How many embryos were transferred during your IVF cycle?
ByFor those mothers TTC (trying to conceive) and got pregnant after IVF treatment–How many embryos were transferred? Thanks for sharing. Most detailed and kind answer win the points. 
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4 Comments
April 17th, 2010 at 6:49 am
I havent been threw IVF myself but my sister and law went through 2 failed attempts and in the UK they will not transfer any more than 3 embryos at a time. And for them to transfer that many they have to be doubtfull that any of them will implant.
April 17th, 2010 at 7:30 am
I’ve been through IVF twice. Both times we transferred 3 grade A embryos. The first time it didn’t work but the second we ended up pregnant with twin boys. The only difference between my 2 cycles was the second time we did assisted hatching. They didn’t think we needed it the first time but decided to go ahead with it the second. When we were deciding the first time how many to transfer we thought it was going to be our only shot for a while so the embryologist said we should go for broke and take the best looking 3 so that’s what we did both times. We were debating on doing 4 the second time but I’m sure glad we decided not to! We were told that for each embryo transferred (after 2) the chance of having multiples only goes up 2-3% with each embryo. I’m so happy we did 3 and have our amazing boys. But he said he would absolutely not do more than 4 given our age and how great the embryos looked.
April 17th, 2010 at 7:43 am
How many embryos transferred depends on a number of factors including your age, if it is a 3 or 5 day transfer (Success is higher with a 5dt by 10%), past pregnancies, and embryo quality. If you are young and/or have some great looking embryos, I say no more than 2. If you are older and/or don’t have stellar embryos 3 may be transferred. With clinics that follow these Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) guidelines, IVF twin rates adverage 20.3% and triplet rates are close to 1%. And, with 1 embryo transferred back to you there is a statistically significant reduction in the likelihood of live birth. Ironically enough, transferring more than 1 does not greatly increase your chance of multiples but does increase your odds of conception.
Just to compare, I have gone through 4 IVF cycles and one frozen embryo transfer (FET). 2 failed, 1 was ectopic, and 2 pregnancies that ended in a missed miscarriages. I am 40 and have never had a successful pregnancy. Here is how my cycles went:
IVF #1 3 good quality embryos transferred on day 3, BFN.
IVF #2 2 good quality embryos transferred on day 5, BFP (ectopic).
IVF #3 4 poor quality embryos transferred on day 3, BFN.
IVF #4 2 “Beautiful” embryos transferred on day 5, pregnant with a singleton, ended in a missed miscarriage.
FET #1 2 great quality embryos transferred, pregnant with twins, ended in another missed miscarriage.
My miscarriages have had nothing to do with how many I transferred. My age and immune issues were the cause. I will be transferring 2 embryos for my next frozen cycle. I could do 3 but I really do not want to take that risks of having triplets though it is a small, I just can’t risk it.
Good luck! Feel free to contact me through my profile if you have any questions!!
April 17th, 2010 at 8:13 am
As we were considered healthy, under 35 with a diagnosis of unexplained infertility (and 3 failed Clomid IUIs and 3 failed injectible IUIs), our RE recommended the transfer of 1 blastocyst. Studies have shown the transfer of 1 to be as successful as more and our doctor believes in reducing the chance of multiples.
For our IVF, we had 11 eggs retrieved, but only 2 fertilized. Due to the low fertilization rates, our RE switched his recommendation to a more conservative transfer at the 3-day point (8 cells) instead of going for a blast and risk losing them in the lab. He gave us the choice of transfering 1 or both. Since there were only 2, I could not stand the thought of leaving 1 behind so we transferred both.
My twins from that 3-day transfer, IVF cycle will turn 19 months old tomorrow – boy / girl twins. Our first cycle seemed to go wrong due to the low fertilization rates . . . but in the end, worked out perfectly. We are truly blessed.
Feel free to contact me through my profile if you would like to talk or have other questions.
Best wishes!