Some couples who are trying to conceive shy away from fertility treatments because they do not wish to have multiple children at once. While it is possible to conceive twins, triplets or quadruplets with in vitro fertilization, the use of a single embryo transfer can eliminate this possibility and make for a healthier pregnancy.
Video transcript
Jessica: We were married in 2005 and tried for three whole years to get pregnant. But, it wasn’t working and it wasn’t working.
We came to Texas and spent a year trying here under a doctor’s care. Eventually underwent a series of testing and determined that our chances of getting pregnant on our own were less than 8% over our entire lifetime.
The choice for one
Dr. Brian Barnett: Jessica and Phillip came to us a few years ago with the need to pursue IVF (in vitro fertilization). They knew about our program, they knew about our success rates, but one of the unique issues with Jessica and her husband were they did not want twins. They were a young couple and they knew the amount of work it takes to raise a family. One of the goals for them was to achieve a singleton, healthy pregnancy.
Philip: He kind of walked us through what the steps would be: what each thing we would do, how we would go through it. It was just a comfort. I mean, it’s a very emotional thing.
Dr. Barnett: We took them through the process of IVF with the placement of a single embryo, and they had a very healthy boy.
The single embryo transfer process
Jessica: You go through all of the procedures, all of the drugs and everything, and the medications to try to prime your body for pregnancy. You do a retrieval where they take the egg out of your body and they fertilize it. Then they inject it back into your body (that’s transfer day) and there’s five days in between where the egg lives in a petri dish and they watch it grow.
Then they put it back into your body, and at that point you either conceive or you don’t conceive. But you can’t know for two weeks.
Going for two
Dr. Barnett: Another year went by and they came back again. We did the same thing. They conceived again (on the second cycle) and they had a healthy girl.
Jessica: So I went to a Gymboree class and they were talking about how you take pictures of your kids and I said, you know, I have a picture of my son at five days gestation! It’s just a little blip in a petri dish.
You know, those are the pictures I cherish. That’s when we know that we have life – at five days.
There were two people in the class that day, who were, “Oh, I have the same picture! We did the same thing.” It was really comforting.
Dr. Barnett: At Dallas IVF we are able to provide the full range of infertility treatments without the need for patients to travel outside the area. The goal of our practice is to have healthy pregnancies
Jessica: I’m happy with our results, in our process and our decision.