Consecutive transfer of day 3 embryos and of day 5-6 blastocysts increases overall pregnancy rates associated with blastocyst culture.

Abstract

To investigate whether the consecutive embryo transfer of day 3 embryos and of blastocyst protects against failure to reach embryo transfer and provides additional pregnancies. An embryo transfer was performed on day 3 following which all remaining embryos were cultured to the blastocyst stage for a possible second transfer. One hundred and forty-two patients were selected for extended culture. Thirty-two of these patients did not develop blastocysts in culture, however, there were 12 pregnancies achieved in this group. The consecutive transfer of day 3 embryos and blastocysts can prevent the total loss of a cycle when embryos fail to develop to the blastocyst stage in culture and thereby provide additional pregnancies.