Any success stories / experiences of unexpected double transfers, please?

[JustJane1234]

Hello lovely ladies,

We're currently undergoing our first cycle with donor eggs. We had a set of 10 eggs, 9 of which thawed and 7 of which fertilised. My scan last week showed that my lining was on the thin side (as always) but over the minimum and bloods showed good progesterone levels, so things were looking good for the first time.

Then, yesterday morning, the day of our day 5 embryo transfer, we had a call from the embryology team to say that only 1 embryo had progressed to a very early blastocyte stage. They would keep the others overnight to see if any could be frozen today. We were a little disappointed / concerned, but happy that we had an embryo to transfer at least.

When we arrived for our transfer in the early afternoon, though, they'd checked our embryos again and found no further development. They gave us 2 options:

a) transfer the lead embryo and a 2nd embryo that was almost at blastocyte stage. They hadn't been able to grade either embryo as they weren't developed enough yet. They assessed the risk of a twin pregnancy from transferring 2 embryos as lower than the risk of no pregnancy from only transferring 1.

b) transfer the lead embryo and leave the 2nd one in culture with the others, in the hope that it would continue to develop and it would be possible to freeze it today. They thought this would give us a lower probability of pregnancy overall.

We went with option a. We'll never know if that was the right one, but we had a phone call this afternoon to say none of the other embryos had developed further and so we don't have any to freeze (disappointing but we know this is very common).

I'm now facing the 2ww and really struggling to stay positive about the chances of a pregnancy coming out of this unexpected double transfer with slow-developing embryo. It feels like the odds are very much against us, which feels particularly unfair when we went with donor eggs to get better odds (none of this is fair on any of us, though).

Does anyone have any success stories to share from unexpected double transfers, or from embryos that developed too slowly to be graded before transfer, please? I'm not looking to get my hopes up high, as realistically I know our chances are low, but just a little hope/positivity would help me get through the next 2 weeks xx

[Twiglet2]

this is the exact same thing that happened to us I’m in December when we arrived for the transfer of the one embryo. It wasn’t a successful round but we did get pregnant (just didn’t stick around) so I defo think personally you’ve made the right decision and gave both embryos the greatest possible chance of at least one implanting ! Best of luck to you xxx

[JustJane1234 in reply to Twiglet2]

Thanks so much Twiglet. Sorry your round in December didn't work out in the end and wishing you lots of luck for next time xxx

[M_fox]

I notice you hadn’t had any replies yet but wanted to say good luck. My situation was different, Donor egg but only one transfer due to my age, but embryo was graded.

It’s a hard position your clinics put you in, with everything else we deal with, making such decisions on the day of transfer feels unfair when we are already feeling the pressure and worry that we want it to be successful.

Try to stay positive, I’ve read the grading isn’t as important as we all think. Relax over this next 2 weeks, read a book or relax in front of the tv, I was told not to exercise or lift anything heavy and no hot baths or showers. Wishing you lots of luck x

[JustJane1234 in reply to M_fox]

Thanks so much for your reply and the good luck. Yes, we were only expecting one transfer due to my age, which was why it was such a shock when suddenly they were suggesting two. It was a hard decision to make on a full bladder, as well as everything else! There are lots of success stories out there with ungraded / low-graded embryos so I will definitely try to stay positive and relax lots over next 2 weeks xxx