Today I was looking through my packet for the new fertility clinic. One of the things they give you read in that packet is about twins. It's basically meant to educate the patient as to the risks of twins, as well as try to dissuade them from putting back more than one embryo. Those of you who have been following me for a while or know me, know that when we did our last cycle, I had a hard time wrapping my head around putting more than one embryo back.
I asked Dr. M what he thought about just putting one back. His response was that he felt that we should put two back in the hopes that we would end up with one baby. Twins were my fear then as they are now. We did not have good quality embryos, and I have a friend who also did not have good quality embryos, and it didn't matter, she still had twins! Little did we know that it would not be an issue as we wouldn't have any normal embryos develop last cycle.
I'm reading this information about twins, the fertility center's take on it, etc. Of course, fertility clinics don't want high amounts of multiples because it's not healthy for the mom or the babies, and they want their end results to be live births. Anyway, it turns out that this fertility clinic that my doctor is now a part of recommends elective single embryo transfers. They recommend transferring one embryo back for women who are younger than 37 (I am), people in their first IVF cycle or ones with a prior IVF pregnancy (me), normal uterine cavity (mostly me), and 1 or 2 Day 5 blastocysts available for transfer...I have never been able to get my embryos to day 5...they all fizzled out and ceased to develop further, hence the reason we never had any snowbabies-nothing made it to the point where we could freeze them.
It sounded good in theory. I want to ask Dr. M what he thinks about it if we were to have decent embryos this next cycle. At least I'll know where we stand and what to expect. I doubt we'll have decent embryos since we never have before, and since in his words my egg quality has greatly declined. But it could happen right?
That brings me to the next thing I'm wondering about. If we had any embryos that made it far enough, would we freeze them in case we did another cycle? Last time we said we would. But last time we also had a greater amount of money available to us through our insurance to pay for frozen embryo transfers. This next cycle is going to use up that money. All things to think about I guess, and things to ask about.
Anyone have any other ideas of questions I should ask Dr. M on Thursday? Now that it's come time to ask them, I can't think of many!
2019 IS GETTING AWAY FROM ME!
5 years ago
I think you are already thinking of all the right questions to ask. ; ) I admire your patience and perserverance.
ReplyDeleteI guess you really don't want twins, huh?? It's not that bad! LoL Although, I completely understand your concerns b/c when I found out I was pregnant with 2, I was worried about the preterm labor/ health of the babies aspect. And, of course, you already have Jack, so that would be harder to deal with in that aspect...but as you said, he is a great helper so maybe he could bring you stuff when both your hands are full (whether you have twins or just one!) :) Praying....
ReplyDeleteMy embryos never made it past 5 day blasts either, even though they were graded high initially. I am of the opinion (based on what our lab technician said) that some people's embryos don't progress well in the lab past 3 days, but will progress well in the womb if you transfer them day three. So maybe you could do a day 3 transfer of one high quality embryo and try to get day 5 blastocysts with any other embryos you may produce and freeze them? That way you can kind of cover your bases....
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