How many embryos would you transfer?

[Anonymous]

I'm 42, have a 6 yo child, and will be doing day-three embryo transfer tomorrow. I have four Grade A embryos - doc is recommending that I transfer three. I desperately want to avoid twins (and I know the risk for my age is relatively low, but still...) Anyone faced a similar scenario? Did you transfer two, three, or four, and what was the outcome?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on your prior IVF history, if any, and willingness to do another cycle, if necessary. I transferred 3 three-day embryos at age 35 and got a singleton. My first IVF cycle resulted in no pregnancy and my second (FET), transferred two embryos, got pregnant with one, then it split into twins and we lost both around 9 weeks. My third try (a fresh cycle) resulted in my DD. I was nervous about transferring 3, but given my prior history, my doctor thought it would give me the best chance of success without too high a risk of multiples, so we went with that advice and it turned out to be true in our case.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 fresh IVFs and 3 FETs under my belt, and one baby. The more desperate I got, the more willing I was to transfer 3 or more if they'd let me. It just wasn't working and we were losing embryos to chemical pregnancies. I was ok will having to selectively reduce if I got pg with more than 2. I didn't have to: I got pg with 2 and lost one.

[Anonymous]

How do you feel about down selecting? If you can't stomach the idea, then I would not transfer more than two. We transfered 4, three stuck, two developed heart beats....we have twins. The first year was very tough but now I'm trilled we were able to have them. If all three had developed heart beats we would have down selected - we discussed this with our doctor and that helped us decided on transferring all four.

[Anonymous]

At 42, I would push HARD for all 4. Your chances of even a singleton are extremely low (probably less than 20%) and your chances for twins are tiny. At 42, you have almost a 50% chance of miscarrying, even if you do get pregnant. Go with 4!

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for all the replies. It's a tough call between the high odds of failure/miscarriage vs. my fear of having twins! This is our first IVF cycle, so if it doesn't work, we are willing to try again and insurance covers two more...but I have been TTC #2 for a year now (with IUIs) and am pretty burned out.

15:43, how old were you when you had twins?

[Anonymous]

OP again - meant to also mention that I don't think I could handle doing selective reduction - hence my desire to avoid multiples.

[Anonymous]

I would do some more research into the success rates for IVF for those who are 42. They are substantially lower than for those who are even 40-41 and those odds aren't so great. I think getting advice from younger women who do have a reasonable chance of multiples is not the best idea.

[Anonymous]

At age 42, I honesly would transfer all 4.
Day 3 embryos are by their nature less of a sure thing than blastocysts are. If you had 4 great looking day 5 blasts I would say you could afford to transfer 2 or 3. With day threes I think the odds of even more than one implanting and turning out to be genetically normal are incredibly slim.

[Anonymous]

"At 42, I would push HARD for all 4. Your chances of even a singleton are extremely low (probably less than 20%) and your chances for twins are tiny. At 42, you have almost a 50% chance of miscarrying, even if you do get pregnant. Go with 4!"

Agree. At your age, it is not likely that more than 1 out of 4 is going to be genetically normal.

[Anonymous]

41, one child already, transferred 3,singleton.

[Anonymous]

At the age of 40, I transferred 2 blasts and 2 stuck! I now have 2 month old boy/girl twins as well as a 2 yr old!!

[Anonymous]

I'm 15:43 - I was 39 when we transferred the 4 embroys. I turned 40 a few weeks after having our twins.

[Anonymous]

Hey 15:56...if you haven't already, please consider joining a Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples (www.nvpom.com). Its a club for parents with twins/triplets/quad. You'll be glad you did...great community with tons of advice and fun events.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice PP! I will look into it! I need all the support I can muster.