embryo quality

[ToffeeLou]

Hello, first time I’ve posted but often read and feel comforted/reassured when I read posts. So many brave ladies!

I’m about to do my third FET this time with Donor Eggs. My first two FET were unsuccessful with my own eggs collected at age 37,38 and 39. We got 16 eggs across the three rounds, finishing with 4 embryos of good quality. All 5ABs, but sadly none of them took. They did double embryo transfer both times.

I’ve now switched to donor eggs (28 year old woman) and was really disappointed with the embryo quality (3BB, 4BB, 5CB, 3BC). The clinic have frozen all four and are transferring the 3BB next Tuesday (combined with iDA scores they think this one is the best). They don’t want to do double transfers due to the risk of twins resulting in miscarriage.

The clinic are telling me that the quality of the embryos are good and average, but everything I’ve read online suggests the BCs are poor quality. Does age come into this in terms of what the eye can’t see? The clinic doesn’t do PGT testing. The donor has 4 more eggs that weren’t fertilised yet and they won’t fertilise them until we’ve atleast tried the BBs as they don’t want to “waste them” and are convinced I will get pregnant with the two BBs. I know this is possible but just after views from others on this forum.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and good luck to you all 🙏

[gerifit]

Hi lovely, I totally understand where you’re coming from but please try not to focus too hard on the grading. I had 4 fails/miscarriages over the last 2.5 years, all with AA and AB embryos. I’m now currently 8 weeks pregnant with a B+B+. This was from a new egg collection and we had the embryos PGT-A tested this time, so that may be the difference, but still lower quality. My best friend also has a little girl from a BC embryo, yet a failure from an AB embryo. I kind of wish they wouldn’t tell us the grading!

Wishing you loads of luck lovely. Xxxx

[ToffeeLou in reply to gerifit]

Thankyou so much for your reply and huge congratulations on your 8 weeks. That’s amazing! X

[Eloquentia]

Hi! Embryo grading is really a beauty contest and a snapshot of the embryo development on a given day. The only reliable metric of embryo quality is PGTA testing and I have seen many women on this blog whose PGTA-tested good quality embryos were the lower grade ones, so keep the faith!

[ToffeeLou in reply to Eloquentia]

Thankyou, great to hear that PGTA testing has been good for lower quality grades embryos. Unfortunately my clinic doesn’t do PGTA testing but hopefully as the embryos are young they have a good chance of being chromosomely normal 🙏

[Twiglet2]

my little boy was a 4BC that after thawing improved to a 4BB the first 3 ‘perfect’ 5AAs and 4AA didnt work or resulted in miscarriage for us. My friend has a similar story with a 3BC after better grades didn’t work. I think yours have every chance especially given the age of your donor too! Good luck 🤗💜

[ToffeeLou]

Thankyou Twiglet2. Sorry to hear about your miscarriages, but great to hear it worked for you and your friend and both now have children and reassuring about the success with lower grades embryos. Transfer is on Tuesday so will just keep positive thoughts 🙏

[Tnthketnf]

I would probably have the same reaction. But I am sure I read donor treatment stories in here with low morphology resulting in success. Unfortunately what I have been told is that the number one most important factor is age. so an an embryo of a woman less than 30 that has average or even poor morphology is probably better than a good morphology embryo of a woman over 35.

I will you all the best!

[ToffeeLou in reply to Tnthketnf]

Thanks Tnthketnf! Keeping my fingers crossed 🤞

[sunset212]

Hi Toffelu

I had a daughter from grade 3BB , my eggs had been collected when I was 3 months shy of 36! she’s a lively little girl now . In terms of quality BB is good and BC is ok especially that your donor is so young ( I.E below 30) there’s a very high chance one of the BB’s will work and still a very good chance one of the BC/CB will work. Given her age you have little to worry about. Eggs from donors in their mid 20’s yield eggs usually 75% normal. All the best x

[ToffeeLou in reply to sunset212]

Thanks Sunset212 and congratulations on your daughter. That’s very reassuring! Will keep on with my manifesting and positive thoughts! X

[sunset212 in reply to ToffeeLou]

Hi! How did your transfer go did you get a positive pregnancy test? X