Embryo help

[Clapham4]

Looking for some advice on my slow embryos please!
This is my second cycle, 14 eggs retrieved, 10 fertilised, on Day 3 we had 6 Grade 2’s and 4 Grade 3’s. On Day 5 I had a 3BB which was transferred (testing in 6 days😅) and was told the remaining 9 are still growing but 3 are more advanced, and 5 were not expected to make it. On Day 6 I was told none were suitable for freezing even though all were still active. I’m now really worried we have a genetic issue cashing such a drop off.
Our first cycle was similar, 5 retrieved, all fertilised, 1 transferred and none to freeze. Which resulted in a BFP but miscarriage 6weeks.

Can this just be bad luck or a bigger issue? I’m 33, DH 34. Both healthy. Have Unexplained Infertility, but suspected Endo (not confirmed)

Any advice would be really appreciated xxx

Hi @Clapham4 - first of all, I'm very sorry for your loss, and good luck with this round and your test coming up :)

So, the Day 3 grading is different at our clinic, but our first round we had 9 eggs, 8 embryos on Day 3 of which 5 were good-excellent quality, and then only some early blasts on Day 5. They transferred the best quality one, which resulted in a BFN, and we had none to freeze. I did a lot of reading and it seems like a drop-off after Day 3 is often due to male issues and specifically sperm DNA fragmentation.

We didn't get round to testing for DNA fragmentation, but my partner made quite a few changes before our second round. Most significantly, he cut out alcohol and coffee, took his supplements religiously, incorporated walnuts, brazil nuts, watercress and citrus fruits into his diet, and ejaculated very frequently right up to EC day. All things which I had read can improve sperm fragmentation.

I don't know if it was luck, but on our second round we had 6 eggs, transferred a 4BB on Day 5 and had another 2 4BBs frozen on Day 6. I'm currently 6w, and I know it's still super early but this was a major improvement from last time for us. We're unexplained too...

I hope this helps somehow but I hope all goes to plan this time and you won't need to think about this xx

For me your drop off based on your day 3 grading sounds about right - it's pretty unusual for grade 4s to make a transferrable/freezable blastocyst and of the grade 2s I would expect a maximum of 50% to make it - probably more like 30%

I would say it could me more of an egg quality issue at this point? I had very similar results based on 14 eggs and it wasn't until I changed to natural modified IVF focussing on less than 7 eggs that my blastocyst quality increased x

Thanks @tiggerwhocamefortea

@beachbum85 congrats on your BFP!!

really appreciate both your thoughts! You just hear of so many people getting lots to freeze so I panicked it could mean an issue that we didn’t get any, but I suppose it’s not guaranteed! Xx

Thank you very much @Clapham4!

I had panicked too first time round, so I totally get it, but one consultant told me that only about 30% get embryos to freeze, so it's definitely not uncommon not to get any xx