FET questions

DavezWife · March 2010

just thinking about things...

Is it best to freeze 3 day embies or (5 day) blasts?

If you freeze younger ones... do they/can they thaw them and grow them out to blasts, or you thaw and transfer pretty quick?

who knows if we'll even get enough for a FET, but in the event we have a bunch (yeah right) I want to know what I'm facing.

thanks!

mrsolsenk12 · March 2010

My RE freezes differently than a lot of RE's do. We had 6 embryos frozen at Day 1. I am not as sure about this because you don't know much about them. When we thawed, none of those made it. We also had 5 frozen on Day 4. Those were a lot better and they grew them to Day 5. We had 2 that were A++ grade that we transfered.

t.bird · March 2010

we've always frozen 5 day blasts

i've done 2 FET's and almost all of my blasts survive the thaw- i got ku once with an FET but it was ectopic

my RE only freezes 5 day blasts (from what i was told) so i'm not sure...

schmoodle · March 2010

My RE normally only freezes blasts, usually on day 6. In our first cycle they froze a couple of day 3s, but I think they were just taking pity on us because despite being 27 years old and getting OHSS we only had 4 embryos. Only one survived thaw and it didn't result in a pregnancy.

LCB34 · March 2010

Mt RE prefers to freeze on day 5 or 6. Especially with patients (like me) that have issues with embryos crapping out on day 4.

They just really like to make sure the embryos are strong enough to make it through freeze and thaw.

JGirl2005 · March 2010

Not a lot of ppl have ones to freeze and if the lab is good then they are freezing on day 5 or day 6. My RE freeze on day 6 and most people don't have embies that make it that long. It is just too hard for them to grow them in the artificial environment that long.

day 5s are better than day 3 when frozen (Not necessarily on a fresh transfer....) because blasts thaw better (they even thaw better when icsi'd) and they are stronger because they made it that long (the best of the best concept). I had 30 eggs retrieved, 21 were mature, 18 fertilized with icsi and only 2 made it to freeze and both of those didn't stick. (most likely due to chromsomes - yup, even bad chrosomes come out on IVF).

If they freeze on day 1, you can pretty much count out that most of those aren't viable.

JGirl2005 · March 2010

oh and sometimes they freeze on day 3, but they still grow out to blasts so those that would not have made it to begin with will also not make it again.

Back to my stats, I had 18 still going on day 3, and maybe even day 5, but on day 6, only 2. (minus the two they put inside me). sucks.

Oh, and even ppl with good embies (remember not just good eggs but combined with sperm are they good????) have trouble getting to day 6. The labs look at them and just can't simulate the uterus environment. That is why I said day 3 when fresh is sometimes better because the embies go to the best place - your uterus. (where they can sink or swim).

schmoodle · March 2010

JGirl2005:

oh and sometimes they freeze on day 3, but they still grow out to blasts so those that would not have made it to begin with will also not make it again.

Back to my stats, I had 18 still going on day 3, and maybe even day 5, but on day 6, only 2. (minus the two they put inside me). sucks.

Ditto this. On my cycle w/ Toodle, we had 10 embryos, all were still growing on day 5 when we transferred the one that became him, so 9 left. By the next day (day 6) only two were still growing and considered good enough to freeze.

LVBlvd · March 2010

MY RE is strict on what he freezes. He waits until day 6 and they must be fully expanded and at least BB quality. I think this is much better. What is the point of spending the $ on a FET (and the freezing process in general) if you aren't certain it/they have an excellent chance at becoming babies?

LVBlvd · March 2010

TO answer your question, yes, you can freeze a day 3 embryo, thaw it, and watch it grow to a blast. But you run the risk of taking all the meds and spending the money and having it crap out on day 4.

JackieMac824 · March 2010

JGirl2005:

Not a lot of ppl have ones to freeze and if the lab is good then they are freezing on day 5 or day 6. My RE freeze on day 6 and most people don't have embies that make it that long. It is just too hard for them to grow them in the artificial environment that long.

day 5s are better than day 3 when frozen (Not necessarily on a fresh transfer....) because blasts thaw better (they even thaw better when icsi'd) and they are stronger because they made it that long (the best of the best concept). I had 30 eggs retrieved, 21 were mature, 18 fertilized with icsi and only 2 made it to freeze and both of those didn't stick. (most likely due to chromsomes - yup, even bad chrosomes come out on IVF).

If they freeze on day 1, you can pretty much count out that most of those aren't viable.

