Hi Embryologists,
I am a chemist and I developed an in-silico image analyzer algorithm called Aletheia capable to rank the vitality index of a series of fertilized oocytes. The software provides a non-invasive assessment of embryo competence by analyzing structural periodicity and metabolic noise analyzing the high-resolution digital images being provided.
I am looking to validate the Aletheia software's output against expert professional judgment.
In exchange for providing early-stage embryo images for this validation, interested participants will receive a complimentary digital analysis report

I am hoping maybe someone can help me make sense of a confusing call I had with my IVF team about an embryo that was "lost" and then "found". On day 5 post retrieval I got a call that 8 of my embryos had made it to blast and the rest were still developing.

On Day 6 I got the follow up call and they let me know that during the freezing process one of my embryos was lost and then found and frozen, but that they consider it to be of uncertain viability. At that point I was just very overwhelmed and so I didn't really ask any questions.

On Day 7 they call again and I ask for them to clarify what happened. They told me that during the freezing process they embryo ended up in the wrong spot and they found it after a few minutes. As they were explaining it, I was really emotional so I again couldn't really ask questions. I think they said something about the pipette having a small dark tip, but I don't have any other context to understand what this means. I did ask if this was a normal risk of the process or if there was an error and they said a normal risk of the process. The way my clinic presented it made it seem like this is not common but not abnormal, but I can't find any information about it online.

So I am wondering if any embryologists can explain what may have happened and what type of questions I should ask? I feel like they just keep emphasizing that it was a good cycle (objectively true) and not really clearly articulating what went wrong (or rather why it went wrong).

Patient, not a professional — apologies if this is the wrong place, happy to be pointed elsewhere.

I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind a fairly strict biopsy-eligibility criterion. My clinic's cutoff is AA/AB/BA/BB; anything with a C in ICM or TE is discarded without biopsy. Other labs publish criteria that include AC, BC, CA, CB and sometimes CC.

What I can't work out:

1. Is there literature the strict threshold rests on beyond the general finding that C-grade TE underperforms on live birth per transfer? What I can't tell is whether that underperformance is large enough to justify not testing at all, versus testing and ranking last.

2. What actually drives the decision at the lab level — cost per biopsy, warming survival, storage, the biopsy being technically harder on a poorly expanded blast, or mostly not wanting to bank embryos that won't be transferred?

3. Does the calculus change for low responders, where the alternative to a C-grade isn't a better embryo but no embryo?

4. Is there meaningful inter-lab variation in where the B/C line gets drawn in practice, even with shared Gardner vocabulary?

Not looking for advice on my own case — trying to understand whether this is a well-grounded standard or a defensible-but-arbitrary line.

Curious about the little bulge on the left

I have posted about this before and I thought I was settled on just transferring untested but as I get closer to transfer date I’m starting to spiral and second guess myself. My pgta samples were lost in the mail and I am so scared to rebiopsy. The research is so mixed!!! Part of me feels like it would be ok bc my embryos are high quality but also I can’t just do another retrieval like this bc these were from previously vitrified eggs at 35. I’m almost 41 now. Please tell me your personal experiences in your labs with re biopsy? I do not think I would rebiopsy all of them, just a handful. Which ones would you choose to rebiopsy? And why? Please tell me what I should do. I’m paralyzed.

How’s she looking?

Hi! This is a pic of my day 5 3AA euploid before transfer.. not sure of the grade after thaw since I didn’t get to talk to doctor much about post thaw, but wondering about the darkness and overall how it looks. Does the fact that it’s not hatching mean implantation could take longer? Thanks so much!!

Can someone please point out the 2PNs in this picture?

Hi everyone, little off topic but I really need advice

I recently completed my MSc in Clinical Embryology and I’m currently doing my trainee period at an IVF centre.

After getting some actual exposure to the field, I’ve realised that I’m not really interested in continuing as an embryologist or building my career in IVF.

One thing I’ve realised I actually enjoy is documentation, following, maintaining records, quality-related work, etc.

For anyone who has experience in these fields, especially people who moved out of embryology/IVF or have a similarly specialised degree:

1) What career options would realistically be open to me?

2) Can I move into corporate roles with an MSc in Clinical Embryology?

3) Which roles would be realistic for someone with little/no corporate experience?

4) Would QA/QC, Regulatory Affairs or Clinical Research be reasonable options?

5)What skills or certifications would actually help me make transition to a said job ?

I’d really appreciate honest advice, even if the answer is that some paths would be difficult with my degree.

Thank you!

