hello all,
I have a question for any IVF ladies out there.
Has anyone ever had slow growing, small ( size 1 or 2) or poorer quality blastocysts ( bb bc cb cc etc) on day 5 in a cycle but then gone on to have faster growing, expanded, better quality in the next cycle?
Do you think it’s possible for these things to change from cycle to cycle and improve? or do these issues tend to stay, if experienced once?
Any advice on what can make a difference xxx
I have heard of cycles to be quite different with each other. My friend had no blastocysts from cycle one and in cycle 2 she had 5 good quality. My experience was more or les consistent. Slow developing on day 3, mostly poor quality blastocysts, most of them earlier stages of blastocysts in all cycles. I never had 5aa or ab.
Hi Tnthketnf
Have you ever had a fresh transfer with an early blast that led to a bfp?
Mine are so slow developing that I think they miss the implantation window by not expanding until day 6 or 7. Transferring on day 5 fresh cycle would then be pointless wouldn’t it? However, that’s what my clinic did. My embryo took until after 2pm to get to a stage 2. It was a 1 at 8am. I could imagine it would have missed the day 5 slot and should have been grown to day 6 and frozen? Xx
I never had a positive. Most of my transfers were frozen as I usually had quite high estrogen after retrieval. my fresh transfers were with either a morula or with an early blastocyst stage 1. I think I had a stage 2 as well that was frozen and when transfered it was still stage 2.
I never had implantation and I queried this with my first clinic about missing the timing due to embryos being slower but they didn't confirm anything. They just said we cannot know.
I am no longer trying with my own eggs. Hoping for a donor transfer in early 2024
My first private cycle and nhs cycle were similar in terms of how the embryos developed, their grading and we ended up with two embryos in each cycle.
For my third cycle, my consultant added a second stims injection, I changed my prenatal vitamin and my hubby started taking proceive and vitamin D. We also opted for ICSI MACS. We saw a massive difference in how our embryos developed this time, and ended up with six embryos between day 5/6, all much higher grades than our previous cycles.
It’s hard to know which of the changes made a difference. Lifestyle wise we didn’t change much. But it does show that it is possible to get different outcomes in different cycles.
What I will also say is I have learned through this forum that grading isn’t everything, and doesn’t guarantee a good outcome. I’ve read plenty of stories where the “perfect” embryos didn’t result in pregnancy, and embryos that were considered lower grades have ended up as beautiful, healthy babies. I think this is what makes this process so difficult, there are just so many factors at play!
Wishing you lots of luck
That is a good turn around Waitingonarainbow. Can I ask what prenatal you changed to? I’m on proceive max, so is hubby. We had 25% fertilisation with IVF - I don’t understand if that shows a Sperm or egg issue? Xx
We both started taking proceive max before this cycle. We had been taking the Pregnacare conception before.
Hubby had dna fragmentation test before this cycle and while it didn’t show a lot of fragmentation, it was picked up that he had a vitamin D deficiency, which is why the vitD supplements were recommended.
Have you explored tests like dna fragmentation or talked about ICSI with your clinic?
Hi Ses, They are growing, so theses may work, or a new batch could grow at a faster rate. Speak to your embryologist. Good luck . . Djane
I think life could make huge difference add some parental multivitamins and fruits and veg more specifically coQ10 around 400mg to 600mg and omaga 3 around 1000mg will bring huge difference.
Hi Nabsal,
That is what I had done, been taking all of that and more for a year. However, only 400mg Coq10. OH has been taking prenatal too. I don’t know what else, if anything I can try? Numbers good, lining good. I was reading about the cell energy and trying to focus on boosting that using anti-oxidants. Maybe it’s my age - 40, xx
Our only embryo from my first round arrested in the morula stage on day 4, and then on my second round we had one perfect embryo and one good embryo on day 5 and two slow growers that surprised us and became two fair embryos on day 6.
That’s positive news for you! Did you change anything between cycles? My clinic didn’t let them grow to day 6. They transferred 1bb on day 5 and froze a 2bb. I thought they’d let them expand to day 6 and then freeze ( we wanted a freeze all cycle anyway to bank). So now, I don’t even know if they can get to expanded or not… that’s concerning.
Slow growing or doomed?
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day 6 slow developing blastocysts - any success stories? 
