Day 5 mourlas vs blasts - Ghost!

[leorira11]

So I went in early for a beta this morning (9dp5dt, but BFNs on HPTs and I lied to my clinic so that I could get an early beta)... I was looking at my file and noticed that the two 5 day embryos we transferred were MOURLAS, not blastocysts like I was told! I guess the docs didn't want to confuse me because we had said "5dt = blasts" (they think I'm super stupid), but I'm really pissed that I didn't know this! Turns out that ALL of our 5 day embryos (the one transferred in July that led to a miscarriage and the 2 we froze and transferred now) were MOURLAS.

Why would all of my 5 day emrbyos be mourlas? We are dealing with (what I thought!) were very high quality eggs (I'm only 24 and our issues are only MFI). Could it be because of the ICSI? I've heard that ICSI could cause lower quality embryos. Why are ALL of our embryos only mourlas at 5 days? What can I do to improve that on our next cycle?

If at 5 days, the embryos are mourlas... is it better to transfer the mourlas on day 5, or wait another day and transfer blasts?

Thanks!

[Dahlias]

I've been searching for an answer to a similar question since my transfer on Saturday. We also did ICSI for severe male factor and our embryos were not quite as developed as my doctor had hoped for on day 5. They were in great shape on day 3 (all 8 and 10 cell) and then really slowed down. We had one early blast and that was the best. My doctor thought it could possibly be an issue with DH's sperm, but remained optimistic. I've found information to suggest that pregnancy and a healthy baby is completely possible with slower growing embryos, but I guess I will just have to wait and see. If this cycle didn't work, we will probably move on to donor sperm.

So sorry about your BFN Leora. Be good to yourself.

[Ghost]

So I went in early for a beta this morning (9dp5dt, but BFNs on HPTs and I lied to my clinic so that I could get an early beta)... I was looking at my file and noticed that the two 5 day embryos we transferred were MOURLAS, not blastocysts like I was told! I guess the docs didn't want to confuse me because we had said "5dt = blasts" (they think I'm super stupid), but I'm really pissed that I didn't know this! Turns out that ALL of our 5 day embryos (the one transferred in July that led to a miscarriage and the 2 we froze and transferred now) were MOURLAS.

Why would all of my 5 day emrbyos be mourlas? We are dealing with (what I thought!) were very high quality eggs (I'm only 24 and our issues are only MFI). Could it be because of the ICSI? I've heard that ICSI could cause lower quality embryos. Why are ALL of our embryos only mourlas at 5 days? What can I do to improve that on our next cycle?

If at 5 days, the embryos are mourlas... is it better to transfer the mourlas on day 5, or wait another day and transfer blasts?

Thanks!

This is common.

Some clinics do blastocyst transfer. Those clinics transfer embryos on the day that blastocysts form. That might be day 5 or 6, or even day 7. Neither the patient nor the clinic has a rigid schedule, because it's up to the embryos.

Other clinics do day 5 transfer, and sometimes call it "blastocyst transfer". The embryos may or may not have formed blastocysts by day 5. The transfer of a morula on day 5 is common in such a clinic. This practice makes the scheduling much easier.

A day 5 morula transfer is much like a day 6 blastocyst transfer, and probably has very similar success rates. That is, a little less than a day 5 blastocyst transfer.

[leorira11]

Thanks Ghost.

my other question is why all of my embryos are only mourlas on day 5. Is there anything at all I can do to help that?

We had 18 eggs, 15 fertilized, 8 reached day 3, 3 reached mourlas at day 5. We are using ICSI because of severe MFI.

[Ghost]

Thanks Ghost.

my other question is why all of my embryos are only mourlas on day 5. Is there anything at all I can do to help that?

We had 18 eggs, 15 fertilized, 8 reached day 3, 3 reached mourlas at day 5. We are using ICSI because of severe MFI.

That is very common. It's not a sign of a problem, it's just that some embryos are a little slower than others in development.

By the way, it's "morula". The plural is "morulae".

[leorira11]

thanks Ghost!

[laylastam]

Hi leorira

From my experience (10 IVF/FET cycles), i have only had blastocyst transfers on Day 5 (worse were early blastocysts). However, on Day 5 I've had many morula stage embryos, and my clinic waits until Day 6 for them to develop into blastocysts and then freeze them.

Good luck with your next cycle. I also have ICSI done (more because my eggs wont let the sperm in), and during my last fresh cycle I had transfer one B grade early blastocyst and one hatching AB grade blastocyst on day 5. I guess it just depends on each individual embryo...and not ICSI?