One Healthy Child At a Time

The mantra “one healthy child at a time” echoes in our actions and our words. Dissolving are the days of generating as many embryos as are feasibly in an IVF stimulation cycle and the transfer of 2-3 embryos to maximize pregnancy. Obviously, the risk of higher order pregnancy, twins and triplets was the greatest risk that many were willing to gamble.

These stimulations and brut-force embryo transfers are no longer. Currently we have the ability to cultivate embryos to the blastocyst stage (day 5) in incubators permissive to their needs.   Representative cells can be biopsied and embryos cryopreserved. With great accuracy, embryos that demonstrate normal chromosomes can be identified and those embryos that will generate only a miscarriage may be dismissed.

Survival rates of previously-frozen (vitrified) embryos and now thawed embryos approaches 95%. Furthermore, these embryos seem to generate higher pregnancy rates in frozen embryo transfer cycles then in fresh cycles. Incredulous, isn’t it?

So, if science has demonstrated higher implantation rates and live birth rates in patients who have demonstrated to have normal embryos by chromosomal analysis, why is this paradigm not the new norm?

We share common goals – the safe delivery of a healthy baby. To this end, perhaps this new norm should become genetic screening of blastocyst (day 5) embryos, cryopreservation and subsequent thawing for endometrial placement.

If you have questions, please contact us!