Show and Tell

The fertilization results from the clinic are in: we have seven high quality embryos! These were all created from the best (M2, the highest grade) of my eggs, I’m told, meaning that the seven best eggs, of the ten retrieved, were the ones that fertilized correctly. Two of the eggs did not fertilize, and one fertilized abnormally. These three were discarded.

This means all seven embryos are in Group A (the varsity team, as B puts it). This is very good news. In the next two days they will need to develop to the 8-cell stage, which is when they transfer them into my uterus. Sometimes the embryos development arrests before they reach eight cells, but I am hoping for great things from my varsity squad.

Some people erroneously refer to the transfer procedure as “implantation.” While this term would perhaps be used for many things being inserted into the body (such as, I don’t know…an IUD, a cochlear device), in the case of IVF, it is misleading, because the embryos have to implant on their own, in the days following transfer. All the doctor can do is put them in the womb, and the body and the embryos do the rest. Implantation of an embryo is a pregnancy.

It’s weird to think there are little offspring of B and I in the lab. If I give birth as a result of IVF, our child will truly be somebody we would never otherwise have had the chance to meet, as B’s post-reversal sperm were pretty much incapable of fertilizing my eggs without intervention. The science is really fascinating, and I’m thankful for all the people who have developed the technology over the past few decades.

I will find out tomorrow what time on Sunday I will receive the transfer. B gets to be with me (yay!) and it’s pretty quick. Before the procedure, however, we will be talking to the doc and the embryologist about how many embryos they will transfer. I’m curious if the high quality of the entire cohort (group of embryos) will prompt them to transfer fewer.

~ by planet23 on September 18, 2009.