Pgt-a testing and OHSS advice

[Zebedee1971]

Hi,

This is sort of a two-pronged question! Just wanted some advice/experiences on a few things.

1. Has anyone on here had pgt-a testing? On hfea website it is graded 'red' and research seems split on this. Our clinic seem to really be pushing this but as we never speak to the same doctor twice we feel a bit in limbo with it all. Does it work? Anyone had success after repeated miscarriages etc?

2. My clinic called today to tell me my hormone levels have gone too high so I am at risk of OHSS. Bit annoyed as we wanted egg collection Monday or Tuesday but they kept pushing and pushing for Weds.

Anything on either of these two subjects would be really helpful. Thanks x

[Sunshine92]

Hey!

Advice on number 2 ...

Exact same thing happend to me! Turned up to my first scan on a Wednesday after 6 days of menopur. Said scan looked great, i felt absolutely fine but they took bloods as a precaution but was looking at egg collection on the Monday. Got a paniced phone call from the nurse that same afternoon saying my bloods were ‘dangerously high’ for OHSS and they’re going to have to advice for egg collection on the Friday instead. I was devestated, i’d only stimmed for 7 days in total before i triggered, was convinced i’d get hardly any eggs.

Turns out I got 19 eggs, ended up with 6 top quality blasts, one of which is currently cooking inside me at 24 weeks. I had to take medication for 8 days to lessen any affects of OHSS but i was fine at this point!

I did end up getting late onset OHSS though, approx 7 days post transfer and it was AWFUL. Honestly the warnings they give you about how terrible it is dont do it justice. But I am obviously so pleased i got my BFP.

Good luck! xx

[Zebedee1971 in reply to Sunshine92]

Thanks for the reply. I have heard that more people get pregnant after OHSS, and your story proves that, so at least thats something! My story is slightly different because I started gonal-f a couple of weeks ago and so I'd have been on meds for 15 days when they eventually do the collection. Don't know why they risked it. But they have such high success rates I want to trust them.

Did you have a fresh or frozen transfer? Mine are advising to wait for frozen but I'm on loads of others meds from a miscarriage specialist (£350 for an intralipid injection possibly wasted). I really wanted a fresh but when you mention the possible effects of OHSS I worry! Was it really that bad?

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Sunshine92]

Hi Sunshine,

Congrats on being 24 weeks! Could I ask you what medication you took to lessen the OHSS and how come they let your go ahead?

I had OHSS on my fresh cycle which was AWFUL as you say, and so they cancelled mine saying that I couldn’t go ahead with the transfer although I did get a good number of eggs fortunately.

I’ve had a number of cancelled Frozen cycles now as my lining has never been thick enough so I’m using Gonal F Instead of Progynova which will hopefully work but there is a risk of OHSS again

Thanks! Xxx

[Sunshine92 in reply to Daisy-Delilah]

They gave me Cabergoline i think it was? 1 tablet a day for 8 days. Started on day of egg collection & finished 1 or 2 days after transfer.

The consultant gave US the decision actually .. she said she was more swaying towards frozen because of how awful it would be if i got late onset.

My pre- egg collection bloods were super high, oestrogen i think they check? Which was indicating serious risk of OHSS if they didnt do egg collection ASAP. I wasnt symptomatic at this point, i felt absolutely fine, was weeing loads. I think thats the only reason they let me go ahead with fresh transfer because although my bloods were sky high i felt fine! Its only because the cycle was successful that i got late onset, and suffered really bad for about 2 weeks.

This was literally just before lockdown, had transfer on 4th March. Had we have opted for frozen, goodness knows when we’d have been able to do it! So we’re very very lucky.

My fertility acupuncturist was strongly pushing me to opt for frozen transfer though, better success apparently.

Sorry to hear your lining isnt playing ball 😔 how frustrating! I’m sure you’ve tried all the old wives tales xx

[Daisy-Delilah in reply to Sunshine92]

Thank you for letting me know, my new consultant is pretty good if I’ve found something online and willing to discuss/ let me try it if he thinks it will help me. Although hopefully the OHSS won’t occur again this time. That’s so good that you were given the choice yourselves and thank goodness it was successful!

Thank you - I’ve started taking L’arginine, vitamin E, using hot water bottles, drinking pomegranate juice. I’ve read mixed reviews on Raspberry leaf tea and caster oil so not sure whether to try them. I’m thinking of reducing my exercise as I do a lot of that... just hoping it helps! Any other advise welcome though...

Thanks xxx

[KiboXX]

Advice on number 1 ☺️

I did PGT testing (also called PGS just for confusion) on my last cycle, I’d had three failed cycles previously (one mc and two bfn) so I didn’t want to keep going through transfers if there was something fundamentally wrong with my embryos. I was also given a 70% pregnancy rate per transfer for my age group so if we did manage to get a normal embryo then the odds of it working were much better.

I’m currently 30 weeks pregnant from my first PGS embryo transfer so for me it was completely worth it. Yes you might end up with less embryos but the ones you’re losing would have only ended in disappointment.

Whatever you decide, wish you all the best for the rest of your cycle!x

[alockie]

PGS NGS worked for a few friends of mine who experienced mcs. The procedure might increase your chances of getting pregnant but in particular situations.

[hifer]

I think you’ll find the responses on this will be very mixed. We’ve had all our embryos PGS tested and sadly the one transfer we did, was not successful. However I have also had 2 miscarriages naturally and we know the second was definitely chromosomal as we had the tissue tested so obvs if a PGS tested embryo does work then you have more chance of keeping it. I was borderline OHSS last time I had an egg collection. My follicles don’t respond as quickly as my blood results so as people on here have said, we were planning on having a later collection to be told very suddenly that it would happen sooner rather than later! I was put straight on to medication after egg collection to reduce the OHSS but I’ll be honest, I felt flippin awful for weeks!! We’re about to start our third and final egg collection. Our clinic know what to look out for so will be monitoring me closely. Good luck xx

[Ivfgotadream]

I did PGS on my second short protocol IVF - aged 36 so was expecting at least one “normal” - didn’t get any. Please be aware that in the U.K. clinics aren’t allowed to transfer abnormal embryos on ethical and moral grounds. We got one low level mosaic which we were allowed to transfer but it was a BFN. So bear in mind you could spend all that money and go through it all only to have several embryos you have to destroy and no transfer at the end of it

We decided not to test again and am now pregnant with twin following a transfer of 2 untested embryos.

I was a member of several PGS Facebook groups and many of the members were American where it’s much more common to be allowed to transfer abnormals and many went on to have healthy babies especially after their PGS normal embryos didn’t implant and these were supposedly “last choice” embryos