Wisdom of transferring only one embryo?

[hjw]

My clinic (in the UK) is very keen on people choosing to transfer only one embryo rather than two, because of the perceived additional risk to both Mum and babies of a multiple pregnancy. When DH and I went for our initial consultation, we felt swayed by their advice and said that we would transfer just the one embryo for our first cycle of IVF and, if that didn't work, then review things. I'm not someone who is mad keen to have twins, so having just one healthy baby would be fine with us and, after TTC for 4 years, everything we could wish for.

So many women on this forum seem to transfer two (and ocassionally three) embyros, that I'm now questionning whether we made the right decision or whether we are just reducing our chances of this working too much by only transferring one.

Has anyone else been faced with the decision of whether to transfer one or two, or know anyone who has transferred just one embryo? And if so, did it work?

[pattieh]

I think it depends on a number of factors including your age, quality of the embryos. I find that for someone in the early 40s, they tend to implant a higher number (e.g., 3) for better chances.

[SilverAngel679]

My husband and I chose to do 3 embryo's in all our cycles even though we're only in our 20's, most of our embryo's are almost perfect and the doctors strongly advised us not to.
We chose to do this for 2 reasons.

1 being that we wanted to get pregnant and wanted the best possible chance. We were told that each embryo had about a 30% shot of implanting. So we decided that the 60% chance we had with 2 embryo's still meant a 40% chance we wheren't getting pregnant. 3 embryo's meant pregnancy almost for certain.

The 2nd reason we chose to be so agressive is a two part reason. Money was #1. We didn't have a lot of it and the $2,000 to do a frozen cycle seemed out of reach. Also, your chances are lowered anyway when the embryo is frozen then thawed.

We wanted a baby and we wanted it to happen ASAP. Our fist cycle failed, the second ended in the miscarriage of a singleton and we're now almost ready to deliver our twin boys.

I have no regrets and would say to anyone that if you think about the odds they give you, think about the other number, which is failure.

Good luck in what ever you decide and tons of baby dust to you!!!

[riogirl71]

It is a very tough decision, I implanted 4 perfect embryos and have now one healthy boy! I had no fertility issues, my DH has low sperm and count, we did ICSI.

[to_have_fun08]

hjw - In the States it is more of a personal decisions. Most RE's will go by your age, egg quality and # of failed cycles to determine how many should be transferred. Though it is really the decision of the patient. Some can get more transferred if that is what they want. I think one of the main reasons that women will transfer 2, 3 and 4 is that in most cases all expenses are paid out of pocket. There are only a handful of states that mandate insurance companies to cover IVF. So when the ladies are mortgaging their houses and dipping into their retirement funds to pay for the procedure, they want the best outcome possible.

As far as only transferring 1. I have seen lots of ladies only transfer 1 and get their BFP. Keep us posted on how it goes with you.


Chris

[hjw]

Thanks everyone for your advice, that's so helpful. I think we may plan to transfer one embryo but ONLY IF we manage to get a nice number of fertilised eggs after ER and therefore have enough to freeze for future FET's. If we only have a few embryos, rather than risking the rest not freezing, I think we may decide to go with two for transfer. Does that make sense, do you think?

[lynniecat]

Yes, in the US they transfer more I believe. I had 5 done at day 3 for my first cycle as I am 42. 3 of those were grade 1, two implanted and one survived to 13 weeks, the other passed at 7 weeks.


That said, my friend (also in US) got only 4 embryos (she is 33). All grade 1, so they transfered just 1 at day 3. She felt strongly about risks with twins and her doctor thought it was fine to transfer 1 in the first round. She has insurance covering up to 6 rounds. Thus, if round 1 did not work, she still could afford more rounds.

Well, round 1 worked and she is due this Saturday. She has 3 frosties for baby 2 and is delighted with her choice.

She was doing IVF because her husband has a low sperm count, very low. Her eggs were fine, she just has lots of them and they had to be very careful with stims to avoid getting too many follicles. This resulted in only having 4 mature eggs retrieved.

So in her case, she figured her eggs were good and with the good sperms being selected with ICSI, one embryo has a good chance.

I think transferring 1 at day 5 makes a lot of sense for many women. In her case it was 1 on day 3, more risky, but it was what she wanted!!!

I say go for it if you can afford it and your eggs are still responding well!