I've been trying my best all weekend to have faith our embryos would be strong and ready once we arrived for our transfer today. I kept having those pesky thoughts creep into my head that we would arrive and they'd say, "Sorry, we regret to inform you that none of your embryos survived." GASP! I know I know....stop worrying so much! I can't help it though. We have so much riding on this IVF, and I don't think I'm totally abnormal for wondering "what if." Needless to say anytime I had those thoughts, I immediately stuffed them deep down into oblivion where they belong. Rightfully so, because there was no such bad luck today...quite the contrary.
After my pre-transfer acupuncture session we made our way to the fertility surgery center, the same place we had our retrieval done. The best part of the appointment was seeing my husband in this...
They also outfitted me with these fancy shmancy skid free socks...
I don't know about you, but I have never seen such fancy hospital socks before, and I appreciated the effort from the facility to give us a good laugh with our ridiculous apparel.
The embryologist then came in with a report on our embryos and asked us to confirm how many we wanted transferred. I am not the most knowledgeable on the whole "embryo grading" thing, but the embryologist seemed very happy with their progress. He brought in pics of the strongest embryos; Ones which were already "freeze quality", meaning that if we wanted to cryopreserve them today, they were developed enough to do so. To explain...Just as an embryo is stronger at Day 5 than it is at Day 3, it's even stronger once it reaches freeze quality. Typically they give extra embryos about 7 days max to develop after they are retrieved to reach freeze quality and have a chance at cryopreservation, so the fact three had reached their benchmark at Day 5 is good news as far as we're concerned.
We discussed number of embryos to transfer once again with Dr. Vaughn before making our final decision, and we went with two. However, Dr. Vaughn felt the top two embryos we'd be transferring today were strong enough that he put our risk for twins around 30-40%. Even though the twins rate at my clinic for women ages 35-37 is only 19.4% according to the clinic's 2011 SART data, he felt that the quality of our embryos were pretty strong, so that alone increased the chances of twins occurring in his eyes, should we become pregnant. Still, this is a risk we are willing to take.
The risk of transferring only one embryo would have simply been less chance of us becoming pregnant at all. The thought of that was enough to make us choose two to be honest. Remember, we were given only a 40-50% chance of this IVF working. We didn't come all this way NOT to get pregnant. Of course, there are women of AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) who transfer 3+ embryos and still only have one baby or no baby at all. The embryo grading process isn't all that predictive either. There are AA embies that don't end in a baby, and then there are BC embies that do. It's all a big fat game of roulette really, and no one can predict what will happen. We've done all we can, and it's out of our hands now!
We had an ultrasound guided transfer done, where the RE uses ultrasound to visualize the catheter with the embryos going in and shows exactly where the embryos are deposited in the uterus. Very interesting process! We watched on a large flatscreen as the embryologist in the adjacent lab retrieved our chosen embryos into the catheter. He then brought them to Dr. Vaughn, who explained exactly what he was doing with each step as we watched on a different monitor. Just me with my legs in the air, hubby in his sexy hopsital garb, and about 3 other people positioned straight beneath my hoo-hah....soooo romantic. I dare anyone to say this child wasn't conceived out of love!
We also got a pic of the two embryos that were transferred...
The embryologist was confident about both of these embryos, because of the differentiation between the trophectoderm cells (outer cells along the perimeter which become placenta) and the inner mass cells (separate cell mass inside cell that becomes baby). In fact 5 of our embryos in total were showing "distinct differentiation." Two shown above we transferred, one is being frozen today, and the other two embryos we anticipate may be freeze quality by tonight or tomorrow. Here is a rundown of all 12 embryos' progress as of this morning:
3 embryos freeze quality (2 were transferred, 1 frozen today)
2 embryos approaching freeze quality (hoping for freeze tonight/tomorrow possibly)
4 embryos still developing...wait and see if they reach freeze quality by Day 7
3 embryos not doing much
The way it's looking so far, after the two we transferred, we are fairly confident we'll still have 3 more for cryopreservation. The embryologist couldn't guarantee anything, but he said he didn't see any reason why we wouldn't have at least 3 make it to freeze. WOO HOO! This is fantastic news, and we are extremely grateful for the prospect of this happening. Not only because it will give us a Plan B if this fresh IVF cycle doesn't work (for a cheaper second try with FET/frozen embryo transfer), but even if this fresh cycle does work, we can always use the other embryos later for potential siblings if we have difficulties conceiving on our own again. Having frozen embryos is basically like an extra layer of insurance for infertile couples...at least that's how we look at it.
