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Our IVF success rates with day 5 blastocyst transfers
Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago
High quality day 5 IVF embryo at the blastocyst stage
Blastocyst grade is 4AA
Related Pages:
- Blastocyst transfer with in vitro fertilization - overview
- More discussion of issues with blastocyst transfer
- How can blastocyst transfer reduce multiple pregnancy risks
- More pictures of blastocysts, quality & grading of blastocysts
- Our overall IVF success rates
- In vitro fertilization details
- IVF pricing plans & money-back refund plans
Pregnancy rates with blastocyst culture and transfer
Pregnancy success rates with blastocyst transfer are potentially confusing. Because almost all clinics that use extended culture and blastocyst transfer are selective in choosing patients that will be eligible for this procedure, we should expect that pregnancy rates would be higher in this population as compared to the rates seen in "unselected" patients.
This does not necessarily mean that having a blastocyst transfer increases a couples chance for pregnancy. It means that (for example) if we select patients for blastocyst transfer that are younger and have more embryos that look better under the microscope (better embryo quality) - we should have higher success rates - because we already know that those patients are more likely to have success - regardless of whether we transfer the embryos on day 3 or day 5.
In my opinion, the greatest benefit of blastocyst transfer is to reduce the risk of multiple pregnancy by transferring fewer embryos of higher quality. We have had a very low percentage of triplet (or higher order) pregnancies from blastocyst transfer. The rate of triplets with blast transfers at our IVF center has been about 2% of pregnancies. These triplets have almost always been the result of "identical twin" splitting of an embryo - 2 transferred and 3 implanted - after one of the embryos split into 2.
Having said all of that, shown below are the live birth success rates for blastocyst transfer cases at our IVF clinic:
We have been doing blastocyst culture and transfer on selected patients since 1998. Shown here are our pregnancy and live birth success rates for 6 years, 2002-2007, according to the day of the embryo transfer and female age.
January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2007
Live birth rates per transfer for day 2 and 3 "cleavage stage" transfers
versus Day 5 and Day 6 blastocyst transfers
We very rarely do day 2 or day 6 embryo transfers, but those are included here
The data below represents a total of 1402 embryo transfer procedures
| Female Age Under 35 | |||
| Day of Transfer | Number of Embryo Transfers |
Clinical Pregnancy Rate Per Embryo Transfer (Sac in uterus on ultrasound) |
Live Birth Rate Per Embryo Transfer |
| Day 2 or 3 | 305 |
45.9% |
36.7% |
| Day 5 or 6 | 565 |
72.4% |
65.8% |
| Female Age 35-37 | |||
| Day of Transfer | Number of Embryo Transfers |
Clinical Pregnancy Rate Per Embryo Transfer (Sac in uterus on ultrasound) |
Live Birth Rate Per Embryo Transfer |
| Day 2 or 3 | 137 |
43.8% |
32.1% |
| Day 5 or 6 | 169 | 66.9% |
52.1% |
| Female Age 38-40 | |||
| Day of Transfer | Number of Embryo Transfers |
Clinical Pregnancy Rate Per Embryo Transfer (Sac in uterus on ultrasound) |
Live Birth Rate Per Embryo Transfer |
| Day 2 or 3 | 98 |
41.8% |
25.5% |
| Day 5 or 6 | 58 |
56.9% |
50.0% |
| Female Age 41-42 | |||
| Day of Transfer | Number of Embryo Transfers |
Clinical Pregnancy Rate Per Embryo Transfer (Sac in uterus on ultrasound) |
Live Birth Rate Per Embryo Transfer |
| Day 2 or 3 | 51 |
21.6% |
15.7% |
| Day 5 or 6 | 19 |
47.4% |
31.6% |
In this period, 53 patients had an egg
retrieval procedure but had no embryo for transfer (3.6% of retrievals)
These statistics are "per embryo transfer", so patients
without transfer are not represented in the data
Regarding day 6 blastocyst transfer statistics
In the early years of blastocyst transfer in our program (1998 and 1999) we sometimes looked at the embryos early on day 5 and had some patients with slower embryo development (such as only morulas with no true blastocysts yet) come in early on day 6 for their blast transfer. The thinking was that it was better to let those slower embryos develop and expand more in the culture dish before choosing the best 1 or 2 for transfer.
Success rate statistics for day 6 blastocyst transfers were somewhat lower than we were seeing on day 5 - most likely because some of those embryos that are "slower" on day 5 are weaker, poor quality embryos. Of course, the embryos that had blastocyst formation on day 6 and went on to exand, hatch, implant and make babies after day 6 transfers were strong and healthy all along - just slower starters. Remember the story about the tortoise and the hare?
As far as comparing day 5 and day 6 blastocyst transfers, we saw better pregnancy success rates with transfers done on day 5 than on day 6. However, this is because patients with embryos developing at a more "normal" rate were getting their embryo transfers done on the 5th day, not because transferring embryos on day 6 is bad for outcome.
This graph represents our 2003-2006 outcome data by day of transfer
Blue columns show success rates for day 3 embryo transfers
Yellow shows success rates for day 5 and day 6 transfers
Red shows our success rates for all transfers
See our overall pregnancy and live birth rates
Photo of an IVF blastocyst embryo starting to hatch from its shell - lower right of picture
This blastocyst is grade 5AA
After hatching, the embryo can invade and implant in the uterine lining
This photo was taken a few minutes prior to embryo transfer.
