Fertilization Report

Yesterday morning I had my egg retrieval. They retrieved only seven eggs this time. I was very down and out yesterday because I was told that once again my eggs were too dark and very abnormal looking. I pretty much counted myself out for this cycle right then and there.

BUT by some miracle, two of my eggs actually looked normal which is a first!!! So, it looks like I'm back in the game for now. Of my total of seven eggs, they fertilized four of them using ICSI and the other three fertilized by normal IVF. Out of the four attempted to be fertilized by ICSI, one was really bad and incapable of being fertilized. One had vacuoles and is developing slowly. The other two were the normal looking eggs and they both fertilized and are looking great. Out of the three other eggs fertilized by IVF, one had vacuoles and the other two are degenerating which means they are hopeless. So out of the seven total, we still have the two excellent ICSI embryos and the two with vacuoles. The embryologist said the chance of the ones with vacuoles being viable is low, but it could happen. We will do the transfer on day three which is Friday morning. We will for sure transfer the two great embryos and possibly all four if they are all still growing. Like I said, the odds of the two with vacuoles even developing to day three is low and the chance of them developing into a healthy pregnancy is slim to none. They won't cryopreserve embryos with vacuoles so our choice is to either transfer them now or discard them. We're certainly not going for quads here, but we need to give it all we've got.

We are doing a day three transfer this time because of the quantity. Day 5 blastocyst transfer is the better option when there are still too many eggs to choose from on day three. In that case, they wait until day 5 in order to choose the one or two healthiest looking embryos. However, it would be pointless for us to wait until day 5 this time. This is because we have a small enough amount that we will transfer them all back regardless. I feel like the sooner they are back inside their natural environment, the better.