Egg quality - fragmentation?

[Jane8412]

Hello- I am part way through my first round of IVF. I have low AMH/AFC. I had my egg collection on Monday and they collected 4 eggs. Might not sound a lot to most but I was actually really happy with this since I only had 3 follicles on my scan last Friday. My partner's sample was sufficient for IVF, previously his morphology was low at 3% but it was 4% on EC day which was a nice surprise. All four eggs fertilised overnight, which was great news as i was sick with worry. I just had a call with the embryologist for a day 3 update and she said 2 were good quality and 2 were borderline. She said the borderline ones still had the correct number of cells but some fragmentation. Has anyone had experience of fragmentation and did those embryos end up making it to day 5? Just trying to be realistic with myself. Thanks x

[Hidden]

Hey, congrats on getting to day 3! Sounds like great progress.

Honestly you can read all about fragmentation, embryo quality etc but a this stage it really is so early and the clinic are really using it as a guide as to which embryo will give you the best chance of a pregnancy, rather than a definitive this one is good this one is bad opinion. Its a really imperfect science - I can tell you that because my last round I had 5 embryos on day 3, and one was the 'perfect' embryo.. the right number of cells, zero fragmentation, just perfect... so perfect the clinic were quite excited about it. When I had my transfer I asked if one of the embryos we were transferring was the perfect one.. turns out that one had stopped progressing approx 6 hours after been deemed 'perfect' - it had arrested.. instead the fragmented ones were the ones that made it to transfer!

I read somewhere that even if your embryos are perfect only about 50% make it from day 3 to day 5.. but then you will be able to find loads of stories on here about 100% or 1%!! you have done your bit now.. I know its impossible but try and keep calm, keep everything crossed, I wish you lots of luck and hope that you have at least a couple to transfer by Saturday xx

[Jane8412 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Daisy. Really appreciate your response. I am quietly hopeful I will have one to transfer on Saturday but only time will tell. Just have to try remain as stress free as possible until then. Like you said, I've done my bit now! xx

[Lilly12255]

You should ask them details on the scale (are they grade 2 out of 3? or grade 3 out of 4?) and what they call borderline. The questions to ask are: what is the % of fragmentation on each and are the fragments large or small. That info will help you have a better view of chances. I have fragmentation all the time so I have gone into details of this. x

[Jane8412 in reply to Lilly12255]

Thanks Lilly. That's very helpful. I'll make sure to ask for more detail next time, now that I understand a bit better. I may be wrong but I don't think they grade them to a scale on day three at my clinic. I will be back in there tomorrow for the transfer so I guess I will know then if any have made it to day 5 blast and if any can be frozen. Fingers crossed x