What is the Transfer Day Like?

There are two options for transfers: fresh and frozen. Fresh transfers take place just a few days after the egg retrieval, and frozen embryo transfers use thawed embryos from an earlier cycle. Whether your transfer is from a fresh or frozen embryo, you’ll have a medication protocol to ensure that your uterine lining (endometrium) is prepared for an embryo to implant. 

When you arrive at a clinic for your embryo transfer, you’ll have to pee because your care team will have you drink a large volume of water one hour prior to the procedure. This is because the ultrasound guidance actually requires that your bladder be full in order to best visualize the uterus, but the procedure is very quick.

You’ll undress just from the waist down and your doctor and care team will come in. A quick meeting with the embryologist will give you some information about the embryo selected for transfer. While the embryologist loads the embryo into a transfer catheter (a kind of tube), an empty catheter will be inserted through your cervix and the team will ensure that the transabdominal ultrasound is in place. 

When the embryologist returns, the catheter with the embryo is inserted through the empty tube and your doctor will use transabdominal ultrasound to visualize the embryo and its fluid being transferred into the uterus. Then embryologist will re-check the transfer catheter to verify that the embryo is no longer there.

Afterward, you can get up and go to the bathroom right away; there is absolutely no risk that the embryo will “fall out”. From there, you’ll embark on the famous two-week wait until your blood pregnancy test takes place. Think sticky thoughts!