A frozen embryo cycle is very different from a fresh cycle. For starters it does not require the stimulation of your ovaries. This decreases the amount of hormones necessary AND minimize the risk of hyper-stimulating (which always happens to me). In a fresh cycle your ovaries are stimulated, you are VERY closely monitored, when the time is right you have a retrieval (which generally requires sedation), then the follicles that produce eggs are fertilized with a sperm sample donated from the husband. Then the sperm and egg do their thing in the petri dish and you see how many embryo's form.
At this point a specific number of embryo's are transferred and if any remain they can be cryo-preserved for later use. During our last fresh cycle we were left with 11 frozen embryo's at varying stages.
On Sunday the embryologists began the thawing process. They began thawing 6 of our frozen embryo's. Not all embryo's will survive the thawing process. In our case we will refreeze any embryo's that survive the thaw but do not transfer. We are lucky enough to have embryo's that were at the most optimal stage so re-freezing is an option.
Sometimes when I take a step back and think about it it almost seems crazy that you can do all this successfully. Science is downright amazing!
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2 comments:
When do you find out how well they handled the thaw?
And good luck! I'm sure prepping for a FET is still anxiety ridden, even though less so than a full blown fresh IVF cycle.
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