PGS / PGD - Is genetic testing necessary?

[Mmmpudding]

Hello I am going to start my second round of ivf in the next month or so after a failed fresh cycle (no Frosties). I haven’t been advised to do genetic testing by any of the clinics that I have used/spoken to but do you ladies think that it is necessary? I am 41 and had no previous miscarriage. In the last round of ivf, I had 9 eggs collected, 6 mature, 2 mature, 1 transferred. Any thoughts? Thank you 😘

[Dogpark]

Hi Mmmpudding

I am doing PGS but it took me time to make that decision. My sense is that it depends on how many embryos you produce.

If you produce 1 or 2 embryos per cycle then you're likely to be better off just transferring them without testing. If you produce say, 4 or more per cycle, then you start having a number of embryos to choose from for transfer, and this is where testing starts making sense.

[Mmmpudding in reply to Dogpark]

Hi dog park yes that makes sense. I hope my fertilisation rate is higher next round. They told me that it just bad luck rather than anything wrong with my eggs or my DH’s Sperm. Did you have your BFP after transferring a tested embryo? X

[Dogpark in reply to Mmmpudding]

No I haven't had a BFP yet. I transferred 2 untested embryos after my first round and had a BFN, then decided to go for PGS and have spent a year just doing egg collections and PGS testing them, to accumulate as many euploid embryos as possible before I start transferring. I'm 43 so when I start transferring again, there won't be time for me to collect more embryos if the transfer fails.

[Mmmpudding in reply to Dogpark]

thank you for sharing your experience. I wish you the best of luck with your upcoming collections and transfers. Do let us know how you get on, I will be following your journey closely

[Hidden]

Hi I am sorry to hear your previous cycle did not work. My first ivf cycle did not work either although I transferred a pgs tested embryo. Pgs testing does not guarantee a pregnancy. I have decided not to do the testing in my second round. Best of luck with your cycle! X

[Mmmpudding in reply to Hidden]

I think I won’t do it either after reading your reply and other posts on the same subject. It seems to take a more time and I could end up with no embryo to transfer. Have you started your second round? X

[Hidden in reply to Mmmpudding]

Yes, I agree with you! I have started my second cycle. When will you start your cycle? Best of luck.

Btw, what is a harmony test?

[Mmmpudding in reply to Hidden]

I will start my second cycle in March. Or April if they want to do a monitoring cycle first. Harmony and panorama tests are dna blood tests that you can do at I think 10-11 weeks to see if the baby has any chromosomal disorder eg Down’s syndrome, Edwards syndrome etc. It can tell you the sex of the baby too so you won’t have to wait till 20 weeks. It is non invasive and 99% accurate. Good luck with you second round xx

[Hidden in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thanks for your detailed explanation! I hope your next cycle goes well. We might be having transfers at about the same time. I would probably get a transfer done in April. X

[Hidden]

As a PGD patient (genetic condition means we're having IVF rather than infertility) I would avoid it if you don't need to have it. It makes it even more of a numbers and waiting game. At the moment we're waiting for our PGD results on the few embryos we managed to get to blastocyst. I'm expecting we'll be out of the round and have nothing to transfer. If your clinic offer counselling on the process of PGD I'd take that and chat it through as much as possible. I hope it goes really well whatever you decide is the next path to take.

[Mmmpudding in reply to Hidden]

Thanks runuphill. The prospect of not having anything to transfer is indeed scary. I don’t think I will go for pgs anymore, if I get pregnant I can then do a harmony or a panorama test at 11 weeks. Good luck with your test and hope you have a few embryos to transfer xx

[Hidden in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thanks. Also wanted to add that although the PGD screening for aneuploidy is useful for not transferring those, highly graded euploid embryos don't mean a BFP.

