None of our 8 embryos survived the thawing process

[Annie8787]

Hi,
Feeling heartbroken and confused. I am 37 and have had 3 early mc's, all at 5 weeks.
We decided to try IVF with pgt and recently did an egg collection - 16 eggs collected, 10 embryos fertilised and 8 made it to blastocyst stage and frozen. For our first egg collection this was an amazing outcome and we and the clinic were feeling positive. However, yesterday the lab thawed the embryos for biopsy- NONE of the 8 embryos survived the thawing process. We're in shock and devastated. Even the lady at the lab said she has been doing this for 25 years and has only seen this happen a handful of times. Our specialist said this indicates poor egg/embryo quality. Has this happened to anyone else and where did you go from here? Did you try again with ivf and have a better outcome? Any advice / stories similar to ours would be greatly appreciated

I don't have any wise words I'm afraid, but just want to offer sympathy. I have 9 frozen and the thought of losing all of them is incomprehensible to me. So sorry

Why did they freeze them before doing the biopsy? Is that standard? (Not suggesting they did anything wrong, of course.) I didn't have mine tested but I think I remember they said they'd do that before freezing them.

@Holskey
Really appreciate your response. I’m not sure why they didn’t do a fresh biopsy. It’s something I will ask. If there is a silver lining it’s that if they had done a fresh biopsy and then frozen the embryos, we would have spent $10’000 aud on pgt testing and none of the embryos would have been viable anyway.
I believe this is very rare as the clinic told us their success rate for thawing is 95%. It may just be that I have very poor egg quality that can’t make it past the blastocyst stage. I fall pregnant very quickly and mc v early too. They investigated in the lab for any errors and we have been assured that none were made. I really hope that’s the case! Thanks again for your response.
I hope you have had / are having success with your journey and wish you all the best!

Nothing add apart from to say how hard that must be. I'm sorry.

Thank you @Franca123

[quote Annie8787]@Holskey
Really appreciate your response. I’m not sure why they didn’t do a fresh biopsy. It’s something I will ask. If there is a silver lining it’s that if they had done a fresh biopsy and then frozen the embryos, we would have spent $10’000 aud on pgt testing and none of the embryos would have been viable anyway.
I believe this is very rare as the clinic told us their success rate for thawing is 95%. It may just be that I have very poor egg quality that can’t make it past the blastocyst stage. I fall pregnant very quickly and mc v early too. They investigated in the lab for any errors and we have been assured that none were made. I really hope that’s the case! Thanks again for your response.
I hope you have had / are having success with your journey and wish you all the best!

[/quote]
Yes, the testing is so expensive so it's saved you wasting thousands. Still, it must be difficult to come to terms with. I really hope they can suggest ways forward for overcoming issues with egg quality.

Hi @Annie8787 I am so sorry to hear about this.

This thread was posted in the past: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/infertility/4049966-4-out-of-5-embryos-did-not-survive-thaw

I would ask for a formal investigation, I would be worried about some kind of lab error because statistically losing 8 embryos by chance is very unlikely.

@Gardenlady543
Thank you I spent half the night searching the net for other stories similar to ours and could not find one, where all embryos were lost. I usually find comfort from these forums, reading success stories from others that have been through a similar experience. I'm glad that this seems to be so rare and does not happen often as it's a devastating outcome. This does however leave me feeling pretty alone and not knowing which way to turn now. I think I will push for further investigation at the lab. Many thanks

Gosh I'm so sorry - do you know what grade they were when they were frozen?

T@tiggerwhocamefortea
Thanks for your reply. I'm unsure of the grading in terms of the numbers and letters they use but was told we had one 'excellent' and 7 'good' quality embryos.

My heart goes out to you @Annie8787 I got 9 blasts in my fresh cycle and it gave me reassurance that if one or more didn't survive the thaw, that it wouldn't happen to all of them and your situation is just awful.

It kind of feels like you're being fobbed off with it being a "quality issue" and with such high rates of good embryos, I just can't see it. I can't see how so many would become day 5 embryos but that all of them won't survive a thaw. I'm no expert though. I am on infertility forums constantly, your case and the case I told you about are the only ones I have ever seen.

Reddit has a subreddit where embryologists answer questions, could you post there? it would be good to get some views from other embryologists:
www.reddit.com/r/AskEmbryologists/

I am sorry this has haopened, how awful. I would ask for a further explanation as these days embryos have something like a 97% thaw rate. It is most unusual that this would happen to all of them (I'm not an expert, just been through several FETs and asked lots of questions)

@Gardenlady543
Thanks so much for your help. I have just posted on Reddit

@MabelG thank you. We have asked the lab for a further investigation. They have acknowledged our email and we should receive a response in the next couple of days.

I hope you get some good opinions on there @Annie8787 I think a lot of the members are in the USA so it might take a few hours to hear back.