Do not allow your IVF doctor to do a Day 3 or Day 2 transfer for you

Many IVF clinics advise their patients to transfer Day 3 ( and even Day 2) embryos back into the uterus . This is especially when they don't have too many embryos , or the embryo quality isn't good , but other terrible reasons are the fact that the “specialist IVF doctor from Mumbai” as to go back in 2 days, and can’t wait to do a Day 5 transfer for you !

The justification ( excuse would be a better word) is that it's better to put the embryo back into the uterus , which provides a “more natural environment” , so it can continue to grow , rather than to keep it in the lab incubator.

Actually, this is a confession of the fact that they know that their IVF lab culture conditions aren’t good , and they don't have enough confidence in their embryologist’s  skills to be able to culture all embryos routinely to blastocysts.

This is why they persuade patients into taking a shortcut and bung the embryos back into the uterus . This way, if the cycle fails, they can blame “ embryo implantation “, rather than take responsibility for the fact that their lab is not good enough to create blastocysts routinely.

 If the lab can’t create good quality blastocysts, the reality is they most probably can’t create good Day 3 embryos either, and their implantation rate is likely to be poor.

However, by transferring them early on Day 3, they can shift the blame for the failure onto the patient , and cover up their incompetence.

 Remember that the right place for a day 3 embryo is not the uterus ! In real life , a day 3 embryo belongs in the fallopian tube which is where it spends about 3- 4 days , before being transported into the uterus . This means, for fertile couples, the embryo has become a day 5 blastocyst before entering the uterus . The right place for a day 3 embryo is either a good IVF lottery , which can create optimized  culture conditions for it to become a blastocyst, or  the fallopian tube – it is definitely not the uterus !

 Please don't allow doctors to take shortcuts by transferring Day 3 embryos , because this reduces your chances of success. And when the cycle fails, they will blame you for the failure, rather than accept responsibility that they didn't do a very good job , because they didn't have the required expertise or experience to grow your embryos to Day 5