1 or 2 embryo's????? Does anyone have any transfer stories /help / ideas /thoughts??

[Missren]

Hi guys. Long time forum stalker & now it's time for me to ask your advice...
We are doing our 1st ivf cycle this month and asked THE question... 1 or 2?
I have only 5 follicles of good size, been TTY for 3 years and I'm 34 y/o.
Got egg collection this Friday.
Does anyone have any stories, advice for me... I would really appreciate it
Thank you

[nothing2lose]

Hi Missren,

Welcome to Belly Belly!

What does your FS say? At your age, many clinics will only transfer one embryo.

You also have to remember that five follies does not necessarily mean five embryos. Sometimes you have the number chosen you because it's all you have.

Good luck!

[Saffy]

I would do 1 for your first ivf if I were you.
A singleton pregnancy is much less complicated than twins.
Good luck!

[Missren]

Hi Missren,

Welcome to Belly Belly!

What does your FS say? At your age, many clinics will only transfer one embryo.

You also have to remember that five follies does not necessarily mean five embryos. Sometimes you have the number chosen you because it's all you have.

Good luck!

Thanks 4 the welcome nothing to lose! My fs said initially they prefer 1 - but today after my second scan & after noticing that I had barely any follies on my right ovary & only some on my left - he seemed to indicate that 2 was an option whereas b4 he seemed dead against it?

Hubby & I are madly researching & writing pro's & cons - but ultimately it will come down to my gut instinct I think!

[Missren]

I would do 1 for your first ivf if I were you.
A singleton pregnancy is much less complicated than twins.
Good luck!

Thanks for your advice Saffy!
There does seem to be a lot of complications associated with twin pregnancies....
Here's hoping I onl have to make this decision once :-)

[Baby Dreamtime]

I guess the question is does having twins appeal, as it is a very reÃ*l risk that comes with its own complications. My first ET was with 1 but 6 ETs following were with 2. I was willing to take the risk and don't for a second regret it, but it is hard/harder. Next time round i only went with 1. What ever you decide I hope you have some lovely embies to pick from and a few for the freezer. Good luck xx

[Maruschke]

I was tempted to go with 2, but ended up going with 1, and don't regret it. After a long TTC journey, including miscarriages, the LAST thing I wanted was a high risk pregnancy. I was dying to be NORMAL. We transferred 1 on our 2nd IVF and it stuck.

[~ Mylitta ~]

My clinic would only transfer one unless you were over a certain age and/or had a history of failed transfers.

We only had one healthy embryo (from 2 cycles, 22 eggs, 18 embryos) and that precious embryo is now my 12 month old daughter.

I guess you have to remember that even when you transfer just one embryo through IVF there is a greater risk of still having twins than if you conceive "naturally". Then if you transfer two embryos that risk of twins is even higher. If your clinic gives you the choice of one or two, then you'll have to weigh up the pros and cons of possibly having two babies (or even three or four if one or both embryos split if you have two transferred). We never considered two because I think my husband would have had a heart attack if we had twins, hehe.

[Missren]

I guess the question is does having twins appeal, as it is a very reÃ*l risk that comes with its own complications. My first ET was with 1 but 6 ETs following were with 2. I was willing to take the risk and don't for a second regret it, but it is hard/harder. Next time round i only went with 1. What ever you decide I hope you have some lovely embies to pick from and a few for the freezer. Good luck xx

That's so true baby dreamtime & to be honest my thoughts are strongly leaning towards 2 & yes the idea of twins does appeal! I can imagine that u wouldn't change a thing & that is fantastic to hear.
Tho I bet it was certainly hard work!

Thanks for the luck, so far I'm feeling really positive & excited bout there being a light at the end of the loooong tunnel.
Xx

[Amy_jellybean]

Hi Missren,

My clinic also has a policy saying only one embryo if you are under 38 years old. If DH and I were able to choose we would have 2 put back in, we would be over the moon if we had twins!!!

I dont for a second think it would be easy but I think the rewards would outweigh the hard work by far!

Good luck with what ever you choose xxx

[Missren]

Thanks so much for your advice my litta & maruschke!
Much appreciated :-)
Congrats to u both !

[Missren]

Hi Missren,

My clinic also has a policy saying only one embryo if you are under 38 years old. If DH and I were able to choose we would have 2 put back in, we would be over the moon if we had twins!!!

I dont for a second think it would be easy but I think the rewards would outweigh the hard work by far!

Good luck with what ever you choose xxx

Thanks so much amy_jellybean for the good luck no matter what :-) I agree !
Fingers crossed either way xx

[Pholi]

Missren, My clinic was much like yours, talked up the single embryo transfer like they never would consider doing two... until the number of embryos available became apparent.

I only had 3 eggs (from 8 follicles) and although they all fertilized, one looked dodgy from the start. On day two, they gave us the choice of one on day three, two on day three, or wait til day 5. We chose to wait, on the understanding from the embryologist who was on on day 2 that if they didn't make it to day 5, they wouldn't have survive in my womb either. So we hoped for one to t/f and one to freeze. But on day 3, a different embryologist was on, and he rang me and suggested we reconsider, as he thought that they might well do much better in the womb than in the lab. One looked great, one was barely ok, and the third even more dodgy. He and my FS conferred, and suggested that we transfer the better 2 embies that day, despite the short notice. I'm 37, though age was not mentioned as a factor in the decision.

