Esther Eleboh/LinkedIn

Oct 24, 2025, 10:47

Esther Eleboh: What to Do Next When Embryos Are Poor Quality or Arrested

Esther Eleboh, Reproductive health Nurse, Head of Nursing Department at Viva Fertility Clinic, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Poor Quality Embryos/Arrested Embryos – What to do next.

Stages of Poor quality Embryos

Fertilization failure ; IVF and ICSI/IMSI failure.IVF : Wrong semen preparation technique and poor semen parameter, especially high DNA fragmentation index can lead to Fertilization failureWhen ICSI/IMSI fails, it usually indicates poor sperm and granular cytoplasm. When the cytoplasm is unable to pack the sperm after ICSI it can results to fertilization failure. High DNA fragmentation index can as well cause fertilization failure.
Day 3 Poor quality Embryos (Fragmented Embryos) : Unequal blastomeres, which is common with low AMH , low AFC and older patients, is usually an indication for fragmented Embryos.
Day 4 Poor quality Embryos (Arrested Embryos): Genomic shift happens on Day 4. The arrest is usually caused by laboratory failures.Note: In cases of Laboratory issues, Embryos can grow from Day 2 to Day 3 , but Day 3 to Day 5 , requires an extremely good quality laboratory
Day 5 Poor quality Embryos (Poor cavity Embryos) : This has thick zona, improper formed inner cell mass( loose inner cell mass) with poor cavity formation, which indicates aneuploidy Embryos.Note: Different stimulation protocols can be explored like Random start ovarian stimulation, Duo stim protocol especially when the normal Antagonist protocol fail to yield results.”