What's Going on with Vacuoles?

Have you been told your egg has vacuoles?

The egg at the bottom of the photo has vacuoles. They are incredibly easy to distinguish and look like circles or craters inside the cytoplasm. If you compare the egg to the other three, you can see the vast difference

It is not known what causes them, but vacuoles are almost always found in eggs of advanced aged patients and therefore may link to egg quality. Occasionally, younger patients may have them. However, their frequency is much lower.

So, what do we do?! Well, if you have enough eggs, it is not something to be concerned about because you can exclude them. However, if you only have 3-4 eggs (such as this patient), your embryologist would inject and keep them separate.