Trying to minimize number of frozen embryos

[Anonymous]

Wait- I haven't ever had embryos left over to freeze- but there's a time limit on how long they can be frozen in terms of their viability? Really?

[Anonymous]

If minimizing extra embryos is of great concern, go to Dominion and see if you are a natural cycle candidate, or go to the Muasher Center and do low stim.

[Anonymous]

OP here. You confirmed what I suspected - that the likelihood of having a large number of surplus frozen embryos is very slim. I will be lucky if I have 1 or 2. Thanks for all of the feedback. It was very helpful and reassuring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I had extra embryos to freeze, I would gladly donate them to stem cell research that might eventually cure illnesses and save lives.

Unfortunately this has become next to impossible. I have four children and have five frozen blasts left. We keep just paying the $600 per year to store because I can't destroy them. We have tried to donate but cannot find anywhere that will take them these days. I remember being so excited about all our left over embryos. Now, not so much.

OP: you are correct to think about this ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Have you expressed your concerns to your SG doctor and what did he or she say? If this is a big concern for you, they can ensure that your protocol is one that's less likely to produce a large number of eggs. SG can be very aggressive. If this is an important issue for you, consult elsewhere (actually, that's always a good idea anyway, especially seeing as how you've tried some things that didn't work and you're escalating treatment).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait- I haven't ever had embryos left over to freeze- but there's a time limit on how long they can be frozen in terms of their viability? Really?

I'm pretty sure there's no time limit, at least, they don't know how long embryos can be frozen. I know someone who has twins from twice-frozen embryos that had been frozen for 13 years!

Another thing to consider is having them vitrify (flash freeze) your eggs, rather than embryos. This should alleviate any concern about them being "life" and the technology to do this is becoming better and better.

I also imagine that if you clearly emphasize to your RE how you don't want too many frozen embryos, they are likely to be even stricter than normal to ensure that's the case (if you know what I mean).

Definitely talk to your RE about this. They're used to requests like this and can hopefully put your mind at ease.

[Anonymous]

OP here, again. We have talked to our doctor about what to do. And he recommended doing ICSI on 8 eggs and freezing any others. We considered it, but freezing eggs adds $2,600 to the price, plus the additional $2,000 for ICSI. And, since we are going to do the Shared Risk program at Shady Grove, we would be considered a "special case" that would have to be presented to the review board. So we have decided not to do that.

As for alternatives to traditional IVF, like natural cycle or mini-IVF, I'm not too enthralled with them. I dislike the idea of having to go through the egg harvesting process more than necessary, since it comes with its own set of risks (associated with any serious procedure that requires sedation). And since their success rates are lower, chances are good that I would be subject to multiple egg harvests.

There's seems to be no good answer here. I think we're just going to assume that we'll be like most other couples and have only a few embryos to freeze. And if we're wrong, we'll face that when we get there.

[Anonymous]

OT but it is interesting to think that two children "conceived" at the same time can end up years apart in age (or that an embryologists decision can make a potential older brother the younger brother).

Anyway ...

[Anonymous]

SG does not take embryos for adoption. They will release them to you to transfer to another clinic to donate, I think Columbia and Dominion offer embryo donation. Or you can go to miracle waiting website to choose who you want to donate to.

[Anonymous]

OP - I'm glad you're thinking about this ahead of time.
Have you thought about doing Natural IVF (Dominion and GW both do this, I think).

Before my husband and I went the IVF route, we decided to give every embryo a chance at life. Since I was a month shy of 41 we figured this wouldn't be much of a problem since we figured we'd be lucky to get one or two viable embies. Well fast forward to retrieval - I produced 42 mature eggs that cycle and 28 became high quality embyos. We were in shock. Because I had OHSS, we only transferred one 5 day blast. That embryo became dc - 1. We had 27 embryos left so we did three subsequent FETs and got pregnant with our second chld. We now have 20 embryos left. At this point, we feel do not feel we want to continue having children due to our age, but we still feel that each embryo is a life waiting to happen. Our clinic does not do embryo adoption, so that's not an option for us. We pay the annual fee to keep the embryos around. Still trying to figure out what to do. This is a nightmare that we hadn't envisioned. If Natural IVF had been an option we surely would have gone that route.

PLEASE consider natural IVF or low dose stims. I do hope you end up with as many children as you like but don't get stuck in our situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I'm glad you're thinking about this ahead of time.
Have you thought about doing Natural IVF (Dominion and GW both do this, I think).

Before my husband and I went the IVF route, we decided to give every embryo a chance at life. Since I was a month shy of 41 we figured this wouldn't be much of a problem since we figured we'd be lucky to get one or two viable embies. Well fast forward to retrieval - I produced 42 mature eggs that cycle and 28 became high quality embyos. We were in shock. Because I had OHSS, we only transferred one 5 day blast. That embryo became dc - 1. We had 27 embryos left so we did three subsequent FETs and got pregnant with our second chld. We now have 20 embryos left. At this point, we feel do not feel we want to continue having children due to our age, but we still feel that each embryo is a life waiting to happen. Our clinic does not do embryo adoption, so that's not an option for us. We pay the annual fee to keep the embryos around. Still trying to figure out what to do. This is a nightmare that we hadn't envisioned. If Natural IVF had been an option we surely would have gone that route.

PLEASE consider natural IVF or low dose stims. I do hope you end up with as many children as you like but don't get stuck in our situation.

OP is ok having 4 children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I'm glad you're thinking about this ahead of time.
Have you thought about doing Natural IVF (Dominion and GW both do this, I think).

Before my husband and I went the IVF route, we decided to give every embryo a chance at life. Since I was a month shy of 41 we figured this wouldn't be much of a problem since we figured we'd be lucky to get one or two viable embies. Well fast forward to retrieval - I produced 42 mature eggs that cycle and 28 became high quality embyos. We were in shock. Because I had OHSS, we only transferred one 5 day blast. That embryo became dc - 1. We had 27 embryos left so we did three subsequent FETs and got pregnant with our second chld. We now have 20 embryos left. At this point, we feel do not feel we want to continue having children due to our age, but we still feel that each embryo is a life waiting to happen. Our clinic does not do embryo adoption, so that's not an option for us. We pay the annual fee to keep the embryos around. Still trying to figure out what to do. This is a nightmare that we hadn't envisioned. If Natural IVF had been an option we surely would have gone that route.

PLEASE consider natural IVF or low dose stims. I do hope you end up with as many children as you like but don't get stuck in our situation.

OP is ok having 4 children.

But with 20 emberyos left, she could still end up having embryos remaining even after conceiving 3 additional children. Perhaps not likely but very possible.