# Can embies be frozen twice?



## Grumps (Dec 13, 2004)

Hi girls

Forgive my ignorance....we'll be doing our first FET in the next few months and it's a bit new to me, not having got any frosties last time.

My situation is this....we have 8 on ice, but (for reasons unknown/unexplainable!) they have all been frozen together.  

So can anyone tell me if they can be re-frozen once thawed? If not, we will definitley try and take them to blast before transfer (they were frozen on day 2). We might as well if all 8 have to come out in one go. But i just wondered if there was any possibility of re-freezing some? Anyone know?

TIA
Love
Grumps
xx


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## ☼♥ Minxy ♥☼ © (Jan 13, 2005)

Hi

To be honest I've absolutely no idea !! BUT I would've thought it wasn't possible...frozen embies are very delicate and not all survive the thaw (its around 60-70% thaw success)...so I'd think it unlikely they could refreeze...although  as I say, I've no idea so I could be completely wrong...maybe they can !! 

I'd be interested to know if anyone has...

Good luck 
Natasha


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## radnorgirl (Oct 18, 2005)

Grumps

In principle I would agree with Natasha that it does not seem logical that they can be frozen twice, hoever, I am sure that I have read somewhere about them being frozen twice. Unfortunatley I have no idea where I read it though.

Sorry I can't be of more help

love

Helen
xxx


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## ritzi (Feb 18, 2006)

i asked my clinic this as well - and the answer is yes. 
Embryos frozen on day 2/3 can be thawed and taken to blast then refrozen. 
it is unusual for clinics to do this however - but they said in our case they would do due to our (religious) wishes of not destroying any healthy embryo   so far we have not needed to though as mine were frozen in 3's and 2/3 have thawed each time. 

does seem daft yours were frozen together   good luck  

ritz.


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## radnorgirl (Oct 18, 2005)

Ritz

Thanks for sorting that one out for us! 

love

Helen
xx


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## Grumps (Dec 13, 2004)

Hi girls

Ritz - thanks for that! Yes it's _very_ daft they were frozen together....when i enquired about them being frozen in batches before e/t, they kind of chuckled and at me and said oh no no we freeze them all individually....but post e/t they did a massive backtrack and gave a lengthy but not very informative reason why they actually been frozen together (just waffled really).....reckon someone just made a balls up but they'd never admit to that of course 
I guess we'll see then, take all 8 to blast and hope we're lucky enough to have some for transfer, and if a miracle occurs and we have any left to refreeze! 

Good luck to all

Love
Grumps
xxx


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## pupz (Aug 12, 2006)

Hi there

In answer to your question yes frozen embies can be defrosted and refrozen-I know this as the 3 I've got left on ice were defrosted last march then refrozen. My hospital did this as they were such good quality ( so were the two of the five that they did put in but ha ha guess what not so good that they actually worked!) but I do  believe it to be quite unusual. At a subsequent appointment a nurse asked me if I had specifically asked for them to be refrozen on religious grounds which is not the case.

I've subsequently been told that they only refreeze in these circs if they are of  good quality but I don't know what the test for that is. I can say that I've since had a grade 6 ( of 10) that they deemed unsuitable for refreezing -to be honest 6 out of 10 seems worth a punt to me, no?

Anyway as I say that's what I've got left and they will be , touch wood , getting used at the end of February. I've no idea if the thaw success rate goes down with them or if the success rate post transfer goes  down with them if you get that far but I've got a clinical appointment next week and will ask . That said in my own mind I am not attributing ( or am trying not to) attribute the same probability of success to these ones-I assume they may be less likely to survive thaw and therefore less likely to take as well.

keep your fingers crossed for me though when the time comes!

AND GOOD LUCK YO YOU with your 8.

Hope this helps.

