5 embryos - 2 questions

[CreamLampshade]

Hi all, just found out they got five viable embryos from my retrieval yesterday out of 14 eggs collected, ten eggs were mature. Is this an ok fertilisation rate or should I be asking the doc for further investigations if this doesn’t work out?

also, this is an nhs cycle and she said we wouldn’t be getting any updates on how they are doing until Monday, which is also the day of transfer! Is this normal? I hate the idea of having hopes up over the weekend and actually they don’t even make it past day 3. has anyone else had this experience? Should I call tomorrow and ask for an update or is that going to be annoying / useless anyway?

also, anyone else have success from five embryos initially?

sorry one more question. We are thinking about asking for them to transfer two as we would quite like twins. Did anyone else do this and how has it worked out?

We had 2 collection and 4 transfers with the below outcome;

1st collection
14 follicles collected
8 fertilised
4 made 3 day
2 made 5 day blastocyst

First transfer ended in miscarriage at 8 weeks, 2nd transfer failed.

2nd collection:
8 follicles collected
8 follicles fertilised
8 made day 3
5 made day 5 blastocyst

We done a double transfer which failed, the fourth transfer ended in my beautiful baby son who’s just over 5 weeks old. We still have 2 blastocysts freezing.

We were NHS and had a call at day 3 so I would call them to ask for an update as there can be quite a large drop off between day 3 and day 5.

Doing a double transfer depended on the number of embryos we had, as we had 5 we went ahead anything less and I don’t think we would have. In hindsight I wouldn’t have done a double, they were AA’s and as both failed I felt we lost 2 attempts in 1 go. I felt that if my body wasn’t ready then no amount of embryos would have taken. Maybe if I had known what the issue was I would have felt differently. We were unexplained.

I was 38 at first collection, 39 at second and 40 having my son.

Good luck :)

We had

8 Mature eggs
6 fertilised
1 day 5

rest were left til day 6 but never developed from day 3. I’m with Guy’s Hospital via NHS - they don’t update at Day 3 unless there are none left by then. They also do not do double transfers unless over 40.

everywhere is different it seems, might be worth checking with them in advance! From my experience no question is a stupid one, and if they find you annoying for asking who cares!

I’m pondering similar questions @CreamLampshade

Last week I got:

Day 0 - 20 collected but only 12 mature (would want to address this if we have to try again)

Day 1 - 10 fertilised, but only 7 fertilised normally

Day 3 - 4 doing well, others behind

Day 5 - 3 to freeze

And now I’m wondering whether our chances are better if we transfer 2 then 1, or 1-1-1.

@SH998 did you do anything differently or adjust doses between your two collections? Seems like you really managed to achieve quality over quantity second time round.

@Sierra26 everything remained the same for both collections so I was surprised at the difference in results. Initially I was gutted that the second collection had produced so many less follicles but in my case it did appear quality over quantity ruled.
It’s such a tough journey so be kind to yourself ladies, wishing you all the best x

We had two collections and two transfers

First collection
14 eggs collected
8 fertilised
2 embryos at day 3
1 5-day 4AA and 1 6-day 4CC frozen

4AA results in miscarriage, we don’t trust the 4CC to work so do another collection

Second collection
15 eggs collected
9 fertilised
6 embryos at day 3
1 5-day 4BB

We were still traumatised from the miscarriage so ask for the 4BB to be PGTA tested as we don’t want to put anything back in that isn’t very likely to work. It came back normal. 🙏 I now how my beautiful baby.

Best of luck ladies, and do ask questions and change things if you need to. We went from mild IVF to conventional IVF in our second round, I felt like my day 3 result was A LOT better because of it.

@SH998 May I ask if you've done anything in-between the 2 cycles (supplements or lifestyle change etc.)? The fertilisation rate and embryo development rate seem to have increased a lot for the second cycle. many thanks!

I was nhs. I had 5 eggs retrieved but there was only one left by day 3 so I did the transfer on day 3 instead of day 5. Pleased to say it was a successful transfer. I wonder if it’s they just don’t have anyone In over the weekend to check. As I say, I was nhs and got updates about progression but it was midweek.

They are unlikely to agree to a double transfer if this is your first round. Twin pregnancies are higher risk so they will usually only do it of they think the chances of them both implanting are low.

Thanks all, @LouP87 Im also at guys!! They didn’t tell me it’s not their policy to tell you at day 3 so that is really useful to know, thank you :) Did you like them? I’ve been quite pleased so far altho haven’t ever seen the original doctor I saw again. Just nurses (he was so lovely!), and also I had one nurse who didn’t seem to be great at spotting follicles which sent me into a bit of a panic as she said I had about half of what I actually did!

I am 39, 40 in 3 months so I wonder if they’d bend the rules a bit re putting two embryos in. However @SH998 that is a very good point re wishing you only put one in instead of two. I guess having two goes potentially means your body could be more ready in one cycle than other. so maybe I will do that. I think I’m just trying to save myself two labours lol and I’d quite like twins!

@ACR7 that’s what I’m worried about, that’s there’s none left by Monday and only get told when I arrive! Which would be so sad after getting myself worked up. It feels strange having no idea what we have to play with before going in. Apparently I get a call on Saturday from the nurses to confirm the time to come in on Monday so hopefully they can give some clarity on the process. I’d rather get a call beforehand

I think I might have mild ohss, so maybe they’ll push back anyway. Hoping they will scan me to check before transfer, is they everyone else’s experience?

thanks all for your experiences, so useful to see… I’m only really at the start of the journey and can’t afford to do an ivf round myself so there’s big pressure on this to work! However I did freeze some eggs a few years ago so if I save up I could potentially make some embryos from those.

@EggsFrozenNow i don’t absolutely nothing different at all, I ate and drank the same on both cycles and continued taking the same supplements (vitamin D/folic acid/baby aspirin)which is strange when the outcome was so different.
@CreamLampshade i was offered a double transfer on all my transfers without me even having to ask. I only took it up on the third transfer as we had more embryos available to us. I would have been happy with twins but understand there is an increased risk.
Do what is right for you, you don’t want to look back and regret doing/ not doing something later down the line. x

@SH998 Oh wow, and were you on the same protocol/ medication for the treatment?

@EggsFrozenNow yes exactly the same, the only difference was they added a Lubion injection but that was after the transfer and in the 2ww. The lead up to both collections were exactly the same.

@SH998 Thank you for the response. Mind boggling!