Help! deciding a day 3 or 5 embryo TF

Has anyone had success with a day 3 embryo TF i would like to hear other ladies opinions on what they think about day 3 vs day 5 as i have a decision to make and i am not sure what to do

Ah, there've been other threads on this - trying to find them....

Have you had a transfer before? Some women find one or the other works better for them, though I'm not entirely sure why.
Overall, day 5 transfers are more successful, however, as mentioned, some women definitely find that day 3s work better for them.

At my clinic, it seems to correlate soemwhat to age (numbers below are just rough ideas, based on my memory or lack thereof).
For women aged <35, the success rate for a single blast transfer is about 50% vs 40% for single day 3 transfer
for women aged 35-39, the success rates are roughly the same, at around 35%
For women aged >39, the succes rate for a single blast transfer is about 5% vs 10% for a single day 3

I guess it also depends how many embryos you ahve at day 3 as to whether you want to chance trying for blasts (given that the attrition rate can be quite high).

We've done well with blastocyst transfers. But there are plenty of women who've had success with day 3s where they were unsuccessful with day 5s.

Sorry, I don't know that I was very helpful, but wishing you all the best

Thanks the scientist wants to do a day 3 as last time out of 8 eggs we had 1 grade 2 blast and 2 grade 3 blasts which none were TF as we did a PGD cycle so i thought 3 day 5 blasts was pretty good but as this cycle was a bit of a flop with a cyst that prevented all my follicles on the right side from growing and we only got 6 eggs from the left ( i will never cycle again with a cyst waste of many follies) the scientist said she would rather do a day 3 TF but it is our choice to risk going to day 5.

So i just don't know:think:

3 day 5s from 8 eggs is pretty good!
How many eggs did you get? One option is to freeze half at day 3 and try for day 5s with the rest.
did they say why they recommend day 3?

I got 6 eggs from the left ovary the right had a cyst so all my follies were to small.
And the scientist thinks it is to risky with only 6 eggs to try for a day 5 i did say i will decide when i see how many fertilise first

Hi there,
My clinic usually try to go for day 5's but we didn't do too well with number of eggs with our cycle. Dr found 10 follicles but only retrieved 2 mature eggs. Thankfully they both fertilised but the clinic felt that since we only had two eggs we should go for a day 3 implantation. We had one embryo transferred and as you can see from my sig, we were successful. I think day 3 or 5 can be a tough decision and we were kinda lucky that we had the decision taken out of our hands. Not sure if that helped but I wanted you to know that there are success stories from day 3 transfers.
Good luck!!!

Thanks glenny that's the type of thing i need to hear right now.

Oh sorry, you did say 6. Yeah, I'd probably go with day 3 too.

Hi ferrals,

To be totally honest, I would listen to the scientist's advice. In my experience, they wouldn't advise you that if they didn't think it would be beneficial. I think it's a great idea to wait until you see how many fertilise though. Things might change if they are developing nicely. Good luck :) x

Hi Ferrals

I posted something similar about day 3 or day 5 transfers... with all my previous transfers - 4 in total - we used 7 day 3 embryo's which resulted in a chem pregnancy from our fresh transfer, a BFN on our first FET, an ectopic pregnancy on our second FET and a very much alive and kicking baby girl with our 3rd FET.

I'm now cycling for hopefully no #2 and have chosen this time to use my day 5's to see what result we get with them. But as you can see we have had some form of success from all bar 1 of our day 3 transfers. Don't know if this helps but I can truly understand the dilemma you are facing.

Thanks kelly i am going to see how many fertilise and go from there the scientist did say i could ring early monday morning (day 3) and see how they are going and decide then she also said as i have been pregnant before that does increase the odds a little but we also have a genetic issue so 1 in 4 of our babies will be effected so that is one reason i wanted to go to day 5 i really don't know what to do i really want a TF this time and i am scared i wont have any make it to day 5.

The clinic I used would only grow to blast if there were more than three embryos at day three. With your stats, they'd be willing to risk it, but only do it if you are comfortable doing so. I would think that if the scientist is suggesting day 3, then they aren't terribly confident of getting too much to blast. Is this a PGD cycle and will day three transfers mean you can't test the embryos? Or are you just aiming to transfer something and risk the genetic problems? I guess that's all stuff that needs to be considered for you.

From my history - I had two cycles where I was badly hyperstimulated - 26 and 32 eggs respectively. We had 15 and 20 fertilise and of those we had 4 and 7 make it to blastocyst. Keep in mind that my egg quality was fairly crap due to the hyperstimulation! All were frozen and only two from each cycle successfully thawed to be transferred. I had three miscarriages and one negative from those transfers.

