What would you do with frozen embryos?

Praying2011

We're freezing the embryos after our first egg retreival which will probably be the 2nd week of Jan.  I'm anticipating a lot of embies since always had around 12-13 mature follies at IUI.  I have this gut feeling that I'm going to have twins right away, but then again, who knows... Anyway, I still would like to have 3 or 4 children total, but I'm wondering what to do with the frozen babies down the road.  I'm planning ahead and thinking about embryo donation.  I really wouldn't just want to discard them.  DH doesn't know either.  I know this is a ways off yet, but I'm sorta thinking about it.  What do you ladies think?    

MrsP71506

We have always checked off the box that says donate to research. 

Remember to freeze embryos they have to be a certain quality and a lot of follicles doesn't always equal a lot of embryos.   So there is always a chance that you may not have any to freeze.

I hope I don't sound like a downer, just being realistic.

best of luck to you! 

SLPMel

We planned, if we had any frosties left over, to adopt them to other couples.

Also-I had 30 follies, 13 eggs retrieved, and no frosties leftover.  And the two we transferred didn't take.  I don't want to burst your bubble-but I remember how upset I was that we didn't have any frosties.

Praying2011

Wow, okay, I'll keep that in mind!  Remain hopeful, but don't be too disappointed.

madelyn07

I think you need to be realistic and realize that you really have no idea how many frosties you will have. This is your first IVF, right? So you have no idea what the quality of your eggs will be or how the eggs will fertilize.

And, I really hope your RE didn't let you go ahead with an IUI with 12 follies. That's just ridiculous. If your RE did do the IUI, you probably want to look into find a new RE for your IVF cycle..an RE that is ethical and responsible.

 

Yellow_Daisy

I don't think I would worry about this just yet, unless you are signing your consents and in that case you should be doing what is right for you and your DH.  Most people do not have frozen embryos even if they are a good responder.  I think the stats are something like 30-40% of IVF patients actually end up with frosties.  We had 2 embies left after our 5 day transfer and even though they both made it to expanded blast they did not meet the freezing guidelines.  Also just because you have mature follies doesn't mean they have eggs in them or the eggs are mature.  You will have plenty of time to decide this but really it is a decision you and your DH will need to make when you sign your IVF consents. 

njohnson1972

madelyn07:

I think you need to be realistic and realize that you really have no idea how many frosties you will have. This is your first IVF, right? So you have no idea what the quality of your eggs will be or how the eggs will fertilize.

And, I really hope your RE didn't let you go ahead with an IUI with 12 follies. That's just ridiculous. If your RE did do the IUI, you probably want to look into find a new RE for your IVF cycle..an RE that is ethical and responsible.

 

Sorry to be jumping in over here, but I have to agree with Madelyn.  12-13 follies for an IUI is crazy!  That is the aim for most REs for IVF - not IUI!

StarLightStar22

We chose to have ours donated to another couple that is unable to produce their own children!

patchen30

Wow you sound quite optimistic!  Not to be a downer but just so you keep your expectations realistic, remember that only about 30% of people who do IVFs have frozen embryos, but it depends how strict your clinic is.  At my clinic it's 20%.  I'm a high responder and have always produced a large # of follies on low doses of stims and I have 2 frozen embryos from 3 IVF cycles.  I wish you the best, but just so you're not getting to ahead of yourself I mention this.

scorch

I would have donated to another couple.  I dont think that they should have been used for science or stem cell research. 

I dont know of very many people that had left over embies when they were done having babies. My dr got over 60 follicles, half of which had eggs, of those 30 only 21 were mature enough to fertilize and 8 of those 21 fertilized.  Half of our embies degenerated before they could be frozen, a 5th embie was transfered on day 5, but was a m/c before 7 weeks.  Number 6 embie is our beautifulDD Isla and numbers 7 and 8 are due in 22 days.  Just because you have a lot of follicles doesnt equal an abundance of embies. Just hope and pray for a few really great ones .

Trippleb

I am fairly certain that I will not have any to freeze but long before all my hopes were dashed, I thought that if I ever had any left over after completing my family I would donate them to another couple.  Hopefully having a sort of semi-open adoption that the children would know each other in a distant cousin kind of fashion.   Actually now that I am 40, I hope that I have 2-3 to freeze for myself and hopefully no more.  Nobody is going to want DE that came from a 40 year old and I couldn't in good conscience destroy them or have them used for research.  It's a tough decision.