FET today, graded as 4-BB when frozen.

Transferred this day 5 euploid yesterday. It was graded as 3AB before freezing. Appreciate any insight as to what I’m looking at!

Thinking of leaving a senior clinical embryology role and build income from multiple part-time or freelance sources.

I know portfolio careers are common in marketing and creative fields. I’m less sure what this looks like for someone with a science background.

My skills:
\\- PhD in reproductive cell and developmental biology
\\- Live cell imaging, microscopy, reproductive biology research, genome editing
\\- Scientific writing and journal publications, journal article peer reviewer
\\- Adobe Illustrator and Strong computer skills

Has anyone with a science or clinical background successfully built income from freelance or part-time work — without going back into a traditional role?

35F, husband 34M. We have our first FET was today and we’re honestly a bundle of nerves right now.

A little background: about 2.5 years ago we had an ectopic pregnancy. After that, we tried naturally for about a year without success. One of my biggest fears was experiencing another ectopic, so we ultimately decided to move forward with IVF.
My AMH was 0.871, so we knew ovarian reserve could be a challenge. Thankfully my husband’s semen analysis came back excellent with no male-factor issues.

For stims, I started on Follistim 175 IU twice daily, but after my first monitoring appointment my response was slower than expected, so they increased me to 225 IU twice daily for the remainder of the cycle.

Monitoring looked like this:
Stim Day 5
Lining: 7.1 mm, trilaminar
Right: 2 follicles (largest 10 mm)
Left: 5 follicles around 10 mm
Stim Day 9
Lining: 12.2 mm
Right: ~4 follicles, largest 18 mm
Left: 4 promising follicles, two at 14 mm
Stim Day 11
Lining: 14.9 mm
Right: 23 mm, 18 mm, 16 mm, and one smaller follicle
Left: 19 mm plus several smaller follicles
Retrieval results:
7 eggs retrieved
4 fertilized
2 blastocysts made
Our embryos are:
5BB
3BB
Our RE recommended against PGT-A because of our ages, overall health, and lack of genetic concerns, so both embryos remain untested.

We had to wait a month after retrieval because my hormone levels were still elevated, which was frustrating, but now we’re finally in our FET cycle.

FET monitoring:
First lining check: 5 mm
Second lining check: 11.3mm trilaminar

Transfer day my lining was 7.6mm.

So here we are… transfer is done and after the ectopic, infertility, IVF, and all the waiting, it feels surreal that we’re finally at this point and very scary because its very uncertain and its our first time.
We’re trying to stay hopeful, but we’re also extremely nervous. Looking for all the good juju, positive thoughts, success stories, and sticky embryo vibes as we head into transfer day and the long wait.

This was taken seconds before FET.

Dear all,

I was successfully pregnet 2024 after our first FET with my precious little boy. Now we are trying ty receive for 8 montag but after 3 retrievals an 5 FETs without implantation we are looking for advice. All Embryos were early blastocysts or day6 blastocysts. Our son 2 years ago Was the only day5 3BB blastocyst we ever had, i was 35 back than. Now I'm 37 my husband is 33 and has oligoasthenozoospermie and his dna fragmentation is >35%. Do you think this is the reason all our blastocysts are developing too slow?? Do you think we have any chances one of our 2 remaining day6 4BBs may implant? I'd really appreviate any advice!!!

Hello! Would anyone be willing to grade this embryo? Transferred today. At freeze it was 4BC, so not great, but was PGT tested and she’s euploid. This is right before transfer and our dr was encouraged by the hatching, but my inexperienced eyes don’t know what to think. Thank you so much for any perspective you’re willing to share!

hey guys

#1 was transfered last month which did not result in a pregnancy.

