Dr. Sai, Chief Embryologist, Malpani Infertility Clinic Pvt. Ltd.
We at Malpani Infertility clinic, routinely do only Day 5 Blastocyst Transfers for all our Patients.
The Biggest Advantage of Culturing the Embryos for 5 days and Transferring at Blastocyst stage is that it allows us to chose best Embryo for the Transfer.
Blastocyst Transfer allows us to transfer less number of Embryos (only 1 or 2 blastocysts) as compared to day 2 or day 3 Transfer. This eliminates the risk of multiple pregnancies.
Another advantage of Blastocyst Culture is that Vitrification (Freezing) of Day 5 / 6 Blastocysts gives better survival rates and it also gives us the luxury of choosing best Embryos for Frozen Thaw Transfer.
The average Blastocyst Conversion rate is about 30-40%. i.e. only 30-40% of Top Quality Embryos on day 3 (8-cell Grade A Embryos) go on to become Blastocysts on day 5.
But this to some extent varies from patient to patient. Some patients make lots of blastocysts – and some clinics are much better at making blastocysts than others !
This is the Cycle summary of one of our Patient, who had such beautiful Blastocysts.
Excellent Fertilisation rate (21 out of 24 Mature Eggs Fertilised)
Transferring Embryos on Day 5 i.e. at Blastocyst stage has lots of advantages
Embryo Pictures on day 3
She had total 12 Top Quality Embryos on day 3. So Statistically 10 out of her 12 Top Quality Embryos have become blastocyst. The Conversion rate is almost 84%
Why do we have such high Blastocyst Conversion Rates?
Age of Female partner –
Young Females (<30 years) usually produce a high number of good quality Eggs.
Good Quality Eggs means they have good cytoplasm with healthy mitochondria.
The Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the Cell which provides Energy which drives Embryo Cleavage.
Hence in young Patients we usually get lots of Eggs and because of healthy mitochondria, the embryos divide well and most of the embryos become blastocysts on day 5.
Ovarian Reserve – as measured by AMH ( Anti- Mullerian Hormone levels) and AFC ( Antral Follicle Count)
Patients with good Ovarian reserve (AMH >2 ng/ml, with AFC of 12 or more ) often produce good quality Eggs and hence those patients usually have high Blastocyst Conversation rate.
Husband’s Sperms
Although there is a general perception that the Sperm’s role is only to activate the Egg and fertilize it, the sperm plays an important role on day 3 of Embryo Culture i.e at 8-cell Stage, when Paternal Genome is activated.
The failure of Embryo Genomic Activation, leads to arrest of Embryo growth and the Embryos fail to become blastocysts.
It’s very difficult to predict which sperm will have a problem. Sperm DNA Fragmentation is not a good measure for this.
IVF Clinic
Finally, the most important variable – the only one which is in your control) is the quality of the IVF lab. A good clinicican, who is expert at superovulating patients, along with an expert embryologist, who can nurture embryos with tender loving care in the incubator, make a world of a difference, and spell the difference between success and failure !
You can also get information to any query related to your IVF treatment from Dr Malpani instantly at https://www.drmalpani.com/chat-w-chatbot/index.html