# Clinic recommendations which take blastocysts to Day 6



## scattykatty (Aug 1, 2016)

Hi,

I am waiting to miscarry from my only NHS cycle - 2 blasts put back - one early and one Grade 'C' so not great. The other early blastocyst and cavitating morulas were only given a few more hours to develop before destroying on Day 5 - actually only 117 hours after fertilisation (they were fertilised at 5pm, then destroyed by 2pm five days later).

I have soooo many questions about what may have gone wrong but also trying to be proactive in realising that, with this delayed miscarriage, I probably only have 2 shots left at full cycles before I turn 41 - I was 39 when I started this process... So I need to plan my next steps carefully.

In trying to hopefully create as many frosties as possible, it occurred to me that my clinic may be too conservative with what they'll freeze (they are currently proud to have the best frozen embryo replacement rates in the country).
While I think in general I'd agree with only freezing the best, I can't help thinking that of my 10 embryos, from 14 mature eggs, that one should be genetically normal. What if one of the slower developers was it? Several US clinics seem to say it makes no difference whether they expanded on day 5 or day 6... 

So, I was wondering, does your clinic keep your embies going until day 6? I can't find the info on most of their websites, but if I knew that there were clinics that did, it might sway my decision with what to do with my remaining cycles

Thanks,
Katya


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## kittykat76 (Jan 17, 2016)

I'm at Zita West who use the lab at CARE London, 7 of my embies on day 5 weren't quite at right stage for PGS testing so they let them go to day 6 and biopsied them on the morning of day 6 so worth considering either of these clinics. I can't praise ZW highly enough and wouldn't go anywhere else for OE IVF


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## scattykatty (Aug 1, 2016)

That's great - except I just looked at their prices... Eek! Mind you CRGH is on my radar and they don't even publish their prices....
I live near Care Nottingham so might check them out again. Was just perturbed that they told me they weren't a 7 days a week clinic !?!


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## Franny80 (Apr 10, 2016)

I'm sorry to hear about your miscarriage. I hope you holding up okay. 

I cycled at Guys in London and they took my blasts to day 6. 

On day five I had 5 blasts. They transferred the best one, and took the rest to day 6. Two died overnight and I froze the remaining two. I think they only did this as I had 5 blasts. But I guess it saved me wasting time on two blasts that wouldn't have made it. As it turned out, none resulted in a bfp, so I guess despite the fact they made it to day 6 they were't good enough quality. 

Interestingly I then had a consultation with Care London and they looked at my notes from that failed cycle at Guys. The blasts were graded 4BB/4BC. They said they wouldn't even have bothered freezing them as they weren't good quality enough. 

x


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## kittykat76 (Jan 17, 2016)

Many clinics aren't 7 days a week sadly, ARGC are, CARE will do Sat EC but not Sun's. CARE don't do PGS testing on a Sat (not sure if this would be relevant to you) so you have to try avoid a Mon/Tues EC if want day 5 biopsies. CRGH are around same price I believe as I looked into them but decided to go with  ZW instead,well worth the money I feel. This whole process is just SO expensive though isn't it!


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## scattykatty (Aug 1, 2016)

Wow, lots of useful information. 

Franny, It hadn't occurred to me that blasts might die off between days 5 and 6. Do you know what grade the ones that perished were? It's hard for me to compare, though, as my clinic uses a simple A-D system.

Kittykat, unfortunately I think PGS is wishful thinking for me at the moment given how few got to day 5 and that they weren't freezable, but that would be a possible goal if I could stretch to it... But hang on, does that mean CARE do fresh biopsies? Did you have a fresh transfer on day 6 or did you freeze? I think Lister & CRGH do but didn't know about CARE. Not sure if that's also true for Nottingham though... Will have to find out.

It's eye opening how restricted the EC/ET days can be... I haven't quite figured my clinic's out, but I'm pretty sure they don't do one of them on a Sunday, so yes, a truly 7 day a week service is rare. And I've definitely ruled out the prices and intensity of ARGC - what helped was when I number crunched the combined rates for ARGC & RGI and found them the same basically as my clinic!


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## Pognut (Apr 8, 2012)

That's appalling about clinics shutting over the weekend! We did our first 3 cycles on the NHS at Shrewsbury and they did ET on Saturdays and Sundays - I assumed that was normal!


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## kittykat76 (Jan 17, 2016)

A friend did a cycle at Chelsea and Westminster and they told her they didn't do Sat or Sun!! CARE do actually do ET on a Sun,I now remember my consultant said that they could if needed but can't do EC on a Sun. I had some embies biopsied day 5 and other was day 6 then they were frozen. They do NGS testing and it takes around 2 wks for the results. I had 9 biopsied, 2 are normal and 1 had no result. ARGC are so expensive-think average cycle there is around 14k and that is without immunes.


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