FAQs

Your popular Questions, Clearly Answered.

Conventional embryo flushing is a process where fertilization and embryo development takes place within the donor, and the
embryos are then flushed out for fresh embryo transfer or freezing.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is the process of collecting oocytes (unfertilized embryos) from donors and fertilizing them in a lab
setting. Embryos are then created eight days after ovum pick-up.

Embryos may be used fresh and implanted directly into qualified recipients or frozen for future implantation.

Fresh embryos are packaged in a portable straw incubator, then driven and delivered by a Embryo Plus employee or a trusted courier the morning of transfer. If the distance exceeds 7 hours from the lab, embryos can leave the lab the day before the transfer. Embryos should be transferred quickly after arriving.

Ensure your recipients have synchronized heats detected 7-8 days prior to the implantation date. Consult your embryo transfer technician for protocol recommendations. For fresh embryo transfer (ET), recipients need to be in heat on the oocyte collection day and/or a day after the oocyte collection day.

Embryos are frozen using the Direct Thaw (DT) method. This makes it convenient for a trained embryo transfer technician to efficiently implant the embryo without any unnecessary handling.

For frozen grade 1 embryos, expect a 45-50% pregnancy rate, with frozen grade 2 embryos performing around 35-40%. For fresh grade 1 embryos, expect 55-60% successful pregnancy rate with fresh grade 2 embryos around 40-45%. These averages vary depending on several factors including donor management, recipient management and transfer technician.

All recipients are checked for an adequate Corpus Luteum (CL) before an embryo is implanted. On average, 5-10% of recipients are skipped during implantation. It is important to account for this kick-out rate when coordinating fresh transfers

Semen will be used the day after the OPU procedure. Semen can be picked up the same day as the oocyte collection if we are driving to the OPU location that day. If the OPU team is flying, semen should be shipped to the lab one week before the collection.

Reverse sorting technology sorts semen for a chosen gender from a conventionally frozen semen straw. This is licensed and operated by ST Genetics, and occurs during fertilization. Because this process takes multiple hours per sample, we offer a limited number of sorting spots each day. 

Yes. If more than 30 oocytes are recovered from a donor, multiple sires can be used to fertilize the oocytes.

Final embryo numbers are available 9 days after the OPU or 8 days after fertilization takes place.

On average, OPU takes about 10 to 15 minutes per donor,
but varies by the amount of follicles.

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