In the case of no fruit from your effort to conceive, you decide to see a fertility expert at an IVF centre in Bangalore or your locality. At the clinic, the doctor suggests you a few fertility treatment options after interacting with you and going through the recommended test results. IVF or in vitro fertilisation is one of those suggested options.
As you decide to have the IVF treatment, you start educating yourself through various sources and discussing it with your doctor. During it, you can have numerous queries. And having twins through IVF could be one. In brief, IVF doesn’t cause you to have twins. In the contemporary world, techniques used in IVF treatments have developed a lot. And it is possible to transfer a single embryo in the uterus and make a female pregnant with a single child. Here are some steps that can help you minimise your risk of having twins through IVF:
Genetic testing
Advanced genetic screenings like PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) and PGS (preimplantation genetic screening) can detect the genetic abnormalities causing miscarriage. These screenings are safe and doctors do the same well without any impact on the embryo. PGS tests for aneuploidies that are translocated or missing chromosomes while PGD facilitates embryologists to have a clear picture of the chromosomal buildup in an embryo. With PGD, the experts try to know whether the embryos have genetic issues like cystic fibroids or not.
Selection of a high-quality embryo is possible
Usually, twins happen due to transfer of more than one embryo to boost pregnancy chances. Doctors did it due to poor quality. Now, embryology has gone through several advancements. And new developments in it have enabled embryologists to choose only one healthier embryo for implantation in the uterus of a female, willing to be a mom.
Time lapse-photography
Now, IVF doctors or embryologists have an embryo scope that is a cutting-edge incubator. With it, doctors can easily find the healthiest embryo for transfer. It’s possible in a few ways:
- A time-lapse camera clicks images of egg fertilisation and embryo culture each 5v minutes
And then, it combines the clicked images to make a movie of the entire process - Experts watch the clicked footage closely
- Monitoring of embryo growth without its removal from the ideal place happens
- The ideal place protects the embryo from exposure of harmful substances and changes caused by light and temperatures
- The embryo scope creates a huge database
- Experts use the data for positive or negative outcome
- The entire process enables to finalise which embryo is more capable for a healthier pregnancy
Blastocyst transfer
Standard IVF practice refers to the transfer of an embryo after 3 days of lab culture. However, many doctors and patients opt for blastocyst transfer instead of embryo transfer. A blastocyst is a type of embryo that has incubation in the lab and reaches the blastocyst stage that happens after 5-6 days of egg fertilisation. Due to technical and method advancements, doctors can keep embryos healthy in the lab for a longer period. Here are the benefits of this long lab stay:
- Identification of healthy and unhealthy embryos gets easier
- It has facilitated the embryo transfer at the right time
One embryo transfer results in pregnancy as a multiple transfer
As per a recent study conducted on the effective number of embryos transferred in one IVF cycle and live birth rate, there is no effect at a clinical level and the percentage of multiple pregnancies or births through IVF has gone down.
Now, IVF has higher success chances with just one embryo transfer
According to another study, the transfer of two embryos can lower a female’s pregnancy chance by 25% if the embryo quality is poor. It is an important point. Here, the experts need to be very careful in the selection and transfer of embryos. The experts should select the embryo of only higher grade to increase the likelihood of pregnancy. And they should avoid transferring a poor embryo as a female’s body can reject it for conception.
Conclusion
Every IVF cycle is unique and it differs from one patient to another. So, believing completely in lab research or study results is not good for patients. Time has changed a lot and several advancements have taken place. However, you and your doctor should discuss how to minimise the chances of having twins and work efficiently on the plan made.