I had 5 frozen on day 1 and 4 more frozen on day 5 - so I guess I should just tell them to unfreeze the ones from day 5 then - I guess. I do not understand the whole unfreezing procees - do you get to pick what you want or do they just unfreeze all of them and see which ones are best??

smeyer · March 2010

It depends on the clinic, their skill level, and their freeze methodology. Most clinics prefer to slow freeze blasts on day 5. My clinic, however, vitrifies any remaining perfect embryos on day 3. If they have questionable embryos left, they'll grow them to blasts and vitrify on d5 or 6 at blast stage.

When it comes time for a FET, they thaw the d3 embryos and watch them for 2 days. (Blasts are thawed the day of transfer.) If the d3 embryos make it to blast, that's great and definitely preferred. If they only make it to morula they'll still transfer them unless they arrest.

JGirl2005 · March 2010

JackieMac824:
JGirl2005:

Not a lot of ppl have ones to freeze and if the lab is good then they are freezing on day 5 or day 6. My RE freeze on day 6 and most people don't have embies that make it that long. It is just too hard for them to grow them in the artificial environment that long.

day 5s are better than day 3 when frozen (Not necessarily on a fresh transfer....) because blasts thaw better (they even thaw better when icsi'd) and they are stronger because they made it that long (the best of the best concept). I had 30 eggs retrieved, 21 were mature, 18 fertilized with icsi and only 2 made it to freeze and both of those didn't stick. (most likely due to chromsomes - yup, even bad chrosomes come out on IVF).

If they freeze on day 1, you can pretty much count out that most of those aren't viable.

I had 5 frozen on day 1 and 4 more frozen on day 5 - so I guess I should just tell them to unfreeze the ones from day 5 then - I guess. I do not understand the whole unfreezing procees - do you get to pick what you want or do they just unfreeze all of them and see which ones are best??

you can pick which ones. You can tell them to unfreeze your day 5. They store 2 together usually so usually you have to thaw two at a time. Sorry wasn't sounding rude about day 1 - what I really mean to say is that on day 1 you can't tell which ones are good.

Say you froze 10 on day 1, maybe only 2 or 3 will make it to blast and you don't know which of those two or three out of the 10. So I wouldn't say 'count them out completely', but you won't know which ones to choose.

Sorry you have to been in this situation Jackie, but I would start with the day 5 ones. You know those are stronger and with the others you would have to grow them out to determine the best 3 out of 10. Does that make more sense? It doesn't mean the other ones won't take - they all have a chance. But the ones that wouldn't have made it to begin with won't make it when they unfreeze and grow them out....

rispergirl · March 2010

My clinic freezes on Day 6 and only ones that look fabulous. So their FET success rate is something in the 70%s. It completely depends on what your clinic chooses to freeze and how good their lab is at freezing and thawing, which is a delicate process. But you won't need it anyway. Sticky BFP on IVF for you!

DavezWife · March 2010

ah, thanks Risp. I hope so.

ok, meds to prep for FET? (one chicken, two chickens, three chickens, four.)

mrsolsenk12 · March 2010

DavezWife:

ah, thanks Risp. I hope so.

ok, meds to prep for FET? (one chicken, two chickens, three chickens, four.)

The only prep med I was on was Estrace starting on CD 2. We added PIO at Day 12 and that was it.

JGirl2005 · March 2010

You won't need the frozen ones, but I know you want some. I think the hysterscopy will help you out greatly!!!

https://www.ivf1.com/frozen-embryo-transfer/

this website has some good info.

I can't remember but I know I did etrace and then PIO. not sure if I did lupron....

CardsfanSM · March 2010

mrsolsenk12:
DavezWife:

ah, thanks Risp. I hope so.

ok, meds to prep for FET? (one chicken, two chickens, three chickens, four.)

The only prep med I was on was Estrace starting on CD 2. We added PIO at Day 12 and that was it.

Ditto this.

smilee · March 2010

My RE only freezes them on day 6. They thaw them the day you transfer.

AvaLikeLava · March 2010

CardsfanSM:
mrsolsenk12:
DavezWife:

ah, thanks Risp. I hope so.

ok, meds to prep for FET? (one chicken, two chickens, three chickens, four.)

The only prep med I was on was Estrace starting on CD 2. We added PIO at Day 12 and that was it.

Ditto this.

Our clinic only does day 6 to freeze. My meds included:

- Antibiotics & Antihistamine started 3 days prior to transfer.

- Endomtrin started a few days prior to transfer

- HCG to trigger O (so they can be sure)

- Baby Aspirin

mbjmaybebaby · March 2010

We had all four of ours frozen on day 1 and they all made the thaw. we transferred three with a 3dt and the 4th one didn't make it past the 4th day.

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