Aug 25, 2009

Meet Frosty


Out of interest, the title of this post is due to my hubby insisting on calling any frozen embryos 'Frosty'!

So, for a bit of scientific info...it looks a bit different from the usual blastocyst image. Here is a picture of one of the blasts that were transfered from my successful pregnancy cycle (so it could very well be my son!). The embryo that we had transfered yesterday was from the same stimulated cycle as this one.


The big clump of cells that you can see towards the bottom right hand corner is what would develop into the baby if it were to implant. Now, the reason that the first picture looks so different is due to the freeze-thaw process. They draw out all the water and inject a special chemical solution into the embryo to freeze it, then they reverse the process to thaw, removing the solution and replacing the water. This process causes the embryo to contract. Upon thawing, ideally the embryo would then begin to re-expand and continue to grow.

In the first picture, you can see, in particular towards the top right area, where the embryo has started to expand again which is obviously a good sign for the embryo. But, I am all too aware that good signs don't always carry a lot of weight, so all we can do now is wait and hope.

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