First transfer - day 3 vs day 5 & managing expectations

[DLZ321]

hello everyone! I’m on track to have my first transfer this Tuesday after three egg collections - super excited after a thousand delays but also nervous!

As three eggs were collected this time, I’ve been told that they will be doing a day 3 transfer (for all cases where they collect 3 eggs or less) rather than a day 5. In my second collection they managed to retrieve four eggs of which one frozen at day 3 and two ended up very good quality blasts. This was shocking as we only had one day 3 embryo in our first cycle. Anyway, it was obviously super reassuring knowing it got that far. This time round I guess we won’t really have that reassurance at day 3..?

They have said if I really want a day 5 transfer I can request it but I was just wondering what other people think? Inclined to go with what they think is best but basically looking for day 3 success stories 😅

also, has anyone been successful on their first transfer? I was sooo optimistic that I could power through three egg collections back to back but after starting had a thousand delays along the way. Wondering if this could be the same for transfer stage and whether I need to manage my expectations. I have been told my lining is good but for some reason I’m expecting first time to not work.

Aaand lastly… anyone else having a transfer this week? 😊

[NewYorkLover]

Hi there, Not sure if this will help but I will share my experience.

We had 3 eggs collected and 2 fertilised. My clinic then called and asked if we were going to transfer one or both of our fertilised eggs.

Their approach was that if we go for both then they would do a day3 transfer . If we wanted to go for 1, they would go for day 5 transfer.

The reason for that is that they wanted to put the best quality fertilised egg/blastocyst so they just waited to see if one of them would stop growing between day 3 and say 5.

We went for one and it was a day 5 transfer but both made it to day 5.

With regards to success stories first time, yes it is possible. My sister had 2 transfers both successful first time ❤️

For us, we have mixed results.

First transfer: BFP but ended in chemical

Second transfer: BFP and now 6w5d (praying that this time everything goes well 🤞)

Hope this helps.

Wishing you the best of luck and sending positive vibes your way for your transfer on Tuesday.

[DLZ321 in reply to NewYorkLover]

Thanks so much for your reply and congrats on your BFP!! 💕☺️

I like your clinics approach - definitely makes sense and is totally aligned with my concern that an embryo that looks good on day 3 may slow down/stop growing. We haven’t been given the option of transferring two, we asked in the past whether it’s something we could do when at transfer stage but they steered the conversation away.. got the impression they’d maybe only do it after negatives /much later down the line.

Anyway, it’s booked in for the morning so what will be will be! Xx

[NewYorkLover in reply to DLZ321]

Thank you and good luck. Hope everything goes well 🤞

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi DLZ. Well my little story is…. When I first started out in infertility, we only did Day 3 transfers, as we didn’t have the expertise to grow embryos on to Day 5 transfers, but we still had many successes. Lots o Day 3 transfers growing up very nicely, thank you. Just wanted to wish you all the best. Diane

[DLZ321 in reply to DianeArnold]

Thanks Dianne! That’s comforting to know ☺️

[Penguinw21]

Just to give you some hope I had only 2 eggs collected on 1st ever round of IVF.

We had 1 fertilised and I pushed for day 3 transfer as just wanted to give it what I felt was the best chance.

Amazingly it has worked first time for us and I'm nearly 18 weeks now so those day 3 embabies are little fighters so please know it absolutely can work with day 3 embryo and on 1st time.

Sending you so much luck ♥️♥️♥️

[DLZ321 in reply to Penguinw21]

Wow congratulations!! Thank you for sharing, that definitely does make me feel hopeful!

Its the strangest thing because I’ve never been pregnant and so even though I’ve now had the transfer and know it certainly COULD be a possibility, my mind is set to default of it ‘obviously won’t have happened the first time’ and I’ve also convinced myself I’m sort of okay with that because it’s so unrealistic? 😂

But thanks again for sharing, it’s genuinely made me feel better about day 3!