Trying again with same grade

[MrsM1992]

We did our first ivf round in May which has heartbreakingly ended in miscarriage at 6 weeks. We have a frozen embryo of the same grade (5BB) which we will look to transfer around September/October. Has anyone been through similar? I have no confidence at all that transferring an embryo of the same grade will work and I can’t go through this again.

Hey! I don’t have experience of this but I think all replies will say that no two embryos are the same, even if the grades are the same. There really is no way of knowing whether it will work, and unfortunately there is more chance of IVF not working than it working (but most people seem to think it’s a guaranteed way to have a baby). What I will say is that I wouldn’t put much emphasis on grading. My friend had 4 perfect embryos put back in and none worked, but had one not great one put back in (her last egg) and she now has a perfect little boy from it. Only you can decide whether you are mentally and emotionally ok to try again - but no one on here can say whether it will work for you, it really is just down to nature and whether the embryo is genetically healthy as to whether it will work. Sorry that’s not more helpful.
Good luck with whatever you decide 😊

@MrsM1992 I'm sorry to hear of your loss. The grading of embryos means very little in reality - I've had a 5AA embryo fail to implant, and got pregnant twice (1 live birth, other now 24 weeks) with lower graded embryos. I would ignore the grading to be honest, it is not that predictive of success!

@MrsM1992 Also, just to say as hard as it is going through an early loss, and as insensitive as it sounds, the advice my clinic gave when I had a chemical pregnancy was that it was a good sign because it demonstrated I could get pregnant, that the pregnancy most likely ended because that embryo was never viable to begin with, and that all we needed was to find the right embryo. It felt very clinical at the time, but it was true. My next transfer resulted in my DD.

Embryo grading really is a beauty contest. Grading is purely done based on the appearance, not the genetic makeup of that particular embryo. For that you need PGT-A testing. Would you feel more optimistic if the grade of your embryo was 5AA? This year I put in two 5AAs, the first one did not implant and the second one resulted in a 6 weeks miscarriage like yours. 5BB is still a very good grade, people have children from far lower graded embryos. Please take your time to process the loss and then go for it, you will never know unless you try. Good luck!

Thank you all, I really appreciate it!

Just another point of view. In many countries (including mine, which is a leader in IVF) they don’t even grade embryos!

I know my ‘best’ one went first and didn’t even implant. My second got me pregnant, and I’m now 15 weeks along. There’s lots of great advice here, so please don’t get hung up on gradings.

Good luck!

@MrsM1992 I follow an embryologist from the evewell and she shared this just now - thought it might help to reassure you ☺️

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8XbRy6M4mO/?igsh=ajJ5NnRsdGxocWMw

@HopefulllHolly thanks so much for sharing that!

We had 4 transfers in total, first being a 5BB, like yourself this ended in a miscarriage at 8 weeks.
We went on to transfer another 3 embryos all at a higher grade, all of which failed.
The fourth and final transfer was also a 5BB which resulted in my beautiful 12 week old son.
The embryos were from different collections but 5BB’s seemed to be our special grade.
Good luck x

@SH998 thanks so much for sharing and congratulations on your baby boy.