Day After Retrieval

Today I got the anticipated call from our nurse. She said that out of the 11 eggs, 10 were usable  and 9 successfully fertilized!!  This was so exciting to hear and really brightened my day!  Tomorrow, she'll call me and give me the grade of each embryo and will let me know when the embryo transfer will be. 
 
Basically, each embryo is graded as A, B, C, or D ("A" being the best and "D" being the worst).  What determines the grade is the cell number, regularity, and fragmentation.  Embryos should be at 2 to 4 cells at 48 hours after egg retrieval and preferably about 6 to 10 cells by 72 hours.  It is generally best if the size of the individual cells are similar in size.  A Grade A embryo is one which has equal sized cells in it (Blastomeres). Fragmentation, is a process where portions of the embryo's cells have broken off and are now separate from the nucleated portion of the cell.  A Grade A embryo is the one which has no fragmentation or less than 10% fragmentation. A Grade C embryo, however, does not mean that the baby will be abnormal. It just means that the chances of implantation are reduced, as compared with a Grade A embryo. Below are some examples of the different Grades. 

GRADE A :

10-Cell Grade A embryo

1. Regular Blastomeres.
2. No Fragmentation.

GRADE B :

10-Cell Grade B embryo

1. Regular Blastomeres.
2. > 10 % Fragmentation.

GRADE C :

8-Cell Grade C embryo

1. Irregular Blastomeres.
2. > 10 % Fragmentation.

GRADE D :

8-Cell Grade D embryo

1. Irregular Blastomeres.
2. > 20 % Fragmentation.

The number of good embryos will determine if we do a Day 3 (Wednesday) or Day 5 (Friday) transfer. Below is a table that compares the transfers.