# blastocyst??



## sue93 (Jun 14, 2006)

hi there - sorry to bombard with a hundred questions...

Just to add to my confusion, have now spoken to (very nice) woman at Lister who is sending me gumph thru the post, will then book myself a consultation. But during the conversation she said that at the Lister they are doing blastocyst to the majority of their embryos now, and that it's making an amazing difference to their success rates. 

I'm pretty sure my current clinic doesn't do this (Eastbourne for heavens sake!) - but had pretty much decided to stick with them for next ivf, until had the above conversation...

My question is: if blastocyst makes such a difference, would there be any reasons NOT to do it?

oh dear, think my brain is going to explode...!

Sorry to hear your news druzy - but also glad it's not ectopic. This is all so hard isn't it? E-hug to you (would do a smilie but am too damn ancient to work such stuff out...)

Sue
xx


----------



## druzy (Jan 25, 2006)

Me again!

Blastocysts is another thing that are on my mind too and it's interesting that the Lister say that.

My consultant claims that he did them for a while but had a lower success rate than with 3 day transfers and that the culture that they are grown in hasn't yet been developed properly and that embryos are better off back in you.  I've also read someone else on FF from a different clinic saying they were told the same thing.

However, if you google all this, in America in particular, they are very keen on blastocysts.  Again, I'm sorry, but I can't remember where I read it, but one American Dr said that clinics sometimes aren't keen to do it because fewer embryos survive to Blast stage (presumably because they never would anyway, but possibly not) and therefore sometimes you have nothing at all to put back and you have to send people away empty handed - as it were!  Whereas with 3 day transfer there is normally always something to put back.  He argued that psycologically it is easier for clinics to put back after 3 days and then say, well they embryos were fine when they left us - perhaps you did something wrong - why don't you have another go....Also blastocysts take more lab time and possibly skill which may make it difficult at the smaller clinics.

Again, none of this is gospel but some of it makes sense.  There are arguments for everything but personally if I was having a 4th go, which I'm probably not, I was thinking about blastocysts and now that you say the Lister said that I, personally, am even more convinced.  I also read that Blastocysts with assisted hatching gives the best chance...who knows.  They also do blastocysts a lot at the ARGC and I guess there must be a reason because I reckon it must be more time consuming for the clinics.

over and out and thanks for your good wishes

Druzyxx


----------



## Shamrock63 (Jan 24, 2005)

Hi Sue

I enquired about blastocyst transfer at my clinic prior to treatment and was told while they did do it, they didn't find their success rate was any higher.  I'm also recalling a really useful and very informative piece that another girl posted on FF ages ago about deciding whether or not to go for blastocyst transfer or not.  The bones of what she said was - if, after fertilisation, you've got good quality, strong embryos that divide within expected time limits and don't fragment etc, by all means go for it.  She also said if they have retrieved a reasonably good number of eggs you might also consider it.  But if not, don't chance it as they might all perish before ET.  Its a tough one and tbh I decide not to go for it in the end, simply based on that fact that I was approaching my 43rd year with 43 year old eggs!  Have a word with one of the Embryologists at Lister and get the lowdown from them on the pros and cons.  I had 3 embroyos transferred btw 1x8 cell, 1x7 cell and 1x6 cell.  When I asked my consultant which one was more likely to make it, he said "who knows"!    HTH and best of luck  

Shamrock63


----------



## sue93 (Jun 14, 2006)

hi shamrock (and druzy too - hope you are doing ok).

Think you are right from everything I've heard/read - it comes down to number of eggs - and the chances of me getting a decent amount is very very low. Got only 2 last time, and it will be 4 months down the line when i try again. So on that basis I think I'm giving up on all my blastocyst/gps stuff, and just sticking with the clinic locally that I know and like who miraculously got me p/g last time. They are a pretty small concern and don't do any of these things (but incredibly nice - rang me every day when i was having m/c). I'll obviously then run the high risk of m/c again in the unlikely event that i got p/g again, but think I'll have to live with that (scary as it would be).

All very hard - but at the moment it feels sensible (but i change with the wind on this one...)

fingers crossed for you shamrock - enjoy it! You give us hope!

Sue
xx


----------

