Increased IVF pregnancy rates with frozen embryos

Generally, the use of fresh embryos is preferred in In Vitro Fertilization Cycle (IVF) cycle with the selection criteria involving the use of Grade A or B embryos (best we could retrieve) for transfer. 

To ensure high chances of implantation, the fresh embryos of best quality are used in the cycle. However, sometimes supernumerary/extra embryos are retrieved which are also of good quality. Doctors prefer to freeze such embryos as a backup for future. 

Sometimes, the IVF cycle fails in first attempt and women are not able to produce the same quality embryos for the next time. In such a situation, the frozen embryos act as the savior for the infertile couple. It has been observed that the chances of implantation with frozen embryos are equal and sometimes greater. Reason is the use of better technology in neoteric age when technology has failed traditionalism. The technology called ‘vitrification’ is being used for freezing the embryos, which is widely accepted for the better results.

Many doctors have switched to the use of frozen embryos after considering the better chances of implantation than in fresh cycle. 

In older methods of freezing the embryos, most of them had to be discarded as it could not survive the process. However, in vitrification, almost all the embryos survive after the thaw. The credit goes to the embryologist and the expertise. 

Implantation of frozen embryos increase the chances of implantation on uterine lining than the implantation of fresh embryos. So, for a doctor it is important to freeze the embryos to ensure implantation if not in first attempt of fresh cycle then at least with fresh embryos. 

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani