IVF and leftover embryos

Ok, so here begins my slew of IVF posts. We're scheduled to start provera or birth control this week depending on my blood results.

Our major concern with IVF is the leftover embryos. We believe that each embryo is a life and therefore, any living embryos not transferred would need to be frozen and used. I'm nervous about the number that would be frozen because if we're lucky enough to have IVF work for us, having 10+ embryos frozen would be alot of possible children. We would then have to decide on having a huge family or donating our embryos to another couple at some point in the future.

For those that dealt with similar dilemmas, can you tell me how you went about the IVF process? Did you limit the number of eggs fertilized, and if so, how many embryos did you wind up with?

My RE suggests fertilizing no more than 20 eggs, with the hopes of getting 8 good embryos (2 transferred, 6 frozen). Since I have PCOS, I'll probably have alot of eggs but many of them may not be good. But I'm still nervous about fertilizing 20 eggs, I could very well be left with 10+ frozen embryos.

Thanks

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

We had similar concerns and my DH was VERY hesitant about going through with IVF because of the leftover embryos. In fact, there was a time that I was unsure if we were even going to go through with it because DH had so many issues with the leftover embroys.

After my m/c, it was decided that IVF was our best bet and DH was totally on board.

However, we only wound up with 5 eggs, 4 fertilized, and only 2 embryos wound up being normal (the other 2 were abnormal and stopped growin). We transferred the 2 normal ones so we never had to deal with DH's fears.

I'm sorry because I don't think I am being much help, but I wanted to let you know that you are NOT alone in your concerns. I think I posted a similar question a while back. It definitely is tough

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I used LI IVF and the options for unused frozen embies were donate to an infertile couple or donate to science for stem cell research. Hopefully you and your DH will be comfortable with one or both of these options. Best of luck with your IVF! Also, try not to worry about this now. Focus on getting at least one healthy embie.

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

Posted by KrisT

We had similar concerns and my DH was VERY hesitant about going through with IVF because of the leftover embryos. In fact, there was a time that I was unsure if we were even going to go through with it because DH had so many issues with the leftover embroys.

After my m/c, it was decided that IVF was our best bet and DH was totally on board.

However, we only wound up with 5 eggs, 4 fertilized, and only 2 embryos wound up being normal (the other 2 were abnormal and stopped growin). We transferred the 2 normal ones so we never had to deal with DH's fears.

I'm sorry because I don't think I am being much help, but I wanted to let you know that you are NOT alone in your concerns. I think I posted a similar question a while back. It definitely is tough

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

I understand your concern. FWIW, I have PCOS as well - of 18 mature eggs retrieved, 15 fertilized normally. On Day 5, we transferred two and by Day 6 only two were of good enough quality to freeze. So out of 18 we were left with 4, even though none had arrested at Day 3 (hope this makes sense). I believe there is a strict quality requirement for freezing with your lab. Also, be advised that I was NOT given the option to donate unused embryos. FM if you have any questions. Good luck.

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Well I did IVF and ended up with 11 frozen embryos (plus DS!). I responded a little too well to the stims and at ER they got 38 eggs, 30 were mature, 20 fertilized with ICSI and 13 made it until day 5. So I think I am the exception to the rule, but it does happen that you can end up with a lot frozen. We plan on having a big family (2-3 more kids) so we'll be using the frozen embies. There is no guarantees that anything is going to work so I'm not going to stress about the amount of embies until we're done having kids. At that point I'm pretty sure we will donate to stem cell testing- I think to donate to another couple you need testing done on them prior to being frozen (but I could be wrong). It's so hard because you want a lot of embryos to work with (as we see everyday IVF doesn't always work the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd times so you want the "back-up"), but at the same time it's hard to leave embryos behind if you do get lucky. Talk to your RE and find out your options, that will probably make you feel better about it.

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I have PCOS as well and I had 10 eggs each retrevial. However, I only had 2 eggs left over each time and I donated them to the facility. I don't know what happened to them (either a couple got them or they went to stem cell)

MY dr. beleived in slow and steady for quality, not quantity.

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

I have PCOS and respond very well to the drugs, so my retrievals garnered 46, 49, and 60 eggs. Out of all those eggs, we ended up with 24, 35 and 38 embryos. Out of all those embryos we ended up with two viable pregnancies.
Some didn't survive the thaw, some weren't viable, some were poor quality, etc. etc.
I go to LI-IVF and am most likely going to donate the remaining embryos to stem cell research only because there is no way I can carry another pregnancy.

That being said - there are many people with PCOS who do not get a lot of eggs and if you decide you want more children, you can always use the frozen embies.

Good luck!

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

I wouldn't expect you to have close to 20 viable embryos at the end of a cycle. If you research old posts you will see that only a handful, if that, actually make it to freezing.

