So it is the night before the egg collection and its very very scarey! I don’t know what to expect and how much pain I will be in, what they will do etc I know I am being a drama queen but I have a very low pain threshold. When I had an appendicitous they caught it really early due to the fact that I am a complete wimp. I hope the people at Oxford will be used to people crying - I will be so emotional - I know me!

So what happens when they take the eggs out - well - the quality of them depends on when they put them back in.

In the early stages of development, the quality of the embryos is only an indication of their true developmental potential. A number of these early early embryos will not be healthy enough to continue developing either inside or outside the body. The difficulty however, is in knowing at the early stage of development which embryos are most likely to develop normally and have the best chance of forming a pregnancy. So Oxford has a flexible approach to the day of embryo transfer depending on the number of embryos available and their quality.

Day 0: Egg collection day

Day one: You will be called to be told how many eggs have fertilised.

Day two: The embryos have started to divide and will have around 2 to 4 cells. If you have 1 or 2 embryos then they normally do it on this day. 19% of embryo transfers are done on day 2.

Day three: If you have more than 2 embryos it will help the embryologist to select the strongest ones by culturing them on day 3. The embryos are normally 6 to 8 cells at this time, and any good quality spare embryos are frozen. About 50% of embryo transfers are done on day 3.

Day five: A blastocyst is the term used for the stage of development that an embryo reaches just before it implants in the lining of the uterus. Approx 31% of transfers are done on this day.

If you have six or more embryos you will be considered for a day five transfer. The advantage of day five is that it will further improve the selection of the healthiest embryo. You are risking that all embryos dont make day five and there are none to transfer :o(

Scary - so who knows what will happen! I can’t see past tomorrow morning at the moment - its all very nerve wracking but also very very exciting.

Tomorrow is the beginning,

Night all

xxx