Our statistics for 2015

16 of the achieved clinical pregnancies resulted in a missed miscarriage in the first trimester (comprising 10,5% of the positive results).

Last year we performed 10 cryo transfers of embryos brought to us from other clinics, which led to one pregnancy. We feel that there is no sense in transporting embryos. It is better to transfer them at the place where they were obtained.

The total frequency of pregnancy occurrence including all programmes (oocyte donation (OD), surrogacy, PGD) and all ages comprised 41,5% per one embryo transfer and 53% per one patient.

It means that if we have embryos and if a patient keeps up our struggle for a baby, this work will be productive and will yield more pregnancies!

In 2015, we had 16 very strange transfers. After defrosting, when assessing the quality of the embryos, the embryologists gave them a very "low mark". These were embryos of VERY bad quality, some of them having the signs of lysis.

Theoretically, the transfers had to be cancelled.

Yet due to a number of non-medical reasons, these transfers were not cancelled: a doctor asked to carry out a transfer in any case; lysis was discovered right before an embryo transfer (ET) (a patient was already in a chair); sometimes, it seemed the embryo had a slight chance… In some cases, just like our patients, we wanted to believe in miracles or a lucky day, or a favorable alignment of stars. It's hard to tell. But we did not cancel these transfers.

Having acted so "unprofessionally", we achieved 16 pregnancies, all of which are either progressing or are already resolved.

This wonderful instance once again confirms that neither we (doctors and embryologists) nor you (patients) should brand or predict the ability of an embryo to turn into a baby.

Oocyte donation is, of course, second to none. It seems, however, that one should not groundlessly blame PGD for a decreased efficacy as regards the achievement of pregnancy, since couples who undertake this diagnostic procedure have much more complicated cases and are on average older than the predominant group of patients, and have fewer embryos fit for transfer.

One unsuccessful transfer is truly not a reason to leave the clinic or replace the specialist. Do not leave your doctors – you will need them all right

We have something to be proud of: almost 70% of single-embryo transfers! And the efficacy does not differ much at that. Which means that the "don't cram all embryos inside" tactic does make sense!

It is not all that simple. In fact, according to the world statistics, hatching does not provide significant advantages. I.e. if we take two exactly similar (big) groups of patients and perform hatching in one of them and do not perform it in the other, the results will on average be the same.

There are, however, specific groups - of embryos rather than patients - whom hatching gives an additional chance. These are embryos of low quality, growth-retarded or few-celled ones with a large number of degenerated fragments under the membrane. They may not manage to «hatch» themselves on time when the implantation window is still open. These ones actually need hatching. As for the latter group, the one with a large number of extra cells and degenerated fragments under the membrane, even "burning" a hole in the membrane may not be enough. One should remove the entire zone; otherwise there is practically no chance for implantation.

Knowing all this, we do not perform hatching on one and all but do it if necessary. Thus the group without hatching includes patients whose embryos are of highest possible quality. The group with laser hatching consists of patients with embryos of «average - good» quality. And the group with pronase hatching is made up by those who without hatching would most likely not achieve implantation at all.

It means that pursuing the "bending every effort" hatching method is incorrect.

We are glad that the majority of patients (42%) are younger than 34, but another age group (35-39) does not fall that much behind. This is a sad tendency since after 37-38 we cannot fight the problem as effectively as we do before this cut-off age… We would really like women to start thinking about bearing their first child somewhat earlier, and gynecologists to delve deeper into the problem and, if managing infertility by means of conservative methods is not possible, to disclose the possibility of IVF to the patient earlier.

67% of pregnancy occurrence is like music to a fertility specialist's ears.

Very often patients as well as doctors try to ferret out the time of the year that is most favorable for a transfer. Here is what we found out:

This chart is, however, not to be taken for a guideline to follow. One should understand that all patients are different, and that very often a local decrease in figures (as, for example, in May) is not the result of some mysterious external reasons but of the fact that it was exactly this month when doctors had to deal with a large number of difficult cases with little prospect. The same goes for August: 85% of pregnancies can only be achieved in the simplest cases.

To sum it up, we can say: THE METHOD DOES WORK!!!

And pretty well at that. Someone will need less time, someone – more, but it is a very rare occurrence that we do not attain success in the end. So it is worth the candle!