A little more explanation...

I know that the IVF process is extremely complicated and confusing, so I thought I'd highlight what's happening next in the treatment in case you're lost at this point!

I suppose my embryos are 3 days old today, since they fertilized Saturday, and days 3 to 5 are the most critical time. Most embryos survive to day 3, but there is a large drop-off from day 3 to 5. For conventional IVF the success rate is only 40%. That means, 60% of the embryos don't make it. I'm not sure what the statistics are with mini, but I'm assuming they're higher since the whole point of the mini is that you have fewer eggs but they are of better quality. Of course I would love for all 3 embryos to make it to the day 5 blast stage, but it's probably not likely to have 100% success.

"Blast" is the lingo for "blastocyst" stage. Some IVF clinics transfer the embryo back at day 3, but those procedures have less success since over half of the eggs don't even make it to day 5. In other words, just because your embryos make it to day 3 has very little bearing on how many are going to make it to day 5 blasts. For this reason, I am very glad this clinic does day 5 blasts.

Here is an internet picture of 4 embryos that are in the day 5 blast stage. I don't understand it in the least, but I think it looks pretty cool.

Day 5 would be Wednesday for my embryos, but sometimes they allow some of them to go to day 6 if they are maturing more slowly. Because of this they told me they wouldn't call until 7 days after fertilization, which would be Friday, when they know the final results. So what we are hoping for now is for the embryos to mature to the blastocyst stage, at which point they will freeze them.

Assuming I get at least one blast, the transfer will be about a month from the retrieval (last Friday). They won't do the transfers for mini until you are on your next cycle. So the next step for me is waiting for my next cycle to start, and then I will be tracking ovulation and will go back to NY 5 days after ovulation is detected for the transfer. The procedure bypasses the 5 days the embryo would be traveling through the fallopian tube to the uterus. They wait until day 5 to transfer because the embryo is more mature, and that is when the embryo would normally implant in the uterus. We are receiving an extra expensive treatment (at no charge) called Assisted Hatching. This entails lasering a portion of the wall of the blast which will allow it to attach to the uterine lining easier...or so the theory is.

After transfer, I have to wait 10-14 days (I think) and then have my blood drawn to test for pregnancy results. That wait period is called "Beta Hell" by most infertile women. Whatever patience I have will be needed those two weeks.

So that is the lingo and the process, and hopefully it made sense! Update on Friday...but it seems statistically at least one egg of the 3 should survive to be a day 5 blast, right?