8 eggs fertilized - second retrieval cycle back to back?

[Anonymous]

Unexplained infertility, just finished my first egg retrieval and got 16 eggs, 8 of which ended up being mature and successfully fertilized. The doctor recommends back to back egg retrievals, since I am now almost 37 and she predicts that we will only get 1 or 2 usable embryos from this retrieval cycle. I'm leaning toward doing it, since I'm nervous about declining egg quality with age. Has anyone done this and have any advice to share? If you did it, did you have any regrets? Cost is not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Do it. Sometimes the second cycle yields better results - somehow piggybacking off the hormones of the first cycle. This happened to me. Also, are you testing the embryos?

[Anonymous]

Do you want more than one child? If so, I'd go ahead and do another retrieval now.
I was 36 at the time of my retrieval. Only issue was PCOS. 22 eggs, 12 fertilized, but only 7 grew to 5 day blasts. Of those, 3 were normal (we elected to do testing). One DD from 1st transfer; our other 2 FETs failed.

[Anonymous]

If you are testing then yes. Not testing and transferring earlier (day 2 or 3) I’d wait to see what happens with transfers and then do another retrieval if needed.

[Anonymous]

OP - we are testing, and are hoping for two kids. I’ve been going back and forth on whether the testing is necessary, since we did genetic testing and I ended up not being a carrier for anything. If our yield is low this cycle, I may forgo testing on the next round.

[Anonymous]

I believe the genetic testing is for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos, not necessarily hereditary genetic illnesses. You can not be a carrier for anything but still have a chromosomal abnormal embryo. As a result it may fail to implant, or fail to grow resulting in a miscarriage, or your kid could have Downs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the genetic testing is for chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos, not necessarily hereditary genetic illnesses. You can not be a carrier for anything but still have a chromosomal abnormal embryo. As a result it may fail to implant, or fail to grow resulting in a miscarriage, or your kid could have Downs, etc.

+1 to this.

[Anonymous]

Definitely bank more embryos if you can afford it, especially if you want more than one child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - we are testing, and are hoping for two kids. I’ve been going back and forth on whether the testing is necessary, since we did genetic testing and I ended up not being a carrier for anything. If our yield is low this cycle, I may forgo testing on the next round.

The genetic testing they do for you is different from the test they do on the embryos. They will screen the embryos for chromosomal irregularities such as trisomies.