So we did that, aware that there was an increased chance of twins, and we got our bfp at the start of January. I find out tomorrow if it's one or two hearts beating in there!

My advice would be - at least for the first cycle or two - to have only one transferred unless you are both quite willing to take the risks of a twin pg, and the hard work of twin babies. But you may be given choices and advice that changes, depending on what happens with your embryos leading up to transfer. If you are at areputable clinic, they will not want to take a significant risk of you having twins, either, so talk to the embryologists and FS if you have to make a tough decision. Good luck!

[MeredithD]

Missren,
This topic is talked about heaps and everyone will have a different opinion.
Personally, I was not phased by the thought of raising twins. In fact, I would have been delighted.
However, you MUST seperate the "dream" of two babies out from the very real reality.
IVF clinic don't scare you with the all the bad stats of twins just for fun. Thay are very, very real.
I have had three twin pregnancies ( 2 from IUI so no choice as to number of embies) and as you can see from my sig, never actually got twins from them. I was very, very lucky to get DD from my IVF twin pg but she was very close to being lost like her twin.
The underlying stats are that the overall LIVE birth rate is much the same from having 1 or 2 put in. The chance of getting pg is higher by putting 2 in but the chance of losing one or both along the way is much higher so you have to be very prepared for that.
I understand I am giving you all the "bad stuff" reflected in my own experience but it is stuff that really does happen and so, so tragic. I am postive in my heart that some of my lost babies would have survived if they hade been singletons.
Sorry to be such a downer and you still need to make your own choice but try to be patient and perhaps err on the side of a slower, safer road to a successful pg

[Porsche]

Keep in mind as well that just because you transfer 2 it's not a guarentee of a twin pregnancy. We had 2 put back and had a singleton pregnancy and we also had 2put back in our FET and had 1 stick but ended in a blighted ovum.

We decided on putting 2 back because of the % of success. It increased our chance by 1% but that was still 1% more than we had. Yes we understood we "could" end up with multiples but that was a chance we were willing to take.

[TaRhLi.]

Welcome to BB

It is a hard decision and you have to accept the risk of possibly having twins. For us it was an easy decision to always have 2 transferred (apart from our first fresh transfer when our fs went with 1 to see how things worked). All up we underwent 6 transfers from 15 embryo's we had collected from our stim cycle and our results were:

1st transfer fresh cycle - 1 embryo transferred - Chemical pregnancy
2nd transfer FET - 2 embryo's transferred - BFN
3rd transfer FET - 2 embryo's transferred - Suspected ectopic pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage
4th transfer FET - 2 embryo's transferred - resulted in DD who is now 27mths
5th transfer FET - 2 embryo's transferred - BFN
6th transfer FET - 2 embryo's transferred - resulted in our twin boys who are 8mths old
We still have 3 embryo's on ice

And yes having twins is hard work and puts a lot of stress on your body - I was 38 when pregnant with the twins - but many 'normal' people have twins all the time so to me it wasn't a strange thing to potentially have happen IYKWIM. Considering we only really wanted 2 kids to start with I now feel blessed to have my 2 little men as if things had turned out differently then 1 of them wouldn't be here today.

Ultimately only you know what you will feel comfortable doing, but as a mummy of a singleton pregnancy and a twin pregnancy I wouldn't change anything we did.

[Missren]

Missren,
This topic is talked about heaps and everyone will have a different opinion.
Personally, I was not phased by the thought of raising twins. In fact, I would have been delighted.
However, you MUST seperate the "dream" of two babies out from the very real reality.
IVF clinic don't scare you with the all the bad stats of twins just for fun. Thay are very, very real.
I have had three twin pregnancies ( 2 from IUI so no choice as to number of embies) and as you can see from my sig, never actually got twins from them. I was very, very lucky to get DD from my IVF twin pg but she was very close to being lost like her twin.
The underlying stats are that the overall LIVE birth rate is much the same from having 1 or 2 put in. The chance of getting pg is higher by putting 2 in but the chance of losing one or both along the way is much higher so you have to be very prepared for that.
I understand I am giving you all the "bad stuff" reflected in my own experience but it is stuff that really does happen and so, so tragic. I am postive in my heart that some of my lost babies would have survived if they hade been singletons.
Sorry to be such a downer and you still need to make your own choice but try to be patient and perhaps err on the side of a slower, safer road to a successful pg

Thanks Meredith, it certainly is a topic with many diff responses. You are not a downer, honesty is what I'm after & I'm glad you were able to have success :-) I will keep everyone's opinions & stories in mind.. Thank you :-)

[Missren]

Keep in mind as well that just because you transfer 2 it's not a guarentee of a twin pregnancy. We had 2 put back and had a singleton pregnancy and we also had 2put back in our FET and had 1 stick but ended in a blighted ovum.

We decided on putting 2 back because of the % of success. It increased our chance by 1% but that was still 1% more than we had. Yes we understood we "could" end up with multiples but that was a chance we were willing to take.

Hey Porsche!
That's so true & your the not the first by the look of it to result in a singleton after 2 ...
I understand the need to be mentally prepared for the possibilities both neg & pos :-)