I forgot!

So after I submitted my post and went off to a delicious cookout at work, someone asked me a question and it dawned on me that although I gave you a lot of information regarding our embryo transfer, I forgot one six very important parts!  Our other embryos!

We elected to freeze the embryos that we did not use in the transfer.  Frozen embryos have a 95% survival rate, and seem to implant just as well as fresh embryos.  Yes, it is a little weird to speak of my potential future babies in the same terms I would use to describe produce!  Anyhow, we had four additional "Grade A" embryos that were frozen yesterday.  There were two additional embryos that weren't quite ready, although the embryologist told us that he had a good feeling that they would be ready for freezing today.  I haven't received a call yet, so I don't know how they're doing today.  So, as of right now, we have four additional embryos to use in the future.  This is totally amazing and exciting, in my opinion.  Never in my wildest daydreams did I think we'd end up with this many extra -- but I'll take it!  With each embryo transfer the odds are a little different as to success rates which is somewhat dependent on the quality of the embryo.  Best-case scenario seems to be about 50% -- and that's what we were told our odds are with the one we transferred yesterday.  I can only imagine that will continue to be the case when we use the other embryos in the future.

Many people ask what we will do if we don't use all the embryos.  That is a tough question to answer.  There are several options available to us and we have gone back and forth, and back and forth, about the way in which we want to handle it.  At this point, I am optimistic that we were given the amount we need.  There is no guarantee that every embryo will implant, so there is the chance that we will need to use the other four (or six, if the last two make it to freezing) in order for us to feel our family is complete.  Otherwise, Tony and I have discussed donating our embryos to couples who are struggling as we have.  I never thought that would be something I'd be willing to do, but after struggling for so long and seeing the $$ stack up against us (particularly in talking donor eggs/embryos), I think that's what we'd do.  Our other options include having them disposed of (couldn't/wouldn't) do that, and donating them to science.