SG blast grading
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Anonymous
| can someone help me understand SG's embryos grading? is it different for fresh and frozen blasts? i was giving just 2 letters but i thought it was supposed to have a number also. |
Anonymous
| They should have told you stage (early blast, expanding blast, expanded blast, hatching blast - I swear there are more) and then the two letters, I think. Whether their records follow a number system I don't know. I think it roughly corresponds to whatever system uses #s 1-6 for blast development (1 being early blast, 6 being hatched, everything else in the middle)? And then I want to say A-C grades for the two parts, but maybe it goes lower than a C? So with the stage you can probably translate to a number similar to what other places use (like expanding blast AB would be a 3AB I think). I could be totally off base - but that's what I go from SG - a stage, verbally, and then 2 letters. |
Anonymous
| thank you, thats what i thought re: the numbers. They were all frozen and biopsied so i know they had to be beyond early blast. I feel bad asking but my nurse is not quick with giving up information about anything! |
Anonymous
| You need to ask because they will not volunteer the information. It is not on the embryo status report (saying how many were frozen/other dispositions). |
Anonymous
| Yeah, I asked and she said she has never seen a number. Whatever. I'm doing pgs so I guess that's what matters most. |
Anonymous
| They didn't tell me. And when I asked they just said they were top quality (humble brag about my blasts) and that there no fragments. It was hard to pin them down about a letter/number. I will look at my records later and see if I can find something. In terms of the frozen I think they give you more of a percentage on how they defrosted - 95-100% for example. |
Anonymous
You have to press the nurse. They don't give out that info by default. |
Anonymous
| I was given the grades.. Like AA or AB. No numbers. |
Anonymous
| Original responder here - yeah, I probably asked, now that I think about it. Or my nurse has gotten so used to my asking for the details that she had it ready. I know they froze mine at an expanding blast, which on the 1-6 scale I think falls at a 3 (since 4 is a fully expanded blast), so they go at least that low. I have no idea how/why they make the freeze call - why 3 and not 4? What's the cut off? Is it just blasts of decent quality that make it to 3 (or whatever) by the time they check that day (I'd guess this). At my old clinic I think they said they needed either a 3 or a 5 to freeze (possibly 3 to transfer, 5 to freeze), but that sounds really advanced to me now, requiring a hatching blast to transfer, so I'd guess 3 is more likely. Also zero sense of how they make freeze decisions based on grades - I was told not all blasts at the grade mine was got frozen (which made me feel awesome about the prospect of success with this one blast that just squeaked under the wire), so likely some subjective decision. And then yes, after the thaw, they'll tell you the percentage of cells that survived - or they can, anyway. Whether your doc will remember and whether anyone will bother to look it up for you at that point is a different matter. |
Anonymous
| Oh I just saw the biopsy piece, I know to biopsy they need to be a bit further along than to freeze - I think at least fully expanded if not more. |
Anonymous
| FYI, early blasts can be frozen. I have had several...they don't need to be expanding blasts for freeze. Also, a reminder that the grading is not very meaningful. I recently had 2 AA graded blasts...one didn't take, other was chromosomally abnormal (which I found out the hard way due to early loss) |
Anonymous
| they wont biopsy an early blast. I am so sorry for your loss. |
Anonymous
| OP here- thanks all. My son was a grade 2 day 6 blast, so I don't put much stock in the grading for myself. I don't think I am one of those people who will ever have a beautiful blast. |
Anonymous
| Just out of curiosity--why do you need this information? I am at SG, and was told mine were all "perfect" + the cell count on days 1, 2, and 3. On day 5, I was told how many were ready to freeze, and given more info on the ones that didn't look like they were going to make it: low cellular activity, compact cells, etc. I was never given the grading information, and don't see why I would need it. Is it to compare different protocols based on outcome? |
Anonymous
To obsess, because you need something to do during the wait (no, seriously, not mocking at all, I did this). Because it does provide useful information in the future if all doesn't go well. I was initially told "all 11 still looking good" on day 3. But after questioning about fragmentation, cell #s etc, it was crystal clear there were really only 3 still in the running. That's a huge disparity. Same with my first cycle - the very generic info is often not very accurate. So it also helps with realism. Because you're curious. Because you have a right to know. Because you'd like to be informed about the process. But that said, you seem to have been told WAY more than most people on first blush from your nurse, so even if you didn't get letter grades, you got a lot more than most women get, and many people prefer not to be kept in the dark. Had I been given accurate info with my first cycle, I would have known on day 3 it was looking bad (originally told all 8 looking good, but it was clear from records based on cell # and frag that only 1 or 2 were actually ok), and insisted on a transfer on day 5, instead of trying to push to biopsy and discovering everything arrested overnight. Or maybe insisted on a day 3 transfer. Sure some clinics don't want to tell you because some magically correct themselves, but there's nothing like being told things are going swimmingly and then showing up for transfer and being told, just kidding, everything died, and learning the signs were there all along. Or being told you have a good looking blast that turned out not to be so good looking when you realized what they froze (and by freezing, cost you your last insurance covered cycle). |