Day 3 to day 5 embryo development and grading

[abbaroony]

I am hoping that others who have had similar grade embryos to us on day 3 can give me some hope as I'm feeling pretty worried right now.

I knew that ivf was a numbers game and that we should expect a drop off at every stage, but am feeling pretty deflated after our latest update.

From 22 follicles we got 14 eggs, 6 of which fertilised. It is day 3 now and our grades are:

8 cell grade 1
9 cell grade 2

7 cell grade 3
6 cell grade 3
5 cell grade 2
5 cell grade 3

I have done a quick Google to see what this might mean we should expect on day 5 and I'm feeling really worried. It seems that even if you have lots of 8 cell grade 1 embryos you can expect a significant drop off by day 5. I know it only takes 1, but now I'm really worried we won't even have that.

I am also wondering why they didn't suggest a 3 day transfer as she said that we had 1 good, 1 ok and 4 not great embryos.

Any experience would be really appreciated.

Just to provide an update in case it is useful for anyone. I had my transfer today on day 5, only 1 of the embryos made it to today and it was at 'early blastocyst' stage so not grade-able.

Not holding out a lot of hope for it working and wondering if there is potentially a problem that we don't know about because we have ended up with 1 barely there embryo from 22 follicles.

Thank you for the update; was watching your thread. I am looking at first IVF in March and am a bunch of nerves.

Good luck with it all @CDiamond, it really is a rollercoaster so look after yourself.

I found out later today that they will keep my 5 remaining embryos until tomorrow to see if they do catch up, apparently they were still at the cell stage this morning so I'm not sure how likely that is but good to know that they've not already been thrown away!

Good luck @abbaroony. I've been exactly where you were on transfer day and now have an 18 month old. Stay hopeful. If this round isn't successful I think it would be worth a conversation re your drop off as only 6 fertilising from 14 collected seems a bit low, as does 14 eggs from 22 follicles. Will keep fingers crossed for you.

Thank you so much @MGee123 and I think you're right - definitely worth looking into further as we have 'unexplained' infertility based on the tests we've had done so far.

Congratulations on your little one... it's a stressful time so hearing about a light at the end of the tunnel is great!

It is so very stressful, and I vividly remember the sinking feeling on transfer day when they told me the embryo hadn't reached blastocyst stage. I felt like all the faff had been for nothing, but it really is true that they wouldn't transfer an embryo with no chance, so try as best you can to stay positive. I really hope this works out for you. We're about to start the process again for a sibling and I'm feeling rather emotional about it. It's such a rollercoaster of a ride. Hugs to you.

@MGee123 I think it's worked!! Thank you so much for posting, your story was honestly the only thing that gave me any hope during a very stressful time, so I wanted to come back and update and say thank you.

Yay!! That's amazing news @abbaroony 😀😀😀 huge congratulations. Will keep all fingers crossed for smooth sailing here on in x

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations 🥳

Hi @abbaroony.

First, congrats on the BFP!

I am wondering whether you had any follow-up around the low fertilisation?

I am in a similar position now with poor fertilisation. I only had 3 make it to day 3 (1x 8C grade 1, 2x 6C grade 1&2) and now on day 5 only 1 has made it to blast.

The other 2 stopped growing at cellular stage but are also being left overnight. I don’t suppose yours developed further in that time?

Thank you and all the best for your pregnancy.

Thank you @WillowMagnolia, it definitely doesn't feel real yet!

We've not had any sort of follow up at all yet - at our clinic the next stage after a BFP is a scan at 7 weeks which we have in a couple of weeks. Regardless of the outcome I am going to ask them about this though as it seemed like such a drop to me.

None of my remaining 5 made it to day 6 I'm afraid.

I think one of the things I found hardest was their attitude to it... when they told us only one had made it to early blast they said it in such a nonchalant way and seemed surprised that I was really upset. I suppose this shows that it must be quite common to end up in this situation. My clinic do mild ivf which I think also contributes to the ultimately low numbers. What protocol were you on?

Don't lose hope... I completely had but somehow it worked out so I suppose anything can happen!