How many embroyos to transfer?

[Bubbles13]

Hi,
We had our 2nd IVF ET today. We had 13 retrieved, 10 matured, 5 fertilized. Today, 1 was an 8 cell and 1 was 5 cell...and the rest 3 lagging w/ fragmentation.

The Dr. very strongly recommended we only suggested the 2 embryos (8 cell and 5 cell) and watch the others for possible freezing.

I'm SO let down since our 1st failed IVF, we had 4 8-cell embies, so they pushed us out to day 5 ET and had transfered a 2BB and a Morula...neither one of which took. So to me going by stats, ours seem much worse this time and its really hard to remain positive.

I'm also a bit annoyed that I hear about ppl transfering 3 8-cell on day 3 ET's and wondering if my Dr. is not being aggressive enough. She keeps stating that b/c I'm only 30, they do not want to transfer more than 2 embies at these grades. I asked her today if there was really any point in the 5 cell transfer if it really should be at least at 6 on day 3, and she said people are often successful w/ it, but have a feeling she was only saying it to keep me positive.

Can someone please give any advice from what you may have heard or know?! Thanks!

[not hopeless yet]

Hang in there Bubbles-
I am also 30 and my doctor only wants to transfer 1 or 2... we start our IVF cycle later this month. So we'll see what our crop looks like, huh? But I say- why not transfer both? You never know if the 5-cell will do the trick... Best of luck. Stay positive.

[loopie]

H i Bubbles-
I know it's hard not to question everything in this wild and wonderful process, but trust your REs- I'm pretty sure they do know what they are doing.
Focus on what you can do to provide the best environment for those embies to take- they just don't want you to end up with a megga-multi BFP, which could be dangerous to you and risky for all the little ones. Keep the faith!

loopie

[ajdec]

I'm having the same thoughts about how many to transfer. DH and I only have his vasectomy as our reason for doing IVF. And I'm only 30. I know the odds high for us the first time...but do you we risk twins and put two in, or go for one and take the chance? We really don't want twins...but it also seems silly to go through all of this and not put our best effort forward. Definitely a lot to think about...

[SilverAngel679]

Hey Bubbles, I had the same questions and the same worries in this whole process. My signature has the history of my infertility and heres what we did.
In the first cycle we only had 1 to transfer becuase we where in a study that gave us a round for free but unfortunaly it killed all my embryos but 1. Which was excellent looking but didn't stick.
after that we never had anything but almost perfect embryos every time but my husband and I weren't taking any chances of NOT getting pregnant so we did 3 each time. My RE thought I was insane to transfer that many that where such good quality but the 2nd time only 1 out of the 3 took and it ended in an fetus that had trouble from the begining and we miscarried. This last time we did 3 as well and 2 took. We have a perfectly healthy pregnancy in the process right now an d I'm not sorry I was so agressive.
Go for the gusto girl! Don't worry about what your RE says because even though you can take their professional oppion they are in the end your embryos and you can do what ever you like with them and transfer as many as you want. The RE CANNOT refuse to tranfer as many as you want so give yourself a better chance and transfer 3. Especially if there not as great a quality as youd like them to be.
I'm proof that most of the time even great embryos don't stick or don't make it to great fetuses. I hope my little rant helped and good luck in whatever you decide.

[Bubbles13]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words...wish I could get some of that optimism through osmosis here:)

SilverAngel,
I'm going through the IVF at Shady Grove and when I talked to my Dr on Friday after the transfer, she spefically stated that they would NOT transfer 3 in my case unless we have at least 4 unsuccessful attempts, so I'm guessing they may have different policies about this matter.
Howevever, I really do hope you are right and will definitely push the issue next time if attempt #2 does not work this month. Thank you for the info.

[dretrac]

Bubbles--
I see you are with SG--I am too.
I am also in the 2WW of my 2nd IVF cycle.....trasferred 3 sub par embies on day 3.
Our 1st IVF failed.

We are doing shared risk??? Are you doing that as well???
I worry that if this cycle fails too that they will boot me out of SR!

Good Luck-

[SilverAngel679]

WOW. They won't do 3 unless they try and fail 4 times? That is a joke and money making plot if you ask me. Well, let's hope that it doesn't come to that and everything works out for you. If, God forbid a million times, you do have to try again I would tell them up front what you want and threaten not to cycle with them if they refuse to meet your needs. How dare they tell you they have to fail 4 times to give you a better chance at achieving pregnancy. They are YOUR embryo's. The clinic works for YOU. My blood would be boiling at that if I where in your shoes.

But hey, good luck with everything and I'll be watching for that post that says BFP!!!! soon.

[Bubbles13]

dretrac,
Yes, we're doing Shared Risk for IVF#2 but this is our 1st SR IVF cycle. IVF#1 was paid by my insurance, but it had a max so it was all used up b/w the IUI and IVF. From what I read in the contract, I don't think they can boot you out of SR since you get your BFP, the 6 tries or $$ back.

When is your Beta? Mine is on 10/17. I wish you the best, and would be great if we could talk about/compare symptoms(which for me so far today being 5DP3DT there are NONE).

Silver angel,
I did mention to DH that if this one fails, I may want to take a break and maybe even consider a different more aggressive RE. We'll see...
Thanks so much for your input and the info!