# Defrosting



## ready4Family (May 14, 2004)

Hi,

Dh and I have 4 frozen embryos and plan to do FET in March or April.  (We have a beautiful boy from our IVF last time).  I assumed that they defrost the embryos and then implant them, but reading here, it seems as though they still need to wait for them to divide again?  Is this true?  And what's the time between when they defrost and they implant?  What if they defrost 2 and one doesn't survive...is there time to defrost another before implanting?

Sorry for all the questions...just nervous about it all and want to understand how it all works.  (We do have an apt with our fertility speciallist end of the month, but am hoping for answers here).

Good luck to all.


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## ☼♥ Minxy ♥☼ © (Jan 13, 2005)

Hi

Different clinics have different procedures so not all will thaw the frosties and see if they divide overnight.  How many they thaw will also be down to how yours are frozen eg how many in individual straws etc. & what you request.

We had 4 frosties (all grade 1, 4 cell frozen on day 2 after EC)...2 were in separate/individual straws and 2 in same straw together.
With our first fet we specifically asked them to only thaw 2 & were willing to have single embie transfer if only one survived.  They thawed the embies on the morning of having ET...both survived 100% and one even gained an extra cell from thaw to transfer.  We had a chemical pg. 

With our 2nd fet only one of our snowbabies survived the thaw so had a single embie transfer.  With this fet we had a confusing result...lots of +ve results but could've been hcg injections I had during 2ww but consultant convinced it was another chemical pg cos of all sorts of symptoms I had during 2ww and when started bleeding...we'll never know. 

The thaw success rate is approx 60-70%...as we had 3 out of 4 survive (over 2 fets) our success was just a little over average at 75%.

The thawing process doesn't take very long but I would speak with your embryologist beforehand to ask all the questions you have because, as I mentioned, different clinics will have different procedures.  

Good luck
Natasha


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## ready4Family (May 14, 2004)

Thanks for your response Natasha.  I'm so sorry to hear that you had 2 chemical pregnancies, but nothing came of them.  We are the exact same as you were in that we have 2 frozen together and then the other 2 in separate "packages".  I'm very nervous that they won't survive the defrost (and I'm not sure the grade of ours).  I wish you all the best with your ivf when you have it.


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## shaz72 (Oct 4, 2006)

Hi

Im in New Zealand and with our last FET they thawed Mon morning and we had 2 put in at 11.15 same morning.Ours were 4 cell embryos when they went in.We had 8   and had a 100% thaw which was different to last FET has we only had 3 frozen thawed 2 then had to thaw last 1 because 1 didnt make it.Think they only take about an hour to thaw.This time round we are hoping to take 2   to blast stage,apparently they have more chance of implanting.

Good luck and do what I do before I see the embryologist have a big list of all your questions hope this helps GOOD LUCK

Shaz xx


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## ☼♥ Minxy ♥☼ © (Jan 13, 2005)

lgft said:


> No idea what happens if they already have cells, they may again overnight them just to make sure that they are still 'alive' for transfere ...


As far as I'm aware it depends on the clinic/consultant and what you've agreed...some may thaw the already divided frozen embies and see if they cleave again so more cells before ET...some may even take the embies onto blastocyst stage (approx 5 days old).

All of our embies had 4 cells (grade 1) when frozen...we had 4 frosties and with each fet, 2 were thawed the morning of ET...we received phone call from embryologist to say how they'd done and whether they'd survived the thaw...then few hours later I was in for ET. With the first fet, we had one frostie survive 100% at 4 cells and the other one gained an extra cell between thaw and transfer...with the 2nd fet only one frostie survived the thaw but again, didnt lose any cells so was a 4 cell transfer.

With both our FETs none of the frosties were left overnight to see if they cleaved...

Take care
Natasha


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