Please help me make sense of what embryologist said

[confusedivfer]

We've had 6 eggs fertilised.
On our day 3 update call the embryologist said that 2 are looking the best (yay), 1 is showing high degree of fragmentation which means it's trying to exclude parts that are developing abnormally and 3 are slow to divide.
What does that mean in practice for our chances of having healthy babies from the other 4? The ones that are remaining after the 2 "best". Any success stories? Not sure what to expect from day 5 update, feeling very anxious, and generally what is meant by anything.
We're having another cycle starting next week as doing some back to back

Hello, long time IVF-er here and have been through 5 freezing rounds. Congrats on making it this far. Here’s what I wish someone had explained to me before my first round, as I, like you, was anxious and didn’t understand how this phase worked. Sounds like you’re freezing due to back to back cycles.

So the rate of fertilized eggs to make it to blastocyst stage (day 5) is around 30-50%. From what you say it sounds like you will be within those brackets, I.e. 2 should hopefully make it to freeze and you might get another one from the other 4 but might not. There’s unfortunately no guarantees ever with this. To directly answer your question “What does that mean in practice for our chances of having healthy babies from the other 4?” while it’s possible that all of the other 4 could make it to blast stage and get frozen, it is unlikely (you’d be at odds with normal stats). Those embryos that are not deemed viable or stop developing will be discarded, so not frozen. Any embryos that make it to freeze will each be given an embryo grade. This grade gives you a better indication of the embryo’s viability to make it to a live birth. The live birth rate range depends on your age and embryo grade and is roughly between 12-55%. Once you have grades you can find the live birth rate out for each embryo. Your clinic will likely have its own stats they can give you.

I personally found this phase psychologically very hard the first time as I didn’t understand the above, so for what it’s worth, it got easier. Good luck!

@Zypig thank you so much for the detailed response ❤️ super helpful!

Yes freezing due to back to back cycles because I want more children after this one and my AMH is quite low for my age, I'm 30.

@confusedivfer Just as PP said, the stats are pretty reliable and a good place to put expectations. I had 19 eggs collected, 10 fertilized, and ended up with 3 day 5 embryos & 3 day 6 embryos. On day 5 they told us that 3 were being frozen, 2 had not made it, and the other 5 were being a bit slow. By the next day (day 6) 2 had unfortunately not made it but were able to freeze another 3.
The clinic graded them A-D and assured us that they would only freeze viable embryos. They wouldn’t bother with ones that they chances weren’t good for a live healthy baby.
I know this is a hard time and I wish you all the luck in the world! Stay strong and think positive 🍀