How many embryos to transfer?

[sakooooot]

Hi all,

I have my ET tomorrow for my first IVF and still having a hard time deciding how many to transfer. A little background: I am 30 yrs old and have stage III endo...I have had two laps to remove it in the past and the last one was 2.5 months ago. I also have cervical stenosis which was fixed during the lap but the cervix can close back again after a while and that's why my RE wants to get me pg quickly before the cervix shuts and the endo comes back. I have also had two failed IUI's before the second lap. I had my ER on the 30th. 12 eggs were retrieved, 9 were mature and 7 were fertilized. My RE only does blastocyst transfers. I don't know how many we will have available for ET tomorrow when we go in but we have to make our decision by today. Any advice from gals around my age and how many embryos did you guys transfer? I know part of the decision is based on the embryo quality and the grading scale they will give us but still I need to make myself mentally prepared for tomorrow. Thanks.

[Ghost]

Nothing wrong with just one good blastocyst.

Keep in mind, any not transferred can be frozen for later use. If your clinic has good success rates with frozen embryos, this should be appealing. Otherwise, there is more pressure to succeed with the fresh transfer.

[angeinhull]

Hi

I am 32 and on both my cycles I have transferred one blast and am pregnant. I personally wanted to transfer 2 but we can not do so in the UK while under 35 (2 x 3day embryos is allowed). I would say it depends on your thoughts on multiples.

Good luck

Angela

[dogzrule]

I had 8 fertilize (out of 14 eggs retrieved), and 4 made it to day 5. I thought they would only transfer one because the quality was really good, but when he told me the percentage of transferring one versus two, I chose to transfer two. I did not want multiples but was willing to take the risk for the success rate (60% vs 45% if we only did one). One of the two took (whooooo!!!!), and we have two frozen. Btw, I am 34, and the grades of the two transferred were 4AB and 3AB (I think...).

[me2009]

wow. im super suprised your re only trans day 5. there are so many day 3 that wont necs make it to day 5 in a lab, but in their mom's they do just fine.

im suprised at that... almost sounds like a money thing.. if they trans at day 3 and gets a BFP, then the clinic loosed out on a the second try of potiental IVF $$... that's just weird ... sorry



so i trans 3 embies, one a 8 cell grade II, 7 cell grade II and a 4 cell grade I. I am having twins! they were all trans on day 3!! I didnt have any frosties. my RE gave me the option of 2 or 3 embies. we did 3 just because the 4 cell looked so good.

its a personal decision how many you trans. you and your DH need to talk about it and are you ready for twins?


anyways good luck!! i hope you get a BFP!

[julia_78]

hi sakooot - it's such a difficult decision isn't it?

in our first IVF cycle - i was completely set on transferring 1 embie. the stats we were given was 60% pregnancy rate with 2 embies, and if pregnant, then we had a 40% chance of twins. we had 21 eggs retrieved, 18 fertilized and my clinic had a good track record with frozen transfers. my obgyn had lectured me before the first IVF cycle about the risk of multiple pregnancies, which often require 2-3 months of bed rest. there was an article on the front page of the new york times the sunday before our transfer on the risk of multiple pregnancy & the health issues of premies (and pretty much all multiples are premies). i walked in my re's office convinced we would transfer only 1. then we learnt we only had 7 embies left, and none of them were at blast stage yet, they were morulas (so a bit behind in development). i could tell our RE was not super optimistic. so we decided for 2 to have better chances of a BFP. we had a BFN.

i just did a FET cycle with the 2 snow babies from that first cycle. this time around i concentrated only on pregnancy rate, and decided to forget about everything else, so we transferred both embies. i got a BFP last week and needless to say we are very happy. we don't know yet whether we have one or 2 babies in there...

long story to say... it's really a personal decision, and a tough one, b/c you need to solve for pregnancy rate and for health baby rate at the same time. if your clinic has a good track record w/ frozen embies, then that's definitely something to consider. no matter what you decide you need to feel like it's the right call, don't let anyone pressure you (this board, your friends who think twins "would be so cool", your RE who has an interest in statistics, etc). good luck to you & DH!!!

[jenice]

Sakoot - I would transfer 2 embies better odds for ya, but be ready for possible twins though. Your 30 years old so I would think you have good chances of one taking especially if it is a blast. Good luck to you in your decision. I might transfer 3 embies this time my 3rd IVF cycle

[CT_Michele]

I never wanted to only transfer one, just my own opinion. Of course, my clinic transfers on day 3, so no option for one good blast. My first cycle I transferred 2 top graded fresh embryos and got pregnant witha singleton, my second cycle was 2 fresh top graded embies, bfn, and my third was 2 well graded frozen embies, bfn. I was always willing to risk twins, and I still am, would rather have multiples than none at all, but again, just my own outlook. Some people are not willing to risk multiples. Many people get pregnant with one good blast. Good luck in making your decision.

[hjw]

sakoot - the decision was taken out of my hands on both my transfers because of my age. I was told that under the UK rules I could only transfer one embryo.

DH and I transferred one top grade day 3 embryo in April - BFN. We were comfortable only transferring one back then, because we would prefer not to have twins and we were told that we had a good chance of getting BFP because of my age and good health. It was still the right decision for us to make at the time, even though we got a BFN.

For our second fresh cycle, we transferred one blastocyst in December and I've just found out that I'm pregnant. Given the choice, I think we would have gambled and transferred two embryos this second time, but we were told we couldn't. They also said that with my age, I had over a 45% chance of success with one blast (and I personally think I also improved those odds because I had acupuncture). We got our BFP and are over the moon.

Good luck with your decision, let us know how you get on.

[lynniecat]

I would transfer only one and freeze the others. One baby makes for a healthier pregnancy. My friend even transferred one on day 3 and has a 9 month old now. It was her first round (lucky lady) and she was determined to not have twins (here sister had twins and there were issues).

She figured she could also transfer more through FET if things did not work out with the one...but they did.

Now she is thinking of baby two and using one of the other embies.


Another thing to think about is this. If you put back more than one and the uterine environment is not right for whatever reason or just some unknown things causes a BFN even though the embies are good, you lose two embies, not just one...KWIM ... just food for thought....

Women who have tried many cycles and have just two or three blasts will usually transfer them one by one as not to waste any due to a bad transfer, etc. I think of each one as being super duper precious, but then I am much older and never even made blasts...

[Rosario]

I have gone thru 3 fresh cycles. In all 3 cycles I transferred 3 embies. My cycles went like this:

IVF1- 4dt: BFN
IVF2- 3dt: BFP (chemical HPT + but beta came back at 5.3)
IVF3- 5dt: BFP (Triplets... 2 took and 1 split)

Unfortunately I lost the babies (2 girls/1 boy) at 21.5 wks gestation due to preterm labor.

I am now waiting to start my FET and will transfer my 2 blast frost babies if they survive the thaw. In the end it's all up to you and your DH. Good luck with the outcome of your decision.