What to do with the reminding embryos?

[Buisquits]

Hi all. After a long journey we have 2 healthy boys, both conceived via IVF. Both boys are from the first cycle. First one was the first transfer. Then 2 didn't implement. 3rd didn't defrost successfully . And the 4th one is now 6 months old.We have one last embryo remaining. I know what the options are but struggle to make a choice. Go through it all one last time? Or save myself from the whole stress of IVF? What would you do?

[Laragh13]

I would hope that I’d be grateful for what I have but no one knows until they are in that situation… my best friend has just had the same thing and she went ahead with the transfer as she didn’t like the ‘what if’. But she knows they won’t be able to afford to go on holiday with a 3rd so it’s a lot to think about. She was lucky it worked but has then had a slightly tricked pregnancy than with the first 2. So no easy answer! Good luck whatever you do xx

[Buisquits in reply to Laragh13]

Thank you for your comment. That's the thing, isn't it. I'm so grateful it worked for us. It's amazing we have our little family now. It may not work - waste of money and even more stress

It may work - life with 3 children will be tricky

But I think what I'm scared most is the process... So many things can go wrong.

With the second child I was so scared of being happy that we got pregnant!

[Laragh13 in reply to Buisquits]

Do you need to decide now? Could you take a bit of time? I would definitely talk to a councillor as it is such a tough decision x

[Buisquits in reply to Laragh13]

I'm 38. Can't really leave it for too long. I never thought about councillor in regards to that. I'll look into it x

[Hanz89 in reply to Buisquits]

We are in a similar situation with 1 child conceived via IVF and 1 remaining frozen embryo. Our clinic provides 3 free counselling sessions and we had 1 last night. It was useful, but didn't result in a set decision. An interesting thing she dis say was that once you have the embryo frozen it doesn't matter too much about the mothers age. Because the embryo was created at your younger age, the age for using it doesn't matter as much. I'm not sure what evidence there is for that, but I thought it was interesting. ☺️

[Buisquits in reply to Hanz89]

Hi. It does sound interesting indeed. When we had the second successful pregnancy, for down syndrome screening they were interested in the egg collection date more than my age so it must be true...I don't think I can do it later in life - having a new born 😂 it's hard work and body regenerate differently the older you get. At least mine does...

[CarlottaD27]

I appreciate at this stage you're still contemplating another addition to the family, but sharing that I have heard of some women donating left over embryos to scientific research. It may be worth exploring if you eventually decide you don't want another child but would like the embryo not to "go to waste" so to speak x

[Buisquits in reply to CarlottaD27]

Yes, we are considering it too. It would be nice to give something back, help others,,,but at the same time it could be a baby... I really don't know...

[TeddyBear5]

unsure of the rules in UK but you could donate, if you felt able to.

I’m the lucky recipient of donor embryos from a known donor and I’m so grateful. I will be in touch with them so they know any children born are well looked after and can see them grow.

Not for everyone but just wanted to share. Xx

[lianm8]

I had the same- I have two beautiful girls (6 and nearly 5) both FETs from different cycles and we had one embryo left in the freezer- the invoice came through to pay for another years storage and we had lots of discussions but decided all we went through the get the embryo we would go for it. It worked and I’m now 35 weeks pregnant with my final baby who is a boy 🥰 xx