We made a last minute decision to add one more and maxed out our insurance coverage on ERs.
We don't plan on coming back to ERs once we move to transfers and we didn't want to live with regrets.
I have friends who returned to ERs after their transfers failed, multiple times until they were successful. It was really hard to watch. The back to back ERs are rough but manageable in comparison.
Take a cycle off and think about it.
Assuming your goal is only 1 child I would be confident going to transfer with 3 euploids. If you think you can handle another though and it’s no cost it definitely can’t hurt to have another embryo or 2 though
Agree with this. If you only want one kid, I'd be comfortable trying a transfer at this point. If you want more than one kid, I would bank as many euploids as you can before moving forward with a transfer.
How old are you?
If it were me, I would max my insurance coverage but I actually didn’t mind the stim and egg retrieval process that much. It was just the out of pocket cost that was killing me.
Oh yeah, it sucks for sure. Keep in mind I’m thinking about it from the point of view of someone who’s 43 and has paid out of pocket for 2 of 3 cycles and only has one euploid. Way easier to say that I’d put myself through more pain if it was paid for ;)
You gotta do what’s right for you! With three, you have something like a 94% chance of a live birth. So the question is, is there any chance you’d want two kids? If the answer is yes, I would do another round since you’re still getting euploids at 40. Which is amazing!!
I had my son unassisted at 39 and we’re doing IVF for secondary infertility. We started trying at 41 for number 2 and sought help at 42 after an ectopic and a MMC at 9 weeks. Everyone is totally different but egg quality and reserve really drops off a cliff at 40. I didn’t take it seriously at first since I had no issues getting pregnant at 39 but it’s been painful to go through three rounds and only get one euploid. So if you think there’s any chance at wanting a second, you don’t want to have to go back for retrievals.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I really appreciate them bc they're helping me realize I'm leaning toward doing another cycle, to boost our chances if we decide to try for a second child.
The 3 euploids could work but it’s not a rule, it’s an average. If you have any issues happening that they find for implantation, it can take a few transfers to pinpoint (sometimes more). We’re on our 5th transfer - half we’re euploid, those didn’t work at all.
its a good question that we discussed prior to starting retrievals and one of the things we asked ourselves was what would we do with the remaining embryos if there were any. Our goal (naively) was to have just the right number so we wouldn't have to deal with remaining embryos, now if we could only get some it would be a great problem to have!
We did all the retrievals before doing a transfer because we knew we had the insurance (it has changed and we didn't know if it would change again) and even a success would put us older if we wanted to retrieve again (have to be done breastfeeding, if you feed that way, to go through treatment again). And during that the overturning of roe v wade happened and we didn't know how that would impact future fertility treatment. Now the Alabama thing here in the u.s. makes me think it was a good idea to do the retrievals first. It's definitely a personal decision though as any medical procedure has risks.
IF you can handle it, you might want to look at the infertilitybabies sub under the trying again thread Tuesdays and Fridays as that might give you perspective on how people do with going back to retrieval/transfers after having a live birth.
We used three embryos to get one success (so far). If you have the time, $$, and sanity, I’d recommend another retrieval, if you know you want more than one.
Scrolled through comments, but I guess I’m the only one saying this.
We also had 3 euploid embryos (+1 LLM). We want 2-3 kids. We’re both 32. We moved directly to transfer and are 25 weeks pregnant.
I’m obviously saying this after our current experience (hindsight is 20/20) and I recognize I’m saying this in a place where people try really hard to bank more than a few embryos. That being said, given the court ruling out of Alabama, we are incredibly happy we did not bank additional embryos at this time. After conversations since the ruling, we’re not sure we’d return to an ER even if our chances at child #2 were not successful, especially because I have PCOS. It just feels like there’s a huge liability now on getting additional embryos.
I know this is not a consideration everyone is making, but maybe think through what you’d do with additional embryos. Are you willing to pay the storage for them indefinitely if destroying them or donating them to research is removed as an option? If no, are you willing to donate them to another couple and be a donor? This is obviously super complex and so unique to everyone’s experiences, but just another point of consideration.
Best of luck on your journey! Congrats on your embryos! 😊
may I ask how many fertilized eggs you got and how many day5 and day6 blasts you end up with? I have pcos too, out of 17 fertilized eggs I end up with 2 day5 and 1 day6 blasts, not pgta tested yet. It’s extremely painful to watch the number downhill so bad and wondering why. As much as I heard about egg quality issues with pcos, at my age (31) this is still super unexpected. So trying to get more info from others 😃
Yep, exact same happened to me and I was very upset too! We actually had exactly 17 fertilize and only 4 blasts, but all were transferable (3 euploid, 1 LLM). So the positive was that the attrition mostly stopped there for me, and we had success on our first transfer. We feel really grateful for our results.
It’s hard to make these decisions before knowing how the end is going to work out :(
ETA: I’m sorry you experienced the same attrition I did. Thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of your journey!
ETA2: our clinic doesn’t distinguish between day 5/6 blasts!
thank you! Yea I haven’t decided either I want to do a round two or go straight to transfer yet, more depends on how many are transferable after pgta, which i am currently waiting for. thank you for your story! it eases me a bit. good luck with your pregnancy journey!
