Anyone been refused private IVF?

[Bluebirds7]

My partner and I had a consultation a week ago with a private IVF clinic in London. They have said they will not treat us based on the fact I do not wish to have PGS (genetic testing) done on any possible embryos. I am 42 and have had 3 missed miscarriages in the last year (no children). But have an AMH of 34 pmol/L, LH of 5.7 and FSH of 5.8 also had a day 4 scan last month and had 11 follicles.

I realise my age and the 3 miscarriages are not good. But I have read some things about PGS testing which bother me, plus it's not recommended by HFEA! The clinic where nice about it but it kinda surprised me a little! Anyone had any similar experiences?

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi Bluebirds. I must admit that I’ve never come across this before. Usually PGS and similar tests are only offered if there is an inherited risk of passing something on to a child. I think I would point out the HFEA’s recommendations concerning this process. On the face of it your hormones are excellent for 42. Perhaps a referral to a recurrent miscarriage clinic or perhaps a hysteroscopy to check out your womb and endometrium. Perhaps chromosome blood tests on both of you, otherwise I would be looking elsewhere for treatment. Just my thoughts of course. Diane

[Bluebirds7 in reply to DianeArnold]

Thanks for your reply Diane.

We are currently undergoing recurrent miscarriage testing with chromosome testing, should find out the results in a coupe of weeks. I don't think there will be an issue I think my problem is older eggs and it's a case of finding the right one! We figured perhaps IVF would speed things along. We are probably going to see another clinic see what they say. They all seem very keen on going straight to donor eggs though!

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK in reply to Bluebirds7]

Hi. I’m afraid if I were you I would stick with your own eggs, at least for one more try! Diane xx

[Picalilli99]

I’ve never heard of that before. Have they got great stats? The cynic in me was wondering if that is related to them as a business wanting to maintain good results (which draws in more customers). Not only does it cost a lot more to do the PGS testing, it also significantly increases the chances of positive results as the process means many embryos are ruled out that might have otherwise brought their stats down. I would definitely challenge this or perhaps look elsewhere xx

[Bluebirds7 in reply to Picalilli99]

Hi Picalilli99

They have great stat's. I was also thinking the same thing about them maintaining results! Thanks for your reply.

[Picalilli99 in reply to Bluebirds7]

We recently changed clinics and they did seem keen for us to go for PGS (due to our multiple miscarriages and BFN’s following IVF transfers). But at least they didn’t really push it and seemed to respect our decision not to go for it at this stage. I certainly don’t think you should feel pressured into it xx

[Bluebirds7 in reply to Picalilli99]

Yeah, I was really surprised that they would refuse to treat us without the PGS. But I definitely will not be pushed into it. Best of luck to you for your egg collection.

[Picalilli99 in reply to Bluebirds7]

Thank you! I’m not actually against PGS - we just have only ever got 1 or 2 blastos so it’s difficult to justify the huge cost for us at this stage. But it’s just the way they seem to be going about it at the clinic you mention that seems a tad unethical. Lots of luck with your next steps whatever you decide xxxx

[Fingerscrossed38]

Sorry to hear about your losses. I had PGS testing on 9 of our blastocyst and 6 came back normal. We transferred our first one last month and it resulted in a chemical. Devastated. I'd had a natural missed miscarriage and a natural chemical before moving onto ivf with pgs testing.

To be honest I naively thought the PGS normal blastocyst would work. When it didn't I was crushed, confused and frightened it'd never work for us.

I don't regret doing pgs testing. I think it would have been easy for the clinic to blame this failure on a chromosomal abnormality had we not done PGS testing on it.

So now we will investigate further with an ERA, Hysteroscopy and more in depth blood clotting tests. Hopefully something comes up there before we transfer again.

Having the pgs blasts in the freezer gives me one less thing to worry about.

I'd definitely be more open to pgs testing if I were you...food for thought eh. Best of luck on this difficult journey 🍀

[Bluebirds7 in reply to Fingerscrossed38]

I am very sorry to hear about your chemical. Hopefully the further tests will help.

I'm not completely convinced by the PGS testing. One of my miscarriages was tested and the result was Triploid (three complete sets of chromosomes). Unfortunately this can not be picked up with PGS!

Definitely good you have all those blastocysts in the freezer. That's a really good amount you got! Best of luck with your tests and fingers crossed for your next transfer.

[Fingerscrossed38 in reply to Bluebirds7]

They certainly can't test for everything especially a lot of genetics. However there are many things they can test for that would save either a very difficult decision further down the track or an inevitable loss. For me, I'd rather find out before transferring if possible. But each to their own. I really hope you do find a clinic that'll help you as it's not fair for them to push you into anything you don't want to do xx