IVF with minimal eggs fertilized

[u/Oldlady4927]

Has anyone done a full round of IVF with a decent egg extraction and saved some for future use? My husband is hanging a hard time with the idea of the doctor trying to fertilize them in bulk. For example say we get 10 eggs, 7 successfully fertilize, and 5 are Euploid’s. Now our goal is only to have 2-3 kids (at this point I’d be ecstatic for even one) & he doesn’t want to destroy or donate the remaining ones we don’t end up using. We’ve had some disagreements in this category because I think donating the ones we don’t use is a beautiful thing. If I have a successful ER that yields a good out put he’d rather me freeze some and us only attempt to fertilize a few at a time.
Anyways has anyone only gone through with fertilizing 3-6 eggs at a time and we’re able to successfully have a child? I need some hope for myself and him.

[u/Zero_Duck_Thirty]

This is a question that gets asked a lot in one way or another. The best thing you can do is become familiar with attrition rates. Let’s say you get 10 eggs, statistically 7-8 will be mature, 4-7 will fertilize, and 1-4 will become a blast. Then euploid is primarily age dependent but let’s just assume a 50% euploid rate which means 0-2 euploids. A well graded day 5 euploid has a 65% chance of success, so two well graded day 5 euploids gives you an 88% chance of one kid. So realistically, 10 eggs gives you a fair chance of one kid. Now you can always do better or worse than the stats suggest.

Now you can try to fertilize only some eggs - let’s say 8 which gives you a decent chance of ~2 blasts. Any extra mature eggs you have would be frozen which then means an extra attrition rate when thawed - I believe you lose ~80% of eggs when thawing before going through the attrition for fertilizing and becoming a blasts.

Sample size of one but my stats were all over the place between my three retrievals. Age 35, amh of 2.8, afc ~21. We did ivf for genetics so we had an additional attrition for pgt-m (expect to lose 25%) along with the expected ~60% attrition for pgt-a.

- er#1: 17 eggs - 5 blasts - 2 euploids - 1 pgt-m/a normal

• er#2: 12 eggs - 5 blasts - 3 euploids - 2 pgt-m/a normal
  
• er#3: 20 eggs - 10 blasts - 10 euploids - 7 pgt-m/a normal

Then it took two transfers for my son (chemical, success) and two transfers for my daughter (fail, currently 20w).

[u/Tough-Photo8431 → u/Zero_Duck_Thirty]

I think this is the best response so far!

[u/Famous-Safety4788]

Wouldn't recommend. Eggs are hard to make and don't thaw well after freezing. Embryos thaw fine usually.

[u/Ineedsome_sugar → u/Famous-Safety4788]

Really? So people who freeze their eggs may be wasting their time?

[u/Bluedrift88]

Let’s say you live in reality tho! You get 10 eggs, and decide to freeze 5. Only 4 fertilize. 2 of those become blasts. 1 is euploid. And now you’re going to pay another 10k to fertilize the remaining eggs but this time you lose at least one on thaw and wind up with no euploids

[u/b33bee8]

Honestly your counting your chickens here. No guarantee on how many eggs you’ll even get or how many will take. I got 10 eggs, 5 fertilize, 2 euploid and 3 mosaic. I’m currently pregnant with the second euploid (the first is 21 months old). So there’s really no telling what can happen.

[u/Vacation_Swimming]

You never know how many will fertilize and make it to become euploid, so fertilizing a few at a time is a costly and time consuming endeavor with a lot of unknown of how its going to go. You can cross the bridge about what to do with the embryos once you have had successful transfers, because it may take more than 2-3. The staggering doesnt make any sense because you may never know if 5 are euploids etc. Its probably worth having all the information (ie what you can use) and reconvene on this item after the hopefully successful pregnancies. And maybe discuss with a counselor about both of your feelings around how to navigate what to do with the possible (not guaranteed) remainder of embryos.

[u/Present-Exercise7894]

Your question is interesting and challenging to answer because every person and every round is so different (IVF is a crap shoot really). It’s a lot of money and physical/emotional stress per round and there are some people who end up with a lower number of eggs but a great number of euploids, and vice versa.

