Do embryos survive thawing?

Hi all,

I’m currently undergoing my first donor egg IVF and my transfer will be within a week. The blastocysts are frozen and are class 1 and 2 quality. The doctor explained to me that the thawing will be done 2 hours prior to the transfer. So my question basically now is, how do you know that once thawed they are still alive with such a short time of thawing and observation? I thought they’d have them in an incubator again. Can they lose their quality? I’m 43 years old. Does the possibility of pregnancy decrease if they’re fresh?

Hello Lala,

Today, the techniques of vitrification/devitrification of embryos are more advanced than a few years ago and there is practically no loss of quality in the embryo when it is devitrified. For this reason, the thawing of the embryos is carried out a few hours before the transfer to check their condition and that they continue to have the same morphological characteristics as when they were vitrified.

On the other hand, the probability of achieving pregnancy with frozen embryos depends greatly on the quality of the embryos after thawing and the qualities of the uterus. In addition, a good endometrial preparation is essential to promote embryo implantation.

Therefore, although the success rate of pregnancy with frozen embryos is slightly lower than the pregnancy rate with fresh embryos, it is not a significant difference and there is still a high probability of achieving pregnancy. Don’t worry.

You can learn more about this in the following article: How Does the Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) Procedure Work?

Hope this helps you,

all the best.