Embryology report

We got the embryology report this morning.

Of the 20 eggs they retrieved, 18 were mature enough to go through ICSI. ICSI is where they inject a single sperm into a single egg; as opposed to just letting them all swim around together hoping they find each other.

Of the 18, only 7 fertilized. Usually 70-80% fertilize, so this is considered 'lower than normal'. And because of the low rate of fertilization they will be freezing them all immediately, on day 1, instead of waiting until day 3 (usually the minimum) or day 5 (preferred).

Today they are at the day 1, '2PN stage'. And usually when you have to freeze at the 2PN stage, after you thaw them, you go ahead and transfer them the next day, which would be their day 2. It's much more typical to do the transfer on day 3, and preferable if you can transfer blastocysts on day 5 which is about the time they'd usually be entering the uterus out of the fallopian tubes in a natural pregnancy.

Overall, they are considered 'at risk' at this point. That basically means we will transfer them earlier in their life cycle than usual and will probably transfer more eggs at once.

There were 5 more eggs than had not yet shown signs of fertilization as of this morning, so they are going to observe those until tomorrow to see if they do eventually fertilize, and if so, they will freeze them for backup.

Now we know for sure that we won't be able to donate extra embryos to another couple as I had hoped. This is because we have to donate at least 6 to give them multiple chances for pregnancy. And since we only have 7 to begin with, it's not going to be an option.

But on the bright side, it looks like they're going to let the embryos decide whether to live or die inside me for the most part, instead of in the dish, which actually makes me very happy. One of the biggest problems I have had with this whole process is creating all these embryos only to let them die in the dish. So, in a roundabout way, this is a blessing!