Before you start
Ten questions worth asking about the lab before you start
Most patients never speak to the embryologist. These are the questions that tell you how a lab works — and that a good lab will be glad to answer.
Patients meet doctors and nurses; the laboratory stays behind a hatch. Yet the lab does the work that most decides the outcome once the eggs are collected. You are entitled to understand it. These questions are polite, reasonable, and revealing — not because of the exact numbers, but because of whether the clinic has answers.
About the people
- Who runs the lab, and what are their qualifications? Look for a named senior embryologist with recognised certification and years of hands-on experience. Ask how many embryologists there are per cycle load.
- Who will do my ICSI / biopsy / vitrification? Skilled procedures are person-dependent. It's fair to ask about experience.
About the numbers
- What is your fertilisation rate? Blastocyst rate? Post-thaw survival? A good lab tracks these monthly and can tell you the range. Rough healthy answers: fertilisation around 70–80% (ICSI), blastocyst 40–60% of fertilised eggs, survival after warming above 95%. Exact numbers matter less than the fact that they know them.
- How do you review those numbers, and how often? "Every month, against benchmarks, and we investigate dips" is the answer you want.
- Do you take part in any external quality scheme or accreditation? Not every good lab does, but it shows the habit of being checked.
About safety
- How do you make sure the right eggs, sperm and embryos are together? Every step should be double-checked by a second person or an electronic witnessing system, and they should be able to describe it without hesitation.
- How are your incubators and storage tanks monitored? Daily checks, alarms, back-up power and back-up tanks. Ask what happens at 2 a.m. if an alarm goes off.
- What are your policies on freeze-all, single embryo transfer, and day-5 culture? These reveal how modern the practice is.
About you
- Can I have a copy of my embryology report — how many eggs, mature, fertilised, day-3, blastocysts, and their grades? You should be able to. Keep it; it's the most useful record you'll have if you move clinics.
- Can I speak to the embryologist if I have questions about my embryos? Many clinics will arrange a short conversation. Even a "yes, through the nurse" is a good sign.
No lab is perfect and no answer is a guarantee. But a clinic that welcomes these questions is a clinic that is already asking them of itself — and that is what quality in a lab actually looks like.
If you're the clinic reading this
Feel free to print this page for your patients — the questions are ones a well-run lab is proud to answer, and asking them builds the trust that carries patients through a hard process. Our free tools for labs exist to make the honest answers easy to have.
Shared with you by your clinic · Source: https://embryologics.com/patients/questions-to-ask-your-embryologist · Medical Interventions. Reviewed by a certified clinical embryologist. Educational information — please discuss your own situation with your clinic.
This page is educational and general. It is not a substitute for advice from your own clinic or the manufacturer's instructions for use.