Oh what a big big question….. To transfer your beautiful embryo on day 3 or on day 5…..
This question will have you running around in circles.. So with this post I wanted to give you my perspective not the matter…. Again, Im not a doctor, but I have worked with thousands of transfer so have a good insight here….
It really depends on which lense you are looking through….. Are you looking with a medical sense or a more holistic view. Both views have absolute merit…
The original reason (usually) for choosing between day 5 and day 3 was down to purely the inability to tell which was the best embryo to transfer. So for example, you have 8 eggs collected, 8 fertilise and on day 3. Well all 8 eggs look amazing… so how do you choose. Well you wait and see how they get on.
Over time, typically if you collected less than 5 eggs there was a strong chance you would transfer on day 3. If you collected more than 5 then it typically lead to a day 5 transfer.
But which is better…..
Again, typically, medically, they say day 5…. And you might be told well, if it doesn’t make it to day 5… well it wouldn’t survive anyway….
- THIS IS NOT NOT NOT NOT TRUE……. Sorry for the dramatic text…… but I really want to make this point….
So lets ay for example you have a choice between a Gordon Ramsey organic burger cooked in his kitchen at his home, versus a Big Mac Burger….. and yes the both are burgers… I agree with that. However they are very very different experiences…. And personally if I had a choice. I would take the Gordon Ramsey Experience…… (no I’m not going mad I promise)
So for me, the Petri dish is a medical controlled environment. A very necessary environment for those doing IVF, its where… some of the science happens…. And I love it…..
HOWEVER….. and this is an important fact….. ALL the MAGIC happens inside you. And I really don’t care what they day…. Yes, technology in IVF has improved amazingly…. Over the years and I know that. But its still an artificial environment…. An embryo can not survive beyond 7-8 days in a Petri dish… and yes they have gone to 12 in a lab experiment…. But life is not created in a Petri dish… its created inside you….
So when you look further into it…. Its not possible…. Honestly to say a Petri dish is the same as the uterus….. its close…. But definitely not the same…. I will absolutely sit and debate with any doctor about this… and win the debate….
Don’t get me wrong day 5s are brilliant…. But to make the statement that if it doesn’t make it to day 5…. It would not work on day 3 is 100% wrong…..
So don’t freak out if your doing a day 3…. Im a big big fan of day 3. And getting that gorgeous embryo inside the uterus…. ASAP.
Gordon