# Over 40 - single blast with much younger egg?



## jaclaw (Feb 7, 2006)

Hi 

Does anyone know of the chances with only one embryo - if it is at blast stage. I am over 40 but using younger eggs. Previously, I have only ever had two Grade A embies transferred at a time - first time BFN, second time only one implanted. I want to try again for No. 2 but really only want one embryo transferred and so am thinking of taking to blast but will I be seriously reducing my chances?

All advice received gratefully!

JacLaw x


----------



## Ellie.st (Mar 11, 2005)

Dear Jaclaw
I'm not an expert but I think your chances with putting one blast back would be better than putting a single 2 or 3 day embryo back as the blast has already survived for five days and therefore has a better chance of continuing to grow. (Although there is another school of thought that embies are better  back inside as soon as possible - not sure of the stats on this). However, it depends how many embies you get in the first place as not all will make it to the blast stage and I think some clinics would only let you take your embies to blast if you have five or more due to the drop-out rate.  Not sure if this helps but maybe posting on Peer Support might get you some more feedback.

Best wishes

Ellie


----------



## goldielocks (Oct 7, 2006)

Hello Jaclaw 

I'm not a blast expert - it might be worth posting on another thread to get some more feedback - peer support? IVF issues ?? 
Unfortunately I think the issues facing us goldies are not usually about whether or not to go to blasts 
( forgive me ladies  - I know there will be some exceptional responders among us - I was not one of them !!!) which require very good responses and lots of eggs to be collected so that there are plenty of potential embryos to take forward to 4-5 days.  

I am sure if you find yourself in the fortunate position of having got to the blast stage you are quite entitled to have a single blast put back as per your wishes. Presumably the chances are similar to that of an earlier single embyro transfer or greater. The advice to me as an over 40 has always been to have put back two or three, but again it surely is up to you with some information about the statistics. To my recollection the chances do not linearly increase with numbers of embryos anyway ie 2 embryos does not double the chances of success, 3 does not triple it etc but I think more than one embryo gives a slightly higher success rate than one alone...correct me if I'm wrong someone

Good luck with whatever you decide  
Best wishes
Goldielocks


----------



## daisyg (Jan 7, 2004)

Hi Jaclaw,

Goldielock's advice applies obviously to women doing ivf with own eggs not donor eggs.  Chances have been shown to increase in women over 40 the more embryos they make and replace (optimum was found to be 5 for over 40 in recent research).  Again, this is not the same for good quality donor eggs from a young woman.

Obviously your chances are likely to be higher with younger donor egg blast (generally speaking) than with 40 year old eggs.

However, nothing is guaranteed and I would speak to your embryologist in detail about your clinic's success rates and the quality of your donor's eggs and subsequent embryos.

It really depends on the quality of the embryos at the end of the day and this is a question none of us can answer for you.

Are you only transferring one to avoid twins?  Even with donor eggs, many women transfer either 2 good quality day 3 embies or 2 blasts.  However, with good quality, young embryos, your chances are not bad with one - again you need to talk to your clinic.  However, going to blast with young eggs is a good way to choose one for transfer.

As in all ivf transfers, if there is anything wrong with you or sperm, then obviously chances of success are lower - e.g. clotting issues, uterine, sperm, hormonal etc. etc.  But I am assuming these are all ok.

Daisy
x


----------



## jaclaw (Feb 7, 2006)

Thanks Ellie, Goldilocks & Daisy

Yes, I am trying to avoid twins as I have a glorious 9 month old and am in my mid-40s! I had two fresh embies transferred after ICSI and got a BNF. I then started a course of steroids and got pregnant after I had FET (2 embryos transferred, one implanted). I think if I follow the same protocol then I will aim to have one blast transferred. Sorry about asking another question but does anyone have information about the ability of single blasts to survive thawing?

Many thanks again,

Jaclaw xxxxx


----------



## daisyg (Jan 7, 2004)

Jaclaw,

Sorry to go on about this point but no one here can really give you a definitive answer to this as we do not have any detailed knowledge about the quality of your blasts or how they were frozen (e.g. which culture media was used).

The best thing would be to talk to the embryologist who froze them and find out what their success rates are for thawing single blasts.

Obviously frozen blasts are able to survive thawing, but you need specific info. and your clinic are the best ones to give it.

You may need to find out how the blasts were stored - are they in individual straws? In which case you can thaw them one by one. Otherwise they may recommend thawing more than one in order to end up with a good one to transfer due to attrition rate. Once again it totally depends on the skill of your embryology lab and their track record.

You could google for research into this - there is lots of info. out there on blasts and it is pretty positive.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6K-4DR7707-14&_user=10&_origUdi=B6T6K-4PM8WKS-186&_fmt=high&_coverDate=11%2F01%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_orig=article&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=04f5760a22f34f3c5448b2d2e8a128d6

Daisy
x


----------

