Understanding Blastocyst Culture For Increased Chances of Conceiving
When couples find it difficult to conceive, the first solution that comes to mind is IVF. However, there are many fertility treatments, like egg donation that couples can opt for. Depending on the patient's medical history and other requirements, doctors suggest these treatments. In addition, IVF treatment includes many steps for a successful procedure. One of them is the blastocyst culture stage. It refers to growing embryos in the laboratory. Successfully culturing embryos was difficult for the blastocyst stage until recent development in the field. With recent developments, culturing has become possible. Let's understand in detail about blastocyst culture cost and other details:
What is Blastocyst Culture?
In IVF treatment, after the egg retrieval process, fertilization in IVF or ICSI treatment is carried out. The resulting embryos are placed in the laboratory. The embryo, which has a central, large, fluid-filled cavity and two different cell types, is called a blastocyst. The cell types include the inner cell mass that develops into the fetus and the outer layer that forms in the placenta.
Embryos that have potential form in the blastocyst are usually done by the 5th day or after insemination. The blastocyst culture is a procedure of growing embryos in the laboratory for two or more days until they are known as blastocyst embryos in IVF. On the fifth day, the frozen blastocyst culture and transfer are done. It is also the final stage of embryo development before it comes out of the egg by breaking the zona pellucida.
What are the Benefits of Blastocyst Culture?
Blastocyst culture IVF has many advantages, including:
- Improved chances of implantation: As compared to early-stage embryos, blastocysts have better chances of implantation. Thus resulting in high chances of pregnancy rates.
- The high success rate for transfer: Embryo's appearance cannot tell if it has the potential for blastocyst development or implantation. It can be challenging to develop it into pregnancy early in the embryonic process. So, by holding embryos in the lab, they develop in the blastocyst, and any variations become more obvious. It allows doctors to choose from a variety of embryos. So, the best quality embryo is used for the IVF process, increasing the rate of blastocyst culture and transfer for IVF.
- Reduce multiple births: By choosing the highest quality of blastocyst for transfers, the risk for multiple births can be reduced. This also reduces obstetric complications that are associated with multiple births.
- Increased chances of cryopreservation: In blastocyst, multiple varieties of embryos are available. By selecting a single blastocyst for transfer, the rest of the embryos can be cryopreserved for future use through embryo freezing transfer cycles that increase the chances of pregnancy.
- PGS (preimplantation genetic screening): PGS proves to be an excellent way of testing for any signs of genetic disorder in the embryo before it is placed inside the uterus of the mother.
Blastocyst Culture: Under What Circumstances is it Recommended
Under various conditions, doctors recommend blastocyst culture and transfer in Delhi. These include:
- IVF failure: Couples who have prior IVF failure or ICSI failure despite many good quality eggs are recommended to take blastocyst culture IVF as it has a high success rate compared to 3rd day of embryo transfer.
- Elective Single Embryo Transfer (eSET): The blastocyst transfer of day 5 is recommended to those couples who are seeking Elective Single Embryo Transfer(eSET). It increases the chances of conception compared to common day 3 embryo implantation of a single embryo.
- Those couples who have healthy embryos on day 3 are also recommended with blastocyst culture. After watching frozen embryos develop into blastocysts through lengthy cultures, the embryologist can select embryos. With few embryo transfers on day 5, the chances 8f multiple births are reduced.
- Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is done through embryo biopsy. PGD is a revolutionary medical procedure that enhances the chances of producing healthy babies in case one or both partners have genetic problems by reducing the risk of potential transfer of the condition to the child. The embryo biopsy procedure in PGD removes one or two cells from developing embryos and performs genetic analysis. It helps ensure that the embryos in the uterus are healthy.
What is the Procedure of Blastocyst Culture?
The blastocyst culture has a procedure similar to that of IVF (In Vitro Fertilization). The only distinction between blastocyst culture and IVF treatment is the age of the embryo. In IVF, the embryo is roughly 4 days old, while in blastocyst culture, the embryo is 5 to 6 days old. Here are the stages in the blastocyst culture procedure:
- Egg collection: The first step is egg retrieval, which requires nearly 30 minutes. It is a simple and pain-free process. Using a scanning probe, the eggs are extracted from completely developed follicles.
- Fertilization: After the harvesting has been done, the eggs are fertilized by donor sperm or with frozen sperm (if any previous semen freezing has been done).
- Blastocyst: In the laboratory incubator, embryos after fertilization are kept in the lab until they reach the blastocyst stage. These embryos are most likely to thrive in the uterine environment after 5 days in a lab incubator. The remaining blastocysts are cryopreserved for future use, and healthy blastocysts are selected for transfer.
- Day 5 is when the embryo is called a blastocyst; this stage is perfect for the blastocyst to be implemented in the uterus. Out of these, the healthiest blastocyst is transferred or implanted carefully into the uterus when it's rough enough to handle the uterine environment.
- After two weeks, you will be asked to take a pregnancy test to determine whether the blastocyst is successful in IVF or not. An ultrasound can also be performed for 6 weeks of pregnancy.
- It is recommended to consult a doctor to follow. Share any other details or issues you are facing.
What are the Risks in Blastocyst Culture?
Blastocyst culture has some risks associated with the procedure. Here are some of them:
- The blastocyst culture requires precision and certain laboratory conditions. If it's not handled carefully, blastocyst culture will not be successful.
- There might be chances that no embryos reach the blastocyst stage.
- There is a risk that embryos will not survive this blastocyst stage.
- Even if the blastocyst stage is implantation in the uterus, there is a chance of miscarriage.
Bloom IVF For Your Complete Fertility Treatments
If you are facing difficulties in conceiving, there might be endless reasons. Sometimes, you require medications and basic treatments, while sometimes, advanced treatments are needed. Bloom IVF is one of the top fertility clinics in India with the latest diagnosis and treatment possibility. These include GCSF, micro tese, IUI treatment, PRP treatment, pipelle biopsy, and more. We have the latest equipment and technology available for patients to provide effective solutions. Our team conducts assessment procedures to understand medical conditions and other details. Based on assessment, we provide the best possible treatments. We are known for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, reproductive organ problems, and treatments for pregnancy like laser assisted hatching. So, you can consult our team to share your issues to help you.