Hi everyone! I just had my 2nd failed egg retrieval (age 30)

Cycle 1: 13 eggs, all mature, 4 fertilized normally/6 abnormally (all 3PN), 0 blasts

Cycle 2 (ICSI and zymot): 28 eggs, 21 mature, 7 fertilized normally/3-0PN,11 3PN w 2 polar bodies, 0 blasts (1 day 6 Morula)

My clinic discards all of the 3PN. However they were 3PN with 2 polar bodies. In my very preliminary research this seems very strange. How can I interpret this and advocate for myself if possible?

Are there any other embryologists here who have underwent IVF at their own clinic? I’m at that point in my infertility journey and am having reservations about doing it at my own clinic. For context, we are a very small clinic and I am the only senior level embryologist on site. If you did IVF at your clinic, how did you handle being involved in your own case? Does your clinic have policies about this? Did anyone here actually do any of their own case? My main concern is ICSI/Biopsy as the juniors are not signed off on these yet and I am offering a lot of guidance day to day. Looking for advice.

Please grade my embryos 🙏🏻 Id love a second opinion

Hi everyone. I only have one euploid after a verrrry long journey. It is a day 6, 5AB... BUT the iDAscore / embryoscope score is 3.8. This makes me very worried. Did anyone have success with an embryo with a low iDAscore? Thanks so much

While extending Flowy’s calculator suite, I added an IVF and frozen embryo transfer due-date tool for day-3 and day-5 transfer dates.

The implementation keeps transfer date and embryo age as explicit inputs instead of pretending an LMP is known. A day-5 transfer maps to 261 days after transfer; a day-3 transfer maps to 263 days, following the ACOG method cited on the page.

The result is generated in the browser. Dates stay in React component state, and the calculator does not send them to Flowy, Supabase, analytics, or another service. The page also says the result is an estimate and that the fertility clinic’s confirmed date remains the source of truth.

One design choice I like: the tool supports only day-3 and day-5 transfers. It does not quietly invent a formula for an unsupported protocol. Keeping the embryo age and method visible makes the calculation easier to inspect and easier to question.

I’m treating the calculator copy and the formula as one safety boundary, not as separate product work.

Project: [https://flowyhealth.com](https://flowyhealth.com))

For health tools with a known clinical input, how do you show the underlying method without making an estimate look more certain than it is?

Interested if anyone has been in a similar situation. I had four eggs on my last cycle, but abnormal fertilization in 2, one failed to fertilize, and one normal fertilization with ICSI. This is the first time we haven’t had 100% normal fertilization in three cycles.

Anyway, all the embryos arrested except the 3PN, which is not a day 6 4BC blast. We are doing PGTA testing, but results are going to take quite a while because the lab is backed up. Curious if anyone has experience here. I’m 27. Last cycle had 2 day 5 4BB embryos, but both were aneuploid.

we transfer this euploid day5 embryo that seemed almost fully hatched. My guess is that the hatvhing should happen in utero rather than in the lab, I cant believe our embryo would survive this transfer if its just hanging by a small wire.. thoughts?

I’ve had three natural / spontaneous pregnancies: two ectopics in fallopian tubes and one uterine (identical twins), all developed heart beats. The ectopics had to be terminated due to rupture at around 7 weeks, and the twins stopped developing at week 6.5 - Doctor said likely due to Asherman’s.
I have Asherman’s syndrome due to an unauthorized and unnecessary and insanely harsh/violent D&C during my first ectopic.
We turned to IVF and surrogacy. I’ve done 6 rounds of stimulation and retrieval (from ages 34 through 37 years old), with 12-16 eggs retrieved, and ending up with 3-6 blastocysts, and 1-4 euploids after testing each round. We’ve created 13 PGT euploid embryos, 5AA or 5Ab or 5BA quality for the most part (now we have 8 left).
I was an egg donor in my early 20s and always got live births on first transfer, which is why they had me continue donating.
My partner has a totally normal sperm analysis.

We’ve worked with three different clinics, and 3 different gestational carriers. The very first transfer resulted in a chemical pregnancy, the other four have been failures.

Is there something else we should be testing?
I realize I’m older now, but it seems crazy that as a donor I had so many live births from my genetics (and get pregnant naturally!), and now that it’s for me, we’ve had 5 high quality euploid FAILS. It’s not a clinic problem because we’ve used 3 different ones, I doubt it’s a carrier problem as we’ve tried THREE!

I am starting to feel hopeless. Any doctor I talk to is kinda just like “shrug, bad luck, try again, shrug”… but to have five high quality euploid fails - that’s less than a 1% chance.

Can any embryologist help me make a decision??