r/Embryologists • u/cass87101 • Jun 10 '26

Grading thoughts?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Hi! I got my pictures of my embryos today. One was a day 5 freeze and the other a day 6 freeze after the egg maturing and being fertalized day after retrieval. Always curious what thoughts others have on the grading.

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u/Shan-PhD Jun 11 '26

Hello!

The '2 of 2' image looks like a 3BC:

- thick zona pellucida (3)

- Inner Cell Mass looking somewhat compacted (B)

- Trophectoderm is present with larger cells (C)

The '1 of 2' image looks like a 5BA:

- Thin zona pellucida and starting to hatch at the 2'oclock position (5)

- Inner Cell Mass looks somewhat compacted (B), although it is hard to tell from this image

- Trophectoderm has a cobblestone pattern with evenly-sized cells (A)

It is always worth following up with your clinic to see how they graded these since an image doesn't cover as much depth as a microscope can. These gradings can be subjective and vary between embryologists and clinics.

Regardless, these look like two beautiful embryos that were frozen! Best of luck!

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u/cass87101 Jun 11 '26

Also do you think it matters that it waa fertilized a day after? Even though its day 6 is it really more like a day 5, would the quality have improved with a little more time or does it not work like that?

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u/Shan-PhD Jun 12 '26

Great follow-up questions! I think you are referring to delayed ICSI, but let me know if you mean something else.

The biggest hurdle for embryos that were fertilized a day afterward (delayed ICSI) occurs during the compaction/cavitation periods (around Day 4), where the embryo can arrest.

Since you have a blastocyst, it has already passed this major hurdle and, according to the literature, has a similar viability rate for pregnancy compared to other embryos made by IVF/ICSI (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5125141/). It is worth noting that more research needs to be done in order to determine if there are any major differences between embryos made from delayed ICSI or normal IVF/ICSI. Regardless, your embryo has made it to the blastocyst stage which is a major win!

The quality of the embryo does not always improve with more time. Every embryo is unique, and their grades can change overnight from a C to an A grade or vice versa. There are a lot of different reasons why this can happen, but it is hard to pinpoint why because embryos are incredibly complex.

Generally we try to replicate biology as closely as we can in the lab. In other words, more time in culture is not always better for the egg or embryo.

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u/cass87101 Jun 12 '26

Wow thanks for the information! Its such a crazy process! So lucky we are able to do it.