I already asked and they said, we only freeze good day 5 blastocyts - but upon researching (obsessive googling) they aren't actually ' good' embryos. so i'm a little confused.
My lower graded day 6 embryo has finally fallen asleep and he passed all his heal prick tests and as far as all the tests go, he is chromosomally normal so I don’t think that person is right.
Our consultant said that the grading just gives you the chance they will implant and not whether they are normal. I had 4 transfers from better graded embryos than my little boy that didn’t work.
I also had an embryo discarded at day 5 which wasn’t good enough to freeze and in my experience, the clinic is very good at saying if they think your embryos have no hope. Our embryologists were happy to have questions from us about our embryos.
B grades are pretty reasonable graded embryos but everyone on forums and infertility groups on social media has top graded embryos and gets pregnant practically 1st transfer.
I don’t think that’s the experience of most people regardless of age and health. Lots of very healthy fertile people can take a couple of months to get pregnant naturally so even if your remaining embryos don’t work, it could just be luck rather than anything wrong.
Hi there, I'm no expert and yet to start my first IVF cycle, but i'm going for PGT-A tetsing (for checking normal chromosones).
I have been told that some embryos that get high grades and look "perfect" (5AA) can come back chromosonally abnormal - because of course the grading at the 5AA level is subjective and based on what it looks like. Similarly, i've been told that lower graded embryos can come back chromosonally normal. I've also come across lots of examples of women on forums where the lower graded embryo actually turns out to be the chromosonally normal one and lots of examples of women with success with lower graded embryos.
Definitely one to dicuss with your Dr, but from what I've heard from Drs and read, a lower grade definitely does not equate to being chromosonally abnormal. I'm sorry what you've read or heard has scared you. It sounds like misinformation which is causing unnecessary anxiety for you x
The grade of embryos is actually a bit of beauty contest, they grade how they look, cells, fragmentation, expansion etc etc. I had 5AA embryo that tested trisomy and 4AB that tested monosomy (both chromosomal abnormalities and wouldn’t lead to success). I had few 3BA and they came back normal. So I’d definitely say that PGA testing tells more. Don’t stress about grading, if embryo survives freezing and thawing that’s already good sign. My clinic sent me grading and detailed explanation about how they do it (first letter is baby cells and the other one is what is going to form placenta), but I think it also depends on embryologist and how he sees it at that moment. Good luck!
I had three chromosomally normal embryos graded BB, BB and BC (age 30). 5 untested embryos including 2 AAs and an AB didn't stick (age 29 at collection). My clinic told me grading is just a prediction of how likely they are to stick, and that my chromosomally normal embryos are very good quality. I wouldn't worry xxx
This isn’t true. PGTA has shown highly graded embryos can be abnormal. For example my wife had a 4AA reported as trisomy 21. Her 4BC and 4CC are healthy. These embryos aren’t as ‘strong’ as the 4AA, so their chances of implanting are a bit less xx
The confusion comes from misunderstanding statistical likelihood. Lower graded embryos are (weakly) statistically more likely to be abnormal than higher graded ones. They are statistically less likely to lead to pregnancy. That absolutely does not mean lower graded embryos are all abnormal and higher graded ones are all normal, nor that success is guaranteed with a higher graded one and failure with a lower graded one. Grading simply helps to guide which has the best chance of being normal/implanting. It’s subjective and not foolproof by any means. Xx
what you’ve been told on the other forum just simply isn’t true! The grading here is like a ‘beauty contest’ of what they can see on the outside is how my clinic put it and doesn’t at all mean there is no chromosome abnormalities just because it’s a 5AA and vice Versa doesn’t mean there is if it’s a lower grade!
Our ‘perfect’ 5AA and 2x 5ABs didn’t work and it was a 4BC that brought us our perfectly healthy boy! Also after the thaw our 4BC had moved up to a 4BB so it’s also just a moment in time snapshot rating and can change hour by hour both your embryos still have every chance 🤗 xx
Don’t worry yourself over grading. It us very subjective to the embrylogist and same embryos could b identified with different numbers/letters in another clinic. The fact that clinic freezes them means they are good enough for a transfer. They can also expand to better grading when thawed.
Even PGA testing embryos is not 100% backed by science my RE even admitted this and I read so many studies on testing is not a final determination on an embryo working or not, even normal ones not guaranteed to implant.
At this point the only thing you can focus on is to give them a better chance of implanting by taking care if your body and eat healthy and any other tests your doc may suggest before doing another transfer. At the end to me ivf is kinda similar to buying a lottery ticket, slightly more probability! You do your best , it is not honostly in your hand 100% and not something anyone even doctors can tell by embryo grades.
You have the luck of being young on your side so pray it works and hopefully it will. If not and you still want it you will try again, maybe with a different protocol based on your dr’s recommendation. For us the mini ivf worked better ,ofcourse I was much older than you but results were much better than when I was younger with a full dosage protocol.
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3BB embryo
Update on my little embryos!
Number of embryos transferred 
