Immature eggs at the IVF egg retrieval have not yet reached “meiotic competence”. Meiotic competence is achieved when eggs undergo the first meiotic reduction to the metaphase II stage (“M2”) of meiosis.
No. Immature eggs are not capable of fertilizing. However, sometimes it is possible to have eggs mature in the lab (in vitro maturation) and then fertilize them.
In some cases, a woman will have a predisposition to giving a high percentage of immature eggs with IVF. In such cases, the IVF ovarian stimulation protocol should be modified to try to recover more mature eggs with any future IVF cycles.