What to know about a day-3 frozen embryo transfer

The term describes the embryo's developmental stage when it was frozen or prepared for transfer, not the third day after your period. At this cleavage stage, the embryo has divided into several cells. The laboratory thaws it and checks whether it is suitable to transfer under the clinic's protocol.

The uterine lining and embryo must be synchronised. Timing may follow your natural ovulation or a medication-prepared cycle using oestrogen and progesterone. The clinic sets the transfer date from ovulation or the start of progesterone, so taking medicines at the instructed times matters.

Attend scheduled lining scans or blood tests and tell the fertility team about missed or late medication before changing the plan yourself. Transfer usually involves a thin catheter passed through the cervix while ultrasound helps guide placement. Follow the clinic's bladder instructions because these vary by service.

Continue prescribed medicines until the team tells you to stop, even if light spotting occurs. Ordinary gentle activity is generally compatible with recovery, but use your clinic's advice for exercise, sex, travel and work. Take the pregnancy test on the assigned date; testing too early can give a misleading result.

Contact the clinic promptly for heavy bleeding, worsening or severe abdominal pain, fever, fainting, marked dizziness, breathlessness, persistent vomiting or rapidly increasing abdominal swelling. If a pregnancy test is positive, one-sided pelvic pain, shoulder-tip pain, faintness or bleeding requires urgent assessment because an ectopic pregnancy must be excluded.

Ask how the lining will be prepared, exactly when each medicine begins, what to do after a late dose and when the embryo will be thawed. Confirm the planned number of embryos, the test date, how results should be reported and whom to contact outside clinic hours.