[Corchi]

Hi! I have a history of miscarriages and I’m 40. I produced a lot of eggs that lead to 9 frosties 5 Day. I did testing and 6 out of 9 came back normal and healthy. I can’t Tel you what a burden has been lifted. That’s not to say everything will go accordingly but I feel it’s a head start! I agree with other women on here if you have enough to freeze do it as it will save you a lot of heartache if you know it was healthy to begin with... xx

[Mmmpudding in reply to Corchi]

Hi corchi congratulations! 6 normal embryos are amazing. Have you transferred any yet? How long do you have to wait for the test results? Them being normal means they are good enough quality to freeze, is that right? I only had two 5 day early blast last time and one was transferred and the other wasn’t even good enough to freeze :(x

[Corchi in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thank you I’m very happy I never expected it with so many past miscarriages!! I live in athens. Results took a month. I am transferring first time ever in March. Yes they were 5 day blasts and “pretty” whatever that means!! I am happy knowing I’m commencing with a good enough chance. Xxx

[Mmmpudding in reply to Corchi]

wishing you the very best of luck with the transfer. Do let us know how you get on, I am so excited for you. Xx

[Corchi in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thank you i appreciate your kind words so much

[BunnyHope]

Hi. I think it can save the heartache of a tww ending with a bfn. After 4 cycles with my own eggs we used a 24 year old donor for the 5th cycle. 19 eggs were collected from her and 17 fertilised. Only 7 were viable after testing, despite another 9 being blastocysts. I had 2 transferred and now have a 6 week old son. In my opinion simply grading embryos doesn’t give the full picture and I wish I’d had PGD for my other cycles and maybe I would have been spared some pain and used a donor sooner. Good luck to you whatever you decide to you xx

[Mmmpudding in reply to BunnyHope]

Congrats! How lovely to hear your success story! I am not quite at a stage where I am ready to move onto donor eggs. I think I will do two to three more rounds of ivf first. Should they all fail then that would be our next step. I have never had a miscarriage and had three children in the past 6 years (youngest is 19 months) so I am hopeful that my eggs are still ok. If I get say 10 plus 5 day blasts in the coming round, I might consider testing, otherwise, I really don’t want to have nothing to transfer. Hope you are enjoying motherhood and getting enough sleep! Xx

[BunnyHope in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thanks for your good wishes. Sleep is definitely an issue! Currently dealing with witching hour!! I’m sure you won’t need a donor but I mentioned her because even at her young age she produced lots of eggs that were genetically flawed and I’m personally glad they were tested otherwise I would have transferred embryos that had no chance of being viable. I totally understand wanting to have embryos to transfer though. Much love xx

[Mmmpudding in reply to BunnyHope]

is your donor in the uk? What’s the difference between using a uk donor and an overseas donor? There seems to be many ladies going abroad. Testing donor’s embryos is definitely a brilliant idea, you have one fewer thing to stress you out during your pregnancy. I feel like I am running out of time so spending one more month to do PGS now is another factor that worries me. I think we are all very adaptable, hope you will soon get used to the lack of sleep. Look after yourself x

[BunnyHope]

We went to Cyprus for our donor treatment because there is no wait, it’s anonymous and it’s cheaper! xx

[Nuszkahope]

Hello,

I am not sure if this helps in any way but I would say go for it if you manage to produce a few embryos. I had a cycle 3 weeks ago, produced 8 very good quality blastocysts but that was prior to PGD testing ( we do not have any genetic diseases, I have produced good numbers of embryos in my cycles with no luck so the doctor advised to test the embryos) ... I was in shock when I got my results, we have only one embryo that is completely healthy. If I haven’t done it I would have wasted over a year transferring them ... If you don’t have time on your side and only managing to produce a small number each cycle you could bank the embryos and test them when you have a good number of blastocysts ...

Wishing you good luck with whatever you decide,

A x

[Mmmpudding in reply to Nuszkahope]

Thank you for your advice. Im so sorry to hear that you only have 1 out of 8 blasts that is healthy. But as everyone says, it only takes one. I doubt very much I will have as many good quality blasts as you did due to my age but if I did, testing is definitely a good option to avoid disappointment at a later date. Good luck with your one healthy embryo

[Nuszkahope in reply to Mmmpudding]

Thank you 🙏 I hope this works out for us but if not hopefully the next round will bring a better result. I am happy I did it though, it does not guarantee success but if I transferred any of the other « good quality blastocysts » they could have probably ended up in miscarriage etc.

All the best to you x