Calculating days of growth for embies

[Tiny Dancer]

I had my egg retrieval around 12:30pm on Thursday and Embryo transfer on the following Tuesday around 12:30pm. The embryo transferred was at the compacted morula stage and a female. Should it have been at the blast stage by the transfer time? When would the lab have last accessed it's stage before the transfer? Does a compacted embryo have as much chance of implanting as a blast?

[nuthinbutpink]

Thursday for both? Is that correct?

[Tiny Dancer]

Thursday for both? Is that correct?

No! Of course not :oops: this is why this ":oops:" is my favorite emoticon! The bed rest is making my brain sluggish!! Thanks for telling me.

My ER was on Thursday, ET on Tuesday.

[lindi]

I found this info until Carole has better?
A morula contains about 10 - 30 cells. The morula stage is the final stage prior to formation of a fluid filled cavity called the blastocoel cavity. Once the cavitation has occurred, we can see the fluid in the cavity between the cells and we call the embryo an early blastocyst. Although morula stage embryos are usually seen on day 4 and blastocysts are usually seen on day 5, sometimes we have only morulas on day 5. In such a case, we do not know if the embryos are slower than average because they are weaker, or because they are strong and healthy but just going a little slower than average. Transferring morulas on day 5 results in a reasonable pregnancy rate, although it is not as high as the pregnancy rate with blastocyst transfer on day 5.

[Tiny Dancer]

I found this info until Carole has better?
A morula contains about 10 - 30 cells. The morula stage is the final stage prior to formation of a fluid filled cavity called the blastocoel cavity. Once the cavitation has occurred, we can see the fluid in the cavity between the cells and we call the embryo an early blastocyst. Although morula stage embryos are usually seen on day 4 and blastocysts are usually seen on day 5, sometimes we have only morulas on day 5. In such a case, we do not know if the embryos are slower than average because they are weaker, or because they are strong and healthy but just going a little slower than average. Transferring morulas on day 5 results in a reasonable pregnancy rate, although it is not as high as the pregnancy rate with blastocyst transfer on day 5.

Thanks for responding Lindi, I had googled that same thing also. I'm wondering exactly how the days are figured up because in my head at the time of transfer my embie had just turned 5 days old. So, I'm wondering if Carole or someone else knows the protocol of when the embies are checked before transfer. Right before, earlier that morning, the night before, etc. I'm just curious. I'm wondering to about that whole theory also about girls growing slower. Curious to see Carole 's experience of that. I'm hoping that's why my normal xx wasn't a blast yet.

[Carole]

Hi All,
Thanks for the clarification about ER/ET.
If ER on Thursday , that's day zero.
Fert check is on Friday, day one.
We would check embryo progression on day 3 (Sunday) and expect to see 8 cell embryos or better.
On day 4 (monday) , we would expect morulas but we usually didn't check them that day.
On day 5 (Tuesday) we would check them in the morning and expect some evidence that the embryo is reaching blast stage- evidence of a cavity forming (early blast) or large cavity with well-defined inner cell mass (expanded blast) or even a hatching blast. In your case, the "clock" started a few hours later with a retrieval in the afternoon so we would be fine with an early blastocyst, having 50 cells or more but maybe not much of a cavity yet. Sometimes the blast has a cavity but then spontaneously deflates only to reinflate (expand) again later. I have a post on embryo progression that may answer your questions and it has pics too. http://fertilitylabinsider.com/2010/11/embryo-stages-progression/

I think a compacted embryo (morula or deflated blast) is a good bet for implantation. We had very good results when we had to transfer morulas on day 4- for scheduling reasons. If it's only a morula late on day 5 or day 6, I would be more concerned, because that is slowed progression. But sometimes a compacted embryo is a temporarily deflated blast so I wouldn't worry about that too much. Hope that helps,
Carole

[Tiny Dancer]

Thanks Carole so much for the info. It's so nice to have you as a resource. Thank you!

[lovehugs]

Thanks Carole - my timing is exactly the same as Tiny's lol... we were in ER recovery together and I had my ET slightly before her so I am really interested in this as well. My xx was classed as an early blast at ET though so I'm guessing from your info that this means that there was more of a cavity visible. FX things work for both of our darling xx's!