PGT-A testing

[Crie1983]

Hi all,

I’m likely to start ICSI with a new clinic offering mild treatment. They have suggested PGT-A testing. I’ve never had my embryos tested before. The package I’ve been offered includes one embryo being tested and then £350 for each embryo thereafter.

Do any of you have thoughts of PGT-A testing? I obviously want the best chance but know there is a risk of damage to the embryo and also depending on the number of embryos collected it could push the overall cost up quite a bit. Any advice much appreciated

[Gempuddleduck]

Hiya, I’m guessing by your username that you’re the same ages as me - 38 o 39? I know there’s lots of mixed opinions on testing and i also know results can vary from one person to another but I am a supporter of it.

Our second transfer was a fantastic looking 5AA embryo which didn’t implant. Our third was also good looking but we found out at 12 weeks that the baby had Edward’s Sydrome.

For this round, we decided to use donor eggs and had our 6 lovely blastocysts tested. 3 came back normal and I’m 29 weeks pregnant today after the first transfer. We also have the other 2 in the freezer. It cost us £500 per embryo but was well worth it.

So I guess what I’m trying to say, is if everything is okay with your lining etc then there’s no reason why a normal embryo wouldn’t implant and be okay. I feel it saves a lot of future heartache of transferring one which won’t implant/survive.

Hope that helps a bit - good luck! 💕🍀

[Crie1983 in reply to Gempuddleduck]

Congratulations on your pregnancy, that’s amazing.

Yes I’m 39. Thanks for the advice , that’s a good way of looking at it and I’m pretty sure I’ll go ahead with the testing. Sometimes you just need a bit of advice from others.

Xx

[Redsequin]

Hello lovely.

The study below might be helpful to see different likely rates of success, i.e. how many euploid embryos you are likely to get depending on the age of your eggs and how the grading of the embryo (like whether it is "excellent" like an AA or AB or "average" like a BB) also affects the likelihood of an embryo implanting.

remembryo.com/pgs-success-r...

Looking through the study myself I can see that rates of success are greatly improved with PGT-A, but of course not guaranteed.

xxx

[Crie1983 in reply to Redsequin]

thank you so much for sharing that. Much appreciated. X

[Somoe]

Personally, we decided to go for it as we felt we had a sufficient number of embryos and while there are no certainties in this progress, we wanted to do everything we could to maximise chances as soon as possible. We were fully aware that there is a small chance of damage to the embryo and also that the test is just on a sample of cells - but on balance we decided it was worth trying. We ended up with a BFP. Good luck with your decision and all the best x

[Crie1983 in reply to Somoe]

Thanks so much for your reply. We’ve decided we’ll go ahead with testing when the time comes.

Massive congratulations on your BFP.

Xx

[IVFmumma]

I am a believer of PGTA testing. Besides our very first fresh transfer working and resulting in our now almost 4 year old, I have since had many failed transfers of "top quality" untested embryos from our first IVF cycle when I was 30. Fast forward to 35, I had another fresh round and was lucky to get 10 embryos to freeze. Before freezing we chose to test 4 of them (the 4 best quality). 2 came back normal and 2 were chromosomely abnormal which for my age, was bang on. 50% normal outcome is meant to be what is expected. Of those 4, the top graded one (a 5AA) was actually one of the abnormal ones! o if I had gone ahead and transferred in order of external quality, then it would have failed.

My first PGTA tested transfer worked and I'm currently 8 weeks pregnant ♥️ I think it's worthwhile if you have a decent number of embryos or are maybe older and this cuts down the time and cost of transfering chromosomely abnormal embryos.

we didn't have any issues with damage etc to the embryos and when I had the transfer the embryologist said it thawed to look identical as the day they froze it.

good luck with what you decide!

[Crie1983 in reply to IVFmumma]

Thanks so much for your reply and for sharing your experience. And a massive congratulations on your pregancy.

I’ve decided to definitely go ahead with testing, after 4 cycles already I need to change something. I’m a little nervous about the number of eggs I might produce the time but I just got to pray the quality is there. X

[IVFmumma in reply to Crie1983]

no worries and wishing you all the best for your next retrieval ✨✨🙏🏻🙏🏻 I hope the testing is the final piece of the puzzle for your BFP

[Bonaire]

Hey

Just out of interest how long do they take to test ? X

[Crie1983 in reply to Bonaire]

I was advised the results take about 5 weeks. X

[IVFmumma in reply to Bonaire]

mine took 2 weeks so maybe depends on clinic

[Bonaire]

thank you! It’s something we’ve also considered but feel like they said it was take months… but I might be thinking of something else there. What does the PGTA test ? Sorry there’s so much to take in isn’t there and understand! X

[Crie1983 in reply to Bonaire]

I know…there’s so much to consider isn’t there. The PGT-A test for chromosomal abnormalities taking some cells from the embryo. There’s some information on the HFEA website and my clinic have also sent me some additional information. X