Obviously the goal of any IVF or donor oocyte cycle is a successful conception (hopefully singleton) that results in a healthy baby. Cryopreservation of embryos is nice when it is possible, but is secondary to the main goal. Cryopreservation is only performed on high quality embryos, and often, after transferring the best 1 or 2 embryos fresh, the ones that remain are not of good enough quality to freeze. Cryopreservation is performed less frequently now than in the past because with day 5 transfers being commonly done, many embryos that would have been frozen in the past, are now found to stop developing by day 5 and aren’t frozen. There wouldn’t be a benefit in freezing them earlier because they ultimately proved themselves to be poor quality by not developing appropriately. Freezing poor quality embryos ultimately wastes the patients time and resources because they ultimately don’t result in pregnancies when thawed out.
It is cynical to believe that the motivation for not freezing embryos is so that the IVF program can make more money in the next cycle by doing a fresh cycle. Most IVF programs and RE’s have your best interest in mind when making such decisions.
Dr. Barry Witt
