Frozen Blastocyst Transfer
The blastocyst culture consists of maintaining the embryos in culture in the laboratory until they reach the blastocyst stage on day 5 of development.
In order to perform a successful blastocyst culture, it is important to have a state-of-the-art laboratory and a team of qualified biologists, which guarantees that the embryos can continue developing without difficulties
The blastocyst culture consists of maintaining the embryos in culture in the laboratory until they reach the blastocyst stage on day 5 of development.
In order to perform a successful blastocyst culture, it is important to have a state-of-the-art laboratory and a team of qualified biologists, which guarantees that the embryos can continue developing without difficulties.
What advantages does a blastocyst culture have?
The later replacement of embryos on day five makes it possible to observe the development of the embryos for longer. Due to the longer time between ovum collection and embryo transfer, the body has more time to recover from the hormonal treatment. A blastocyst thereby often has a higher probability of implanting and thereby leading to a pregnancy.This is due to a better selection of the embryos to be transferred.
It is normal that not all embryos reach the blastocyst stage, which is due to the embryos not being of sufficient quality to achieve a pregnancy. Conversely, embryos that reach the blastocyst stage on day 5 are those with a higher chance of achieving a pregnancy.
Blastocyst transfer and freezing
How many blastocyst stage embryos should be transferred?
The blastocyst culture allows us to select embryos with higher implantation potential, therefore we can follow a more conservative approach when deciding the number of embryos to transfer. This depends on the clinical history of each patient, but in cases with good prognoses, the recommendation will always be to transfer a single embryo.
Blastocyst cultivation is most frequently carried out when many fertilized ova are available. If an embryo reaches the blastocyst stage, then the protective shell (also known as the zona pellucida) that surrounds it is very thin. The assisted hatching procedure is therefore not carried out on embryos in the blastocyst stage. In the case of cryopreserved ova, a blastocyst cultivated is also possible but is rarely carried out.
Positive results – What is the blastocyst transfer success rate?
Transferring a single blastocyst stage embryo offers high changes for pregnancy, reducing the potential for a multiple pregnancy.
Can embryos in blastocyst stage be frozen?
With blastocyst culture, we will have less embryos to freeze but ones of higher quality. The survival rate of frozen blastocyst stage embryos is very high, increasing the chances of achieving a pregnancy.
