To PGS or not to PGS...

[Vanjiebabes]

We are about to start our 1st lot of injections (day 21) and were set to have IVF with PGS. We are meeting with with the embryologist this week and I started looking more into it (a bit late I know). We’d gone purely by the information the clinic had given us, but since reading more about it we’re really unsure as to go for it. Having read more medical journals articles, most recently this one bionews.org.uk/page_137781 we are starting to think are money would be better saved and put towards another cycle of IVF?

We are self funded and have scraped everything together to have this first round. At 41, we know the stats are not in our favour...we are just so unsure.

[Dogpark]

Hi Vanjiebabes,

I'm 42 and facing similar questions. My recommendation is to see how many embryos you get at the end of this cycle to make your decision. If you get let's say 3-5, perhaps you should just transfer what you have. There is a known margin of error with PGS because they biopsy the outer shell of the embryo. This means that some embryos might have an abnormal outer shell yet be normal inside, therefore leading to a normal birth. Some clinics say the margin of error is 5%, others say it's 12%. Hence, if you get a lot of embryos, you might want to take this risk, if you don't, it might not be worth the risk.

[Vanjiebabes in reply to Dogpark]

Thanks for replying Dogpark, Its good to hear we’re not the only ones. I think we’re swinging towards that way of thinking, having read so many papers on it now, it seems anyone affiliated with a clinic recommends it, any independent medical profs state there’s no evidence either way.

[Rella22]

Hi Vanjiebabes,

I’m new to the world of IVF but we decided to not do PGT based on personal beliefs. We decided to take our chances and see as the evidence didn’t sway as towards testing. I would say to do your research and hopefully others with experience on here can tell you more information. Best wishes on your journey !!

[Vanjiebabes in reply to Rella22]

Thank you. We are doing lots of reading, it can be very overwhelming. Good luck on you journey also x

[Dogpark in reply to Vanjiebabes]

I can relate to that, I have done a ton of reading and ended up being overwhelmed with information. It took me time to digest it and come to the conclusion that I shared above. When in doubt, allow yourself time to make the decision. Collect your embryos now, then they'll be frozen and you can even take 6 months to think about what to do with them. Best of luck.

[Vanjiebabes in reply to Dogpark]

It’s that ever ticking clock! Thank you, best wishes to you too.

[MofM]

I have been discussing PGS with our consultant after a 6w+5 miscarriage of our only embryo. He said that PGS is perfect to understand whether an embryo is chromosomally normal, and does not have any major defect (e.g., large traslocation). However, he suggested that both my partner and I went for a karyotype, and do PGS only if one of us had some major issue, also to cut costs down. Our karyotypes were ok, so we decided against it.

I had a look into the scientific literature, and it seems that (guess what?) the effectiveness of embryo selection via PGS is not clear and that it has been observed that abnormal embryos go on developing in OK children. So it may be that if you did not do PGS you would have transfered an embryo which would have developed just fine, as other posters said.

On the other hand, it seems that PGS is a good way to prioritize embryo transfer, expecially if you have many of them. Using PGS you transfer the best ones first, and may save money and heartbreaking with subsequence frozen cycles.

As a consequence, I've also read that some consultants think that PGS it is better for young women (with many embryos that are likely normal, to prioritise transfer) rather than for old women (with few embryo which should be given a change to develop in utero).

[Seha04 in reply to MofM]

Hi, can I ask, is karyotype determined from a blood test?

[MofM in reply to Seha04]

Yes, It is

[Peepers4444]

Hi

I am starting my third round this time privately and we going to be using Pgs as the last two cycles did not work.

The clinic we are at offer “batching” ivf. Currently we have three frozen (not great quality). Once we have 8 embryos (the batching includes two full cycles) we will have the testing done as the clinic test up to eight.

For us it seems like the most positive of options open to us as my last two cycles were with two good grades embryos and ended up with two BFN.

Also I have been told by various doctors, other ivf patients and through the reading that I have done that it can decrease the chances of miscarriage and I unfortunately had one four years ago(quite shocked to get pregnant naturally).