PGT-A results, what to do?

[Festis]

Hello,

This is my first post but I’ve found all the feeds so helpful. So I wondered if anyone has advice on my situation - I’ve had egg collection with 4 embryos frozen. We were advised to do PGT-A testing because I’m 42 and have never conceived. 3 embryos were taken to testing.

We got the results today and it wasn’t good news. They only tested 2 as one wasn’t of good enough quality. The 2 they tested came back abnormal. So now we have to decide whether to attempt FET with one of the remaining 2, which are of poorer quality anyway. Do we go ahead with FET knowing the chances are low, or try for another cycle and egg collection? It’s so hard to know what to do for the best. I’m finding all the information so overwhelming and it’s like learning a new language. So any advice is so gratefully received. Thank you. X

[leo1980]

Hello! Feeling you on this. I am 41. Had awful cycles. One cycle was total fertilisation failure. Hubby twisted my arm to give it one more go: a mere 7 eggs collected. 7 made it to day 5 and 4 were PGT normal although not great quality. Ie 5AA etc it was more like 3’s and 4’s. I am currently 3 days into a frozen cycle with one of those normal embryos. I guess what I am trying to say is a small chance Is better than no chance? A cycle at 42 is slightly better than at 43? Ladies on here will have share their views soon but just out of curiosity. Have you had all the regular tests?

[Festis in reply to leo1980]

Thanks so much for your reply. And you’re right about a cycle now is better than later still. We have had all the regular tests, DNA fragmentation, karotype bloods as well. I’m glad we’ve done all the testing but it adds so much time as well.

Very best of luck to you with your FET, I’ll have everything crossed for you. X

[Squareark]

These are such tough choices, I wish you the best in figuring what's right for you.

Here is my understanding of PGS testing:

1. They take 4 cells from the outer layer of the embryo that will become the placenta.

2. Normal/high mosaic/abnormal is a range. I can't remember, but I think 25% abnormality (i.e., if 3 out of 4 cells have the right # of chromosomes) is normal, 50% is high mosaic, and more than that is abnormal.

3. It depends on which of the chromosomes there is an abnormality on, some are definite no's, others are less so.

I've read quite a couple of articles that said placenta cells have higher chances of being abnormal (cuz they are gonna be the placenta). And have heard from quite a number of people that they've implanted high mosaic/abnormal embryos that have turned out very well. I guess that is to say, there are definite success stories, though I haven't seen any studies.

I would talk to your doctors/embryologist about the abnormality, what's the percentage and which chromosomes they affect, and make a decision from there.

Best of luck!

[Ivfgotadream]

I would do another egg collection and then don’t test but do a transfer. I tested 2 blastocysts age 36 - neither tested normal - a low mosaic and a complex abnormal. I decided not to test again and transferred 2 on next cycle and had twins

[Sososoxx]

I feel for you. I’m in a similar position. 2 of 8 are normal. We went through the abnormalities for each one whcih was worthwhile. In my first cycle, one of four was normal. I decided to do another egg collection ASAP (before I got any older) and still have one of my untested embryos from the first.

I will have the two euploid embryos transferred first, before goin lg back to the first frostie. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that point though.

I’m not sure if I would test again if I had to do another egg collection…

Good luck in what you decide xx

[pink_lemon]

Hello, were they full abnormal or mosaic? And what chromosome mosaic? I did pgs testing because I wanted to avoid further miscarriages with abnormal embryos, which were my two natural pregnancies unfortunately. When I was doing reading on this, I came across some studies which showed that most mosaic embryos make it into healthy babies. There are certain chromosomes you would not want to transfer but surprisingly high number of mosaics can apparently self-correct. As someone said above, they only take about 5 cells to test. Technically there is a chance those 5 can be abnormal and there would be more normal in the embryo, but that is rarely the case based on the study summaries I read.

If I were you and finances would not be an issue, I would do another round and test again. Or two if you can and then start transferring anything you can. If you transfer an embryo now that might not be viable and get pregnant, you can miscarry down the track and lose 6 months of your time making it even harder to try again from scratch later. And if your clinic offers it, I would speak to someone about the abnormalities that were found in your embryos in detail.