The pregnancy journey is priceless in every woman’s life. The practice of IVF treatment is really a blessing for a couple with infertility issues. It involves various significant procedures and treatments.
This treatment carries out the process of natural conception in an advanced way. One of the important steps is blastocyst culture. It is a laboratory technique used to grow the fertilized egg in a determined culture for 5 to 7 days.
In this article, you’ll get to understand what exactly blastocyst culture is and its advantages in IVF treatment. Let’s delve into the topic now:
What is a Blastocyst Culture?
Blastocyst culture is a process of developing embryos in a controlled laboratory environment until they attain a certain stage. This is done to prepare an embryo for implantation before transferring it into the uterus.
Generally, pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg fuses with a sperm in the fallopian tube, leading to the formation of an embryo. Once matured, it traveled to the uterus and grew as a fetus. When this fertilization and embryo development has taken place in a lab, it is named blastocyst culture in IVF.
What are the Advantages of Blastocyst Culture?
Blastocyst culture has several advantages, including:
Low Risk of Multiple Pregnancies: Blastocyst culture is a determined process that takes control of the number of embryos that have been transferred into the uterus. It lowers the risk of multiple pregnancies.
Higher Success Rate: The blastocyst process carefully curates the process of implantation and embryo development through which the chances of pregnancy are likely to be increased.
Right Selection of Embryos: Not all embryos are capable of successful implantation. Once the fertilized eggs are collected, they will be evaluated in different aspects to find the most fertile ones. They have the best chance of implantation and allow for healthy embryos.
No Genetic Disorders: During this culture, doctors identify and isolate genetically normal embryos. It ensures that the growing fetus is free from genetic disorders and other health impacts.
Why is Blastocyst Culture So Successful?
These are the significant reasons to highlight why blastocyst culture is successful:
Pick Only the Strongest Embryos: This process involves finding the strongest and healthiest embryos to transfer into the uterus. It potentially tries to resemble the natural conception, ensuring the growing embryos are genetically normal and have an increased chance of successful pregnancy.
Deals with the Risk of Early Abortion: Generally, people are afraid of IVF treatment, which may result negatively. There is evidence that when transferring healthy embryos into the uterus, the risk of abortion and negative results is fairly reduced.
Mimic the Natural Conception: The embryo is developed outside the body and placed into the uterus. This process synchronizes the natural conception but carries it out artificially. With the right selection of fertilized eggs and embryos, there is an increased chance of implantation and successful pregnancy.
Are There Any Drawbacks to Blastocyst Transfer?
Blastocyst transfer possesses certain significant disadvantages. However, a collaborative approach between healthcare providers and patients can overcome those challenges efficiently:
Embryo development in a laboratory needs freezing and thawing to obtain the desired growth. It creates an additional layer of complexity to the chances of conception. Though it is a standard technique, it may get damaged.
An embryologist ensures every stage of the process, but there is still a risk of having no viable embryos suitable to transfer into the uterus. This is unpredictable but causes physical and emotional discouragement to the patients in the IVF journey.
In some cases, blastocyst culture needs extra time to prepare an embryo to a certain stage. It delays the overall IVF process and causes unwanted stress and anxiety for patients.
Can Everyone Have a Blastocyst Transfer?
No, blastocyst culture is not suitable for every patient. By considering the following factors, doctors will decide whether your body can adapt to the process or not:
- Number of embryos
- Embryo survival rate
- Embryo quality
Stages of Blastocyst Development in Blastocyst Culture
There are four stages involved in the development of blastocyst culture:
Fertilization: Fertilization of sperm and egg is an initial process. It demands the most precise method, ART, that directly injects healthy and fertile sperm into the egg.
Incubation: The fertilized eggs or embryos are incubated in a specialized environment to provide essential nutrients to grow.
Monitoring: During incubation, an embryologist needs to carefully evaluate the growth progress. Regular inspection is carried out under the microscope to assess the growth rate. In most cases, they have attained the expected rate, which is around 5 to 6 days.
Selection: Blastocyst culture involves transferring only the quality embryos into the uterus using a thin catheter. This process is carried out using ultrasound guidance and doesn’t require anesthesia for patients
Is There Any Extra Cost for Blastocyst Transfer?
Yes, there is an additional cost charged for blastocyst culture. However, the cost of individuals can vary based on the number of embryos to be frozen, monitoring and testing, and medication.
Success Rates of Blastocyst Transfer in IVF
The average success rate of blastocyst culture is about 50 to 60% per cycle. It can vary for every patient depending on the patient’s circumstances and specific clinic.
Conclusion
Blastocyst culture is a laboratory process that involves developing the embryo to the desired size. It includes several stages of evaluation to make an informed decision. The procedures can be tailored according to the individual’s situation, and it includes its own set of challenges. Understanding this procedure before getting into the treatment gives you an idea.
FAQs
Fertility specialists generally recommend transferring only one or two blastocysts. This approach has increased the success rate of pregnancy and reduced the risk of multiple pregnancies like triplets or quadruplets.
Yes, blastocysts can work great at in vitro fertilization. There is a higher chance for pregnancy rate when compared to embryos transferred at an earlier stage.
It is difficult to predict that the number of eggs will reach the blastocyst stage. It depends on several factors, including:
- The quality of the eggs
- Fertilization method used
- The age of the woman
- Type of IVF cycle performed.