Posted in conception but might get more response here - one egg or two ?

[OHBollox]

We're having IVF soon and I have to decide to go for one and maybe miscarry and end up with nothing or go for two and end up with 5 children altogether.
If you were asked to step back in time, would you choose a multiple birth ?

Hi,
Were you other children conceived naturally? When we went for embryo transfer we were told there were seven fertilized eggs, three had not developed into enough cells, four were ok. We said we would use two and have two frozen, as it was never going to work! The embryologist said, "I shouldn`t really say this but you have three grade 1 eggs, the 4th I would discard. I think you should go for broke at your age and transfer the three with the hope of keeping one! Eleven years later the rest is history!

Just checking something!

It worked, got my profile and photos back on, thought you might like to see my pics of my trio when they were born!

Ahhhhhhhhh where has it gone? How do I get it back?

Take 2!

Done it!

They are beautiful

My others were conceived naturally, we've never had any problems at all before now.

I know another lady who had three put in and only got one child as a result.

I keep swinging from one to the other.

For two eggs :-
They'd have a play mate the same age
In for a penny in for a pound, it's not going to cost me double to have two, we'd need the bigger car anyway even if we had one.
We have the space.
It's not going to cost anymore in IVF

Against :-
Health of me and the babies and ability to do anything with my older kids for a few months before the birth and maybe after if I have to have a section.
Have never had a C Section and would be terrified.

The actually having two babies bit really doesn't phase me at all. But that could be utter madness on my part.

I didnt have a C Section. You might not either.

We had twins via IVF and then 8weeks after they were born I conceived naturally (very shocked). The baby was born 2 weeks early which meant we had 10.5mth old twins and a newborn.

It was hard, even though we had help from family but now (6years later) everyone thinks we have triplets and the children are the best of friends (well, most of the time anyway!!) I consider myself to be extremly lucky and wouldnt change a thing.

If you are ok financially and feel able to cope with 2 babies (feeding 3/4 hourly at different intervals for the first 3mths) then I would say go for it.

I obviously did, and have to say it was one of the most loveliest experiences and I wish I could do it all over again! I was told of all the risks to my own health, risks for them, but I SAILED through until the 32 week then baby number 3 stopped growing so thats why they delivered. But Rebecca was 4.3oz, Thomas 4.7oz and James 2.15oz. None of them needed help breathing and all came home together 4 weeks later. I was 2 months off of my 46th birthday when they were born!

OHBollox, your embryos will be graded before you're in stirrups and you will be told which ones are the best. If you have enough good grade embryos there may be the option of freezing the remaining ones - different clinics appear to have different protocols in terms of which ones they'll freeze.

Can I just offer a word of caution which might sound a bit daft - you 'only' have a 25% chance of twins and lower at many clinics (my clinic prides itself on only having a 10% twin rate). IME many IVF patients become quite obsessed with having twins and are bitterly disappointed when they 'only' have one. I'm not for one minute saying this is the case for you cos obviously you have 3 DCs already, but I've seen it happen many times with other IF acquaintances of mine.

In our case we only had one embryo so we had no choice, but I would have risked two if we'd had them. But next time? I will probably only have one put back in I think because I want to be able to enjoy the pg and many people with twin pregnancies have very difficult experiences.

Good luck whatever you decide. It's a gruelling process but so worth it in the end.

triplets, your DCs are gorgeous

Thank you, I am rather proud of them! Love your name btw, something to do with a fav prog of ours?

I've never watched the programme tbh - it was just a flash of inspiration when I was pg! Unfortunately the pants are still rather too big given that my DS is over six months old!

I had IVF recently, and have ended up pregnant with twins. We weren't expecting them to put back 2 embryos, but they said that this was normal, and that our chances of success were much lower if we only put one back. I am 38.
We started with 14 eggs harvested, fertilised by ICSI; 9 of them fertilised normally, but by day 2 we had only 4 which were developing normally. On day 3, there was one 6-cell and one 7-cell embryo (the other two were 4- or 5-cell, and therefore not developing properly), but the 6-cell one became 8-cell while we were waiting for the implanting. They put both of them in, and we didn't have any for freezing.
As I'm only 13 weeks pregnant, I can't yet say how difficult it's going to be, but all the signs are good for a healthy pregnancy, so I'm not too concerned.

I would still recommend having 2 embryos replaced, if you've got them. If you're lucky enough to have lots spare for freezing, great.

So pregnant foodie, just so I understand, I've been told 16 eggs is what we're aiming for of which I would get 8 (am donating to try and reduce costs) so what did they say was a normal success rate, 2 out of 9 seems really low.
We don't have any fertility problems just that DH had a vasectomy and I can't go through the whole reversal thing so I was hoping our chances of success were quite high but I guess the eggs still have to develop whatever the reason for ICIS.
How did you find the whole process if you don't mind my asking, we're still at very early stages hoping for implantation in June.

A cheeky bounce

You probably don't want to hear this but my friend had a terrible experience when she had two embryos implanted, she ended up carrying triplets. Unfortunately the twins developed problems and one died and then the other at 20 weeks. All the complications then caused problems for the remaining baby who was born at 24 weeks. He survived but he's terribly poorly. Blind from the oxygen he's received in hospital, he's still only about 15lbs in weight at 10 months and has tons of problems. However, speaking to another friend of mine who works in an IVF clinic, that is very very rare. It would still scare the living daylights out of me.

Oh dear, I hope the little boy is doing ok now.
Not what I wanted to hear but I guess there's always a risk with every pregnancy.

OHBollox, just to add to what Spongebrain has said (which I totally agree with) you only have a 25% chance of a twin pregnancy - and your chance of acheiving a pregnancy at all will vary with your age etc - may be 1 in 3 or 1 in 4? So if you did end up pregnant, there is still only a small chance of twins

And regarding your questions about number of embryos - if you have lots of eggs harvested, not all will fertilise, and not all will be of good enough quality to put back. Everyone wants lots of grade 1 embryos to have some spare to put in the freezer for later, but this is the exception rather than the norm. The older you are the worse your egg quality will be as well, reducing the chances of implantation. Sorry, not sure if you've mentioned your age in this thread, couldn't spot it if so.

I had my first IVF when I was 36, had 7 eggs collected, 5 fertilised, only 2 of good enough quality to put back inside, and ended up with one baby. Your clinic will be able to tell you your chances of success for your cycle in June (good luck with that by the way!) and if you have any questions about the procedure come over to the Assisted Conception thread in the Conception topic.

ohbollox - he's ok, but it'll be a struggle the rest of his life. He's permenantly blind plus there may be brain damage. But what happened to my friend is very very rare so I wouldn't worry too much.