Patient's question:
Because I have some health issues, I cannot get pregnant, but my husband's family has always wanted me to have a baby. I want to do in vitro fertilization. Is it bad to transfer a 7-cell embryo at the second stage?Doctor's answer:
It's not right to say that. The quality of an embryo cannot be judged solely based on the number of cells. In the first three days after fertilization, the fertilized egg (more accurately, the blastomere) spends its time in the fallopian tube. After the egg is fertilized in the ampulla, it gradually moves towards the uterine cavity. While moving, it also undergoes continuous mitotic division. Typically, cells divide from one to two, two to four, and four to eight. At this stage, the embryo is called a blastomere or an early blastocyst. It usually takes about 50 hours to form an eight-cell blastomere. However, cleavage is not strictly synchronous. If one cell divides slightly slower and is just observed by chance, it is then called a seven-cell embryo.