My third cycle - only mild OHSS, so I was able to have a fresh transfer. 20 eggs, 12 mature (I'd been taken a little early to help avoid the OHSS) but only three fertilised. One is now an 18 month old toddler terrorising his father in the kitchen and the other two are still frozen and waiting... I'm not a big fan of blasts, but others have very different outcomes.

BW

Hi Ferrals,

It's very early days for me, but I'm pregnant from a day 2 transfer. My clinic does day 2s as a standard. I was very sceptical about a day 2 because you hear so much about blasts, anyhow I just went with the flow and it worked for me.

Butterfly-warrier-No we are not doing PGD this time as i was very disapointed with our PGD cycle i had no idea when we started that only a grade 1 or 2 blastocyst can be tested i had 8 eggs 3 making it to day 5 blast all good for TF but only one was a grade 2 (able to be tested) the other 2 were grade 3 and disgarded what a waste of what could have been perfectly healthy babies as it turned out our best embryo was effected so we decided the odds of getting a high grade embryo to blast and be tested and be free from our genetic fault were not to good so we decided to let nature decide and get tested at 11 weeks as we have a 75% chance of the baby being normal but then DH sperm went south and we have been unable to get pregnant.
We were told our fertilisation results were great last time and even the number that made it to day 5 was was pretty good but we had some fragmentation on the 2 grade 3s i don't know why WIVF want to do a 3 day TF maybe my age 36 and the don't expect all 6 to fertilise so we won't have many to risk i will see tomorrow how many we have then DH and i will have to decide i supose only time will tell but for now i am trying not to panic about the fluid retention i have since my trigger and i am pretty uncomfortable at the moment i hope i feel better tomorrow.

Good luck xxx

If fragmentation continues to be a problem, then you may want to look into what is called extended ICSI or ICSI with polscope. Basically with ICSI they run the risk of injecting the sperm right through the part of the egg where the genetic information is located. They use a different part of the egg to orient it for the ICSI process, and for most women this will be fine, but for others it's different. We used extended ICSI after our first cycle where we had quite a lot of fragmentation issues and got better results from it. More blasts, better quality. Using the polscope they fertilise the eggs under a special light so they can see exactly where the genetic information is and avoid it. Most of my bits where in a different spot to where they assume they will be, so it was a definite bonus.

I hope all of that makes sense. Don't know if WIVF have polscope available, though.

BW

Thanks ladies but the choice has been made for me it has gone from bad to worse we have 3 of 5 injected fertilised as one was not suitable to be injected with DH sperm so we need 1 of the 3 to be good for TF monday and seeing as a lot drop off at day 3 i am worried i wont have any let alone a good grade.
Its all down to 3 i am not real optimistic

Butterfly-yes it make sense i will look into it when i see how these 3 go.

LisaB-thanks i just hope mine are good enough quality i am 36 and DH swimmers are not the best so to say i am not very positive is a major understatement.

ferrals3- Try to remain positive! We only had two eggs retreived, both fertilised and both made it to day 3! (My eggs are a bit rubbish as well due to my PCOS.) One is now currently making me spend most of the day in the loo and the other is frozen! Remember- it only takes one!!!

We did a day 3 transfer on our first IVF cycle, and got a positive. Our clinic's belief was that it was better for our embryo to be with me than in a dish or tube. :)
Hoping for some positive news for you on Monday

Thanks i am trying but to be honest we have had nothing but bad luck since we decided to have a baby together sometimes i just cant believe it is happening to us we are so inlove and want this more than anything and it is just seems like everything that can go wrong has.

Anyway i hope i finally have some luck on monday.

Ferrals, Try not to lose hope sweetheart! My DH and I were having really bad luck too with our IVF PGD cycles. Our first cycle we got 10 eggs, 7 fertilised, all 7 made it to testing, then 2 got no results and the other 5 all had chromosome problems. Our second cycle we got 21 eggs, 10 fertilised, 9 made it to testing, 1 had no nuclei, 7 had chromosome problems, and we got one precious little healthy embryo that made it to day 5. We even have a photo of our precious little girl on day 5 starting to hatch! We're having our 12 week scan next week and expect all to be well :) These "bad luck" stories can have a happy ending! Who would have thought that from 31 eggs we'd only get one healthy embryo? But that one single embryo is the little miracle we want and love so much.

Best of luck on Monday and I hope to come back in here and read your good news :hug:

I have some good news we had an A grade 8 cell perfect text book looking embryo TF the scientist said it was a beautiful embryo.
The TF was easy and quick we got to see our embie before it was TF and it looked awesome so i am in the tww with my BT scheduled for the 2nd of August :o that is such a long time to wait.
Thanks for all your info and stories i hope i have a positive outcome like you ladies.

:hooray:
Good luck :goodluck: