Does it make sense to do a blastocyst transfer when you have only one embryo ?

This is a guest post from Dr. Sai, Chief Embryologist, Malpani Infertility Clinic Pvt. Ltd.The biggest dilemma in IVF today is whether to transfer on day 2 or day 5, when we have only one embryo in the incubator.When we have lots of embryos, the decision is very easy. We can sit back, culture the embryos beyond day 2/day 3, let the embryos compete and select the best ones for Embryo Transfer on day 5.It keeps everyone happy - the patient, the doctor and the embryologist - since state of the art care has been provided.On the contrary , when we do the transfer on day 3, we have a hard time selecting the best embryos for transfer, especially when we lots of embryos of the same quality. We arbitrarily select 2 or 3 embryos of the lot for the transfer, but are never satisfied and safe, as we always know that there is no guarantee that these would reach the blastocyst stage , no matter how good they look on Day 3. We keep our fingers crossed for the 14 days post the day 3 transfer. If the beta HCG is positive and the patient conceives, we feel we hit the jackpot because we managed to select the right embryos, as they implanted. But if it fails, we curse ourselves for not waiting and culturing the embryos till day 5.So the best approach , when we have lots of Day 3 embryos, is to do a Day 5 Transfer, because blastocysts have a higher chance of implanting as compared to Day 3 embryos, since they have developed further. We can always freeze the spare blastocysts for future c...

Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - July 2, 2017 Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs