day 5 embryos not become blasts - confused

[VeryTrying22]

Just had my first egg transfer (so keeping fingers crossed), but am a bit confused and the clinic is now closed so wanted to check and see if anyone had this themselves.

we had 18 eggs collected, 14 fertilised and 10 have made it to day 5. But the clinic said only one has become a blastocyst so they will give the other 9, 24 hours to get themselves together (my wording not theirs)

but I am a bit confused, as what’s the difference between the 9 that haven’t become blastocysts and the 4 that didn’t make it to day 5, can they still become a blastocyst on day 6? Is it worrying that they haven’t made it to the right level by day 5 so to expect the worst and only having one viable embryo.

any guidance or support would be greatly appreciated as I lay here thinking happy thoughts 😳

I had a very disappointing first round on ivf
Less numbers than you overall but none of mine made it to blast so we transferred one anyway but it was very doom and gloom

9 eggs collected
7 fertilised
All made it to day 3 fine
None made to blast day 5

Anyway sadly it didn't stick however we did so another cycle and we got better results

2nd cycle
7 eggs Collected
5 fertilised
2 made it to blast

We were told anything after day 3 would indicate sperm issues and beforehand egg quality so my DR didn't let me cycle again until we went for a comet test and turned out he had DNA fragmentation so we had supplements and dieted for 3 months as he said the same thing may happen (not saying this is the case for you ) just want to share my story

We then got 2 top quality embryos
One I'm pregnant with and the other is in the freezer

Any questions I'm happy to ask I'm sure some others will be along soon to advise too

X

Also your clinic should be answering your questions
We had a review after our cycle but fingers crossed this one sticks as it still could!!! X

Please don't worry, they absolutely can become good blastocysts at day six - this is very normal. It's standard in the UK to give embryos until day six to become embryos.

In the US they'll give them until day seven, but the outcomes are a lot worse than day five / six embryos, so UK clinics don't do it.

The baby I'm cuddling now was given an extra day as she hadn't made it to blast by day five. Some just need a bit longer. Fingers crossed for you.

I forgot to add that day 6 two of ours had caught up and were blasts but they weren't good enough for freeze! That was the first cycle so that's was so depressing knowing they were blasts but they wouldn't freeze like@Rosemarypots has explained that they have poorer outcomes
My clinic however I feel were good because I felt they were realistic with us rather than let us build up hope. Especially as they suggested testing other half's sperm before going again which I'm sure helped us get here xx

Just to add, I did a cycle where I had no blasts on day five, but got five in the freezer on day six. I'm doing PGD and PGS so a lot of my embryos aren't usable, but the quality of them all was fine - they were all suitable for biopsy.

@Rosemarypots wow that is good ! X

Thank you everyone for the reassurance, was in La la land coming out of the clinic today and forgot to ask loads of questions then had a massive panic when I got home 😳

Had the call from the clinic this morning, all 3 made it, 2 A’s 1 C, all suitable for freezing!!!

thank you so much everyone for the reassurance, it helped me not get too far into my own head yesterday 🌹

Do IVF clinics not do a sperm analysis as standard as part of the initial fertility testing?

Seems like a terrible waste of time and money to do an IVF cycle if sperm quality is poor and could be improved with a couple of months' lifestyle changes.

Congratulations!