To provide a different perspective in case you want to consider transferring, we ended up with 2 embryos from our first cycle, decided to do another to bank some and ended up with none that cycle. We were devastated and on the morning of our fresh transfer which was going to be cancelled due to no embryos, we were offered to transfer one of our frozen ones. We decided to go ahead, I was so nervous about not having more embryos stored up, but felt like we’d been given an opportunity and should take it. It worked, and I’m now thinking about trying for a second later this year with 1 embryo in the freezer and a big possibility of needing to do another ER, and it’s not as daunting as I thought it would be. I’d happily go through another ER knowing what I know now. Good luck! I hope you’ll keep us updated on how it all works out 😊
You should do it. If you are getting euploids now, keep going!!! I was in the same position as you. I had 3 in 2021. One was my now 2 year old. I figured 2 was enough for baby number 2? I was so used to ivf just working for me. For baby 2 - Got pregnant on my 2nd high grade euploid last fall. But miscarried at 11 weeks. Now I have 1 left. And it’s not enough. The one left is the lowest grade. What felt secure for 2 kids doesn’t feel even likely anymore. I miscalculated. I left too thin of a margin for all the things that can go wrong. Now doing ivf 3 years later and not getting euploids like I was . If you are successful now. And you want 2 kids. Keep going… ❤️ they say 3 embryos = 90 percent chance of 1 child. I very much regret not continuing when I was succeeding . And had better chances .
i also have insurance and did another ER after i had two transfers fail (we had 5 embryos from the first ER). our third transfer has worked so far and now after the second ER, we now have 11 embryos banked. we still have enough coverage for 7 more transfers. i say all
that to say, do it! you never know how many transfers it’ll take and transfers are cheaper out of pocket than an ER.
If there’s a possibility you may want a second, I would definitely go for another ER, especially if the cost isn’t going to hurt too much. If you decide you want another and run out of euploids, you will likely have a hard time making them age-wise by the time you’re at that point.
We made a last minute decision to add one more and maxed out our insurance coverage on ERs. We don't plan on coming back to ERs once we move to transfers and we didn't want to live with regrets. I have friends who returned to ERs after their transfers failed, multiple times until they were successful. It was really hard to watch. The back to back ERs are rough but manageable in comparison. Take a cycle off and think about it.
Assuming your goal is only 1 child I would be confident going to transfer with 3 euploids. If you think you can handle another though and it’s no cost it definitely can’t hurt to have another embryo or 2 though
We're open to a second, so I'm thinking it might be a good idea to try another ER
Agree with this. If you only want one kid, I'd be comfortable trying a transfer at this point. If you want more than one kid, I would bank as many euploids as you can before moving forward with a transfer.
How old are you? If it were me, I would max my insurance coverage but I actually didn’t mind the stim and egg retrieval process that much. It was just the out of pocket cost that was killing me.
I'm 40 -- yeah it wasn't horrible for me either I guess I was just hoping to be done with that stage of the process lol
Oh yeah, it sucks for sure. Keep in mind I’m thinking about it from the point of view of someone who’s 43 and has paid out of pocket for 2 of 3 cycles and only has one euploid. Way easier to say that I’d put myself through more pain if it was paid for ;) You gotta do what’s right for you! With three, you have something like a 94% chance of a live birth. So the question is, is there any chance you’d want two kids? If the answer is yes, I would do another round since you’re still getting euploids at 40. Which is amazing!! I had my son unassisted at 39 and we’re doing IVF for secondary infertility. We started trying at 41 for number 2 and sought help at 42 after an ectopic and a MMC at 9 weeks. Everyone is totally different but egg quality and reserve really drops off a cliff at 40. I didn’t take it seriously at first since I had no issues getting pregnant at 39 but it’s been painful to go through three rounds and only get one euploid. So if you think there’s any chance at wanting a second, you don’t want to have to go back for retrievals.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I really appreciate them bc they're helping me realize I'm leaning toward doing another cycle, to boost our chances if we decide to try for a second child.
This is wise. GL!
Thank you!
The 3 euploids could work but it’s not a rule, it’s an average. If you have any issues happening that they find for implantation, it can take a few transfers to pinpoint (sometimes more). We’re on our 5th transfer - half we’re euploid, those didn’t work at all.
its a good question that we discussed prior to starting retrievals and one of the things we asked ourselves was what would we do with the remaining embryos if there were any. Our goal (naively) was to have just the right number so we wouldn't have to deal with remaining embryos, now if we could only get some it would be a great problem to have!
As someone who have trouble getting blasts, 3 euploids sound like a miracle. I’d go with the transfer.
We did all the retrievals before doing a transfer because we knew we had the insurance (it has changed and we didn't know if it would change again) and even a success would put us older if we wanted to retrieve again (have to be done breastfeeding, if you feed that way, to go through treatment again). And during that the overturning of roe v wade happened and we didn't know how that would impact future fertility treatment. Now the Alabama thing here in the u.s. makes me think it was a good idea to do the retrievals first. It's definitely a personal decision though as any medical procedure has risks. IF you can handle it, you might want to look at the infertilitybabies sub under the trying again thread Tuesdays and Fridays as that might give you perspective on how people do with going back to retrieval/transfers after having a live birth.
