Hello,
Looking for some advice please.
Had a successful IVF cycle in 2022. 8 eggs retrieved, initially informed that 4 had fertilised. 1 day 3 embryo transferred (now my toddler) and come day 5, there was 1 suitable for freezing - grade 5BA.
I have been in contact with the clinic re having FET later this year with the 1 frozen embryo. During a conversation about embryo quality, the Lab Manager (who the call was with) said my notes state that fertilisation was not observed on the frozen blast and I was informed of this at the time.
I am one to ask a LOT of questions and I certainly do not recall being informed of this at the time, I feel this is something I'd almost certainly remember. I do vaguely remember the embryologist mentioning one of the embryos had fertilised later and me merely thinking it had just simply re-entered the mix, so to speak, of the embryos that were being cultured. I do not recall any conversation at length about this, nor the implications of this being fully explained.
During my call with the Lab Manager, I was seriously taken aback by this and naturally had a lot of questions about how I have a grade 5BA blast if signs of fertilisation were not observed. I was met with a lot of "we wouldn't normally expect that to happen", "it wouldn't normally result in a good quality blast" etc. and found most of my info through Google. When I took my Google findings on signs of abnormal fertilisation to the Lab Manager, she was generally quite helpful and clarified that no signs of fertilisation were seen at the initial check, then the second check (24hrs later) a second polar body was observed. No pronuclei were seen but I'm told they are only visible for a matter of hours before being discarded so it could be that the embryo did fertilise normally and had discarded it's PNs by the time of the second check, or it has fertilised abnormally.
Fast forward to now, the Lab Manager has consulted with the Clinical Directors and their advice is that there is a higher risk of the embryo failing to implant and higher risk of miscarriage, unless genetic testing is carried out at a cost of ~£2000, which they wouldn't generally recommend for a single embryo and the testing itself can be risky. They have said, given my age (30), they would recommend a fresh cycle. If I chose to go ahead with the FET, they would support me in this but in the absence of genetic testing, the literature suggests this would come with the aforementioned risks.
I've raised my frustrations with the Lab Manager about the fact that none of this was explained at the time, all that was said (from my memory) is that another embryo had fertilised. I appreciate there is a chance I am misremembering but I honestly don't think so. In addition, I certainly was not aware that the late fertilising embryo is the one that was subsequently frozen. She has said she will continue to discuss this with the Clinical Directors and let me know what the outcome of this is. I'm just a bit taken aback that I have paid ~£1400 in storage costs, thinking it stood as good a chance as any at potentially being a sibling for my child and I'm now being told I should probably just go ahead with a fresh cycle at a far greater cost than a FET. Not to mention that it would be a logistical nightmare travelling to the location of the clinic, which is 5 hours away from where I live now, for the duration of the fresh cycle (for scans etc.) and would've been much more workable with the fewer appts that come with a FET. I also feel like I don't trust them now, which is maybe unreasonable - I don't know. For context, the cost of a fresh cycle at the clinic isn't much more than the cost of a fresh cycle, but where I live now, the cost of a fresh cycle is about £2000 more than the cost of a fresh cycle at the original clinic.
I'm just at a bit of a loss and not really sure what to think so any advice would be welcomed!