Saturday, April 26, 2014

The age-old question: to implant two embryos or one?

Last time we decided to do a single embryo transfer. A majority of people in the US going thru IVF opt for two embryos to be used, but as the technology improves and people start weighing the risks of having twins versus the risks of having no kids at all (at least in a single round), more and more people are deciding that for them, it makes more sense to use one embryo at a time. This is especially true if you have a good chance of success with one embryo.

Here are a couple interesting medical articles on the subject:

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/32061.pdf
http://home.smh.com/sections/services-procedures/medlib/docs_articles/OBGYN/ABOG_2013_Jan/acog_kresowik_010913.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2700678/#!po=12.5000

Based on what we read, and our experience last time, we decided to transfer a single embryo if we had a B1 or B2 on day 5. We are young (I'm only 35, hubby 37), we have not had a failed IVF attempt, and if we had a good quality embryo we felt like our chances were good enough. While there would be some increase in success if we used two, there would be an astronomical increase in the chance we'd have twins. (Nothing against twins, but twin pregnancies are much harder on mom and the babies. Not to mention the idea of twin newborns... and toddlers... makes my head hurt!) Also, we have the resources to pay for another round of IVF if needed. So--assuming we had a B1 or B2, the decision was easy for us--one little blasty.

No comments:

Post a Comment