Freezing day 3 embryos

[Sara279]

Hi everyone, I wondered if I could have your thoughts on the following. We are currently waiting to see if our 4 fertilized eggs will develop into blastocysts, today is only day 1. The clinic we are at have a policy that they will freeze a day 3 if we get that far and if there are others still going, then let them develop further to day 5. The embryologist also said that if on this or our future cycles (we’re doing 3) we got blastocysts they would suggest defrosting the day 3 and seeing if it will grow to day 5. A previous consultant told me that he didn’t think day 3 embryos survived freezing and thawing very well, my clinic has said that it shouldn’t be an issue but it is our choice. Any advice/thoughts. Obviously we’re not even at that stage yet, but it’s something I’m wondering about. My clinic also said roughly they would expect 20-30% fertilized eggs to make blastocysts at my age (41). The emotional side of doing IVF is so difficult. Thanks in advance

Hi @Sara279
My clinic had exactly the same policy - I did a round with Create and ended up with a day 3 embryo frozen, and 3 day 5 embryos. It was a freeze all cycle. I did a FET in August and we chose to defrost the day 3 one. The lab cultured it for 2 days and put it back in on day 5. It defrosted fine and developed into a decent grade by day 5. The embryologist said if it didn't start growing again in the lab it probably wouldn't have led to a viable pregnancy anyway, and in that scenario they would have just taken a day 5 embryo out and used that instead so I could definitely have a transfer either way. Unfortunately it turned into an ectopic pregnancy but I liked the day 3/day 5 approach. Good luck!

Hi @bicyclesandbeyond I’m so sorry to hear about your ectopic :( I’m also with Create. They’ve said it’s up to us, I guess I’m just wondering what the pros and cons are. We won’t hear anything now until Thurs and the waiting is so hard :(

The most I have cried during IVF was waiting for the bloody embryology phone calls - it was the worst bit for me. I was a mess before and after every conversation! I decided to trust their day 3 policy - I found it helpful to understand that if the day 3 embryo didn't defrost or grow then it wasn't meant to be anyway. If you're banking embryos then hopefully you'll have some back ups?

Yes I understand that logic. We’re hoping to bank over 3 cycles, but our first cycle (not included in this 3 cycle package) was a disaster, so we started again with very low expectations. The waiting is so hard. I will speak to the embryologist again when they call on Thurs, if it’s even an option for us then. Hoping my eggs still have some life in them yet. My partners sperm is very good and I’ve been taking vitamins and trying to eat healthy... although I just thought sod it tonight and got a massive KFC. Yesterday EC was difficult, won’t go into the details, but partner and I were just so relieved at the end of the day and had to take a short walk just calm our frayed nerves 😅 I’ve never enjoyed a Costa Coffee as much in my life. It felt like such a treat at the end of a difficult day, particularly as I’ve not had a coffee since before lockdown! Small pleasures x

@Sara279 I am currently pregnant with a day 3 frozen embryo which was transferred on the day of thaw. They will only freeze the highest grade embryos on day 3 and they have excellent thaw rates

@MabelG congratulations that is good to hear. I guess I will need to wait until Thurs anyhow as might already be getting ahead of myself!

Sorry you had a difficult EC @Sara279 - this whole process is so tough. Sounds like that KFC and Costa were well deserved! I would have done exactly the same. Got my fingers crossed for you for Thursday. Create do seem to have a sensible ethos of quality over quantity so I'm sure over three cycles you will have something to transfer Xx

I hope so @bicyclesandbeyond it was getting the sample that was the hard part. We didn’t think we would be able to after trying for hours and even hours after EC but at the last hour, or should I say 15 mins, something worked and it happened! There very nearly wasn’t a sample for even fertilization to occur. We were fraught at the end of the day. My EC was 9.30 and we got the sample to the clinic at 15.10. For your future reference apparently some clinics don’t even mix the sperm and eggs until the end of the day even if they have both samples, the clinic said it didn’t matter that our sample was later in the day. Absolute mega stress it was. We will have a frozen sample as a back up for the next 2 cycles 🙄

I've got my fingers crossed for you for Thursday I hope you get the news you want!
Today is day 5 for me (so not quite the same situation but I understand the worry) and waiting on a call from the embryologist, got everything crossed we have something to freeze today. We had 11 fertilised with icsi x

Oh blimey you poor thing @Sara279
Have you read 'Get a life: his and hers survival guide to IVF' - there is a similar horror story in there so you're not alone. I imagine it's a common issue! My husband would hugely sympathise with yours I'm sure!!!

