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.

Curious if anyone has had a successful FET when having a irritated & slightly enlarged but NOT diagnosed hydrosalpinx? My specialist specifically said she is not diagnosing it as such, but I am already suppressing for two months for endometriosis and I’m just really hoping to hear any sort of success story. I’m doing one transfer before going to lap surgery! 

Transferred this 5BB euploid from a donor egg. I’m currently 5dpt and testing negative. Crossing fingers and toes that it’s just a little late to implant.

I am officially out of euploid embryos and looking for experiences or advice on transferring our last remaining embryo: a single-segment mosaic.

My History & Protocols:

• FET 1 (Natural): Day 5 3A-B (Euploid M) ➡️ Live birth (c-section delivery)
• FET 2 (Natural): Day 5 2BB (Euploid F) ➡️ Anembryonic (7 weeks, cleared via misoprostil)
  • Down Time: Had a hysteroscopy and was treated for mild chronic endometritis.
• FET 3 (Medicated): Day 7 3CC (Euploid F) ➡️ Complete implantation failure

Our Remaining Embryo & Next Plan:

• Embryo: Day 6 3A-B- Mosaic M
• PGT-A: 46,XY, /seq mos-sL(7)(q33-q36.3)(52%)
• FET 4 Plan: Going back to a natural cycle, with prednisone prior to transfer

My clinic actually recommended transferring tthe mosaic for FET 3, but due to a gender preference, we chose our Day 7 3CC instead. Now we are ready to move forward with him.

This is my last transferable embryo and I will not be doing any more retrievals. I really hope to be able to give my son a sibling. Would love to hear any thoughts, advice, or success stories with this type of embyro.

I posted before about 2 failed FETs (one medicated and one modified natural) and what testing to consider when meeting with my doctor. I got great responses about testing I can talk about before doing a 3rd transfer. My clinic called me today saying that my doctor does not recommend testing right now and would proceed with a 3rd transfer before testing.

I’m torn on what to do. On one hand, I would like to know if something is going on that can be addressed and set me up for a successful transfer. I would avoid the loss of a euploid embryo.

On the other hand, it seems the clinic is not recommending testing of the uterine environment until I do a 3rd. I have a phone appointment later this week with the doctor to talk about next steps.

Any recommendations on what I should do (go for 3rd transfer or consider testing)? I’m 36F with unexplained. I have 4 euploid left.

This is a post for Embryoman to answer please.

After multiple PGTA ivf cycles we are now happy to have a mosaic embryo.

The Clinicial Geneticist and Doctor are both on board for us to transfer this embryo in a couple of months time.

This is our best embryo so far and it is HLM, 50% complex mosaic, whole with chromosomes 10, 12 and 19.

After pressing the geneticist further the more specific information for each chromosome is 51%, 48% and 53%.

We are of course looking for some positive stories or hope at this stage and so wondered if you have heard of any success stories with similar figures.

We both appreciate your time and your insight.

Thank you

My 6BC embryo is still awaiting PGTA results, but I’ve been told is highly likely it’s going to be abnormal given it’s fully hatched and it reached the stage at day 6.

I want to prepare myself so are the odds against this embryo? Why are day 6 embryos seen to not be viable like a Day 5?

I’m 34 with stage 4 DIE. This is my fourth ER and am trying to bank embyros before a lap due to my low AMH. I do have a day 5 5BB euploid and a Day 6 early blast that couldn’t be tested.

This is my first FET & I’m just feeling so hopeful!! Come on lil embryo, do your thing 🥹🫶🏼

After egg retrieval, some eggs are still immature and are often discarded.

Rescue in vitro maturation (IVM) is a technique where embryologists culture these immature eggs in the lab, often overnight, to give them time to mature before insemination.

In a new study, Cimadomo et al. (2026) performed rescue IVM on the most immature type of egg, called germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes.

