It only takes one...

Although we strive for multiple embryos in stimulated IVF, sometimes we loose track of the concept that it really takes just a single embryo to make a baby. I have a current patient who went through IVF with PGS (preimplantation genetic screening) and had multiple grade AAA blastocysts for embryo biopsy on day 5. Interestingly, only a single embryo of all these normal looking blasts was genetically normal. We transferred that single embryo and now she has an ongoing pregnancy. Would we have found that single normal embryo eventually? Yes. Would the patient have become emotionally drained, frustrated and financially strapped by the repeated transfers... Possibly...

So as we revise our approach to stimulated IVF, PGS may become more and more common. In the end, it still just takes a single good embryo to make a baby. Does Natural Cycle IVF create a higher percentage of normal embryos compared with stimulated IVF? We don't really know but this could explain the higher implantation rate that we see in NC IVF....

Last weekend I was in Boston cleaning out my parent's home as my Dad prepared to move into an apartment. I ended up with a minivan full of thousands and thousands of slides. Many of these were photos of yours truly that I had never seen. (These photos would serve to undercut my brother Steve's assertion that I was found in the gutter one night and raised in my parents' home under the mistaken impression that I was actually a Gordon born and bred....).

The photo on the right is me with my dog Karma. Although not evident in the photo, Karma was actually missing her right front leg which was amputated after she was struck by a car early in her life. She lived to be about 13 years old and it never slowed her down. In her case it took only 3 legs to live a full and happy life and in your case remember it only takes a single good embryo!