Thursday, September 13, 2007

Lazy, Fickle Embryos

So it's a 3-day transfer, not 5-day. She's getting 3 embryos put in today, instead of 2 put in on Saturday. We are so very caught off-guard. We did not even plan for 3-day. Lovely Acupuncturist is on her way to our apartment, though. Love her.

Of the 11, only 3 look good. One is "beautiful" (tremendous improvement over the 3 fuglies we put in last time) and two look "almost perfect."

The rest are dividing slowly. Again. Doctor said he wouldn't make the decision to toss them until day 5 or 6. But so far so bad. I don't know what exactly this means. I want to grab his fucking microscope and see for myself what those little shits are up to in their petri dishes. I will kill them, those lazy sons of bitches. Don't they know what I went through to create them?

I'm so pleased with our 3 pretty ones that I give them little gold stars of their own. They are ready for the flashcards and the baby sign language.

But 2 things, and for anyone who has traveled through this particular circle of IVF hell, I'd be so grateful for any words of wisdom:

1. Why does he want them in today? Why not day 5? In his words, it's because they look so good that there is no reason to let them sit around in culture for the next 2 days. He claims there is no advantage to waiting, especially when we have so few to work with.

But I thought the purpose of the 5 day transfer was to give them a better shot of implanting. Why aren't we letting the good embryos develop into blastocysts so they are more likely to implant? Then maybe we could put 1 or 2 in and freeze the other(s).

To me, this 3-day decision sounds like he's concerned they'll stop growing and then we'll have nothing to transfer and nothing to freeze.

2. Why 3 in if they look so good? He says we should put 3 in due to our poor result last time. He also claims his clinic has a <4% triplets rate. Is he just being aggressive, or does this sound like he's concerned that none will take, so he's just tossing all the good ones in there? (And btw, 4% triplet rate?? Yowsa. To me that sounds like a lot of people having frigging litters, no?)

Thank you, exceptional people.

7 comments:

Drowned Girl said...

The reason for good success rates with blasts isn't because they somehow improve in the dish.. in fact some say the opposite.. but because where there are many to choose from, delaying allows the embryologist to weed out the weaker ones before deciding which ones to transfer.

If it seems likely at day 3 that the number of good embryos doesn't exceed the 2 or 3 they will transfer, then there is no point in delaying and risking a good embryo suffering in the dish.

If you pop to my blog, under embrylogy resources I have links to several articles/sites that discuss 3 day vs 5 day.

It sounds like the embryos transferred are great. Their quality has nothing to do with the others... only a small % have the percentage to develop anyway... if your doc has been able to spot those ones for transfer, then things look good!

xx

Drowned Girl said...

PS I think on average it's 1/4 of 3 day embryos that are chromosomally normal and have the potential to go to blast... s you're absolutely normal with 3/11!

gold star said...

Thanks, DG, that makes sense and it is sort of what my feeble brain was making of his explanations. I didn't know the second stat you mention re: 1/4 of 3 day embryos going to blast stage...that's helpful and makes me think the good ones will continue dividing in there. Thank you for your calm kind words!!

Melody said...

I have no wisdom because we didn't have anything to transfer. I'm just glad you guys are still in the game and want you to know that I'm rooting for you. I hope the transfer went smoothly, and I'll be sending good implanting vibes eastward.

Anonymous said...

I was told it's all about what the embryologist can see on day three. If there are outstanding ones in there, they are going to pull them out. If they are all sort of the same, sometimes they wait until day 5. I have read many happy endings with either d3 or d5. Wishing you two mucho luck!!
Love, Daisy

Anonymous said...

i just found your blog and think you are hysterical so i thought i'd leave a note and wish you good luck. and btw, very good friends of ours were in the less than 4% stat who wound up with triplets after deciding to go for the gusto after a failed ivf attempt and many years of failed IUI's...

Anonymous said...

love the obsenity kee it fucking coming!

And ditto on dorwned girl's post