It might seem surprising , but IVF doctors also seem to fall prey to fashions , many of which come and go .
One
of the popular strategies which many IVF doctors use today is that of embryo pooling,
but this is often the wrong option for many patients.
When
the patient has only one or two good quality embryos in their fresh IVF cycle, instead
of transferring it, doctors tell patients to freeze them , and do 3-4 fresh IVF
cycles back to back, so they can make more embryos, freeze them and store them –
a process called embryo pooling.
Patients
are happy to do this, because they feel that if they have more embryos, their
chances of getting pregnant improve.
While
this makes intuitive sense, it’s not a good idea for young patients who are
poor ovarian responders. The way to maximize chances of getting pregnant is not
to transfer many embryos at a time ( a tactic which unnecessarily increases the
risk of a multiple pregnancy) , but to transfer a single embryo , as many times
as possible.
Thus,
if you have a good quality blastocyst, and your uterine lining is receptive,
you should transfer the embryo back in the fresh cycle itself. If you get
pregnant, you don’t need to do anymore cycles , until you want your second baby
!
And
even if you don't get pregnant , you are better off starting a new fresh cycle.
However,
for older patients for whom time is at a premium, it makes sense to do 3-4
cycles back to back, so that you can create enough frozen blasts, and transfer
them back one at a time. For these women, having more blasts to transfer helps
to improve their cumulative pregnancy rate.
For
others, transferring a single embryo in the fresh cycle , or transferring the frozen
embryo in the next cycle will not affect IVF success rates.
The
point is that one-size-does-not-fit-all , and you need to be able to customise your
doctor’s advice, based on your particular situation
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