET BFN
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!
Now let's spend the rest of our lives having fun together!