Early blastocyst - has anyone had these?

[Rachae]

Hi There,
I'm in the 2ww from IVF and I know it hasn't worked this time. I got a first response test and it was negative.

14 of my embryos made it to day 3 and then only 1 made it to day 5 and it was called an early blastocyst, ungraded.

I can't find anything online about these and my doctors were reluctant to talk about chances, likeliness etc. So I'd really appreciate any insights from the community on these... I'll alwyas wonder if it didn't stand much of a chance anyway, or if it did and it was just that 50/50 scenario that everyone goes through. (in case this same thing happens to me next round)

Super grateful for anything anyone might add xc

An early blastocyst on day 5 would most likely be a full blastocyst on day 6 so I'm surprised they didn't leave it an extra day to see what it did? I'm having twins - one was an early blast/not even blast stage on day 5 and by day 6 was an expanded blastocyst 4bb

You have a big drop off after day 3 - has your partner been diagnosed with male factor infertility? X

Yes, I had an early blastocyst transferred on Monday. OTD not until Friday so can't tell you the outcome yet! We had 2 other embryos still going at day 5 but not looking great. They grew them to day 6 but neither were good enough to freeze. We had 6 eggs collected and five fertilised (female factor with low AMH/AFC).

Studies have shown better outcomes when early blasts are put back at day 5 rather than grown to day 6 and transferred. They do sometimes grow to day 6 and freeze but if they are looking good they will often opt to put them back as they are more likely to do well in the optimal environment (especially if you have low numbers, which you and I both did). They won't usually transfer on day 6 because the embryo stage of development is out of sync with what your uterine lining is doing and the outcomes are quite poor I think.

I have done some reading around it and people do have successful pregnancies with early blasts put back on day 5, it's just the chances are lower unfortunately. It sounds like they did the right thing and gave it the best chance (from what I've read and discussed with our embryologist). I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you this time 😢

Thank you to both, I really appreciate your responses
@ivfbeenbusy Its our first cycle of IVF and I've had 3 miscarriages prior with the same partner. We hadn't thought about male infertility but I agree, it's a huge drop off from day 3 and confused us. Not sure if we have had those tests or not.. They'd always commented that he had high quality sperm. Don't know if that was only associated with the amount tho, rather than a deeper dive.
@MGee123 best of luck for your test day.. I strongly recommend not doing a first response before that date! I wish I'd just waited until my OTD tomorrow xx

@Rachae get your DH a DNA fragmentation test!!

Thanks @ForeverAintEnough has your DH had one of these please? I'm currently going via NHS for our cycles and so wondering if they'd do this. Happy to pay private too.. the only thing is NHS won't recognise any results that they haven't been involved with.

@Rachae I had the same round as you with embryos falling apart after day 3. 1 morula that filed. Had a DNA fragmentation test and it was 52%. Got a referral to a urologist and DH had a varicoele removed and also improved his lifestyle and DNA frag dropped to 23% normal levels. If it hadn’t gone down we were going to do TESE

Since then we’ve had no issue making embryos but unfortunately in the time we spent fixing his dna frag issues my AMH fell off a cliff

I would pay for a DNA frag test and urologist referral privately.

@MGee123 do you mind me asking how you got on? My first 3 blasts resulted in fails and a chemical and I’ve just had an early blast transferred yesterday and not feeling very hopeful.