Help! Freezing all embryos on day 1 advice

[Hopingandpraying23]

Hi .. hopin somebody reads this.. we had our first ivf and due to high risk ohss became a freeze all cycle. I was just hoping to ask if anybody had experience with freezing embryos at day 1.. did they manage to refreeze some at day 5 for later use? I'm at bham womens hospital. I've always thought they culture them to day 5 before freezing . I'm worried now that I'm going to waste a lot of them as they said they will thaw everything when were ready and culture them at that time and refreeze if anything is suitable. We had 26 eggs. I dont dont know whether to ask them to try and culture up to day 5 first before freezing. Please help

I didn't want to read and run, I don't have any advice as such but good luck!

They used a fresh transfer on me but they did say if they needed to be frozen they can do it in a week or two so I hope that helps!

Thanks @ivfbabymomma1.. just so worried. The process has been so hard.. just really badly want it to work..

Freezing day 1 is unusual? How many were fertilised normally to be frozen?

My clinic has a policy to freeze at least one on day 3 to reduce risk of having nothing to transfer and I have a mix of day 3s and 5 frozen currently

My clinic also likes to freeze on day 3 for the same reason that they can then thaw a batch at a time and culture them to day 5 so that they know on day 5 they are transferring one that is actively dividing rather than one that just came out the freezer

I suspect this is an NHS cycle?? They probably also want to save money by not having to monitor them for 2 days

I believe there was also a study which showed survival rates for embryos frozen on day 1 to be better than day 3 x

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted it is our one and only nhs funded cycle... they will call me today to let me know how many of the eggs fertilised. I thought it was unusual too but the guy from embryology said that day 1 embryos are more robust and likely to survive the thawing process?? But I was still worried.. I spoke to someone now in another thread which had the same thing done. Frozen on day 1, 9 survived the thaw, she is now pregnant with 4 back in the freezer so it works.. hoping it's the same for mine. I'll ask the embryologist again of the procedure when they ring later. Thanks for your reply

Tbh I’ve never heard of freezing on day 1

Usually allow to day 5 and blast then freeze

I would worry about defrosting and being thawed for 4 days while growing before being transplanted

But ask your clinic