Is there a skill to embryo transfer .... ?

[missbrightside]

Girls - you may have to humour me here as I'm feeling a bit ranty and emotional !

Got a BFN today from our first IVF cycle. Almost didn't come as a surprise as straight from ET I hadn't 'felt' like the cycle had worked. And here lies my questions ..... !

1. Is Embryo Transfer usually done by a consultant or a nurse ? (a nurse did ours - I had assumed that a consultant would do it)

and

2. Is there a skill involved with Embryo Transfer ? Or is it a case of as long as it's in that's ok ? (I won't bore you with the farcical nature of our day - but lets just say we ended up having last minute ET at the very end of a Friday when I couldn't help but think everyone involved was more interested in finishing for the weekend ..... !)

I'm quite sure that any issues relating to the transfer weren't ultimately responsible for our failure (my next step will be immune testing) but did just wonder if anyone thought they were concerns I should raise at our review meeting ?

Thanks in advance.

xx

I've had two ETs, first done by nurse and second by consultant and no difference in procedure used (as far as I could tell) or outcome.

Neither of mine seemed to use any magical technique, no ultra sound guidance or anything like that, so I'm not sure about skill involved. My consultant did say that they like it to go in 'cleanly' first time, but other than that it just seemed to be an in and out event!

There is a bit of skill but to be honest the nurse is probably more skilled than the consultant because they do them day in and day out, whereas the consultant does maybe one or two a week? Varies according to the clinic of course, some are all nurses doing transfers, some are all consultants!

Was it under ultrasound guidance?

I'm sorry you felt it wasn't a good experience, and you should feed that back to your clinic, there is no excuse for that. It may be the end of a day for them (and maybe the last patient at the end of a long list) but it is your ONLY time for that treatment, and I tell my trainees that all the time- maybe number 7 or 8 or whatever for you, but this is the one and only time to get it right for the patient in front of you.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to reply - much appreciated.

(And apologies - although I started it - I somehow couldn't find my thread and so haven't seen your replies until now !!)

Yes, it was under ultrasound guidance - so ultimately I'm quite sure it was perfectly fine. But you are right - I think I will still mention it as a 'customer care' issue.

Take care xx

Brightside on a slightly different note, I think how you are feeling at the time about the transfer can make a difference. Out of our 2 ETs, although no complaints about the clinic, the first I ended up feeling almost violated by the procedure, felt very negative and tense. The 2nd (where I got low hcg level reading before final bfn) I had acu before and after, and listened to zita the whole time and had a 20 min lie down straight after, and felt altogether more positive. So to cut a long waffle short, I would say its important to mention it to the clinic