Almost time to jump on that plane. And with that count down happening there come a list of
decisions that come with that.
Honestly, im scared to make these decisions, V will listen to the "good and bad" but will not decide or give his opinion, as he feels this is one of the only things that we as IPs can control. And my sense of "lack" of control can be reversed by whatever actual choice we have.
1 ~ Do we allow embryos to grow to a day 3 or allow then to grow to a day 5 blastocyst stage before we transfer?
2 ~ Do we transfer 1,2,3,4 embryos into our beautiful surrogate?
3 ~ Do we choose more than one surrogate?
These 3 questions i semi know the answers too. However i also know the risks involved.
1.....Clinic will most times push for day 3 transfer. Allowing embryo to grow in a "natural" environment.
In saying that a day 5 will allow the embryo to develop into a blastocyst stage which shows that the little bean is developing nicely and is strong, even if not in a "natural" environment
2....... Firstly the health and care of a surrogate is the most important thing.
Here in Oz you are never allowed to transfer more than 2 embryos. During an IVF cycle In India we can transfer up to 4 embryos.
I have done this, and transferred my 4 embryos into one beautiful woman. however mine are duds, so just hoping 1 would stick.
Now i have an amazing woman donating her golden eggs. and im now wondering that 4 is alot.
mainly because she is fertile, and the risk of a multiple birth is a risk to both surrogate and babies.
At this point in my mind, im thinking 2 embryos to transfer, as it is a safe protocol here in Oz.
However, what if one splits....then we have 3? Not that i don't want 3 babies, bring it on...but my God what about the surrogate, her health, and of course our babies health....so maybe just 1 embbie, and if that splits then twins are still a risk but more, manageable.
3......The fact is we will have some of V "stuff" on ice, so is a second surrogate needed now.
i guess we can have 2 surrogates, and only 1 embryo in each...
Rule of thumb is 4 day 2-3 embryos transferred to one surrogate. If you go to blast transfer the two best quality, but be aware you may not have anything to freeze for a second try.
ReplyDeleteForget about embryos splitting - I saw it happen once in over 400 cycles.
Remember the reason for day 2-3 transfer is to get the embryos back into their natural environment as soon as possible, but also keep in mind there is embryo degradation and loss every day they stay in the media, so the four you transfer on day 3 may not make a decent blastocyst. Then again, they may, and transferring four increases the risk of multiples (around 25% are multiples) In my experience, with SCI, and my stats (you know how I love stats) fetal reduction rate with transfer of 4 on day 2 was less than 5%.
Whatever you do, take the advice of Dr Kadam, she has done this many many times ... let go of control, clear your mind and trust your doctor or you will go mad. Do exactly as she suggests. From one control freak to another, once I took myself out of the picture and stopped trying to control things, (with SCI) we had two pregnancies on first try, both times, resulting in Toby and Mishali. Toby was a day 2 transfer of 4, and Mishali a day 5 transfer of 4 blasts (AB, AB, BB and BB - we only wanted to transfer 2, but embryologist and Dr S advised 4 as BBs aren't that great, and we didn't want to freeze embryos).
The chances you will have a singleton pregnancy with a transfer of 4 on day 2-3, are in your favour.
Go kick a punching bag girl!
I am learning to give up control. Just want to have as much info as i can. and you have definitely helped with that x
ReplyDeleteAll our embryo's (eleven of them) were slow developers and were left to develop until day five. Only one of them reached blastocyst stage by then and it wasn't even used in the transfer. We had two embryo's that had divided into 4 cells by day five used and thankfully one took hold. Our surrogate in Thailand is now 12 weeks pregnant.
ReplyDeleteWishing you the best of luck!
im all for a day 5 blast. first must see how many eggs we get and hope some beautiful embies develop. Im very happy your Golden egg was amongst the 11. Hope all is going well with you beautiful surrogate x
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