Hi all, I am with a London based private clinic that is one of the most expensive and supposed to have the highest success rate for older women. They charge £2850 for PGS. When I received the invoice, £600 for Assisted Hatching has been added, which no one mentioned to me before. I called them trying to turn down this add-on. But they explained that Assisted Hatching was a compulsory step in preparation for PGS. My understanding is that it means digging holes on embryos on Day 3.
Is this normal? Why can't they just market their PGS at £3450, instead charging a hidden compulsory cost that is attached to PGS? Has anyone been charged for just digging holes on top of PGS? Also, if you are worried that you might be using the same clinic and have the same issue, feel free to PM me. Thanks
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I think you are at the same clinic as me......I had the same issue and they just added it, but it worked in our favour (first time i ever got pregnant in 4 years, but sadly ended up in miscarriage) I will always do hatching, it gives a better success rate xx
I think you are with the same clinic as me as well. I was aware of the need for assisted hatching before my treatment. They separate the cost as you can get it done without doing PGS but agree it is annoying. They have to do assisted hatching to get the biopsy sample but they should have made sure you were aware of it. If they didn’t put it in your predicted costs for the cycle then you should complain.
I’d be questioning why they are doing PGS on day 3 as it’s pretty accepted that the results are even less accurate when done at this stage rather than day 5 (see HFEA website) - they have much fewer cells to choose from - think less than 10 compared to 100+ on day 5. Also since there is no guarantee that a day 3 will even make it to blastocyst you’d be paying out loads of money to biopsy embryos which would never be able to be transferred anyway? I would guess that they charge it as extra because they are doing it so early rather than waiting to day when the blastocyst starts to hatch by itself? But I do think it’s pretty shady of them not to include that as standard within the fee?
My clinic is not one that is approachable and flexible. I didn't bother to investigate further as my response this time was so poor (even though they threw in all the extra tests, growth hormone, and add-ons) that I cancelled PGS altogether.
I have been researching this tonight. Do they not take the embryos they can to day 5 blast them do the PGS? Sorry if I’m understanding it wrong 😑...we are looking in to it with frozen embryos xx
I asked the embryologist the same question, because I've read at other clinics you can do that. But the answer is no. They must dig the hole on Day 3, regardless how the embryos might develop afterwards....Make sure ask your clinic about the details x
I’ve had PGS testing done and definitely wasn’t charged extra for assisted hatching and there was no mention of making holes in the embryos on day 3. All I know is the biopsy was taken on day 5/6 once they were hatching blasts. The biopsy is taken from the part that becomes the placenta.
The clinic I used have very transparent pricing though. Most things that they consider worthwhile, they include as standard whereas I’d been at a previous clinic who charge add on costs for literally everything! Xx
Ps. I definitely know people who have had frozen blasts thawed and tested so can’t see how the day 3 thing is necessary 🤷🏼♀️
As far as I understand it, the assisted hatching done on day 3 is essential for pgs testing, as without it they'd be unable to retrieve the cells from the day 5 blastocyst... However, I should imagine that would usually come under the combined cost of the pgs testing as it is part of the process, not something separate?? At least, that's what my clinic did. My assumption is that it's just another way of adding costs to your cycle.
Sounds like you've chosen a clinic that has good results, so hopefully they know what they're doing and it ends happily for you. I guess the costs will soon be forgotten about if you end up with a baby😊 at least that's what I tell my bank account daily 😂 good luck x
I think all clinics have different procedures. My clinic led me to believe we had to have assisted hatching and it had to be fresh embryos. I think it was more to do with their scheduling as the embryologist only worked certain days so they timed egg collections to coincide with pgs testing days. It was very over prescribed as a clinic so it was a bit conveyor belt-like, one in one out kind of situation. I personally found the big clinics a bit more clinical, less personal.
I'm personally against pgs testing. If you have 6-10 embryos, it's possibly worth it, but not if you have only a couple. Why poke around and remove cells when you can just shove them in and see how they get on. Worst that can happen is a chemical, which usually happen in a few days anyway. I'd rather that then get told they're abnormal and end up chucking them. That's what happened to me. Pgs testing left me Paranoid all my eggs were bad and all my embryos were duds. I then got pregnant naturally so all that worry was pointless. Just my own experience x
Wow congrats on the natural pregnancy! I can't agree with you more. If I have 5+ embryos, I'd need screening and pick which to transfer. But this round my response is so poor (3 fertilised eggs on Day 3). If I'm lucky, I'll get 1 blastocyst on Day 5, or 2 the most. I've cancelled PGS. It wasn't straightforward with this clinic. But I've done it! x
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