Good luck to you too @elsaesmeralda xx

@elsaesmeralda thank you and I hope you get the news you want today. It’s so nerve wracking! @bicyclesandbeyond I haven’t read the book but it does sound like a similar situation. I was a mess after EC when I realised we had no sample... there were plenty of tears, then I managed to pull myself together for the sake of my partner and thankfully we got there in the end. We were both so relieved. I guess we’ll see what the clinic says tomorrow and I will take their advice.

@Sara279 thank you, I've got 8 in the freezer, found out earlier. Will be checking back to see your news on Thursday wishing you all the best

@elsaesmeralda that's great news! Massive congratulations. Will let you know.

Hi all @elsaesmeralda @bicyclesandbeyond @MabelG I just wanted to let you know that the embryologist called late this afternoon and we had some good news. All four embryos are still developing at day 3 and she said they were top quality grade 1 embryos. I was over the moon with the news but my heart was racing like crazy. I discussed the day 3 freezing with the embryologist again and then with my partner and we have decided to let them continue as they are to see if they make it to day 5. The embryologist said she thought the shape etc looked good and was hopeful, but of course you just never know. So we have rolled the dice and said let them all continue in the embryoscope. The clinic will call again on Sat. It’s so crazy and also to think we’ll be going through this all again another 2 times. I don’t know if my nerves can take it! But will sleep better tonight with some positive news from today x

That's wonderful news @Sara279
I've got my fingers crossed for Saturday! It's a flipping emotional rollercoaster xxx

@Sara279 fantastic! Happy for you. Glad you've had some good news and can put your mind at rest a little bit. My heart was racing when I got the call aswell 🤣 so crazy all this isn't it!

@Sara279 that is excellent news - good luck!

thankyou everyone. Will keep all my fingers and toes crossed until Sat, thanks for all your comments and support xx

@bicyclesandbeyond @elsaesmeralda @MabelG so I got an update from the embryologist, she said we have one that has developed into a blastocyst Grade AB and the other 3 are still going and are early blastocysts. They said they are at stage 1 and need to make it to stage 3. They will check them again tomorrow morning and if they have developed further will let them keep going for tomorrow during the day to see if they get to stage 3. If they haven’t developed further overnight they said they wouldn’t develop any further anyhow and it would be the end for them. I hope they develop further 🤞do any of you have any experience with blastocysts lagging behind/ catching up? The eggs were only fertilized tea time ish on Monday 🤞🤞🤞🤞

@Sara279 keeping everything crossed for you it's such a nerve wracking time ! By day 5 I had 8 that had fertilised and she said one was hatching and she would leave it until the next day and see what happens and it did make it so I had a day 6 in there too

Honestly try not to think about it too much as hard as it is! This part is out of our control which is what makes it so hard xx

I had 2 day 5s and 1 day 6. The fresh transfer with one of the day 5 failed but I am currently 20 weeks pregnant with the frozen day 6.

Congrats on your AB day 5 and fingers crossed for the other 2.

Thank you @elsaesmeralda and @Westnorwood we are really pleased with having a day 5 frozen. We didn’t freeze any day 3’s so I was so happy that one had made it. I obviously really want the other three to make it too. I realise it’s a numbers game at my age (41) and not every transfer works. We also have two more cycles to do in Jan and Feb so hopefully we’ll have more.

Late to this thread i know but I was also with Create and it's their company Policy to freeze at least one on day 3. I was doing a 3 cycle
Package so agreed on the first cycle the best quality one would be frozen day 3 and all others would be allowed to go to day 5.

I then thawed the day 3 cultured to day 5 so it was very "active" when it went back in and put it back with a day 6 frozen one.

Both mine stuck and I'm having twins. It's the only "different" think we did out of 4 transfers so who knows whether this decision was what made it work for us x