3 day or 5 day transfer

hep01

Can you tell me what the difference is between the 2 other than the fact of waiting 2 more days? Is it better to do 3 or 5? TIA

njohnson1972

If you have a lot of embryos to chose from, most REs wait to do a 5dt to see which embryos are the best ones to put back.

If you are like me and only have 2-3 embryos to pick from, then we do a 3dt since they figure the uterine environment is better for the embryo.

I would love to be able to do a 5dt - that would mean that I had lots of great embryos to pick from. 

hep01

Glad I asked! I would have thought 3 was better. Thanks!!

too_much

I think that generally a 5 day is better.  With my last transfer, we had 10 fertilized embryos.  2 made it to 8 cells by day 3 so they transferred those and froze 6.  The embyologist felt very comfortable transferring on day 3, even though I had enough quality embryos to try to make it to day 5.

patchen30

Studies do show an increased rate of success for 5dt, but those results could be skewed b/c people who are able to do 5dt generally are better candidates for success anyway (i.e. more eggs retrieved, more eggs fertilized, etc.).  If you factor in that, the success rates for 3 and 5dt are similar.  One of the big reasons Drs are proponents of 5dt is that it can reduce multiple pregnancy rates.

STL34

I think part of this depends on your lab/RE.  My RE pretty much always does 5dts.  Even for low responders.  Because they now have different stages of culture materials to better simulate the embies' natural environment, they feel the lab is the best place for them (at day 3 an embie wouldn't be in the ute yet).  My RE is very confident that an embie that doesn't make it to 5 days in the lab wouldn't make it to 5 days in the ute. 

However, some labs/REs still prefer 3dts.  Some REs/labs have better success rates one way or the other.  I would talk to your RE to see which they prefer and what their success rates are primarily based on.

Good luck!

kthappy76

My RE (and pretty much everything I've read) says that 5dt are preferrable (assuming you have something to work with).  Alot happens in those two days, and if they are already in you, it's like flying blind.

SASSY1JA

All the research i've done seems to point to 5dt being better because you can get a more accurate idea of which embies would be best to put back in after 5 days. I'm a perfect example of this. At 3 day most of mine were in the highest grade category by day 5 most of mine had started to slow down in growth. Only one made it to an early blastocyst. If we had tried to pick 1 or 2 on day 3 we might not have picked the one that ended up being best. (although in my case didn't matter as the one best ended up not being all that great and didn't stick.) I'm told technology wise the embies should be able to grow just as well in the lab as in us.

hep01

Thanks ladies! The only thing I was told about our donor is that she has a ton of follies so I guess we will just have to be patient & wait. Im getting so anxious now!!

MrsRumpf

patchen30:

Studies do show an increased rate of success for 5dt, but those results could be skewed b/c people who are able to do 5dt generally are better candidates for success anyway (i.e. more eggs retrieved, more eggs fertilized, etc.).  If you factor in that, the success rates for 3 and 5dt are similar.  One of the big reasons Drs are proponents of 5dt is that it can reduce multiple pregnancy rates.

Agreed.