The Hard Part is Over....But, still....I worry.

I just keep telling myself that the hard part is over.  But, when I think about how many more obstacles we have in front of us before we find out we have a successful pregnancy…I get very overwhelmed. We are still about 6 weeks out from doing our FET (frozen embryo transfer,) and 8 weeks out from finding out if we are pregnant, and even longer than that to fight out if the pregnancy is viable. It seems so overwhelming when I look at it like that. So, I am trying to stay positive and tell myself that the hard part is over. I have ACTUAL embryos just waiting for me….they are perfect, they are half me, half DH…..perfect! The only thing left is “bringing them home.”

But, what are the odds that our FET will take? I can't stop worrying even though I KNOW the most difficult part is over. All of the questions keep creeping into the back of my mind. I found this article today, I was comforted by it.

Frozen Embryo Transfer Success

There is much confusion about the ability of frozen embryos to produce pregnancy. On initial inspection, the chance for pregnancy using frozen embryos appears to be lower than the transfer of fresh embryos. On closer analysis, however, this may not be true.

Typically, when a frozen embryos transfer is performed, the embryos that were frozen were those that were not chosen for the initial fresh embryo transfer. Why not? Often, the embryologist chose the “best” embryos for the initial transfer. The embryos that remained were frozen. Some programs are very strict about the quality of the embryos they will freeze, other programs will freeze any and all remaining embryos. As in the case of fresh embryo transfer, embryo quality has a profound effect on the chance for pregnancy. If poor quality embryos were frozen, the survival rate after thawing as well as the pregnancy rate would be expected to be lower.

A second important factor is the number of embryos that are transferred. Take the example of a couple who produce four good quality embryos. Two are transferred in the fresh in vitro fertilization cycle and two are frozen. A pregnancy results and the couple delivers a baby. Later, the couple decides to attempt pregnancy again using the frozen embryos. Upon thawing, however, only one embryo survives. The frozen transfer is of a single embryo. Pregnancy rates of a single embryo are going to be lower than that seen with a multiple embryo transfer.

(This last paragraph describes my situation)

Studies have been performed in women who had a very vigorous stimulation of their ovaries and were considered to be at high risk for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Their physicians decided to skip the embryo transfer and instead freeze all of the embryos for later use. This significantly decreases the risk of serious or complicated OHSS. In other cases, the physicians decided to go ahead with a fresh embryo transfer anyway, despite the risk of OHSS. In this experiment, the couples in both groups have a large number of embryos and the selection of embryos for transfer was for the best embryos in each case. These studies show no difference in the pregnancy rates between fresh or frozen embryos.

Hallelujah!! It seems I might not have as much to worry about as I think I do!