After a hugely successful retrieval, we were pumped to get a call from the embryologist on Monday morning telling us that 14 of the 17 eggs had fertilized naturally over night. This was much, much better then we expected, and I got to shock Derek in to silence when I called him to say he's a father of 14!
Unfortunately, we got some bad news on Tuesday (yesterday). Apparently most of the embryos had fragmented over night, and we only had between two and four that were of decent quality. Because of this, they recommended a three day transfer, which happens in about two and a half hours.
The website Advanced Fertility (a clinic in Chicago) has a pretty good explanation of what they look for in an embryo, including proper and timely division, and degree of fragmentation. You can read about it here. Fragmentation is when little bits of the cells break off from the main cells. There isn't a definitive explanation as to why this happens, it just does. Some theorize that it's due to poor egg quality, or possibly sperm issues, or even the type of protocol that's used for the IVF. That said, some fragmentation is ok, and even expected (up to 10% is normal). When we go in this afternoon, I expect them to tell me how fragmented the embryos were as well as at what stage they started to fragment.
Because of the fragmentation issues, they clinic recommended assisted hatching. After an egg is fertilized with the sperm, it develops a tough zona pellucida, in part to prevent other sperms from getting in a ruining the embryo (that does happen sometimes, and you can end up with too many chromosomes, or other issues). Assisted hatching uses a laser or needle to pierce the zona pellucida and allow the embryo to hatch. A summary of how and why it's done can be found here. Because our embryos have undergone assisted hatching, I started taking a steroid yesterday, and will continue for another five days, to prevent exposure of the embryo to inflammatory cells in my uterus.
What we are hoping for this afternoon is two good quality embryos to transfer over. We would be very happy if we had some to freeze, but that seems unlikely at this point.
So, with fingers and toes crossed, Derek and I head to the clinic for our 3:30 appointment to be PUPO. Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise!
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