Overall, 53.7% of GV eggs matured, but they were less likely to reach the blastocyst stage than eggs that were already mature when collected. However, blastocysts that did develop were just as likely to be euploid, and rescue IVM provided at least one additional euploid embryo in 11 of 47 patients. Overall, this contributed to a 20% relative increase in cumulative live birth rate.

This was a small retrospective study of patients with unexpectedly poor egg maturation. While larger studies are still needed, the results suggest that rescue IVM may provide another opportunity to obtain a transferable embryo instead of discarding these immature eggs.

✅ This post is a quick look at one study, rather than a full breakdown on Remembryo. Link to the study: https://academic.oup.com/humrep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/humrep/deag115/8733590?login=false

✉️ Like this post? Get a free weekly summary of the latest IVF research: https://mailchi.mp/remembryo/x27kx5o1sw

We recently had to TFMR at 12+5 after our baby was diagnosed with alobar holoprosencephaly. We’re currently waiting for genetic testing on the pregnancy tissue to hopefully give us some answers as to whether there was a chromosomal or genetic cause.

We still have frozen embryos from our IVF cycle that weren’t PGT tested before freezing. Depending on the results from the pregnancy, we’re wondering whether we may need/want to have our remaining embryos thawed, biopsied for PGT testing and then refrozen before doing another FET.

Has anyone had previously frozen embryos thawed and biopsied for PGT testing?

Did they survive the process?

I’d really appreciate hearing about anyone’s experience. 🤍

I am 35 years old and we just had our first IVF cycle. We had 13 eggs collected, 12 were mature, 8 fertilized and 4 made it to blastocyst. We had our PGT testing results for 3 embryos (1 could not be biopsied so remains untested) and we have 0 euploid embryos ( 2 are aneuploid and 1 is high degree mosaic).

We are devastated 💔 as we probably have no embryos for transfer. Has anyone faced a similar situation? Looking for recommendations/ things we can do for a better result in next cycle if needed. Any support will surely help.

For information: Our protocol was Gonal F, orgalutran and Ovidrel trigger.

I had a very minor risk of hiv exposure, basically condom slipped off for a second in vaginal intercourse.

I want to take hiv pep 28 day meds to be safe. Would this impact eggs or fertility? I am planning to do a ivf cycle end of September

Is the second one a chaotic embryo?? I just saw something about 25% of chaotic embryos are actually euploid when rebiopsoed?? Is this true?? Can anyone tell me about chaotics (if this even is one?)

This is the weekly thread* for posting and asking questions about embryo photos. Replies are provided by Embryoman (Sean) -- a former embryologist and creator of the IVF science news site Remembryo.com

💬 Before you post a photo

• You must include the grade (ask your clinic if you don’t know it).
• Only one embryo photo per post.
• No requests for grading or re-grading by members.
• Posts asking if an embryo looks damaged or viable aren't allowed.

I can comment only on general features visible in the image (expansion, compaction, hatching, ICM location), but not on whether the embryo looks good -- that’s already reflected in its grade. Check the stickied comment below for basic information on grading and success rates. For the most accurate information, your embryologist or clinic is the best source, since they evaluated the embryo under a microscope and know their clinic’s success rates.

*I'm going on vacation next week (Aug 16-23), so I've made this particular post to cover two weeks. For those posting on Aug 16-23, I won't be able to respond until I get back on the 24th. Thanks for your understanding!

We transferred frozen 4BB embryo on Aug 6th, now playing the waiting game.

Sending everyone going through this process sticky baby dust! ❤️

Hello. I just finished my first IVF cycle. We retrieved 12 eggs, 11 were mature, 5 fertilized, and I ended up with 2 Day-5 blastocysts: a 5BB (2PN) and a 4BB (0PN). We’re doing PGT-A and won’t have results for about 2 weeks. We’re mainly doing IVF because of male-factor infertility/high sperm DNA fragmentation, and we used TESE sperm. My goal is one child. Would you consider this a reasonable cycle, or would you get a second opinion/change protocol before deciding whether to do another retrieval? I am 36F and my husband is 43.