Pupz
xx


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## CarrieW (Apr 3, 2006)

Hi

Re your question, I had a FET last December at a London clinic.  I had 5 frosties and the clinic suggested thawing all 5 due to the failure rate of thawing being 60-70%, therefore, they hoped that I would be left with 3, which would continue to divide as freezing slows them down a tad.  To my surprise, all 5 thawed perfectly and after 2 days one arrested.  They chose the best 3 to transfer (I am 40, so this was ok).  I asked them if I could only transfer 2 and refreeze the remaining 2 but was told very sternly that this was strictly against HFEA rules and even if they were allowed to, re-freezing and successful re-thawing may weaken the outer shell and would be very unlikely to result in a pregnancy.  I felt rather upset as all 5 had been thawed and I had to let the remaining one perish, which I felt as this was my last chance and you cling to any hope you can - it could be the one if the other 3 fail.  Unfortunately, I got a BFN mid December as I had started to bleed on 5dpt and despite increasing the botty bombs continued on and off until test day and then very heavy for about 9 days after stopping the cyclogest.

I know I should post on different thread and have searched index but to no avail but if anyone is reading this reply, this was my first and last fet, please can anyone advise when I should expect my next period.  I took the first day's bleeding from stopping cyclogest as day 1, expecting my period to arrive around 28 days later.  Today I would now be a week late, which is unlike me, so in hope/anticipation did a hpt but disappointingly bfn.  Spoke to london clinic and nurse said it can take upto 3 months for it to come back, let alone be regular again.  Anyone else had this?


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## pupz (Aug 12, 2006)

If i were you I'd have a word with your clinic about this-my clinic is nhs and there's no way they would be doing something contrary to the hfea guidelines. i agree that it is no doubt less likely to be successful but if it were a complete no hoper then i can't believe they would waste time and money not to mention unnecessarily raising their patients hopes doing so ie refreezing.

Re your bleed I'm afraid I can't help. I've always taken a bleed exactly 4 days after stopping the cyclogest ( on test day which at my clinic is day 17 post transfer) then after that my next af has come within what are normal timescales for me namely 28-say 35 days.

Pupz
xx


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## Grumps (Dec 13, 2004)

Carrie so sorry about your BFN   
I'm afraid i can't off er any advice about your cycle dates, other than to say tx often messes cycles up for a while after, i had a marathon (for me ) 7 week cycle after my first bfn. Lots of   to you.

Thanks to all the other girls who replied to my query too  

Love 
Grumps
xx


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## Chris F (Apr 3, 2005)

Hi everyone


When I had my IVF cycle in Dec 05, I had 9 frozen, 6 in one vial and 3 in another, as the six were frozen on day 1, they decided when I did FET that the 6 would be defrosted first, 2 perished, 2 were transfered (which resulted in BFP) and they decided that the other 2 were that good that they refroze them, they did say that they couldn't give me any figures on what would happen when these were defrosted as they don't do this very often.

Chris


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## shazicowfan (Jan 10, 2007)

Hi Grumps,
I only just joined this site after my e.c. in January.
I managed to get 20 embryos from my first i.v.f. and was over the
moon. However, my clinic have stored them in 2 batches of 10. The embryologist
told me not to worry and some could be refrozen if necessary, but I think why on
earth did they not do 4 batches of 5 embryos??
I will be putting my foot down if I am lucky enough to get a decent number surviving the defrosting 
as I think that they are my embryos and I don't want a single one to perish unnecessarily and thanks
to f.f. I am a little bit wiser now!
Good luck to all your little   . 
love
Shazi x


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## pupz (Aug 12, 2006)

Hi there-i said i would update you as to what's been happening with my twice frozen embies.

Firstly my clinic said they don't freeze anything less than a grade 7/10 but if already once frozen ones are of that quality they'll refreeze them a second time.

My last three were originally frozen last January, were thawed last march and refrozen the next day then were thawed again last Thursday. All 3 survived. two were 4 cell and one was 2 cell. On Friday when I went for the transfer .

one 4 cell was the worst of the three and not suitable for a third refreezing ( i got the impression they wouldn't have wanted to do this anyway). The 2 cell had become a 4 cell 10/10 and the other 4 cell had not divided further but was classified as a 10/10 too so that's the two that were put in.
i was over the moon about this as i had really supposed they would not be great quality.

So yes refreezing twice need not be a problem

As to whether they work.........watch this space though so far all my embies have preferred lab conditions rather than the real thing!! 

P
x


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