i feel like i am being railroaded into having a blastocyst transfer and i need advice

[stacey25xxx]

I am 25 and had my egg collection yesterday, prior to the treatment i was given several consent forms from my clinic one of which was a consent to blastocyst transfer.
After reading the section of the form where i had to agree that i understood that there is a possibility that none of my embryos would make it to the blastocyst stage and there would be nothing to transfer i declined my consent.

After my operation the fertility nurse came in to tell me that they had collected 9 eggs and they would most likley call me in on monday (day 5) for my transfer, i then informed her that i had not given my consent for a day 5 transfer as i was worried about the possible risks of none transfer. The nurse tried to convince me to change my mind and even in my muddled post anesthetic state i managed to stand firm.
Today the embryologist called me to inform me that they had fertilized 7 of my eggs and 6 had taken, she then went on to say that they would probably call me in on monday for my transfer (day5!), so i had to inform her that i had not consented to a blastocyst transfer, she seemed quite put out and after throwing a few statistics my way (36% sucess rate on day 3 vs 46% on day 5) she abruptly told me that i would have to come in on saturday any way to either fill out a consent form for blastocyst or have the day 3 transfer i am also in for a 'chat' with the embryologist. No doubt the chat will be another attempt to convince me to wait until day 5. I am not declining my consent just to be awkward or because i am inpatient, i am genuinely concerned that all of my embryos will perish, i have done research into cases such as mine whereby there have been up to 15 embryos and only 3 have made it to blastocyst stage, i have 6 and i don't want to risk them.
I would be grateful for any advice please x

Hi Stacey, this is an anxious time for you and you need to make the decision you are comfortable with. I've had ivf twice now, and amazingly been successful twice! I Tdid go for the blastocyst option, although i was fully informed that if the fertilised eggs weren't looking so good they would be transferred sooner. The way I understood things about the blastocyst transfer is it does give a Ehiher success rate, and I think the main reason is it shows which eggs have developed the furthest, and therefore which are most likely to continue developing. Both times I had high numbers of eggs collected and fertilised (I think 15 fertilised first time, and 12 the second). Both times I had 2 blastocysts transferred, and both times oJnly 1 egg took. They also continued "growing" the remaining eggs, none of which developed any further meaning none remaining for freezing. They also informed me bythe blastocyst stage several of the fertilised eggs had stopped developing.

Sorry, managed to post before I finished (or check spelling mistakes!)
So .....my thoughts on the blastocyst transfer were that at least they would be able to transfer the eggs which seemed to have the best survival chance - at 3 days they all looked fairly similar, and they could easily have transferred the 'wrong' eggs. Also, although out of that many fertilised eggs it was very disappointing and upsetting not to have any remaining to be frozen, but again the fact they didn't develop any further means even if they had frozen them at an earlier stage (apart from the risks that they don't defrost successfully) there would have been a good chance no more eggs would have been successful. The clinic I used were very good in keeping me informed as to the progress, and I did do what they recommended, but also know they would have transferred earlier if they felt they needed to - I think they said if development wasn't looking great, it's better to transfer anyway! As I say, that is just my opinion and experience, but you need to be sure you make the right decision for you. Wishing you the best of luck for the next few weeks, remember to try and take things a bit easier after the transfer and not worry too much (easier said than done!). Xx

Stacey, I know this is a very difficult time for you, I have had 1 failed IVF cycle and 1 successful. The first was a day3 transfer, the successful one was a day5. I think (and I may be wrong) that if your embryos can't make it to day5 in the lab, they would be unlikely to survive at all so having a day3 transfer might give false hope.

I didn't have anywhere near as many embryos as you, in my first cyle we only had 4 fertilised eggs, and had only 1 excellent and 1 good quality at day3.
In our second cycle we had ICSI and got 8 fertilised eggs, 2 excellent embryos by day5. We now have 5 month old twins.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you are successful xx

So annoying, I replied and the website went down!

I want to reassure you that you shouldn't run the risk you are worried about. From my experience, I had something like 9 eggs collected, 5 fertilised and then by day 3 had 2 that were alright but not brilliant quality. I had a call from the clinic to say that they thought we should do ET that day rather than waiting until day 5, which was otherwise very much the working assumption (and only one transfer). The remainder would be left to continue developing with a view to freezing any blasts.

The outcome of my ET was non-identical twins, so they both 'took' despite not being good enough to go to blast. None of the other embryos made it as far as day 5, so we had none left over.

I really don't think they will make you go to day 5 no matter what - they assess the embryos at every stage and as in my case make an early call if they don't look up to the job. Best of luck with your cycle.