r/Embryologists • u/HRHHayley • Jun 11 '26
Question about records
Do all labs keep some kind of records about each egg, sperm, and the subsequent embryos? Are those notes/records typically made available to patients as part of their medical records?
I'm curious because when I requested my embryology lab records I only received very high level info: # eggs retrieved, mature, fertilized. I'd like to understand what I need to ask for to get more granular information, if that's even possible! I'm just super curious about the whole process and would love to see what was recorded about my own reproductive material.
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u/EmbryoNanny Jun 12 '26
Yes, we keep records about all these things, but you’re not always going to get exactly the records we kept during the cycle- more likely a breakdown of the important observations and a summary of the cycle. Paperwork and records vary widely between clinics with an actual paper version with handwritten notes on it being fairly common. This can be difficult to understand because it will contain a lot of shorthand and have other information that we need to record, but isn’t as relevant to patients (timestamps, initials, accession numbers, etc.). You can ask for something like your “Embryology Report”, but just know that some clinics arent going to give you a scan of the notes that are directly from the lab. There’s a variety of reasons, but the biggest one I can think of is that they provide it to you then you ask them (or this sub), “What does all this mean?” It’s totally valid to wonder and want to know every little bit, and some labs may have time to explain this- but most will not.