Day 3 Embryology Report: We are doing a 5 Day Transfer!

The verdict is in: we have met the criteria for a 5 day transfer (5dt). We have five 8 cell grade A embryos, one at 7 cells, one at 6 cells, and one at 3 cells (this little one probably won't make it). Last cycle at this stage, all 6 of our embryos were grade A 8 cells. Only 2 made it to 5 day and the rest stopped growing with none to freeze, so there are no guarantees!

In general, 5dt is a good thing. It means we have enough embryos that look healthy. They can only base this on number of cells and the way the cells look. This is the stage where they could take 1 cell from the 8 to test it for genetic issues. However, this is very traumatic to the embryo and it's super expensive. So, they usually just do that to screen for inheritable genetic disorders they can test for (cystic fibrosis, fragile X, spinal muscular atrophy) . My husband was tested for these and was negative, and my miscarriage from trisomy 7 is not something likely to happen again (fingers crossed!).  So we are not having that done.

 I wanted to find an example of the differences of cells and I found a pretty good one. The top row right picture shows what our 8 cell embryos look like and then the bottom row shows examples of embryos that don't look as good. 

(www.nature.com)

So, we are looking forward to Friday morning. We will transfer 2 embryos. This will hopefully give us 60% chance of pregnancy and from that, a 30% chance of twins. It would not be recommended at my age to transfer more (in people a bit older they may transfer 3 or 4 in hopes that one sticks).

Overall, I am doing okay. Since Sunday night, I've been very bloated and that has been painful. I was assured by the nurse this was normal, but it didn't happen for me last time.  All I have been doing is working (which is luckily sitting) and laying down. I am hoping this passes and I feel better for Friday!