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Ask the Experts
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What is the benefit of single embryo transfer with IVF?
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Dr. Natalie Cekleniak, The Institute of Reproductive Medicine at St. Barnabas Medical Center: SET, or single embryo transfer,
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refers to our ability now, which is really exciting for us to consider transferring just one embryo
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at the time of an IVF cycle and the time of embryo transfer.
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Most people know that many patients require more than one embryo to be transferred
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in order to achieve the pregnancy rates that we all desire, and that's been going on for quite a long time.
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But, fortunately, as the field has progressed and as implantation rates have improved,
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we can now consider transferring just one embryo and still achieve really exciting pregnancy rates.
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This, of course, has the benefit of reducing the multiple gestation rate dramatically.
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So, it's really an exciting time for our field.
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Well, we're really excited about single embryo transfer because we've waited for this.
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I mean, our field has worked so hard to improve culture systems and ways to improve embryo implantation rates
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so we could get to this point of being able to offer single embryo transfer to a large group of patients.
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It's a little bit hard for patients to always understand why that's such a good thing.
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Because, of course, they're so eager to be pregnant, and they know that the more embryos that are transferred results in higher pregnancy rates in general.
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And, of course, in their situation, they want to do everything they can to get the best pregnancy rate.
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And twins are often just, you know, such a wonderful event.
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Patients feel doubly lucky in many cases, so twins can be, you know, just a fantastic outcome.
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I think the patients need to just realize and be educated that twins do present so many increased complications, you know.
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And it's not that we wouldn't be happy about healthy, viable twins at term. We love that. And fortunately we see that a lot.
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But we also see the twins who are born early.
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You know, there is a ten-fold increase rate of preterm birth with twins, and that, of course,
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includes all the complications of early delivery, and being born at early gestational ages, the complications that come along with that.
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So while we're really excited about this, I think patients need to understand that reducing the multiple rate
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really is critical for them to have a healthy, uncomplicated, smooth, full-term birth. That's the goal.
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And it's hard to; you know, they need to manage that with their expectations of
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"just give me the best pregnancy rate and we would love twins."
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Full-term twins we love, too, but they really need to understand that they see all the twins out there in school and in the playground and,
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you know, those twins are healthy and doing well.
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But not everybody sees the twins that deliver early and are in the NICU struggling and don't always get there.
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And we want to make sure they really understand the risks that they take on if they decline a single embryo transfer
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and they do have two replaced instead.
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