I wanted to look into assisted hatching today after talking about it with one of my fertility girlfriends. My clinic, Sher Institute, NY uses it on all cases. Because of this, I never questioned it nor even thought about it until my friend said her clinic was going to be doing it during her upcoming IVF. When she talked about it, I thought maybe it would be a good idea for me to do a little research on it myself.
So...it sounds like a simple procedure performed on the embryo just prior to embryo transfer, whether that is day 3 or day 5, or even just prior to a Frozen Embryo Transfer FET. Immediately before implantation, the blastocyst must "hatch" from the outer shell of the embryo (called zona pellucida). For some women, the out shell may be too thick to hatch on it's own. An embryologist performs this procedure by holding the embryo under a microscope with a pipette on one side and with a hollow needle dissolving part of the zona coating with an acid solution. There is a small risk of damage to the embryos from the procedure.
Who is a good candidate for assisted hatching? Women who are older than 37, those who have failed 2 or more rounds of IVF, women who have an elevated day 3 FSH, low amh, low antral follicle count (AFC), and those with poor quality embryos.
So, I have had this done on the 4 blastocysts transferred from IVF#3
during my FET#1 and FET#2, neither resulted in implantation. See the "My Journey" tab for my full infertility timeline.
So...it sounds like a simple procedure performed on the embryo just prior to embryo transfer, whether that is day 3 or day 5, or even just prior to a Frozen Embryo Transfer FET. Immediately before implantation, the blastocyst must "hatch" from the outer shell of the embryo (called zona pellucida). For some women, the out shell may be too thick to hatch on it's own. An embryologist performs this procedure by holding the embryo under a microscope with a pipette on one side and with a hollow needle dissolving part of the zona coating with an acid solution. There is a small risk of damage to the embryos from the procedure.
Who is a good candidate for assisted hatching? Women who are older than 37, those who have failed 2 or more rounds of IVF, women who have an elevated day 3 FSH, low amh, low antral follicle count (AFC), and those with poor quality embryos.
So, I have had this done on the 4 blastocysts transferred from IVF#3
during my FET#1 and FET#2, neither resulted in implantation. See the "My Journey" tab for my full infertility timeline.