Blastocyst Culture

Blastocyst Culture

As described above, if you have a reasonable number of embryos, you may choose to take these on to blastocyst culture in the lab which means growing them on for 5-6 days after initial fertilisation.

In theory, blastocyst culture offers the possibility of a higher pregnancy rate mainly due to better embryo selection. i.e. “the toughest will survive”. Any abnormalities stop the embryo developing much beyond the 8-cell stage, or day 3 of development after egg collection. With blastocyst culture the Embryologists can choose embryos on the basis of their ability to develop, rather than on their physical appearance at an earlier stage.

There is a trend towards routinely doing this in other Clinics in the world however the risks to consider are that if you have a low number of embryos, none of your embryos may make it to Blastocyst stage, therefore you may fail to get an embryo transfer at all.

You Embryologist can assist you with making a decision to continue to blastocyst culture if indicated.