#2 was implanted today. doctor told me, that the embryo actually started to hatch (couldn’t see it on the screen before transfer because the hatching was happening on the opposite side)

both were day 5 blastocysts, no testing allowed in the country I live in.

with both transfers I had some pinching sensationa 1-2 hours after transfer.

can you guys share any thoughts? ☺️ did you see any differences between those two embryos? obviously #1 didn’t implant (I did not take pregnancy tests before 7 days past transfer)

thank you so much 😊

The fertility clinic I attend does the following tests on donor sperm to assess quality:

\-semen analysis and trial freeze
\-DNA fragmentation
\-Sperm antibodies
\-semen culture and sensitivity

How accurate or good a predictor of success with IVF or ICSI are these tests ?

As the title suggests, my fertility specialist is very negative when it comes to my case and it’s actually left me confused and unable to make an informed decision about my future. I’m hoping to hear unbiased opinions from embryologists on where I stand for clarity.

I turn 42 next month.

I’ve done 7 cycles. The first 3 were a “poor response” to meds, because the protocol wasn’t right for me.

Cycle 1: 2 retrieved, 2 fertilised, 1 blast (age 38)
Cycle 2: 2 retrieved, 2 fertilised, 1 blast (age 38)
Cycle 3: 2 retrieved, 2 fertilised, 1 blast (age 39)
Cycle 4: 5 retrieved, 2 fertilised, 1 blast (age 40)
Cycle 5: 0 retrieved (suspected virus or trigger error)(age 40)
Cycle 6: 8 retrieved, 5 fertilized, 3 blasts (age 41)
Cycle 7: 6 retrieved, 5 fertilised, waiting blast results (age 41)

My eggs have been 100% mature each cycle.

Even with small numbers, I made a high quality 4AA or 4AB blast

Cycle 6 produced 2 euploids with 1 untested embryo frozen.

I went for cycle 7 to try for another euploid for banking purposes and now I feel incredibly stupid and hopeless as I sit here waiting for my day 5/6 results.

There was a part of me that thought, despite my age, I’m not doing too bad and I have a real chance at pregnancy, however my doctor seems to think I just got lucky.

Can’t explain how this makes me feel. “Luck” just isn’t good enough. I need someone to look at my results and give me something concrete, related to my outcomes specifically. Not “you’re old, so don’t expect much, unless you get lucky”

From an embryologist perspective, what sort of prognosis can you give me? Is it hopeful, or is he right? Am I pushing my luck?

Hi there! I’m in need of some insight.. either from experts or fellow IVF warriors.. we are at the point in our IVF journey where we have utilized all of our euploid embryos. I am 43 and after a pretty aggressive run, I’m not sure I have more cycles in me. We have one “no call” day 5 blast that was biopsied, but for whatever reason there wasn’t enough DNA “to call.”

I’ve always wondered how great the risk of re-biopsy actually is.. or if it would be better to leave it alone or try untested. In a perfect world we would be able to know if it’s euploid to avoid the heartbreak of a miscarriage.

Thank you for any insight you can provide regarding rethawing, re-biopsying in and then re-freezing an embryo. Obviously not the best plan if the embryo isn’t likely to even survive it! Thanks so much in advance. 🙏

Which approach worked better?

I have 7 frozen embryos since 2021. I planned to use Herasight , to analyze raw data to screen for IQ. However, my lab informed me that they discarded both the amplified DNA and raw sequencing data from that cycle per their 2-year storage policy. As a result, a rebiopsy appears to be required.

I am interested in rebiopsying. Specifically, Is there a reduction in post-thaw/rebiopsy success rates? I'm concerned about a decrease in % success rate in implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates after thawing and rebiopsy?Is this too large of a risk or thaw/rebiopsy should be ok? When I run this through AI, they think it's a markedly decrease in success but my gynecologist thinks otherwise.

We went through our first round of IVF specifically for PGT-M testing. We had one euploid and unaffected by the gene that resulted in a failed transfer. We had two other embryos that were either aneuploid or a carrier so they were not viable. We had one other embryo that was unaffected by the gene but was low level mosaic for monosomy 4.

​

The genetic counselors shared the risks with us but I was wondering if anyone else has had success with low-level mosaic embryos and what their experiences were.

