Ghost: help on FET question

[hope_for_the_luck]

Hi Ghost,

I just had a failed fresh cycle and will have my cycle review with the Dr this week. We had 29 eggs, 23 mature and 18 fertilized. On day 3 they are still good quality embryos so the RE suggested us go for day 5 transfer. On day 5 the transfer was postponed again since the embryos were not quite yet blastocysts. 8 were put to extended culture and only one 3BC blastocyst on day 5. Three are early blastocysts and two are still morula. On day 6 we transferred 2 blastocysts (4BB and 3BB) and none to freeze. We have 10 day 3 embryos on ice. My questions is, 1). since my best embryos were slow in development and the quality is not very good, do I still need to go for a FET cycle? 2). when doing FET, usually is it better for a medicated cycle or a natural cycle? I'm very regular on my cycle and we are doing IVF due to MF. 3). Should we request for extended culture after thawing the embryos? We have 10 ok quality embryos frozen on day 3. I'm not sure if it is better to go for day 5 this time.

Thank you very much,
Jane

[Ghost]

Hi Ghost,

I just had a failed fresh cycle and will have my cycle review with the Dr this week. We had 29 eggs, 23 mature and 18 fertilized. On day 3 they are still good quality embryos so the RE suggested us go for day 5 transfer. On day 5 the transfer was postponed again since the embryos were not quite yet blastocysts. 8 were put to extended culture and only one 3BC blastocyst on day 5. Three are early blastocysts and two are still morula. On day 6 we transferred 2 blastocysts (4BB and 3BB) and none to freeze. We have 10 day 3 embryos on ice. My questions is, 1). since my best embryos were slow in development and the quality is not very good, do I still need to go for a FET cycle? 2). when doing FET, usually is it better for a medicated cycle or a natural cycle? I'm very regular on my cycle and we are doing IVF due to MF. 3). Should we request for extended culture after thawing the embryos? We have 10 ok quality embryos frozen on day 3. I'm not sure if it is better to go for day 5 this time.

Thank you very much,
Jane

I would definitely use the frozen embryos before doing another fresh cycle. Frozen cycles are cheap and easy. Also, your embryos might be just fine in a frozen cycle. You'll see...

I have seen claims that some clinics do better with natural cycle FET. My clinic never does them, so I have no experience with them.

Some think culturing them out is a good idea and it makes sense to me. It seems these days everybody is getting better rates by culturing the embryos after thawing them. Even thawed blastocysts are getting longer culture before transfer. This makes sure they really are good embryos. Anyway, the rates are better, but sure, they do cancel more often because they can eliminate the bad embryos, and some patients don;t have any good embryos after thaw. But you don't want those transferred anyway.

[hope_for_the_luck]

Thank you Ghost!

Hi Ghost,

I just had a failed fresh cycle and will have my cycle review with the Dr this week. We had 29 eggs, 23 mature and 18 fertilized. On day 3 they are still good quality embryos so the RE suggested us go for day 5 transfer. On day 5 the transfer was postponed again since the embryos were not quite yet blastocysts. 8 were put to extended culture and only one 3BC blastocyst on day 5. Three are early blastocysts and two are still morula. On day 6 we transferred 2 blastocysts (4BB and 3BB) and none to freeze. We have 10 day 3 embryos on ice. My questions is, 1). since my best embryos were slow in development and the quality is not very good, do I still need to go for a FET cycle? 2). when doing FET, usually is it better for a medicated cycle or a natural cycle? I'm very regular on my cycle and we are doing IVF due to MF. 3). Should we request for extended culture after thawing the embryos? We have 10 ok quality embryos frozen on day 3. I'm not sure if it is better to go for day 5 this time.

Thank you very much,
Jane

I would definitely use the frozen embryos before doing another fresh cycle. Frozen cycles are cheap and easy. Also, your embryos might be just fine in a frozen cycle. You'll see...

I have seen claims that some clinics do better with natural cycle FET. My clinic never does them, so I have no experience with them.

Some think culturing them out is a good idea and it makes sense to me. It seems these days everybody is getting better rates by culturing the embryos after thawing them. Even thawed blastocysts are getting longer culture before transfer. This makes sure they really are good embryos. Anyway, the rates are better, but sure, they do cancel more often because they can eliminate the bad embryos, and some patients don;t have any good embryos after thaw. But you don't want those transferred anyway.