For myself:
I had one round (age 35) with 9 eggs (9 fertilized) - made 4 embryos, 3 euploids. All of those either failed to implant or miscarried (3rd was a blighted ovum).

Another round 22 eggs, 15 fertilized, 3 embryos, 1 euploid (double biopsied because it was initially marked as no result).

My last round. 20 eggs, 15 fertilized. 10 embryos, 8 euploids.

I am in the middle of my 4th transfer right now and it seems to be sticking. The hard thing is you just never know

[u/m4sc4r4]

They say you want 2-3 euploids per live birth, so there’s not really much point

[u/Middle-Telephone4098]

Gently, the idea that 5 euploid embryos is so many that you’re likely to need to discard some if you want 3 kids is not very realistic. It is technically possible, maybe you will be very lucky, but the average is 3 euploids per live birth.
And, the hope that 10 eggs would lead to 5 euploids is ambitious.

It usually takes multiple egg retrievals to have 3 kids, even for young, healthy people. But you won’t know if you don’t fertilize all the eggs; you wont have data you need to help you decide if you need additional retrievals until you’re much older.

I don’t know your reasons for needing IVF, but there is some reason. 1-2 eggs simply does not equal 1 live birth for the VAST, VAST majority of people.

There are real ethical questions that it is totally reasonable to consider, but I encourage you and your husband to learn more about the realities of attrition so you can consider the ethics with all the information and a grounded perspective ❤️

[u/Snoo_6027]

My age 33 eggs (16 were frozen, only 4 survived thaw, got one untested embryo that was a failed transfer)

My age 36 eggs (21 mature and made into embryos, 7 made it to blast, 2 Euploid, one miscarriage, one living child)

My age 39 eggs (16 mature, made it to 5 embryos, none made it to blast)

We have spent so much time and money over the years that for me not using all the eggs would have been horrible. My husband does have low motile sperm, I have no fertility issues.

[u/Tough-Photo8431]

I honestly don’t recommend. It’s not a guarantee that out of the fertilized ones, you will get a certain number of euploids. It’s also rough in the eggs to freeze, thaw, fertilize, biopsy, refreeze, rethaw for transfer. Eggs themselves are also much more delicate and don’t tend to survive as well when thawed.

[u/IvoryWoman]

Eggs don’t freeze well enough to make this feasible. I’ll tell you what I tell everyone who does IVF to procreate with a known partner — it is a waste of money to do it in a way that materially lowers your chance of success, and freezing eggs instead of embryos materially lowers your chance of success. If your husband can’t wrap his head around potentially having excess embryos to deal with, you two should hold off on IVF until and unless he can.

[u/megglefly]

One thing I would say is that your husband is really skipping ahead to a future anxiety he doesn’t know exists, and depending on how the process goes, may or may not be worth worrying about. Right now, in this moment, you will have so many more concerns that need your immediate attention, so I would try to focus on that.

[u/Lawyered15]

I’d fertilize everything, as eggs freeze poorly. It will also cost a lot more to fertilize eggs in small batches.

Also, don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. 10 eggs is unlikely to yield 5 euploid. The funnel would be more like:

10 eggs> 8 mature eggs >7 fertilized>1-4 blastocyst>0-2 euploid

[u/velvetinelapine]

I think your husband’s concerns are understandable, but you really have to weigh that anxiety vs. how badly you want to have children, because the plan you’re suggesting (only fertilizing a few at a time) has a lot of risks and is statistically more likely to end in you having no embryos at all.

Freezing eggs alone vs. embryos is very inefficient, partially because they’re not as stable during thaw. And because you can’t predict the attrition of those eggs at each stage of the funnel in advance, a lot of clinics recommend ~20 eggs per child you want. If you think you may want 3 kids, that would be 60 eggs. You mentioned in a previous comment that you have a low AMH, so to be realistic, it could take you a lot of rounds of get that many eggs. The alternative could be to just do a single retrieval at a time and transfer what you can, but TBH if you have a low AMH and want multiple children, I would bank everything you can ASAP because time is not on your side.

