Coronavirus - egg transfer or freeze WWYD?

[MrBean2]

Firstly I'm very sorry to everyone who has had cycles stopped i realise I'm relatively lucky

I am having an egg collection tomorrow at a clinic who, assuming the embryos develop, are currently letting you choose between freezing and transfer.
In the circumstances I can’t decide what to do for the best.

Ive read the advice but am still confused. I don’t want to delay due to my age (42/low reserve/past miscarriages etc) and the fact that we don’t know how long this virus could be around. Equally I don’t want to unduly risk miscarriage or issues with development etc

This worry could be irrelevant but I’m being positive that we will get some quality embryos and nothing else will happen between now and transfer

What would everyone else do in the circumstances?

[RedPandaFluff]

Hi - I've had four IVF cycles and nothing on earth would have prevented me from going ahead with embryo transfer as I found the eternal waiting to be one of the most difficult aspects of the whole process. But would that be the wise decision? I don't know. Like you, I'm a bit older (40) so I would be conscious of a ticking clock. Equally, there's a high chance that most of us will catch this virus at some stage and we just don't know enough about it at this point to understand the real and likely effects on pregnancy.

Such a difficult decision for you. As you're asking what we personally would do, then on balance, I'd say I would go ahead . . . but I am the most impatient person in the world and I do take risks sometimes that perhaps I shouldn't.

I wish you all the luck in the world, whatever you decide

[MrBean2]

Thanks @RedPandaFluff I'm tempted to go ahead, I'm very impatient too and don't want to be thinking "what if"

[eggontoast2]

Go for it but only if you can self-isolate for 12 weeks. High fever can cause miscarriage so that is the risk if you catch covid-19

[MrBean2]

Thanks @eggontoast2

[GemmeFatale]

I’ve got an ivf baby so popping in to say out there’s some very early evidence that frozen cycles do better. The thinking is that the freezing gives you a cycle to recover from the down reg/stimulation/egg collection cycle. So it might be worth freezing even if Coronavirus wasn’t an issue.

[itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted]

My clinic is continuing with transfers at the moment so when we start in a week or so my current intention is to go ahead with transfer - I suspect we'll be on lockdown from this Friday so my transfer will be for around 3-4 weeks anyway and hopefully by then the situation will be improved

If it works 🤞🤞🤞🤞 at least I'll have more protection from redundancy!

[anniefrangipani]

My kid is an IVF baby - I honestly would not have delayed her or risked reducing my odds any further and would have plowed ahead regardless. But I only had two embryos on day 5, and after transferring the best quality embryo, the last one didn't make it to freeze.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best possible outcome.

[MrBean2]

Thanks everyone, it sounds like most people would go ahead (I was starting to think I would be mad to even think about it but we've been waiting so long I don't want to postpone my life any more)

@GemmeFatale I will definitely query that, I did mild ivf so not sure if that makes it less of an issue

[GemmeFatale]

Not sure if they see the same stats in mild IVF but certainly worth asking the question

Good luck either way

[EarlGreyT]

I’m going to go against the grain here and I would freeze all.

I’m also impatient and like @RedPandaFluff found the endless waiting really hard so the emotional part of my brain would say to go ahead and transfer now, BUT the logical part of my brain would say to freeze all. I think Coronavirus is going to put all our lives on hold anyway, so I don’t think not delaying because you don’t want to have your life on hold anymore is going achieve that (although obviously the life on hold from Coronavirus is a different type of on hold from infertility related on hold).

You mention your age as a factor, but the success rate of your embryos if frozen is the same as if they were transferred now and if they’re frozen they’re not going to age with you. If you are considering your age as a factor more in terms of getting to the end of this cycle so you can have another one ASAP if it’s unsuccessful, I suspect that Coronavirus is likely to delay another cycle anyway as lots of clinics are stopping treatment/closing.

I hope this doesn’t sound insensitive, but I found pregnancy after IVF a real head fuck (I’ve had 9 cycles), I constantly worried about something going disastrously wrong and found the whole experience really stressful. I don’t think I would’ve coped very well with the added worry about being unwell with Coronavirus and the increased risk of miscarriage or premature birth associated with this on top of this.

[Seventyone72seventy3]

I agree with EarlGreyT and would freeze. Sorry.

[SpyroC]

I had ec today and am in the same boat as you op. I started off 80% proceed now I'm 50:50. I think I'm going to try and not worry too much as 1) the choice could well be removed by the weekend-everything is changing so fast. 2) I might not even have anything to transfer. It's a really tricky decision made harder by not knowing when everything will be up and running again.

[MuchTooTired]

I think if I was doing my round now I’d have the transfer but try to self isolate as much as I could. I’m very impatient and can’t imagine having gone through the round without having the transfer at the end.

[MrBean2]

Hello thanks all for the honest replies. I think it could all be out of my hands. The clinic is in London so they could be in lockdown before I can transfer. I'm going to ask if they will be able to even do freezing if staff can't get in
I will find out later

[CeibaTree]

In your position (and age) I would go for it and take my chances with c-19. The pandemic could go on for a long time and I wouldn't want to wait as the months/years ticked by. But as you say the decision may be taken out of your hands. Good luck to you x

[MrBean2]

Thanks for the reply @ceibatree

Unfortunately only 2 eggs fertilised for me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed but am also being realistic that not many get as far as blastocyst

@SpyroC did you get to transfer or did you freeze?

[SpyroC]

Transfer is scheduled for Monday and as far as I know it's still going ahead, providing there is anything to transfer. At the moment I'm leaning towards proceed. Do you still have a choice? If so are you thinking to go ahead?

[MrBean2]

@SpyroC If we have anything to transfer then we do will a fresh day 5 transfer. My clinic were pushing day 3 but we would rather wait. Let me know how you get on, I will keep everything crossed for you

[MrBean2]

@SpyroC good luck for today!

[SpyroC]

Thanks @MrBean2 . Are you still on track for tomorrow? X

[MrBean2]

@SpyroC so far though apparently today is the difficult time...

[RedPandaFluff]

Good luck @MrBean2 and @SpyroC - will you let us know how you get on?

[MrBean2]

@RedPandaFluff will definitely let you know, thanks for the support x

[MrBean2]

@RedPandaFluff quick update for you - we were able to transfer one blastocyst but unfortunately nothing to freeze. Fingers crossed this one sticks

[SpyroC]

@RedPandaFluff @MrBean2 my update is exactly the same. 1 day 5 blastocyst on board and the others were not strong enough to freeze. 🤞🏻