Seriously... day 3 or day 5 is better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just started at SGF and noticed it seems like no one does day 3 transfers. My previous clinic had an excellent lab and at the time (4 years ago) they would have you tentatively down as a day 3 transfer until the lab report showed that there were still plenty of embryos growing. I wonder if SGF philosophy is possibly tainted by the Maryland IVF insurance mandate and that "attempts" are classified by transfers?

Can you explain what the Maryland IVF insurance mandate has to do with when they’d choose to transfer? Not familiar with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just started at SGF and noticed it seems like no one does day 3 transfers. My previous clinic had an excellent lab and at the time (4 years ago) they would have you tentatively down as a day 3 transfer until the lab report showed that there were still plenty of embryos growing. I wonder if SGF philosophy is possibly tainted by the Maryland IVF insurance mandate and that "attempts" are classified by transfers?

Can you explain what the Maryland IVF insurance mandate has to do with when they’d choose to transfer? Not familiar with this.

Maryland insurances cover 3 IVF attempts per live birth. If what I've heard is true, an "attempt" is the actual embryo transfer, not the cycle itself. My thinking is given this, if you only have a couple of embryos at day 3, you might as well wait until day 5 and make sure you're not wasting an "attempt" on an embryo that may end up arresting before blast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just started at SGF and noticed it seems like no one does day 3 transfers. My previous clinic had an excellent lab and at the time (4 years ago) they would have you tentatively down as a day 3 transfer until the lab report showed that there were still plenty of embryos growing. I wonder if SGF philosophy is possibly tainted by the Maryland IVF insurance mandate and that "attempts" are classified by transfers?

Can you explain what the Maryland IVF insurance mandate has to do with when they’d choose to transfer? Not familiar with this.

Maryland insurances cover 3 IVF attempts per live birth. If what I've heard is true, an "attempt" is the actual embryo transfer, not the cycle itself. My thinking is given this, if you only have a couple of embryos at day 3, you might as well wait until day 5 and make sure you're not wasting an "attempt" on an embryo that may end up arresting before blast.

Thanks for the response. So if you don’t do a transfer and it’s not considered an attempt, will the insurance still cover the cycle to some degree (given you didn’t do a transfer)? Or are you responsible for covering that cycle?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. So if you don’t do a transfer and it’s not considered an attempt, will the insurance still cover the cycle to some degree (given you didn’t do a transfer)? Or are you responsible for covering that cycle?

I believe insurance still covers the cycle. On the flip side, I don't think another round of stims is covered if you still have any frozen embryos left. I'm just now about to start a cycle with my new insurance so I'm still new to this.

[Anonymous]

I have severe DOR. At 36 I went to a big clinic that got me a cancelled cycle on super high stims. Went to SHER in NYC for my second attempt and we got 8 retrieved and 7 fertilized and we transferred 2 on day 3. The other 5 all arrested on day 4. I got a healthy amazing now 2.5 year old girl from that day 3 transfer.

Fast forward 2 years and I did two cycles of banking and had 10 day 3 embryos frozen (yes you can freeze on day 3). All are fair-good. I've transferred five of those 10 over two cycles and NONE have took. So you really don't know. I am taking another 6 months at least before I transfer the other ones because It's been a blow emotionally. I still would't grow anything out to day 5 if I ever did a fresh cycle again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been dealing with sgf too. Not once have they suggested a 3 day. They actually had me do a 6 day to grow embryo more and I did get a bfp, but had a miscarriage.

this is also why i think that maybe the clinics doing day 3 transfers are just not as confident in their lab as SGF and CCRM are

Hm, I disagree. We worked with Cornell specifically because they do 3 day transfers and co-culture, and because they have an excellent lab. And similar to other PPs, before moving to Cornell, we were at SGF for a few miserable rounds of nothing making it to day 5 and not a soul ever suggested that we do a day 3 transfer, or that we freeze our embryos earlier than day 5.

Coincidentally, DW had success with two untested embryos frozen at 2pn.