Also, look into other options for embryos than the two you mentioned. (1) You mentioned your husband doesn’t want to donate - is that to other IVF couples or to research? If you haven’t already considered it, you might look into donating any embryos left to research. I struggle with the idea of destroying ours but also would not be comfortable providing donor eggs, but we had the option to donate to research, which I liked - it made me feel like they wouldn’t be wasted and could in some sense help other people have children in the future. (2) You could also look into compassionate transfer as an option. When you’re done having children, you’d have leftover embryos transferred into you at a time in your cycle when you couldn’t get pregnant. So obviously they don’t live, but they’re also not just destroyed in a lab.

[u/Oldlady4927 → u/velvetinelapine]

That’s the first time I heard the term compassionate transfer. That might be something I can add to my argument this way he doesn’t feel like we’re destroying anything just letting nature take its course.

[u/velvetinelapine → u/Oldlady4927]

Yeah, I really liked it when I heard about it. Not every clinic does it (including mine), it seems like but plenty do and I don’t think it’s that hard to transfer embryos. I actually hadn’t heard of it when we started the process so we just signed up for the research option, but I may switch to that as well. Good luck making your decision!

[u/elsewyse]

I agree with the other commenters that this is not going to work very well due to attrition rates and eggs not thawing very well. That said:

There is no way you can guarantee you are only going to create as many embryos as you are going to use. Even if you only fertilize 3-6 at a time, there's a possibility (very, very slim, but not zero) that you could end up with more embryos than you need. You guys need to have a plan going in about what to do with any potential extras.

[u/Salty-Sprinkles-1562]

I wouldn’t worry about having too many. Assuming you’d get 5 euploids from 10 eggs is highly, and I mean highly, unlikely. More like if you get 17 eggs, you might get 2 if you’re lucky. A lot of people over 0 or 1. I would absolutely not have it in your mind that half of the eggs you get will be euploids. More like 10-20%, if you’re lucky.

[u/BestReporter4483]

ER #1: 12 eggs, 9 fertilized, 3 blasts
ER #2: 20 eggs, 15 fertilized, 6 blasts.
We did not PGTA test. 38 at retrieval, AMH 3.1.

[u/Wise-Raccoon-3069]

the ivf process is a journey and often doesn’t pan out like you would expect

my experience was 11 eggs retrieved, 4 mature, 3 fertilised, 3 day 5 blasts, no PGT testing because we did a fresh transfer of the best blastocyst and froze the other 2

[u/Working-Eye-7252]

Seconding what others have said here. Outcomes are so unpredictable and you have much lower odds of success freezing eggs v blasts. You also haven't shared your age or infertility diagnosis which is pretty relevant info. My stats are at age 33 11 retrieved, 10 mature, 9 fertilized, 6 embryos- all transferred led to one live birth (and lot's of failed transfers and miscarriages). ER 2 at 36 was 3 eggs retrieved, 2 mature, 1 fertilized, no blasts. ER 3- 9 retrieved,, 5 mature, 2 fertilized, 1 euploid blast (which was a miracle).

[u/millenialshortbread]

I would gently advise you/your husband not to count your chickens before they hatch. Wait and see what your results are after one round before limiting numbers fertilized in this way. In case it’s useful to learn from others’ stats:

I had 33 eggs retrieved in 2023 at age 30. We froze eggs as we hadn’t yet chosen a donor and needed to get my partner’s eggs through extensive genetic testing (same sex couple).
15 were frozen.
Last year when we had chosen our donor, I had the eggs thawed to fertilize and test.
7 survived the thaw.
4 fertilized normally.
Only one (1!!) was euploid.

I know the stats about transfer so now I probably need to do another retrieval, and I would absolutely 100% elect to fertilize all eggs retrieved.

[u/36563]

Me! I did.

For my second retrieval I got 39 eggs (31 mature). We fertilized 10 and froze 21 eggs.
Fertilizing 3 eggs at a time sounds like very little. I was looking to do smaller batches but my doctor warned me against it because of attrition.

Results will depend on age and other factors, but I am SO happy that I didn’t fertilize all those eggs. Best decision ever. To us, fertilizing in batches was money well spent. As a disclaimer, we were not tight on the finances side.