PGS testing query and cryopreservation

[DC13]

I am hoping for a bit of advice from this forum. I have stepped away from the forum for some time and had many rounds of IVF with my own eggs and with donor eggs. To cut a long story short we have had 10 rounds and got pregnant at round 7 but had a missed miscarriage.

My last two rounds really did not go well and I decided to let things go for a while and try to get my life back.

I have a friend that had PGS testing on donor embryos and found from that testing that although the quality looked ok ie good overall quality scoring at day 5 blastocysts these were not classed as viable after the PGS testing.

Part of me wonders if this is also the case for our embryos.

I have two left and just received a letter to see if we want to retain or destroy.

Does anyone know if PGS testing can be done once embryos have already been cryopreserved?

Has anyone been in a similar situation and would be willing to let me know what they did.

Trying to soul search on what is the best thing to do. Is it time to let go?

I would really appreciate people thoughts.

[Orla9298]

Sorry to hear what you have been through. You can thaw, biopsy and refreeze, but obviously them by transfer they will have been thawed and frozen twice so more chance of losing them. But it can be done.

I’m not sure what I would do, did you ever do any fresh rounds that got a few embryos? It would be a lot to pay for just the last two, so would it be worth doing a fresh round or donor round to test along with the frozen? You’ve gone through it so many times though, maybe that’s not an option xx

[DC13 in reply to Orla9298]

The embryos we have left are from the one donor round that we did.

We got pregnant on the fresh transfer from that donor round but lost it. The other embryos that got to day 5 and good quality were cryopreserved. We did 3 frozen transfers from those embryos but all negative.

We always decided that once we had given the donor route a good go we would stop.

Its a little bit hard to think about signing paperwork to say dispose of the embryos.

There had been a lot of heart ache over the last 7 years and worked hard to get my life back.

Decisions. Decisions

[Orla9298 in reply to DC13]

I think for me I would do one more transfer with the two remaining together, without testing. Pgs is so expensive and you could lose an embryo from the thaw/biopsy/refreeze.

I know you have to decide where to draw the line, but I can also see how you could carry on forever. 3.5 years for me, and 5 fresh own egg rounds so far. I could keep going for a while longer if my husband could bear to. We aren’t decided what next at the moment.

Xx

[DC13 in reply to Orla9298]

Yeah I totally understand. It's hard isn't it.

Wishing you all the very best in whatever you decide to do next.

[Cinderella5]

Hey honey! I've been reading a lot recently about pgs, I've read good & bad. There are a few articles coming out now that even although an embryo isn't euploid that it may well do ok. Some ladies that have had poorer embryos transferred have gotten their wee dream. It's a tough decision & I think you have a very scientific head like me but I don't think think it's all done & dusted by testing. I'm the same as Orla9298 , would just do the 2....scary thought I know!! If you wanna chat then gimme a shout....i don't want to mess with your head!😘💕💕xxx

thecut.com/2017/09/ivf-abno...

[DC13 in reply to Cinderella5]

Thanks hon. Hope your ok. Let me know when your back and safe trip home xx

[Cinderella5 in reply to DC13]

We get home late Saturday night so a few more days of relaxation. Ive attached an article that I mentioned my last message.xx

[Lojane]

My daughter did just this. She had 2 frozen embryos thawed and PGS tested. It was expensive for just two embryos but worth it for the peace of mind after previous miscarriages and a termination for a chromosomal trisomy.

One of the embryos was aneuploid and would have certainly miscarried. The other was mosaic which means that only a percentage of the cells were abnormal and it could have the potential to self correct.

It depends on the clinic whether they will agree to transfer a mosaic embryo or not.

[DC13 in reply to Lojane]

Thank you for sharing. Could I ask what you daughter is considering to do?

[Lojane]

Her decision was to move to a top London clinic and go for another egg collection . The new clinic put her onto different protocol to get as many eggs as possible without causing OHSS and to carry out PGS testing on the embryos produced. (Latest studies show that the more eggs produced the greater the chance of finding that one good one at all ages )

This protocol produced a number of euploid embryos

I don’t want to say too much after everything that has happened and it is early days but she has got her BFP.

I can only say that PGS testing , in my daughter’s case, was definitely the way to go. There is no guarantee but it does remove the most common reason for miscarriage which is chromosomally abnormal embryos.

Wishing you all the best x

[DC13]

well can I just say thank you very much for sharing this information. I am so pleased for your daughter and want to wish her all the very best.

Some more soul searching is needed I think.

xx

[Hidden]

Hello firstly sorry to hear your journey that's tough 10 rounds of IVF. I had 4 DE embryos. My first three ended in m/c. I then looked into chromosome testing - it can be done tho as someone said it means a thaw and refreeze. My clinic advised to transfer final one and if that didn't work do fresh round with testing. I was skeptical about last one as was poorest graded egg however it was tge viable one of the bunch. Could you poibbly do a fresh round with DE then get them all tested? If I could have my time again (I was 11 years and 7 rounds of IVF ) I would have done PGS testing as it would save a lot of heart ache not transferring non viable embryos. By tge time my last transfer came I had made peace with the fact it was my last try - whatever the outcome. I will keep my fingers crossed the same happens for you x

[DC13 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me and share your journey. I hope that you had a positive outcome.

My husband and I decided at the beginning of going down the donor egg route that was our last attempt and we had to draw a line under things. There is a financial implication as well as physiological and the whole heartache bit. We need to stop somewhere.

We do not want to go down another donor round and we are both in agreement regarding that.

I guess I just need to come to terms with things.

Wishing you well