Transfer

So, we had the transfer today! As it turns out, 4 of the 8 eggs did not fertilize and 2 of the eggs that did fertilize did not continue to divide. This isn't so bad...if we do need to try again, with ICSI we can get the fertilization rate up and hope for the best. As for the two embryos that made it to transfer....one of them is 5 cells, grade C, with fair symmetry and the other is 10 cells, grade B, also with fair symmetry.


Aren't they cute? I have no idea which is which--they both look similar to me, which is why I'm not an Embryologist. :-) I dunno what the black splotch is, but it has nothing to do with my babies.

For those of you who don't know about embryo grading, I will give you a crash course.

Number of cells: At a day 3 transfer, the embryo should have between 6 and 8 cells...less than this isn't so good, but more is great!

Letter grade: This refers to the amount of fragmentation present in the embryo. As the cells divide, cellular material may break off and end up between the newly formed cells. An A grade means that there's less than 5% fragmentation, B means that there's between 5 and 25%, C means there's 25-50% and D means that there's more than 50% fragmentation. Obviously, you want less fragmentation--A and B grades are normal.

Symmetry: Cell symmetry describes the evenness of size and distribution of cells in the embryo. This is graded as either good, fair or poor--with good and fair being normal.

Basically, this means we transferred 1 real winner embryo and 1 not so good embryo that still has a chance (and we love them both the same).