Implantation

[Tiny Dancer]

Hi Carole,

How long does it take on average for implantation to occur after a 5 day transfer? Is it the same time frame if the embryo was not a blast at transfer?

[Carole]

HI Tiny dancer,
I missed this question the last time I was on. Implantation takes about 6-10 days post fertilization or 4-8 days after day 3 transfer or 1-5 days after a day 5 transfer. If the embryo is lagging, it may take a day longer. If the embryo is lagging too much, it may have stopped dividing and so never implant. Carole

[Mykids]

Hi carole, I know this is a different question but on same topic,

What happens to the embryo which was not implanted. I mean how does it comes out, will that come out during our periods.

[Carole]

Hi Mykids,

The short answer is yes, the embryo is lost with the menstrual blood. If the embryo doesn't implant, it dies and its few hundred disintegrating cells are discarded along with the million of cells that are sloughed off from your uterine lining (this disintegrating uterine lining produces the bloody discharge) during your period. Carole

[lindi]

What is going on when an embryo, especially a PGD normal hatching blast, doesn't implant? At that point is it purely a problem with the uterine lining? I have read there are not very well understood chemical signals between the uterine lining and the embryo that attract them to each other, is it possible for the embryo to have lost the ability to do this, or for the uterine lining to be in some way deficient of the correct amino acids or chemical messengers?

[Carole]

Hi lindi,
Yes, it is possible for a chromosomally normal embryo not to implant for all the reasons you listed and possibly other reasons we don't know about yet. My post-doc research looked at the complex signalling between the embryo and the uterine cells (various layers of uterine cells) and it is amazingly complicated. As I have said before, when you start to delve into the molecular mechanisms behind successful implantation, the more you know, the more you stand in awe that any of us exist. The good news is that millions of years of evolution has created a system that does work most of the time. Carole

[lindi]

From your research on this process, is there anything you might imagine would help that sort of chemoattractant process? I read that some of the signals are calcium dependent- much like the communication between the sperm and the uterine lining, fallopian tubes, and egg which help direct the sperm where to "sniff out" the egg... on this site it mentions research articles that women with high calcium intake and low potassium would conceive more girls, and women with high sodium/potassium- and then the thought was low calcium- but-surprisingly- high calcium too- would conceive more boys. Calcium was one of the keys I kept reading about that seemed to be involved in enabling the various messenger signals between sperm and egg, and then again between embryo and uterine lining. Would calcium intake affect the implantation process? Are there other minerals or nutritional advice that you would be willing to hypothesize might strengthen that ability for the uterine lining to accept an embryo, or conversely, something within the culture medium for the embryos that would help them implant?

[Carole]

Dear Lindi,
The amounts of calcium used in these processes are tiny tiny- on the molecular level-- so the calcium in a normal healthy diet should be more than sufficient. I think much of the nutritional infertility cures are just wishful thinking. Eating a normal balanced (not fad) healthy diet and perhaps supplementing your diet with a daily multivitamin should be all you need unless you have some weird metabolic disorder--and then diet wouldn't resolve that either. Wanting an easy nutritional cure for infertility is so appealing because it is so accessible and inexpensive but unfortunately, it has no scientific basis. Best wishes for a BFP- I see you had a transfer recently. Carole

[lindi]

Thanks!