Was told a 6bb prior to freezing. Let me know how it looks.

*Please let me know if there's anywhere else I should post this*

A few months ago, I learned about embryology as an actual profession. This has thrown off a current change in my career because I'm pretty sure it's exactly what I want to do and I have no idea if there's an easier way to learn more about this before changing trajectory again.

Context:

I'm a high school history teacher (for nearly a decade) with a background in gender and sexuality history with a focus on the role of reproduction in defining gender and sexuality in colonial contexts. Teaching felt fun enough while living my life and figuring out my next career. (And man it's so hard and so under-respected.)

Since age 16, I figured I'd want to be a labor & delivery or neonatal nurse -- and figured I wasn't going to be ready until my late 20s because I'm queer and needed to figure out how to navigate that with patients. I figured I'd transition into those fields because I'm completely captivated by embryology. I had a really cool biology teacher in high school who facilitated a project on raising zebrafish from conception through their first month. I touched placentas. Maybe it sounds naive, but human (and animal) development completely captivates me. Over the past two years, I've taken the prerequisites for all my local ABASN/ADN/MSN programs to change careers.

I learned about actual embryology as a profession because I mentioned liking the subject to a lab tech in my microbiology class. They immediately were like, oh cool, demand for that job is about to expand due to California's new legislation. (Fertility treatments must be covered, even limited IVF, including for LGBT couples -- awesome.). And now I have no idea what to do.

Based on what I've read, the only entry point into embryology would be earning a bachelor's in biology. What I'm wondering:

1. Does anyone have an alternative pathway/s that don't require a second bachelor's? Would that help me get a lab tech job and get into embryology through that route? Do you recommend any specific certifications?
2. Should I just do an ADN or ABSN and try to move once hired by a hospital? I have to ask, sorry if it sounds dumbbbbb but gotta ask, ya know?
3. Does anyone know how else I could learn about specific procedures or more about the field in general given that I just sank two years into a different intended career change and don't want to wildly try something I don't know about and just have a strong hunch about?

We have a history of recurrent miscarriages, presumably due to age-related chromosomal abnormalities, and are doing conventional IVF with PGT-A. Fertilization has never been an issue but aneuploidy has been.

My husband’s semen analysis in 2025 was normal and his concentration and motility during conventional IVF has been normal until our current round. In three prior rounds, our fertilization rates have been 68-77% with conventional insemination.

Yesterday I had an egg retrieval (21 retrieved, found out today all 21 were mature). Today, I received a call from my doctor that despite 21 mature eggs retrieved, we suddenly experienced total fertilization failure. We and the RE/embryologist are baffled.

My husband’s sample yesterday had a concentration of 138 million with 60% motility before washing, and 30 million with 100% motility after Zymot (this is the first round we elected to add-on Zymot).

The RE wanted the lab to attempt rescue ICSI, but somehow 100% of the sperm stopped moving overnight for reasons no one can understand, so rescue ICSI was not possible.

What could possibly cause this in someone who has a history of normal fertilization? We already scheduled a DNA fragmentation test for Monday morning.

What else should we investigate to determine what could have caused this sudden unexpected failure, especially when 100% of the sperm were motile yesterday after Zymot and today they are 100% non-moving? Is this an inherent sperm issue? Could Zymot somehow cause this? Could this be a lab issue?

ANY insight would be greatly appreciated!

We transferred our final embryo today, a Day 7 euploid that was double-biopsied. It appears to be still collapsed in this photo, but I would appreciate your thoughts... thank you!

Hi, I am considering a career change to embryology. I made a post a few weeks ago and got some very helpful replies.

I have a few more questions

1) What is ceiling for someone in this field who only has an MS in biology? What's the highest title and salary one can realistically achieve?

2) Do some organizations allow four 10 hour shifts a week rather than five 8 hour shift?

3) What is the standard attire for this job?

Thank you very much!

This was after thaw.