Fertility treatments have come a long way in just the past decade, allowing more and more patients to see success in a successful conception and a healthy pregnancy. Assisted reproductive technology is one of the fastest moving fields in infertility, particularly in the area of in vitro fertilization, also known as IVF. As progress is made with this procedure, success rates are getting higher and more couples are seeing their dreams of a healthy baby come true.
One of the new procedures that couples might see offered at a fertility clinic is known as blastocyst transfer. This is a variation of the traditional IVF method, but blastocyst transfer touts a higher success rate across the board. This procedure is of particular interest to patients who have not seen success with more than one IVF cycle or who do not wish to implant multiple embryos into the uterus. It is also a good choice for couples who are not interested in freezing embryos for future use.
Blastocyst transfer begins the same way as a traditional IVF procedure in a fertility clinic. The egg and the sperm are extracted and the fertilization process is completed in a laboratory environment. However, in a regular IVF cycle, the fertilized egg, or embryo, is placed into the uterus on about day two or three of the process. With blastocyst transfer, the implantation is not done until a few days later – usually on about day five or six. The reason for the delay is to allow the embryo to transform from those early stages into what is known as a blastocyst with more cells and a higher level of development.
The idea behind this procedure is that a blastocyst is much more likely to result in pregnancy. This process eliminates the embryos that never develop into blastocysts in the Petri dish, since those are thought to have a much smaller chance of resulting in pregnancy. The success rates for blastocyst transfer have been much higher in every age range that they have been completed in, leading doctors to believe that this procedure is the wave of the future for IVF in any gulf coast fertility clinic.
However, despite the improved numbers, nearly half of all blastocysts will also fail to implant. This may be due to chromosomal abnormalities in the blastocyst or a non receptive uterine lining. There are probably also a very small number of these failed blastocysts that might have seen success if they had been implanted into the uterus as an embryo on day two or three. It is also true that a significant number of patients may never see their embryos go on to become blastocysts, leaving nothing to implant at the end of the fertilization process.
Blastocyst transfer is the newest wave of procedures available to IVF patients, and can be found at a state of the art Gulf Coast fertility clinic. This process takes a bit more guesswork out of the assisted reproduction endeavor, leaving more couples looking forward to the birth of a healthy baby.
Visit the Gulf Coast Fertility Clinic on procedures and questions for FL Fertility Treatment in Pensacola and Tallahassee.
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