Posted by Lisa Rosenthal on Thu, Dec 10, 2009 @ 12:01 AM
Single embryo transfer (SET) is the subject of a lot of conversation in the
infertility field. Doctors, scientists, and other clinicians are discussing it and going further, doing research that supports SET, showing how often it can work.
Below you can see my trail as I looked for the research that has been done recently. I make it a practice to actually find the research when I read something online, not just find a news organization or website that paraphrases the information. So I googled infertility news, then took a look at topix. Topix touts itself as "Infertility News- News on Infertility continually updated from thousands of sources around the net".
Here are some of the issues that were listed:
•1. Catholic Health Center for Women Opens in Manhattan
•2. Time Magazine looks at health breakthroughs that can impact your infertility....
Ok, that one looked interesting, so I went further and went to examiner.com and got what's below:
Time discusses new research with embryos. They look at research done by Finnish researchers. They have done research with fresh and frozen embryos. What they discovered is that "transferring a single fresh embryo to the womb, followed by transfers of individual thawed embryos in later fertility cycles" works as well as implanting several embryos. The research was done at a fertility clinic looking at 2 different groups of women. One group "had a double embryo transfer 95% of the time, the second group 46% of the women chose single-embryo." The study showed that in both groups, "90% delivered babies within the first four treatment cycles."
So I went further and looked up Finnish research on single embryo transfer and read this headline on innovations-report.com :
First study to show IVF single embryo transfer is just as successful as double transfer in older women - and safer.
The article goes on to say:
Research by fertility experts in Finland has demonstrated for the first time that in many cases transferring a single embryo to the womb in women undergoing IVF is just as likely to result in pregnancy and a live birth in those aged 36 to 39 as it is in younger women.
The article and research go on to discuss the specifics of SET. You may want to take a look. This may be information that concerns your treatment, things you may not have considered.
In our country, our health coverage is one thing in one state, something else in another state. One type of coverage depending on whom you work for, where the company is located, or whether you are self -employed. This makes the issue of SET a matter of financial consideration in our country where it may not be in Finland or other countries.
We'd love to hear what you have to say. Would you consider a SET? What are your feelings about having twins or triplets?
More to come on this subject.