#1 IVF update on our embryos

  Yesterday they were able to retrieve 8 eggs. Today they reported that only 7 fertilized because one egg wasnt mature enough to fertilize. But 7 out of 8 is a great number!
  We offically have 7 embryos! Because our fertlization report came back so good and they don't appear to be struggling they are waiting to transfer on day 5. By waiting until day 5 they will be able to weed out the weakest embryo's because they will start falling off. The surviving embryos will be examined and they will transfer one and freeze whats left (if by day 5 there is some left). They will not be checked on from now until transfer day. On Wednesday they will call us if something horrible happens but if not we will be in Rockford on Wednesday at 1:40 to place our embaby back home.

Trmbaby.com

"The laboratory is a critical part of the IVF process. The eggs that are harvested are placed into dishes where they will be counted and evaluated.

Approximately six hours after egg retrieval, fertilization is accomplished by placing a small concentration of sperm onto each egg, or by ICSI (where a single sperm is injected into an egg.) Approximately 18 hours after retrieval (the day after egg retrieval) we will evaluate fertilization of the eggs.

Fertilized eggs (zygotes) have two pronuclei. One pronucleus is a packet containing half of the female’s DNA. The other pronucleus contains half of the male’s DNA. This genetic material will unite to form the full complement of genetic material that will make an embryo.

The embryos are cultured (or grown) in incubators with an environment designed to mimic the human fallopian tube. A careful balance of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nutrients are maintained at the correct pH (acid content) to promote embryo growth.

Embryos destined to result in pregnancy will progress through several well-defined stages including zygote, cleavage and blastocyst stages. Only normally fertilized eggs are kept in culture. Not all embryos will grow in culture. Some of them will be genetically abnormal, while others cease to grow for unknown reasons.

Cleavage-stage embryos are those that are dividing into progressively smaller cells. Two days after fertilization, normal embryos are between two and six cells. Three days after fertilization, most normal embryos are between seven and nine cells.

Four days after fertilization, most normal embryos have reached the morula stage (too many cells to reliably count with a microscope).

Blastocysts are embryos that are nearly ready to implant. Blastocysts have developed three distinct regions:

• An inner cell mass, which becomes the baby
• The trophectoderm, which becomes the placenta
• The fluid-filled cavity, which will form a structure called the yolk sac

Embryo transfer

Your physician and embryologist will determine the ideal day for your embryo transfer.

The very best embryos will be selected for embryo transfer. The number of embryos transferred will depend on several factors, including your preference, the quality of the embryos and the ASRM Embryo Transfer Guidelines.

If you have other embryos that are suitable for freezing, they can be frozen (cryopreserved).

It is critical to understand that morphology scoring of the embryos does not evaluate the genetic potential of the embryo (e.g., will the baby have a normal number of chromosomes) or the potential health of a baby that grows from the embryo.

While pre-implantation genetic testing can investigate the chromosome number of the embryo, no test can guarantee a healthy baby after IVF."