Answer from:
Assisted hatching is an embryo micromanipulation technique that consists of making a hole in the zona pellucida of the embryo to promote hatching and facilitate implantation in the uterus. Assisted hatching is generally performed on Day 3, when the embryo usually has about 8 cells and its size has not yet increased.
As for how to do it, there are 3 possible techniques:
1. Mechanical hatching -the zona pellucida is crossed with a needle and it is pierced by friction against a pipette.
2. Chemical hatching – an acidic solution, such as thyroids acid, is used to degrade the zona pellucida to a hole.
3. Laser hatching – it is the most used method nowadays due to its greater control and safety when making the hole, since it is only necessary to perform a few micro-pulses of a laser. Although the laser is considered the most economically expensive technique, studies confirm that it’s the safest and most efficient method.
Answer from:
It is so simplistic that making a hole in the eggshell will facilitate the hatching of the embryo out of that shell. If the embryo has what it takes to divide and grow and prosper, it will be more than capable of finding its way outside the shell but to suggest that only with making that hole under microscope, it will be entrapped is again insulting to intelligence.
Answer from:
Assisted Hatching is a technique that some labs perform before the embryo transfer.
Simply imagine the embryo – it is a group of cells and the embryo is surrounded by a thick layer that is called the zona pellucida. Now before embryo implantation, the embryo needs to hatch – meaning escape from that shell in order for the embryo to implant in the uterus. Some IVF tools like lasers just make a hole on the zone helping the embryo to hatch again allowing the embryos to escape to improve implantation. Now there’s no evidence that this technique improves implantation and life-birth rates but some clinics do use it for patients that have had a series of failed IVF cycles.
