As an intended parent or as a surrogate mother, you have several apprehensions and doubts. You always think whether it is a good idea to culture embryos for 4-5 days and not the conventional 3. Are multiple births through surrogacy possible? Unleashed here are the answers of a few commonly asked questions which will be helpful for those who want to go in for surrogacy and looking for blastocyst embryo treatment.
What is a Blastocyst?
Since this is a medical term, most of the people do not have any idea of what it is actually. It is a human embryo that is 5, 6 days or a week old at the most. Till recently, a 3-day embryos were transferred on to the womb during the process of IVF treatment. The best clinicians believe in transferring the better developed embryos (those who have reached the blastocyst stage). This is so because it makes the pregnancy easier.
How Does a Blastocyst Look-like:
When it is seen under a microscope, blastocyst is very different from a 3-day embryo. Also, there is a fluid-filled cavity right at the middle which is known as blastocoel. There is another area that houses a dense cell collection, it is the inner cell mass and it becomes a future fetus. There is a third-assortment of cell close to the central cavity which forms placenta.
What Does a Blastocyst Look-like?
There is no hard and fast rule and every patient differs. But, the embryos which survives for more than five days is particularly the most superior one and most viable for implantation. Most of the embryos do not develop to the 5 days and hence blastocyst transfer is always better.
Is there any other benefit of blastocysts transfer?
Transferring of blastocysts can make things more straight forward than implantation. If it is a non-IVF reproduction a 2-day embryo can be seen rolling down the fallopian tube and travel down the uterus. This puts blastocyst directly into the womb. Apart from that, the process of genetic testing like the PGD can be carried out more accurately with blastocysts.
Is there any other benefit of transferring the blastocysts?
Transferring the blastocysts makes thing easier and more straightforward. In the non-IVF reproduction, a day 2 embryo that has just 4 cells can still be seen rolling down to the fallopian tube right towards the uterus. Putting these blastocysts directly in the womb on six or 5 day is an easier prospect.
Why don’t all the IVF patients use blastocysts and not 3-day transfer?
It all depends on a number of factors like your medical history, age, quality of embryos and more. Your consultant may or may not feel safer transferring a very young embryo. Also, if you are under the age of 35, then as per the statistics live birth rates will be higher.
Are there any drawbacks of blastocyst transfer?
One of the major disadvantages of embryo transfer is that there would be no surplus embryos to freeze at all. Frozen embryo transfers using those of the blastocysts are becoming more successful.
For successful blastocyst implantation contacting the professional expert Dr. Shivani Sachdev Gour will be the best thing you can do.