Time lapse monitoring vs PGS or both.

[winniep]

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all well and staying positive.

I need your help in deciding what to do next please. I had egg collection yesterday (17 eggs) and Hysteroscopic Myomectomy (Fibroids removal) at the same time and feel surprisingly fine except for some bearable cramps which are responding well to my hot water bottle.

I need to decide today if I want to go ahead with Time lapse monitoring to help grade the eggs more accurately and efficiently (i think) or just go for Pre-implantation genetic screening.

I have decided I will definitely be going for the genetic screening just for my own peace of mind as the health of the baby is important to me but at nearly £600 per embryo I am only going to have two tested at first and then if needed test the frozen ones when the time comes.

My question now is, if I'm having PGS do i need to have the time lapse as well and if so what benefits are there to having both? My consultant said have both but after speaking to the embryologist and shelling out £3600 for Fibroids removal I'm having to rethink what's really necessary.

The embryologist wasn't too convincing when she explained the time lapse monitoring and at nearly £800, is it really worth it or is it just to make the jobs of the embryologists easier as they wont have to spend all that time grading the embryos manually.

Can anyone with experience of using either or both please let me know your thoughts and experiences? Many thanks. xxx

[Lynnr54]

Hi, I can't help with PGS I'm afraid but we had time lapse monitoring during our cycle. The way it was explained to me is that without time lapse monitoring the eggs are looked at periodically to see how they are getting on and graded. By doing this they get looked at at point A and point B. With time lapse monitoring the embryologists can see how the eggs got from point A to point B and if anything unusual happened on the way (which would indicate it was less likely to be viable). We were showed a video as an example. We used it and were successful but we ended up with a top grade blastocyst so the odds were good for us and it would probably have worked even if we hadn't used it. If nothing else we have got a very cool video showing our little monkey transforming from an egg to a blastocyst which I'm sure will get pulled out over the years from time to time. Our consultant did say they are trying to get it included within NHS treatment as standard so they must think there's some benefit to it. Not sure whether PGS would pick up the same sort of abnormalities time lapse monitoring is meant to detect or not. Sorry can't be any more help but good luck with your eggs!

[winniep in reply to Lynnr54]

Thanks Lynnr54, very helpful advice. I have opted for the time lapse monitoring as I think I should be doing anything and everything I can to get as much information on my embryos as possible. I'm keeping everything crossed.

[louisear]

hi, we were offered 2 add ons at our clinic. Time lapse and embryo glue. Although expensive I didn't hesitate opting for both. This is probably going to be our one and only cycle and I'm 40 so may be our only chance. The positives for time lapse as I saw it was that your embryos are kept in constant conditions and not disturbed by taking them out of the incubator to check progress. A snapshot is taken every 20 mins or so and from this abnormalities can be seen. These abnormalities can correct themselves which means the embryo may not be as good quality as an embryo which hadn't developed an abnormality. Without time lapse an embryologist wouldn't know about the abnormality and therefore 2 embryos could look the same when they are checked daily. Hope this makes sense and helps with your decision and best of luck for that BFP!xx

[winniep in reply to louisear]

Thanks Louisear, I agree with you. Keeping the embryos in a constant condition away from external influences is the best. One of my embryos did not fertilise yesterday with the remaining but did today so i'm glad I've opted for the time lapse monitoring, that should help determine why the stubborn little monkey had a delayed fertilisation. xxx