So they retrieved 20 eggs?? Does that mean you'll have 20 babies??
Ha! Definitely not. To give you some perspective, when we did this process with Greysen they retrieved 11 eggs. Of those 11, 9 were fully mature. Of the 9 fully mature eggs, 7 were successfully fertilized. Of the 7 successfully fertilized, 3 were viable embryos. 1 of those embryos was a strongly graded one (I'll talk about the grading here shortly), and the other two were "marginal". We transferred 2 embryos, and ended up with our sweet baby Greysen! We froze the remaining embryo. So this time, we had a shocking 20 eggs retrieved, and 15 of those 20 were fully mature. Of the 15 fully mature, 14 of them fertilized successfully (which is a CRAZY amazing result!). Today I will find out how many we have that are viable, but more than likely we are probably looking at around half of the fertilized eggs will go on to be "gradeable" viable embryos...
Why didn't you use your frozen embryo?
The technology has changed SO much in the last 4 years since we did this and got pregnant with Greysen. 4 years ago, the freezing technology wasn't what it is today. So our little embryo was a marginal embryo (B/B-, 3/5) and it was frozen with old technology. Our doctor agreed that our best chance for success was with a fresh transfer. Eventually, that little frozen embryo WILL be transferred if it survives the thawing process, but for now, at my age, it made more sense to go ahead with another fresh transfer for the best chances of success...
Are you going to have multiples?? Quadruplets??
The chances of a multiple pregnancy *are* higher with an IVF pregnancy than with a natural pregnancy. However, my doctor and the practice at OU is VERY ethical and they rarely transfer more than 2 embryos at a time unless there is documentable reason to. Dr. Hansen is an incredibly ethical doctor, so you will never hear of an "octomom" coming from his practice. As a matter of fact, I think there are less than 10 total women who have gone on to have 3 or more babies at a time at the OU practice...ever. The only way I would end up with 4 babies at once would be if each of my 2 embryos split into two sets of identical twins. That is VERY unlikely. The chance of twins in a natural pregnancy is about 3%. With an IVF pregnancy it's about 32%. So...much higher, but still not more likely than a singleton pregnancy. In all likelihood, we will end up with a single baby even if we transfer 2 embryos...
What do they mean by a "non-viable" embryo?
This is an answer I have been DYING to give. Coming from the perspective of a woman who has suffered 2 miscarriages and had YEARS of trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, I think SO many people don't understand what the process of "getting pregnant" entails. Did you know that in any given cycle, it's possible for your released egg to fertilize and still not result in a pregnancy? You might never know you had a fertilized egg because you'd go on to have a normal period. A home pregnancy test is only going to show up positive once the egg has implanted and hCG is present in your system. So no, not every fertilized egg goes on to become a viable embryo. Sometimes they fertilize and then they stop growing. That is a normal, natural process both in IVF AND in natural cycles. Don't panic...
What do you mean by "embryo grading"?
Each embryo is graded on it's propensity for continued growth and it's uniformity (which is a way to evaluate its viability). Embryos are transferred on either day 3 or day 5 after fertilization. So check out this picture of our two embryos that we transferred last time:
You can see, somewhat, that there are small divisions within each of the eggs. The more uniform the divisions, the stronger the embryo is graded. Can you tell which of these two is graded higher? The top one is the A/A-, 4/5 embryo, and the bottom is the B/B-, 3/5 embryo. The top one is more uniform and symmetrical. It had the highest propensity for continued growth, and more than likely was the embryo that resulted in our Greysen! Did you know that embryos actually hatch?? They do! You can clearly see the shells on these two embryos. On day 5-6 they actually hatch and that's when they burrow into the uterine wall and become a true pregnancy. A perfect embryo is an A+/A+, 5/5. There are hardly ever embryos graded that high. Most viable embryos have at least one A in the letter grade, and at least a 4/5 on the number grade.
What happens to the ones that are graded poorly?
They watch our little embabies like a hawk, so they do not discard any embryo that has even the tiniest chance of continuing on into a normal pregnancy. They don't make final decisions on viability until A) the embryo actually stops growing, or 2) after 7-8 days of growing they aren't dividing and maturing normally or have considerably slowed down. These embryologists know what they're doing! They take a whole lot of pride in cultivating normal, viable embryos. They are emotionally invested in their success! They take it hard when seemingly normal embryos don't continue growing. While there is LOTS of science to this, these scientists are invested in this process and they want to see these little embabies succeed as much as we do...
What if you decide not to use all your embryos? Where do they go?
We have to fill out paperwork before we even start this process that is like 20+ pages of consents. Right now today, we are saying that however many viable embryos we have, we will be transferring at some point. Of course, life happens and that could change. In the event that we come to the end of our child bearing time and we still have frozen embryos, we have decided to adopt them out to couples who need them. I don't anticipate that will be our end result, however we have thought and prayed a lot about that scenario and that is where we feel the most peace. Of course, there are a lot of factors involved in that decision. We do not take lightly at ALL that these little embryos are little lives. They are not "discardable" to us. They are OURS! So trust that we will never make rash decisions about the lives of our embryos...
And as an end note, don't believe everything you read on the internet about IVF or fertility treatments. While there *are* women out there who seek out doctors who will "pump them full of babies" because they want the publicity, that's not the majority of us. Dr. Hansen, as I said before, is an incredibly ethical man. He would never knowingly put me and my children at risk. He has my best interest at heart and he has the lives of my future babies in the forefront of his mind. Me and my babies are his top priority. He is not interested in the fame! Our end goal here is healthy babies and humane treatment of them from the absolute outset. I know for a fact that OU has that same goal in mind. That's why we are their patients!
In conclusion, if you have questions...PLEASE ASK! I would rather you ask a seemingly "awkward" question rather than assume something incorrect or just go on not understanding. I don't mind answering questions at all! I hope some of these answers clear up at least some of your confusion if you had any...
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