Embryo Banking???

[skygreen]

Hi all,We're going for our final round of IVF and our clinic has recommended embryo banking but unsurprisingly it's the most expensive option...

We're very lucky as our third transfer stuck and our little miracle is now three, but three other transfers have failed. I know IVF is a numbers game and our clinic has recommended 3 banking cycles back to back. This to me sounds pretty intense...

Has anyone else been through this and felt like embryo banking was the best option for them?

Sending good vibes to everyone on their own journeys,

xxx

[Crie1983]

Hello, I’m currently going through a 3 cycle package. I’m waiting to start the 3rd and final cycle. I’ve been on mild IVF and so far have achieved really good results: first round 7 eggs collected, 5 made it to blastocyst and were frozen and second round 10 collected with 6 frozen. They have asked me to allow one natural period in between each round to allow my ovaries to recover properly. I still have a way to go with one more collection and PGTA testing but so far happy with the choice I made. Happy to answer any questions. Xxx

[LadyM2019]

Hey we’re doing a three cycle embryo banking package with PGTA at the Lister in London. It’s cheaper than paying for each cycle separately and it costs £500 per embryo for PGTA.

We thought it was the best option for us as we could get all the egg collections done before I get much older. Also, no grief from failed transfers/ chemical pregnancies as it’s purely egg collections and freezing. From a mental health perspective it’s been better for us xx

[Ranchu90]

Overall is not a bad idea at all. If I was you probably I would have chosen 2 cycles not 3 as you already have one child and you probably want one or two more. If you do 3 cycles you might end up having too many embryos and having a football team is not a joke 😉😃, so I would consider that. I chose embryo banking (2 cycles only) as I wanted to PGS test them, which I highly advise you to do that. We had 5 embryos in total and 3 normal. I have now twins.

[Jumpppy]

I did 5 banking cycles over 11 months. Factors like your age and reason for IVF factor into this question (I couldn't tell why this was being recommended for you). I was 39-40 primarily MF when I started banking, we did freeze at 2pn and then grow (multiple cycles, at least 10 embryos) to day 5 for PGT-A (then decided no more PGT-A). My profile gives more details.Oddly both pregnancies ended up coming from the first cycle (and we've only grown out cycles 1-2) and likely we're going to have a ton of embryos we never use. BUT we were VERY lucky.

Per Ranchu90 you need to consider pros and cons of the package based on what you need and your likelihood of success across 1 cycle + how many live births you are going for. Our PGT-A testing after 2 cycles were all "abnormal" (after changing RE 3 abnormals put back resulted in "normal" live birth/current ongoing normal CVS pregnacy - I'm in the US and you can "change your mind"). We were going for 2-3 "normals" (to give us 1-2 live births), which is why we did a further 3 cycles after bad results. In fact we only needed one cycle, but you won't know until you actually go through it whether 1 or 3 or 5+ is enough.

Lots of pros like they can adjust your cycle in real time to improve number of eggs and maturity. Also banking with cycles close together allow your body to "ride" previous cycles (estrogen/FSH) and can improve #/maturity/quality. You are collecting "younger" eggs without risk of "delays" should you M/C and have to wait a while for your body to normalize (HCG to diminish).

Cons include potential for more embryos than you can use (and tough decisions); more physical impacts as your body is not really resting to get full impact; since you aren't doing full cycles sometimes there is important info that might have impacted your cycles they won't know.

One helpful hint, you may want to space your cycles so you cover both ovaries. I did 3 cycles with one cycle in between and then three months and 2 cycles. This in effect changed my dominant ovary, which I think helped on numbers. So something to pay attention to.

I have no regrets and would tell my former self to bank (just not test or be eyes wide open around significant limitations of PGT-A ).

Good luck!!

[DreamingOfTwo79]

Hello! Like some ladies already mentioned, it very much depends on your factors and the prognosis your consultant gave you. We (44/58) were given a very low chance of success (<5%) with our own gametes and our consultant said to try two back to back embryo banking cycles with PGT-A testing before looking into further options like donor gametes IVF. I responded a lot better than expected to my protocol (details in my profile) and we were very fortunate to achieve 16 mature eggs, 9 fertilised, 5 made it to good quality blastocysts, 2 came back as euploid after PGT-A testing. My consultant recommended to do the cycles back to back, i.e. with no natural cycle in between, as the assumption is that the hormones given in the first cycle actually have a positive knock-on effect on the next cohort of follicles to be recruited. I can also recommend taking DHEA and CoQ10 for about three months prior to the egg collection cycles, and we added Melatonin to my second cycle's stim phase which very likely had a positive impact on egg quality and resilience (both our euploid embryos are from our second cycle). My partner also took a lot of supplements and made some lifestyle changes around diet and exercise and we had PIMSI as our fertilisation method. I feel it was a mix of everything and not to forget a good amount of luck and timing that led to our now being in the fortunate position to attempt our first FET next month. I also had the Endo Quartet to rule out any uterine factors contributing to previous miscarriages. Wishing you the best of luck! XX