Most patients assume that transferring more embryos will increase their chance of getting pregnant in an IVF cycle. After all, isn’t it obvious that it’s better to buy two lottery tickets rather than one lottery ticket ? This is common sense, isn’t it ? After all, if doctors can’t predict whether an embryo will implant or not , isn’t it better to put to put in more at a time , with the hope that at least one will implant. And this is exactly the reason why many doctors still transfer 2 or 3 or even 4 embryos at a time , in order to improve their IVF success rate .
However, this is actually harmful for the following reasons :
Let’s suppose you have two top-quality blastocysts. Now most doctors will transfer both these blastocysts with the hope that one will implant , and she will have a healthy singleton pregnancy and a normal baby . And even if both implant, she will end up with a twin pregnancy, which most IVF specialists and patients consider to be a “bonus”. However, as any obstetrician and pediatrician will tell you, a twin pregnancy is not a great outcome as far as live birth rates go . These are high-risk pregnancies, and while twins may look great in movies and look very cute, many of these babies are born prematurely , and end up spending a lot of time in the NICU, as a result of which they have many neurological and physical deficits , which the poor kids have live with for the rest of their life . However, this is not something which IVF specialists care about, because they don’t have to handle these complications.
Also, just because you transfer two embryos , there is no certainty that even one will implant, and if neither implants , this means that you are left with no more embryos, and you will then have to start another fresh cycle . This may be great from the doctor’s point of view, because they can charge you a lot more money for a fresh new cycle . However, this is not good for you, because you have to go through the whole painful expensive grind all over again .
This is why it’s so much better to transfer just one embryo at a time . If that embryo implants, you will have a healthy normal low-risk singleton pregnancy, which is the best outcome. Your second frozen embryo can then be transferred when you want your second baby. And even if the embryo doesn’t implant , you can transfer your frozen embryo in the next cycle , which means you don’t have to start a fresh cycle all over again . Transferring frozen embryos is much less expensive , and much easier, and doesn’t require any injections at all !
This is why the cumulative conception rate with transferring a single embryo at a time , and the live birth date with this particular strategy, is much better than transferring two or more embryos at a time. Of course, you need an IVF clinic that has the confidence , experience and expertise to generate top-quality blastocysts , and this is why you should insist that your IVF clinic give you photographs of your embryos before transferring them.
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