Day 5 biopsy, Dr P?

[miss_ickle]

Hi Dr P,

Just wondering if you have any plans to introduce day 5 biopsy with day 6 fresh transfer? It seems the general consensus is that day 5 is better due to embryos self-correcting. (Sorry if someone has already asked this, I couldn't find a thread though...)

Thanks very much in advance.

[Dr. Potter]

Hi Dr P,

Just wondering if you have any plans to introduce day 5 biopsy with day 6 fresh transfer? It seems the general consensus is that day 5 is better due to embryos self-correcting. (Sorry if someone has already asked this, I couldn't find a thread though...)

Thanks very much in advance.

We are working on it currently. The day five versus day 3 data is not nearly as impressive as people make it out to be though. You must remember that in order to be biopsied on day 5 the embryo has to reach the expanded blast or hatched blast stage. We have had pregnancies after day 3 biopsy with embryos that are only at the compacting stage on day 5 and thus would not have been biopsy candidates on day 5. So day 5 results in a higher implantation rate per transfer but fewer transfers and no advantage in terms of number of babies per cycle initiated according to currently available data. This is particularly true when you add in the re-biopsy on day 5 of abnormal embryos at high risk of mosaicism.