I went through 3 IVF cylces, had about 30 eggs retrieved in total, transferred a total of 9 embryos and had NO embryos to freeze.

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

We were only Male Factor but I responded nicely to meds & ended up with 17 eggs retrieved. Only 16 eggs were matured & they did ICSI on 14 of them but only 7 survived. By the time we got to Day 5, we had lost 1 & ended up with 6 excellent quality embies. I had 2 blastocysts implanted that resulted in a singleton pregnancy. We now have 4 embies frozen at great quality.

We do plan on more children but like others have said, there is no guarantee that those 4 embies will result in a full term pregnancy. We like to think the will since the quality is there.

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With me they got 24 eggs and 13 of them fetilised. When it came time to transfer we put in four and 3 took... I am having triplets....The DR wants me to come back in after the babies are 6 months old and discuss what I will be doing with the remaining 9 that are frozen. Needless to say I am not going to be having any more children so we are opting to donate them to science for research. I feel that I need to give back to help others....


Good Luck to you....

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Re: IVF and leftover embryos

just have a minute to respond, but i wanted to say...

we had 20 eggs retrieved
19 mature
12 fertilized with ICSI

we transferred 2 that cycle, had BFN.

froze 10.

first FET - we thawed 3, all survived, transferred 3 - BFN.

second FET - we thawed 3, 2 did not survive so we thawed 2 more (5 total), transferred 3 - BFP.

So now we only have 2 frozen ones left.

And we would like to have 3 children.

Even though we had 12 total and 10 frozen, we now only have 2 left and God willing will have one healthy baby out of 10 great embryos.

For our next child, of course we'll try an FET but there's no guarantee that any or all of the 2 that we have frozen will even survive the thaw.

I know you're just thinking ahead, but there are a ton of possibilites - and having frozen embryos really is a great thing!

And yes, there is criteria for freezing at most places... but basically they don't freeze ones that aren't of high quality because those embryos are likely to NOT survive the thaw or to NOT become viable pregnancies - KWIM?

HTH

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

I have PCOS and they retrieved 15 eggs, 9 were fertilized. Tranferred 2, have 7 frozen. We will probably end up using all of them when we try for our next children. If not, we have decided to donate them to an infertile couple. You just have to really be prepared for that child to come looking for you some day as his/her biological parents.

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Posted by JennyPenny

I have PCOS and they retrieved 15 eggs, 9 were fertilized. Tranferred 2, have 7 frozen. We will probably end up using all of them when we try for our next children. If not, we have decided to donate them to an infertile couple. You just have to really be prepared for that child to come looking for you some day as his/her biological parents.

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

This cycle, I had 19, only 11 fertilized
1st fresh transfer I did 3 it, worked with twins, only to end in m/c, due to downs syndrome.

2nd transfer- FET, they needed to thaw 5 , so I could transfer 4- it worked, so far so good, ( one baby) I hope and pray.
So if this pregnancy works and I have one healthy baby , I will be soooooo thrilled and done.. I will take what I get, IVF is to emotional, unfair, and very cruel, I never want to go thru it again. I will donate my 3 remaining embryos to science for stem cell research.
Good luck to you.

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Posted by CrisiDrue

I've been having the same moral dilemma, and have decided (if it's ever an issue) that if we do have leftover embies after everything is said and done, that we will donate to an infertile couple that lives in a state, far, far away (I don't want to worry about having a biological child running around in NY hooking up with one of my kids later in life ). I would choose embroyo adoption, where I could choose the adoptive parents & they're screened kind of like regular adoption. Here's the website I found:

National Embroy Donation

Re: IVF and leftover embryos

Message edited 6/19/2009 2:19:24 PM.

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Re: IVF and leftover embryos

We had similar concerns... it can be really tricky to know what to do. We just weren't comfortable with extra embryos... like you said, what if we end up with 10 extra embryos- I'd have to give them all a shot and that could be A LOT of kids :) For us, we could only do what we knew now- and right now we want a biological child.

We were very, very clear about our thoughts on extra embryos with every person we met with at our first clinic. We decided to limit the number of eggs we fertilized. With the help of our RE, we decided to fertilize only 3 (thinking that 2 would develop and maybe 1 would implant). I'm also PCOS and out of 23 eggs, only 3 were mature which was quite a coincidence. All 3 fertilized and at ET we had a 6 cell, 8 cell, and a blast; it was hard to put in three great looking embryos. Amazingly, none took. And, we're actually really grateful that we didn't freeze one or two because they were obviously bad eggs and we would be wasting our time and $$ on a FET instead of working on getting better eggs for a second, fresh cycle.

Good luck figuring out all of these details... it can be stressful, but once you find a good solution for you and DH, it'll be a lot easier :)