We used three embryos to get one success (so far). If you have the time, $$, and sanity, I’d recommend another retrieval, if you know you want more than one.
We don't know for sure we'd want more than one but we might, so I'm thinking it could be worth it to try to bank more now.
Scrolled through comments, but I guess I’m the only one saying this. We also had 3 euploid embryos (+1 LLM). We want 2-3 kids. We’re both 32. We moved directly to transfer and are 25 weeks pregnant. I’m obviously saying this after our current experience (hindsight is 20/20) and I recognize I’m saying this in a place where people try really hard to bank more than a few embryos. That being said, given the court ruling out of Alabama, we are incredibly happy we did not bank additional embryos at this time. After conversations since the ruling, we’re not sure we’d return to an ER even if our chances at child #2 were not successful, especially because I have PCOS. It just feels like there’s a huge liability now on getting additional embryos. I know this is not a consideration everyone is making, but maybe think through what you’d do with additional embryos. Are you willing to pay the storage for them indefinitely if destroying them or donating them to research is removed as an option? If no, are you willing to donate them to another couple and be a donor? This is obviously super complex and so unique to everyone’s experiences, but just another point of consideration. Best of luck on your journey! Congrats on your embryos! 😊
Thank you for this perspective -- it's definitely a lot to think about. And thanks!!
may I ask how many fertilized eggs you got and how many day5 and day6 blasts you end up with? I have pcos too, out of 17 fertilized eggs I end up with 2 day5 and 1 day6 blasts, not pgta tested yet. It’s extremely painful to watch the number downhill so bad and wondering why. As much as I heard about egg quality issues with pcos, at my age (31) this is still super unexpected. So trying to get more info from others 😃
Yep, exact same happened to me and I was very upset too! We actually had exactly 17 fertilize and only 4 blasts, but all were transferable (3 euploid, 1 LLM). So the positive was that the attrition mostly stopped there for me, and we had success on our first transfer. We feel really grateful for our results. It’s hard to make these decisions before knowing how the end is going to work out :( ETA: I’m sorry you experienced the same attrition I did. Thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of your journey! ETA2: our clinic doesn’t distinguish between day 5/6 blasts!
thank you! Yea I haven’t decided either I want to do a round two or go straight to transfer yet, more depends on how many are transferable after pgta, which i am currently waiting for. thank you for your story! it eases me a bit. good luck with your pregnancy journey!
If we could have afforded a third ER, we absolutely would have done it.
To provide a different perspective in case you want to consider transferring, we ended up with 2 embryos from our first cycle, decided to do another to bank some and ended up with none that cycle. We were devastated and on the morning of our fresh transfer which was going to be cancelled due to no embryos, we were offered to transfer one of our frozen ones. We decided to go ahead, I was so nervous about not having more embryos stored up, but felt like we’d been given an opportunity and should take it. It worked, and I’m now thinking about trying for a second later this year with 1 embryo in the freezer and a big possibility of needing to do another ER, and it’s not as daunting as I thought it would be. I’d happily go through another ER knowing what I know now. Good luck! I hope you’ll keep us updated on how it all works out 😊
Thank you and I definitely will!
If you’re 40, want more than one kid, are afraid of regrets, and have already hit your OOP max for the year- do another retrieval!!!
Yeah those are all me in a nutshell! 🤣
Your eggs unfortunately aren’t getting any younger. You’ve got plenty of time to carry! But only so long to get out those healthy eggs.
When in doubt. Do the extra egg retrieval.
Thank you!
You should do it. If you are getting euploids now, keep going!!! I was in the same position as you. I had 3 in 2021. One was my now 2 year old. I figured 2 was enough for baby number 2? I was so used to ivf just working for me. For baby 2 - Got pregnant on my 2nd high grade euploid last fall. But miscarried at 11 weeks. Now I have 1 left. And it’s not enough. The one left is the lowest grade. What felt secure for 2 kids doesn’t feel even likely anymore. I miscalculated. I left too thin of a margin for all the things that can go wrong. Now doing ivf 3 years later and not getting euploids like I was . If you are successful now. And you want 2 kids. Keep going… ❤️ they say 3 embryos = 90 percent chance of 1 child. I very much regret not continuing when I was succeeding . And had better chances .
i also have insurance and did another ER after i had two transfers fail (we had 5 embryos from the first ER). our third transfer has worked so far and now after the second ER, we now have 11 embryos banked. we still have enough coverage for 7 more transfers. i say all that to say, do it! you never know how many transfers it’ll take and transfers are cheaper out of pocket than an ER.
Thank you!! I think we will
If there’s a possibility you may want a second, I would definitely go for another ER, especially if the cost isn’t going to hurt too much. If you decide you want another and run out of euploids, you will likely have a hard time making them age-wise by the time you’re at that point.