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At 36, approximately 60-70% of your eggs are anueploid (abnormal number of chromosomes). Anueploid embryos rarely make it past Day 3 and usually arrest between 4 and 8 cells, sometimes up to 10-12 cells. Based on the available genetic information, I would expect 1 or 2 of your 7 embryos to make it to the blastocyst stage. So, the most likely reason the remaining embryos arrested development prior to the blastocyst stage was because they were genetically abnormal. This is a good thing. It nature's way of preventing abnormal pregnancies.
In your case, any embryo reaching the blastocyst stage could have been evaluated to determine the number stem cells present in the blastocyst. Embryos with an inadequate number of stems cells can and do result in "chemical" pregnancies and early miscarriages. Thus your "chemical" pregnancy may have been avoided by culturing the embryos to the blastocyst stage. However, it is also possible that you would have been left with no develomentally competent embryos for transfer. You would have to be willing to accept that possibility from the beginning of the cycle. The question is, would you rather get the news on the day of transfer or two weeks later with a chemical pregnancy?
It is true that the embryo had to reach the blastocyst stage, attach to the endometrium, initiate the implantation process and secrete enough hCG to be detectable in you blood. However, just reaching the blastocyst stage may not be enough to be developmentaly competent.
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