| Did you know that the day of the embryo transfer | | | | Although you can choose to have the embryos |
| hinges upon your chance of a successful IVF? Risk is | | | | transferred on the third day after fertilization, a |
| involved with blastocyst transfer, but there are also | | | | blastocyst transfer has many obvious advantages. |
| certain advantages you should know about. What is | | | | The first is that it makes it easy to weed out the |
| blastocyst transfer? On the fifth day after | | | | healthy embryos from the abnormal ones without |
| fertilization, the embryos would have reached the | | | | spending for expensive screening procedures. Studies |
| blastocyst stage - the stage of cell division where | | | | show that embryos that do not reach the blastocyst |
| the embryo has "hatched" from the zona pellucida, or | | | | stage are more likely to have abnormal chromosome |
| shell. At this point, the embryo should be ready to | | | | numbers, which means they would have eventually |
| implant itself onto the uterine lining. Studies show that | | | | miscarried. Doctors observed that as much as 40% |
| blastocyst embryo transfers are more likely to result | | | | of embryos fail to make it to the blastocyst stage. |
| in pregnancy but like anything else, this option also | | | | Thus, waiting for the embryos to reach the |
| has its disadvantages. | | | | blastocyst stage decreases the number of abnormal |
| Risks of IVF blastocyst transfer | | | | embryos, leaving you with the ones that are most |
| Although blastocyst embryo transfer increases your | | | | likely to develop into a healthy baby. |
| chance of getting pregnant, it also increases the risk | | | | The fact that the embryo has already "hatched" out |
| of multiple births. Studies have shown that the | | | | of its shell also gives it an improved implantation rate. |
| chances of giving birth to twins from two blastocyst | | | | In fact, blastocyst embryos have a 50-50 chance of |
| embryos are higher than from two day-3 embryos. | | | | implantation. This means you will only need to have |
| You can always choose to have a single embryo | | | | one or two blastocysts transferred, leaving you with |
| transferred, but remember that there's a 50% | | | | a few "back up" embryos just in case this cycle fails. |
| chance that it will not implant. | | | | Spare blastocyst embryos may be cryopreserved |
| One other disadvantage of this procedure is that it | | | | until they are needed in the future. |
| works under the assumption that many embryos will | | | | Candidates for blastocyst transfer |
| survive for five days. The reality is that as many as | | | | So should you get a blastocyst transfer? If you are |
| half of your embryos might die out. For some | | | | younger than 35 with healthy embryos, it might work |
| women, not a single embryo was able to make it to | | | | for you. A study shows that women younger than |
| the blastocyst stage, resulting in the cancellation of | | | | 35 who had a single blastocyst transferred had a |
| the cycle. | | | | 63% chance for a live birth compared to those who |
| The last disadvantage of the procedure has to do | | | | had two blastocysts transferred. You might also |
| with cryopreserving the remaining embryos. | | | | benefit from a blastocyst transfer if you had no |
| Blastocysts cannot survive the freezing and thawing | | | | success with day three transfers. Finally, if you want |
| process as well as day-3 embryos do, and you might | | | | to avoid the complications of multiple pregnancy, a |
| end up losing most or all of the embryos in the | | | | single blastocyst transfer is highly recommended. Go |
| process. | | | | over the options carefully with your doctor to |
| Advantages of blastocyst transfer | | | | determine which is best for you. |