Day 3 or Day 5 transfer

[calinden44]

This is my first round of IVF. I had egg retrtival on Friday (Oct 24), and they got 9 eggs, 7 which fertilized. I was planning on having PGD testing, and they asked if I would forgoe this if some of the embryos looked as if they were not going to continue to grow for a day five transfer. How many good embryos are needed for PGD testing, and why would they ask me if a Day 3 transfer was out of the question if they didn't already know something.  I am confused.

[Helen72]

I think that not all embryos survive PGD.  I guess your lab is afraid they will not have enough embryos left to transfer if they do PGD.  

If your lab insists on day 3 transfer, they probably feel that most of your embryos will not make it to day 5.  When I got a call about day 3 transfer, I became totally hysterical, just could not stop crying.  We did a day 3 transfer and I will be 28 weeks tomorrow.  The rest of our 6 embryos never made it to day 5 even w/o PGD.   Although most of our embryos were poor quality one of them developed.

Good luck to you!

[sarge1]

I don't think there is a specific number of  embryos needed for PGD testing; you could probably do it on as little as one.  However, it does need to be at least an 8 cell by day 3 in order to do the testing. So I suppose they would rather do a day 3 transfer with a lower cell embryo than wait another couple of days and risk losing the embryo.  My theory is that your body is naturally where those embryos belong and they will grow better than in a petri dish. I had a day 3 transfer, with the highest quality embryo being only 5 cells, and my son is due in 8 days!  But don't feel like they are hiding something from you either-I think they are legally obligated to give you all of the information you need to make the right decision for you. Good luck