Our team focuses on safety and success when deciding how many embryos to transfer

Patients who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) often wonder how many embryos to transfer. At Texas Fertility Center, your Austin fertility doctor will use the latest data and research to determine whether to transfer one or more embryos into your uterus.

In addition to this research (much of which our team performed), we also rely on guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Doing so helps us ensure that our patients have safe and successful pregnancies that lead to the delivery of a healthy baby.

Answering questions about how many embryos to transfer

Research and ASRM guidelines will guide our Austin fertility doctors as they decide how many embryos to transfer. Maternal age and whether the intended parents used preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) are the two biggest factors that our team considers.

Patients who opted for PGT on their IVF embryos should only have one chromosomally normal embryo transferred at a time, regardless of the female partner’s age. This is true unless they have had two or more failed IVF transfers.

For patients who elected not to do PGT, the following guidelines apply when deciding how many embryos to transfer.

• Patients under 35 should only transfer one embryo.
• Patients between the ages of 35 and 37 can transfer one or two embryos.
• There is more flexibility for women between the ages of 38 and 40 and even more leeway for women over 40.

The reason why female age is so important is because the quality of a woman’s eggs decreases over time. As a result, eggs from a woman over 35 are more likely to produce a baby with a chromosomal abnormality.

Why is it important to think about IVF embryo transfer numbers?

Many patients will visit an Austin fertility doctor at our practice and say that they don’t mind having twins. However, having a pregnancy with multiples can be both expensive and dangerous for the mother and the babies. Our goal as fertility doctors is to help our patients welcome a healthy baby in the safest way possible.

Contact us if you would like to schedule an appointment to learn more about IVF and how many embryos to transfer. Our caring and experienced doctors can answer all your questions and help you get started on the path to parenthood.