Fertilization report IN!!!

Published by Kerry | Filed under Uncategorized

The good news just keeps on coming.  We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that out of the 16 eggs they got yesterday, 15 of those eggs were actually mature enough to be injected with Jeff’s sperm.  They told us to expect that around 80% of those fertilized eggs, now called embryos, would make it overnight, and they did!  This morning, at 10 a.m., we got the call from our embryologist that 11 of those embryos survived overnight!!!  We cannot stop smiling, we are so happy!!!!!

Sherri (the embryologist) will call again tomorrow morning and let us know how many embryos we have on track (it may not be all 11), and if we will be doing a 3-day transfer on Thursday, or a 5-day (also called a blastocyst) transfer on Saturday.  We’ll explain the difference between the two options so you all understand (sometimes it’s even hard for us to understand all of this…).

As soon as they fertilized each of Kerry’s eggs with one of Jeff’s sperm, they placed each embryo in a tiny little incubator to grow.  They will only grow and divide in the incubators for up to 5 days, at which point they will either need to be placed back into Kerry’s uterus, or frozen for use at a later time.  At 3 days past the egg retrieval, the embryos have four to eight cells, and the problem here is that normally, around day three (past ovulation), the embryos are found in the fallopian tubes, and NOT in the uterus, so sometimes they don’t implant.  It’s also a bit harder to pick the best candidates for implanting, as they haven’t gone through much cell division.  The other problem with transferring on Day 3 is that some of the embryos don’t have the capacity to continue development, and will not continue to divide as they should.  Basically, if the embryos are of poorer quality, and not as “high grade” as they would like to see them, they will do a 3 Day transfer. 

If they continue to divide, they will make it to a 5 Day transfer, and will be called “blastocysts”, meaning they have lots of cells, sometimes up to 120 of them (the outer cells will become the placenta, how cool is that?)!!!  Blastocyst transfers typically correlate with higher pregnancy rates, which is why a 5 Day transfer is more desirable and costs $2K more than a 3 Day transfer does at our clinic.  It is easier for the embryologist to choose which blastocysts to transfer, and it’s easier to tell the quality blastos from the not-so-good ones on Day 5, therefore your rates for a successful pregnancy are higher.

Does that all make sense?  Yeah, we didn’t think so.  We’re still in the process of learning all about this, and feel like we’re in high school all over again (but this time, we’re really, really paying attention).  This is by far the most expensive, most emotional ”class” we’ve ever taken!  LOL!

J&K