IVF Journey so far up to Day 3 embryo

This blog is a deviation from my usual chicken ranting.  I was hesitating at first whether I should blog about our IVF journey.  But I need an outlet and keep a journal of this important life event.  And hoping this would help young couples to think twice about delaying getting pregnant as it becomes more difficult to conceive as you age.

When we moved to the farm full time 2 years ago, I thought I already had a closure that having a child was not for us.  So we adopted 2 dogs (Baloo and Louie) then had lots of chickens and 7 ducks. 

 

Last January of this year, I was ecstatic when the Ontario government announced that they will fund one round of IVF for women 42 years old or under.  I immediately signed up at the fertility clinic recommended by my family doctor.  Due to the huge number of women wanting to go through the procedure and the limited funding the government allocated to each clinic, the clinic had a random way of selecting the lucky couples each quarter to be fair so to speak.  We waited until July and was never selected.  We decided to bite the bullet and pay out of our own pockets (just under $30,000) as we are getting older.  It's now or never.  I have very low egg reserve and have pretty severe male factor fertility issues.

We’ve been thinking about IVF for over 3 years.  So what made me finally decide to do it?  The chickens made me do it, specifically the 4 mother hens and her 11 baby chicks (which by the way only 6 survived to date due to our dogs and that's another story).  There was something about being a mother hen that makes her completely fulfilled.  Okay I’m digressing so let me go back to what my intention was.

I have just received the more detailed report of the Day 3 embryos today and I find this stuff really fascinating. 

But first let me share what had transpired prior to today.

Pre-Ovarian stimulation (down regulation)

I was put on Estrace, Prometrium and Androgel for 21 days.  But on the day I was supposed to start the stimulation, doctor decided to cancel and re-start my down regulation because he found a cyst in my ovaries and didn’t want to take a chance.

Pre-Ovarian stimulation (down regulation) – 2^nd time

I took Marvelon (birth control pills) and Androgel for 23 days.  Marvelon side effects on me were headaches and moodiness.

Ovarian stimulation

This is the difficult part due to the painful daily self-administered injections on top of the daily internal probing and bloodwork at the clinic.  I was prescribed Menopur (to improve quality of eggs),  Puregon (to increase the number of eggs) and Thyroxine tablet.  Days 1-2, I took 150 IU of Menupur and 150 IU of Puregon.  Starting days 3-10, Puregon was increased to 225 IU. On days 7-9, I took Cetrotide to prevent early ovulation. On days 10 to 11, I took the ovulation trigger shot Ovidrel and Lupron.  Egg retrieval on day 12.

Egg retrieval

I was sedated while a tiny needle pierced through my ovaries to suck out the eggs.  This was done with an ultrasound probe (not sure if that’s the right term).  The actual procedure only took around 15 minutes. But in total it took around 3 hours including the prep part and the recovery period.  I was very sleepy and had a little discomfort after the procedure so I rested for the rest of the day.

 

Day 3 embryo

• 11 eggs retrieved
• 7 eggs mature
• 6 eggs fertilized
• 6 three-day embryos
• 1 eight-cell (ideal so far)
• 2 seven-cell
• 2 six-cell
• 1 four-cell (not looking good according to the embryologist)

This chart is a lot easier to read (I think)

Embryo	# of cells
1	8-cell (ideal)
2	7-cell
3	7-cell
4	6-cell
5	6-cell
6	4-cell (not looking good; can be a sign of abnormal embryo)

I’ve done some googling, and on day 3 most healthy embryos will be between 6 to 9 cells (with an ideal being 8 cells).  If they are lagging behind or growing too fast, they are a sign of an abnormal embryo.  Under 6-cell on day 3 embryos have about 10-15% chance of implantation success.  Those 6-9 cell embryo has about 20-30% chance of implantation. 

I’ve added a picture of what a 3-day embryo looks like.  It’s not mine.  I got it from the internet just to show what I mean.