I had a second acupuncture session following the transfer, and hubby chauffuered us home. Now my only orders are to laze about. I figure there is no better way to do that than to snuggle up in bed and watch Sex and the City re-runs on E! I will say, the other good thing about having a 5DT is that you wait less time until the pregnancy test. Ours is scheduled for Wed. 4/17, so nine days from now. Please, please, please Lord, let this work!
After my pre-transfer acupuncture session we made our way to the fertility surgery center, the same place we had our retrieval done. The best part of the appointment was seeing my husband in this...
 |
| That's the spirit! |
 |
| Safety First! haha! Totally saving these for my 91 yr old grandma. |
The embryologist then came in with a report on our embryos and asked us to confirm how many we wanted transferred. I am not the most knowledgeable on the whole "embryo grading" thing, but the embryologist seemed very happy with their progress. He brought in pics of the strongest embryos; Ones which were already "freeze quality", meaning that if we wanted to cryopreserve them today, they were developed enough to do so. To explain...Just as an embryo is stronger at Day 5 than it is at Day 3, it's even stronger once it reaches freeze quality. Typically they give extra embryos about 7 days max to develop after they are retrieved to reach freeze quality and have a chance at cryopreservation, so the fact three had reached their benchmark at Day 5 is good news as far as we're concerned.
We discussed number of embryos to transfer once again with Dr. Vaughn before making our final decision, and we went with two. However, Dr. Vaughn felt the top two embryos we'd be transferring today were strong enough that he put our risk for twins around 30-40%. Even though the twins rate at my clinic for women ages 35-37 is only 19.4% according to the clinic's 2011 SART data, he felt that the quality of our embryos were pretty strong, so that alone increased the chances of twins occurring in his eyes, should we become pregnant. Still, this is a risk we are willing to take.
The risk of transferring only one embryo would have simply been less chance of us becoming pregnant at all. The thought of that was enough to make us choose two to be honest. Remember, we were given only a 40-50% chance of this IVF working. We didn't come all this way NOT to get pregnant. Of course, there are women of AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) who transfer 3+ embryos and still only have one baby or no baby at all. The embryo grading process isn't all that predictive either. There are AA embies that don't end in a baby, and then there are BC embies that do. It's all a big fat game of roulette really, and no one can predict what will happen. We've done all we can, and it's out of our hands now!
We had an ultrasound guided transfer done, where the RE uses ultrasound to visualize the catheter with the embryos going in and shows exactly where the embryos are deposited in the uterus. Very interesting process! We watched on a large flatscreen as the embryologist in the adjacent lab retrieved our chosen embryos into the catheter. He then brought them to Dr. Vaughn, who explained exactly what he was doing with each step as we watched on a different monitor. Just me with my legs in the air, hubby in his sexy hopsital garb, and about 3 other people positioned straight beneath my hoo-hah....soooo romantic. I dare anyone to say this child wasn't conceived out of love!
We also got a pic of the two embryos that were transferred...
 |
| Our best embie: BB quality embryo (150-200 cells) |
 |
| 2nd best embie: BC quality embryo (150-200 cells) |
3 embryos freeze quality (2 were transferred, 1 frozen today)
2 embryos approaching freeze quality (hoping for freeze tonight/tomorrow possibly)
4 embryos still developing...wait and see if they reach freeze quality by Day 7
3 embryos not doing much
The way it's looking so far, after the two we transferred, we are fairly confident we'll still have 3 more for cryopreservation. The embryologist couldn't guarantee anything, but he said he didn't see any reason why we wouldn't have at least 3 make it to freeze. WOO HOO! This is fantastic news, and we are extremely grateful for the prospect of this happening. Not only because it will give us a Plan B if this fresh IVF cycle doesn't work (for a cheaper second try with FET/frozen embryo transfer), but even if this fresh cycle does work, we can always use the other embryos later for potential siblings if we have difficulties conceiving on our own again. Having frozen embryos is basically like an extra layer of insurance for infertile couples...at least that's how we look at it.
I had a second acupuncture session following the transfer, and hubby chauffuered us home. Now my only orders are to laze about. I figure there is no better way to do that than to snuggle up in bed and watch Sex and the City re-runs on E! I will say, the other good thing about having a 5DT is that you wait less time until the pregnancy test. Ours is scheduled for Wed. 4/17, so nine days from now. Please, please, please Lord, let this work!