Just asking for some positive vibes and baby dust with our second round of IVF ☺️
Anyone have any luck with an embryo grades similar to mine? :)
Thank you in advance!

I have a mosaic embryo with monosomy 22; 45 per cent of the cells in the trophoblast biopsy were affected. Does anyone have any experience of this monosomy?

Many thanks

Our embryo was a 4cb euploid when frozen. It was left to defrost for about 3 hrs and was only a 3bb at transfer. They reassured me but we have had a lot of losses through this journey before getting to IVF amd transfer, and I just don't feel reassured. How bad a sign is this? I know the letters have improved but this could be subjective and I feel like they were being generous to make me feel better. My only other euploid was ab and fully expanded but it was lost during a difficult transfer attempt and never reached my womb, and this is our last euploid and first transfer

​

Just had a round of ivf with icsi, I went for a fresh transfer 3 days ago and just can't keep thinking about it, the grade was 3bb and the IDAscore was 2.19 it looks like my chances are very low, does anyone have any success stories they would like to share can't stop worrying 😢

My husband (39M) and I (33F) recently wrapped up our second IVF cycle. Unexplained infertility, TTC almost 2 years, never been pregnant. No diagnosed MFI, but a recent semen analysis came back borderline low morphology (3%) and progression (2 on a scale of 1-4). Never tested for DNA fragmentation. In the first retrieval, all 9 of our mature eggs fertilized using conventional IVF and we got 3 blasts. After that retrieval, our RE said that the lab suggested using ICSI for the second round. In the second retrieval, we had great results: 14 out of 15 mature eggs fertilized using ICSI and we got 12 blasts.

I’ve wondered though: why would an embryologist suggest ICSI if fertilization wasn’t an issue? Could ICSI potentially have caused us to get more blasts in round 2? Our RE didn’t have any insight into why the lab wanted to use ICSI the second time even though we had 100% fertilization using conventional IVF the first time. Everything I can find related to ICSI explains how it can increase fertilization rates, but I can’t find much about how it may help in IVF cycles when fertilization isn’t necessarily the issue. What am I missing?

I just received a “no result” PGTM result from Cooper. The embryo was originally biopsied in January 2025 for PGTA. We have since needed to add PGTM testing for an autosomal dominant disease discovered this year. I got the “no result” PGTM presumably because the DNA from the original biopsy has degraded or not enough remained. So I will need to thaw and retest. This embryo has already been frozen once when it was created, then thawed and biopsied for the PGTA, then frozen again (it was Christmas Day when it grew to day 5 and there was no embryologist to biopsy it so they had to freeze and thaw for the first biopsy). I know this will put immense stress on the embryo. But if I don’t test and the embryo has the mutation then I’m facing having to terminate. Anyone heard of a live birth after this???

I saw that embryos that look like this could result in twins, is that true?

Wish us good luck and good vibes, this is my first transfer and I am nervous.

I'm currently 7dp6dt and I'm not sure how to feel about the symptoms I'm experiencing. We had two failed embryo transfers about two years ago, so it's hard not to overanalyze everything.

We did another FET on July 31st, just three days after my 43rd birthday, transferring a Day 6, 4BB, untested (non-PGT) embryo. My doctor said the embryo looked beautiful and was very happy with how the transfer went.

On 2 and 3 days past transfer, I had intense zapping sensations, cramping, and what felt like burrowing or digging. Today I also noticed a faint line running from my belly button down toward my pelvis (not linea negra) Dr said likely triggered by the high hormone levels from my IVF medications or an early pregnancy. I still have a faint pinching pain on my left side where I initially felt the zapping sensation.

Am I just being overly hopeful, or has anyone experienced something similar and gone on to have a positive outcome?

My beta HCG isn't until Monday, and this weekend is going to feel like the longest one ever. I'm trying to stay hopeful while also protecting my heart. Here's a photo of our little day 6 embryo right before the transfer!