Help!! To transfer 1 or 2 embryos in ivf??

[Dragini]

I've just posted in this in teh conception board but think i might have more luck here. I think I need some help ladies...

I'm 41 and have been ttc for around 100 years (well, around 10) with unexplained fertility, and finally made the plunge into the world of ivf. This is our first cycle and all has gone well so far...13 eggs were collected yesterday and I'm waiting for the call today to say how many are viable (fingers definately crossed!!)

DH and I went into this completely open-minded knowing that the stats aren't in our favour, given my age etc. At our consultation we were asked whether we would want to transfer 1 or 2 embryos back, if we were lucky enough to have the choice. At that stage we plumbed for 2 to maximize our chances.

Since then DH has been consulting Dr Google (I've tried to stop him!) and now strongly believes we should transfer only 1 because of the risk of disabilities in twins. Because I believe it's a transplant problem which has been stopping us conceiving, I still want to go for 2.

All the stats around success rates for SET are based on women in their 30s and so they don't give me too much comfort.

Can anyone help point out what might be bleedin obvious? Are we missing something which could help us agree on whether to go for 1 or 2??

[hawkeye21]

No easy answers to this one, but there never is with ivf.

As you know, a singleton pregnancy is statistically better than a multiple for both mum and baby, but many multiples are just fine. And then there is the questions of what to do with any embryos that aren't put pack. Freeze for a future round if necessary or bin? And if you do bin and this cycle doesn't work are you going to spend the next weeks/months/years wondering if...

How do you feel about the prospect of twins? Would you rather take that gamble or not? Because it is all a gamble.

For what it is worth, I always opted to put back as many as they would allow, especially if there was not much to choose between them for quality.

[Callofthewild]

I think that this is one of the hardest decisions you have to make. I chose to have 2 embryos put back and both stuck and I now have beautiful 5 week old twins. I however had a very difficult pregnancy and had to stop work at 15 weeks. Physically I found it very demanding and could hardly walk by the time I gave birth. I hardly left the house for the last 6-8 weeks of my pregnancy. Looking after 2 newborns is also incredibly hard work.

Despite all this I would still choose to have 2 embryos transferred again if I did not have any existing children. Should I ever manage to convince DH to do another cycle (we have 6 frosties) I would only have one embryo transferred.

For me a big part of my original decision making was how would I feel if I only had one transferred and it didn't stick after going through the whole downregging, stimming and egg collection process when I could have had two transferred.

[SaraBellum]

What does your clinic recommend? My clinic made a recommendation based on the quality of our embryos and my age ( late 30s) and I was happy to take their advice. I had 2 embryos put back both times because weren't top quality and I had no extras to freeze. The 2nd time it worked and I'm currently pregnant with just one baby.
Good luck :)

[lozster]

I was concerned about a twin pregnancy too. First time round I had one put back. No choice round two or three as there was only one. Round four we had a choice and put two back whilst guffawing at our caution in round one. That said my oh was very worried when we went for our first scan after a positive pregnancy test. Relief all round to see one strong heart beat who is currently doing his heavy breathing right next to me.

[lozster]

Should also have said that at round 4 I was 40 and had decided that was to be the last try with my own eggs.

[twinsmonplusone]

Hi there. I have twins, conceived naturally, and I can confirm that twin pregnancies are not easy. I was put on bed rest from 25 weeks for example, although I was feeling good and not expecting it.

On the other hand, my sister is doing her third round of ivf, didn't put 2 when she had the chance and now has only one egg available...which will possibly be her last chance of using her own eggs (all eggs for the last 1 1/2 year weren't good; this last one was frozen), so I would think about your circumstances (if you could afford stop working early,for example), but also whether you have many healthy eggs available to use in the future before making this decision.

Good luck to you whatever decision you make.

[BettyBi0]

I think it depends a lot on your embryo quality and also your clinic's statistics for frozen embryo transfers. Some places have practically the same results in fresh and frozen cycles but at other places the difference is huge.

I chose to transfer 2x day 3 embryos. One good quality, one not so great (and not worth freezing according to the Drs). I am currently pregnant with a singleton.

If you were lucky enough to have lots of good quality day 5 blastocysts suitable for freezing, and the money to do back to back frozen embryo transfer cycles, then I'd say transfer 1. If you had questionable quality embryos or implantation issues then personally I would transfer 2 to up your chances.

[Chocolatemolehill]

As other ladies said, there are lots of factors involved.
Embryo quality, how many embryos you have, if you are having day 3 or day 5 transfer.
I had the same dilemma in September when we were doing our 5th round of IVF (I'm 35 years old). My husband and I did a lot of online research about risks of multiple pregnancy and decided to do a single transfer again (al previous were single) and freeze the remaining 8 embryos. They were all day 5 and the blastocyst we transferred was top quality. I'm now 9 weeks pregnant.
My thinking in all this was that if we transferred two and there were any complications due to a multiple pregnancy (with double transfer you have a chance of getting triplets) I would not be able to forgive myself that I contributed to that.
Also, just before our last round my friend lost her IVF twins at 11 weeks. One was not developing well and died in the womb but the other one was absolutely healthy. Still, they didn't manage to save it because of complications with the first. They now say they would never do a double transfer again.
Of course this is an extreme case and many twins end up just fine but there is still a risk. Only you and your partner will know whether you are ok to take it or not.
Trying to make the decision I also went on the MN twin pregnancy and twins boards to read about others' experiences. And watched the Chanel 4 documentary on multiple pregnancies (One born every minute - Twins and Triplets - still available online). All this convinced me that FOR ME single embryo is the way to go. I just couldn't take the stress of something possibly going wrong. And I preferred to have only one baby to look after.
But again, that was me and there are many happy parents of twins out there.
Good luck with your IVF, whatever decision you make.

[mumToOne33]

Hi, as its nearly Dec I'm sure you've made your decision, but Fwiw I had a single blastocyst transfer on my first IVF and it was successful. I have some frozen blasts and will go one at a time when doing FET as with one child I don't want to risk a twin pregnancy. Hope it's worked for you OP!