# Day 5 transfers



## Confused by Infertility (May 28, 2009)

Hi! Does anyone have any experience with this please?

I am really nervous to leave them until day 5! What if they don't make it - they might have been better off being transferred? I would be gutted to have gone through the last few weeks for nothing - if on Day 3, things are looking ok. HELP!

Thanks


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## Flozzie (Aug 5, 2010)

As you can see from my signature, I'm a big fan of day 5 transfers    

My clinic was the at the leading edge of culturing embryos onto blastocyst stage so I had no hesitation in letting them make the decisions.  It's hard not to worry but your clinic will only offer it if a) they have enough experience and b) you have enough strong embies on day 3.  

There are huge benefits to leaving them to day 5 because they'll be able to select the strongest embie(s) for you and they'll be about to hatch so ready to implant as soon as they are put back in your uterus.  The odds of achieving a pregnancy, and a safe one, are much improved with blastocyst transfer.  Unfortunately, if some don't survive to day 5 then they probably wouldn't have done inside you either so if your clinic can offer it, I'd definitely go for it


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## ☼♥ Minxy ♥☼ © (Jan 13, 2005)

Hi there

Often if you have quite a few top quality embryos then it helps the embryologist determine the strongest embies if you take them to blastocyst.

There is the risk of embies not making it through to day 5 but this is why our clinic recommend you have at least 5/6 top grade embies on day 3.  Sometimes embies are just better off inside the natural environment of the womb rather than in a culture medium in a petri dish under lab conditions...even if some embies don't make it through to day 5, it could just be that they would've been better off inside the womb...no way of knowing for sure as too late by that point.

A day 5 blastocyst is at the stage to begin implanting, usually from around 24 hours (so when 6 days old) although implantation can happen up until around embie is 12 days old.  Also, the womb is more receptive at that stage because in natural conception, up until that stage, the embie would've been in the fallopian tube.

If you have quite a few good embies then I would certainly go for blastocyst.  If you don't have many on day 3 then there's not much point as the embryologist should be able to determine the clear front runners already.

We've had day 2, day 3 (standard and with assisted hatching) and blastocyst transfers over 7 cycles.....wierdly it was our day 2 frozen embies that actually made it further than any others (both chem pgs/early mc's, all others were BFN).  We've also had day 3 transfers with top grade embies and taken the remaining (lower grade) to blastocyst and whilst they've made it, they've not been good enough to freeze (our clinic only freeze grade 1 embies and also blastocysts are more delicate/fragile when it comes to freeze/thaw process).

We've got 6 day 3 embies remaining and we're unsure whether to go for 2 FETs cycles with day 3 transfers (assuming they all survive and I can have 3 transferred) or to thaw all at once and take to blastocyst.

I would discuss everything with your clinic but whatever you decide, good luck   
Take care
Natasha


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## Confused by Infertility (May 28, 2009)

Thanks to you both. It is so scarey. We are with Oxford Fertility Unit too - They are very good - so I guess we will just go with whatever they say is best - they are the experts - it is just good to read other people's stories! Thanks and best wishes x


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