By day 5, the embryos should be at the blastocyst stage and it will contain approximately 100-230 cells.

It’s after day 3 that can go a little scary.  I hope they all grow to healthy day 5 blastocysts.  Our clinic will only do Day 5 transfer.  In our case though, all viable embryos will be frozen at day 5 so it can be sent for PGS genetic testing and we have to wait for a couple of weeks to get the results.  I googled and Day 5 transfers is preferable because in natural conception cycles, embryos usually implant on days 5 or 6 after ovulation.  But there are other clinics that do Day 3 transfers.

At this point everything is in God’s hands. 

Chicks school

We decided to transfer the 4 broody hens along with the 10 baby chicks that they hatched. 

This is the original spot where the eggs hatched.  The space is too small so they were transferred to a separate brooder.

I don't know at this point which chick thinks which hen is their mother.  Just a brief background, these chicks were from our rogue hen that laid eggs in the bushes and I discovered 12 of them.  I placed 11 eggs under the broody hens.  At least 6 of my hens had gone broody but these 4 hens are really dedicated to caring for the 10 chicks that hatched. 

And guess what, all 11 eggs hatched under the hen but 1 died because it possibly got crushed by hens having custody battle.  Or it could have been due to me interfering with the hatching process where I helped crack the egg and the mother hen was not impressed at all.  So I'm left with 10.  That's really impressive.  Nature does do wonders! In my incubator, my best hatch rate was only 73%.  Under the hen, it is 100% (not counting the one that died).  Can you imagine that?  And these eggs were exposed to cold as well.

Anyway we transferred them from the main coop to the brooder we built last month.  The only thing is they are not as secure as the main coop as this is directly on the ground but with electric fence around hopefully they will be safe.

So here's the video of the 10 day old baby chicks with their 4 mother hen.  They're being taught on how to scratch and forage.  It's amazing how nature works.

The Unexpected Chicks

About more than a couple of weeks ago, I discovered a nest full of eggs behind the bushes near our apple tree.  Actually the dogs discovered it first.  I’ve been suspecting one of our hens has been laying eggs somewhere outside the fenced-in area.  She’s a great escape artist and manages to go through the electric fence without showing any discomfort or anything.  She would do the egg song around mid day and I've been trying to search where she's been laying.  She had been sitting on them during the day but at night she goes home to their coop.  So I didn't expect these eggs to hatch.

I collected them anyway knowing I can’t eat them.  But after I candled them I realized 11 eggs are developing quite nicely inside.  So I placed them under the broody hens and not really expecting anything from them.  Today, five chicks miraculously hatched.  And they look healthy.  I’m still fretting because unlike the incubator, the nesting boxes aren’t really well sanitized.  But I guess that’s how nature works. 

I was ready to toss them today as I thought it wouldn’t hatch because they didn’t have the right environment for the first few days of incubation.  These eggs were exposed to cold at night for probably a week before my dogs discovered the nest around the bushes.  Life is indeed a miracle.

The newly hatched baby chicks are very calm and confident.  I can see a big difference between those that were hatched through my incubator.  I guess the mother hen’s loving care is far better than the human’s haha.

Here’s the video of the 3 baby chicks. The other 2 baby chicks are being taken care of another hens.  Yes, I’ve placed the eggs on multiple hens.  And various hens actually take turns to sit on them.

And this video is where the other 2 baby chicks hatched.  I placed the eggs under multiple hens.  But in this nest box, three hens are competing to be the mother. I wonder what they are telling the babies.  They definitely are communicating to them.  LOL.

And here's a few photos:

She's not the biological mother but she sat on them for weeks and loves them!

 

Can you tell, she's not the biological mother? Ironic, she rejected the black chick so I placed it with the other 3 hens.

Three hens sharing 'custody' of the 2 baby chicks :)

Well, I think I'm going to put my hen on birth control. It would be tough to have baby chicks once winter comes :)

Till next post...