Happy Thaw Day Little Embryos, Part II

Today's the day that our embryos will begin thawing for transfer #2 (see transfer 1's thaw day post).

Several people have asked me, "So how many are you transferring?" That's a complex question with an uncertain answer.  

We currently have five embryos: a 2PN (1 day old) and 2 multicells (3 days old) with Family A and 2 multicells with Family C.

The lone 2PN will be thawed today. If he/she survives the thaw, growth will continue til Wednesday to hopefully get the embryo to at least 8 cells (currently 2). I am most nervous for this embryo because last time, of the 3 2PNs thawed, only 1 made it. Our clinic has the highest success rate for this stage of embryo to survive a thaw (80%+); we brought the statistic down (33%).

The two Family A multicells will be thawed tomorrow or Wednesday morning. I thought multicells were thawed day of transfer but last time the multicell we transferred was thawed the day before transfer.

If all three of Family A's embryos survive the thaw, they will be transferred together. If two survive the thaw, they will, likewise, be transferred together.

If only one of Family A's embryos survive the thaw, Family C's embryos will both both thawed. Whoever survives that thaw will be transferred together, thus potential "mixing".

Possible Scenarios:
Three from Family A survive the thaw: we transfer 3
Two from Family A survive the thaw: we transfer 2
One from Family A survives the thaw along with two from Family C: we transfer 3 and get DNA testing at birth
One from Family A survives the thaw along with one from Family C: we transfer 2 and get DNA testing at birth
Only one embryo survives the thaw: we transfer 1
None survive the thaw: They have us transfer anonymous embryos that don't require matching; not likely

We originally did not want to consider transferring three at once. In fact, I was nervous about transferring two when we were originally making our decision. However, the way our embryos are divided and stored, we feel like this is the best option. We don't want to leave the Family A set with one lone embryo, so that opens up the potential for a transfer of three. Family C's embryos will be thawed if there is only one left from Family A, leaving us with another set of three. We wouldn't want to leave the Family C set with only one; not to mention those two are packaged together, so they have to be thawed together.

Who thinks about this stuff when they try to have children? It's crazy.

Ultimately, we trust that what should happen will work out. We trust our doctor's advice. He is pretty conservative in a lot of areas, and although number of embryos transferred isn't one of them, I think that's because this clinic transfers ANY viable embryos no matter the quality (eg: our two cell 3 day old embryo that was lagging way behind) whereas many clinics let poor quality embryos die or refreeze them to sit in a perpetual frozen state.

If I had to make a guess, I say two from Family A survive the thaw and we transfer two.... but I never thought we'd have two embryos die in thawing last time, either, so anything can happen!