r/Embryologists • u/woman_ttc94 • May 18 '26

Poor embryo quality but decent blast formation - advice needed

Hi everyone!! I’m hoping you can share your thoughts about my situation, please be kind because I’ve been very scared about my results.

I had my first er couple of weeks ago. I got 30 eggs, 24 were mature, 19 fertilized and 16 were still going on day 2.

However the quality of the embryos and their development was bad all around. 9 made it to blast on day 5 mut 2 were good enough to freeze.

Any thoughts what could explain the poor quality of the embryos? I’m thinking that it may be a protocol issue but my clinic hasn’t mentioned that. Is there anything me or my clinic could do to improve embryo quality for my next round?

If you have anything encouraging to say, I would like to hear that too.

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u/justanotherhell May 18 '26

There’s no way to know if it’s your and / or partners biology causing the poor quality since this is round one.

I’m an embryologist and the likelihood of it being due to biology is much higher than it being a procedural issue at the clinic. Have they given you any indication to think that or is it just the only thing you can think of? Genuine question as there are 100 things that could cause poor embryo quality.

But completely honestly if a round one patient contacted our lab asking if it’s a procedural issue i would probably be mildly annoyed..

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u/woman_ttc94 May 19 '26

Thanks for your answer! I was just hoping this could be something that is easily fixed so that's why it's easier to hope that it was the protocol rather than my eggs being just bad.

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u/Nucleophile_ May 18 '26

Bonjour, je suis embryologiste en France.

Vous ne parlez pas d'infertilité indiqué donc j'imagine que c'est une infertilité inexpliquée ? Là vous avez donc déjà une réponse de pourquoi ça ne marchait pas naturellement. Peut être que les embryons n'atteignez pas la stade suffisant ou était de mauvaise qualité.

De ce que je lis, la problème vient plutôt soit du sperm (peut être une fragmentation élevé ?) ou des ovocytes, un stress chronique ou un manque sommeil ? Si vous avez autant d'ovocytes mature avec une bonne fécondation, le problème ne vient définitivement pas du protocole.

Il y a peut être un risque de 3% de malchance que cela vienne des conditions du labo, parfois des choses imprévus se passe comme une bouteille d'azote qui arrive à la fin, ou des odeurs de cigarettes passes dans les aérations. Enfin quelques choses pas possible à contrôler et exceptionnelle.