Quality embryo

[cardif]

Hi. Could you tell me please how many embryo results after IVF? From what number are there good qualities ones? Do they throw away those ones with no quality? Many thanks!

[Cinderella5]

There isnt really an answer to this, the number of embryos cant vary greatly from person to person and depend on many, many factors. The unused embryos are usually destroyed unless you have consented to them being used for research.xx

[cardif in reply to Cinderella5]

Thank you! From your experience how many unused embryos are resulting after one cycle of IVF? Many thanks!

[Cinderella5 in reply to cardif]

From my own cycles out of the eggs fertilised here are the numbers unused that were not good enough:- 1st cycle - 6/6, 2nd cycle 4/6, 3rd cycle 5/6.

[cardif in reply to Cinderella5]

Thank you for your answer! What is the difference between a good quality one and a poor one? How do they clasify this? A poor one is not being developed normally?

[Cinderella5 in reply to cardif]

Yes, they are looked at under the microscope and classified on how the cells develop through different stages and if the cells are of equal shapes and division etc. Ive put a guide below for a better understanding, hope it helps.

advancedfertility.com/blast...

[Kari55]

It really depends. My first cycle resulted in 2 average quality blastocysts. My 2nd cycle resulted in 8 blastocysts - 1 was top quality, 4 are very good quality and 3 are average. So as you can see it varies not only from person to person but also from cycle to cycle.

[cardif in reply to Kari55]

Thank you!

[Coracle]

Hi Cardif. I am guessing you may be concerned for morality and/or religious reasons.

There will almost always be embryos who stop developing and 'don't make it' to day 5 blastocyst. Effectively, they have died.

If you only have one embryo on day 2, even if not looking good quality, your embryologist will usually recommend transfer it, and hope for the best.

If you had 2 embryos on day 2, you might choose to transfer one or both of them, or see if one or both make it to day 5.

At day 5, if you have several blastocysts, usually the best looking one is transferred and the rest frozen. If they are very poor looking in quality, embryologists might advise against transferring them... but if this bothers you from religious or moral reasons, you can still choose to have them transferred and give them a chance.

The more worrying position for people who have religious concerns, is having a round of ivf and having more embryos than they know what to do with. I think for most people this is unlikely, but is a possibility if you are young and I think PCOS patients can sometimes have this issue, but I could be wrong there.

Talk to your gynaecology doctor about all these issues if they worry you.

I myself am a Christian and had a helpful discussion with a Christian gynaecologist about embryos. He shared with me his thoughts and I came to think the same way. We think embryos are like seeds, they contain the information for a baby. An embryo pre-implantation contains the combined genetic information from a man and a woman, and is a ball of cells, ready to implant in the lining of the womb and then produce a baby and a placenta. Personally, I think pre-implantation, an embryo is still a potential baby, not a baby. But I know a lot of Christians will disagree with me on this.

Some Christians worry about the 'waste' of embryos from failed ivf cycles.. But when trying to get pregnant naturally, this happens as well. You can have a embryo travelling the fallopian tubes and entering the womb.. but no succesful implantation happens.. and the woman has a period.

[cardif in reply to Coracle]

Many thanks for your answer! It is very helpfull. Your guessing is right. I am worried because of religious and the same time moral. Those ones which are going to die, christian church see them as a sin, like abortation.

Because I have never done it and I am supposed to follow this treatment in few months I am just wondering how many eggs do they ussually retrive? Do they fertilize all of them? How many out of them are going to die?

As I undestood from you the poor and good quality you can use them. The worry now is for those ones who dies, throw them away or not using them. Even though it seems like God will decide wich one will be developing or no and die.

It is just a complex topic with people pro and against it.....

[Coracle in reply to cardif]

It is difficult. The ones that die, (I prefer to say stop developing to be honest) they would still have stopped developing most likely if things were happening 'naturally'. And if you weren't trying ivf, they wouldn't have had a chance at all!

It's really important to realise that in a 'normal natural' cycle without ivf some embryos will be poor quality for all sorts of reasons and not make it to blastocyst. Some will be poor quality blastocysts and not implant. Some will implant and there will be a miscarriage because again the embryo is poor quality. Some will not implant and the woman will have a period. We don't make the poor woman or the couple feel guilty every time she has a period or a miscarriage!

For the embryos that stop developing and don't make it to blastocyst, I don't think you should feel any guilt at all. This is my personal opinion. It was never meant to be. They are small balls of cells with genetic information, and for whatever reason, some of the genetic coding was not right, and they don't develop.

[Coracle in reply to cardif]

Back to how many eggs you might produce... what age are you, do you have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome)? In my experience and hearing others results, a good result can be 10 eggs retrieved, 7 fertilise, 3 make it to blastocyst. But I have some proper statistics somewhere... again depends on your age etc. Some ladies get a lot more eggs.. but sometimes the egg quality is not good and they don't have many fertilise. But other ladies get a lot of eggs AND a lot of blastocysts. But this is pretty rare I think

[cardif in reply to Coracle]

Thank you so much for your replay. I am 32. I have PCO, without cystes but I don’t ovulate monthly. My right tube is missing and the left one is blocked. I was just wandering if I would try a natural treatment to unblock it like an enzyme found on internet.

[Kari55 in reply to cardif]

I think you need to think about it in a way that the strongest survives and this is an old biological truth for all species. I understand that you have concerns but embryos are bundle of cells that might develop into a baby but they might not. Every month a woman ovulates and an egg is released which potentially might be fertilised and develop into a baby but most of the time it doesn’t and it dies off. I think that if you decided to go the IVF route despite the moral concerns, you should try to rationalise them a bit as the process is very hard without an extra stress. All the best x

[cardif in reply to Kari55]

Thank you for you answer! You said that is very hard....is it the injectionts or do we feel sick because of the artificial hormones? Is it the procedure itself difficult or painfull?

[Kari55 in reply to cardif]

I didn’t find my first ivf very hard physically but I only had 8 eggs collected. During my 2nd I had 14 eggs and definitely was feeling it. I wasn’t feeling sick but very bloated and tired. I find the psychological side of the process the hardest, especially 2WW and then bouncing back if the test is negative.

[cardif in reply to Kari55]

Thank you.....I am already tired of thinking to accept this treatment or not.... I am 32...trying for the last 3 years....thinking like to wait another 2 years.....maybe I will fall pregnant naturally.....I have only 1 tube and that one is blocked and also PCO.

[Kari55 in reply to cardif]

I would try it now. The younger you are, the better. Good luck x