Fertilization

I got the ferlization call this morning! Of the 9 eggs retrieved, 7 of them were mature eggs. Why didn't I have 9 to fertilize you ask? Eggs can be categorized as follows:

• Immature
• Mature
• Normal, healthy appearing
• Abnormal appearing
• Degenerated
• Fractured

Next step, the embryologist took a single sperm and inserted it into each of the 7 mature eggs. This process is called ICSI.

So this morning, the day after retrieval, we have 5 fertilized. 5 little embryo's growing right now. It's amazing. Here is a picture of what a fertilized egg looks like the day after Retrieval (no this is not one of mine).

Male and female genetic material (DNA) are contained in the 2 pronuclei seen in the center of the photo







The Dr and I started to talk about how many to transfer back. We both agreed 2 or 3 as of right now. We will discuss it further Friday morning when they call me back with an update on our embies. As of right now we are planning a 3 day transfer, which means at 1pm on Friday they will be putting 2 (or 3) of my embies back in my uterus and then the praying for implantation begins!! You may be asking, well what about the remaining embryo's since you aren't putting back 5? Well that totally depends on the embryo's themselves. We have to continue letting them grow until blastocyst stage (normally day 5). They will only freeze good quality embryo's at that stage. It's a wait and see game.