hi all
I have had 3 transfers ( one chemical pregnancy as a result of transfer) and now got 4 - day 3 embryos frozen. Our clinic want to thaw them and get them to blastocyst and then test them.
My worry is I am not sure about pgs testing as it reduces embryo batch count and I know untested ones can result in a pregnancy.
many views from women in late 30/40s with low amh and who are for or against PGS pls?
Hi Poop. This is a good question and it's an area I have found to be quite divisive and depends a lot on someone's personal history. I am in a similar position in that I have low ovarian reserve and have (I think you know) been embryo banking to try and yield embryos that can be tested. This has not always gone to plan as sometimes I've been left with no embryos to actually test.
Of course untested embryos can, and often do, result in pregancy. You are right that testing them will probably reduce the number of them, however you may feel more confident in the ones that remain.
Usually people that test their embryos have had multiple losses, repeated implantation failures or, in my case, a chromosomal problem identified at 12 week scan. This is why I now test the embryos regardless of the numbers. But that is not your situation and for you I think you need to balance how you'd feel having more embryos, but untested, versus having less embryos but tested ones, especially taking into account your previous loss. Xx
thanks lovely your right so divisive but also good to hear why you chose to do it. Thanks for sharing. If I R.E.M.
Right you have similar ivf issues to me; would you. Think thawing four day 3 embryos would be reasonable to pgs test?
A previous clinic I consulted with said to freeze at Day 3 and then thaw all together to PGT - A test (maybe it's the same clinic you're with). I think in your situation I'd want to know how the Day 3 embryos had fared - what the embryologists thought of their quality and what is the likely statistical drop off at each stage to enable the most informed decision to be made. Xx
Hello Poop84, I've done two back to back embryo banking cycles and am currently waiting how many will make it to Day 5 (it is Day 2 post collection of my second cycle today). Like you I am also dreading the thawing process of my frozen Day 3 embryos from my first cycle and I am quite anxious about the three embryos I had on Day 1 from this second cycle. With my low AMH (3.8 in July) and my age (43) there is a significant risk that none of my embryos will even make it to Day 5, or if we have any suitable for testing that the PGT-A will only show aneuploid embryos and there won't be anything to transfer. In my case I was not prepared to risk another natural pregnancy resulting in loss after suffering four miscarriages in the past two years where we can attribute at least two of the losses to chromosomal abnormalities. IVF with PGT-A in my view was the only remaining option to achieve a genetic sibling for our son. I was referred to the recurrent miscarriage clinic via the NHS after my losses, however the doctor's advice was to just keep trying as it was a number's game at any age but especially with advanced maternal and/or paternal age and with declining egg/sperm quality with age one had to take the losses with the gains. I found that advice quite unacceptable as it completely disregards the emotional, mental and physical pain a miscarriage can cause, never mind its impact on relationships or trust in your own body and life itself. I went into IVF with PGT-A fully aware that my chances of success were significantly slimmer than my risk of ending with no transfer if that makes sense? I also knew from the start that I would only be able to do these two stimulation cycles for financial and age reasons. Having set these limits/expectations helped me as I was going through the stimulation phase, even if this doesn't make the waiting time for results any less nerve-wracking now. But on balance, I would always choose PGT-A again as I personally couldn't cope with the anxiety of another pregnancy without knowing that I have given myself the best chance of success. Wishing you the best of luck in your next steps!
thanks for you reply really helped me 
Do you mind if I ask how many embryos you tested and how many/ratio came back okay for transfer. I think it’s hard as no one can give a stat or drs won’t. Thanks so much xxx
I absolutely won't mind sharing once I have my results, will make sure to update you on this thread by the end of November, Poop84! I am still waiting whether we will even have any Day 5 or 6 embryos to test, tomorrow will be Day 3. If we are fortunate enough to get any good quality blastocysts then it would take another two weeks to learn the results. IVF is such a series of hurdles, isn't it, I will make sure to let you know how we are getting on! X
lots of hurdles for sure! But we need to do it if it helps us get nearer to changing nappies defo please do keep me posted xxx 😘
Hello DreamingOfTwo, just wanted to jump in and say we had exactly the same experience. We were told we could just keep trying but I could not do that. I desperately wanted to avoid another pregnancy loss. Even if the result of ivf and testing was negative, at least we would know where we were at and not go throught the constant hope and disappointment rollercoaster. I hope you get some good results from your testing. xxx
aw sorry I assumed you had it already. Apologies and I’m sending you lots of love and good vibes. Hope your feeling okay during the wait. Xxx 🫶🏼❤️🙏🏻
Hey Poop84, we received the most excellent news today that two of our five embryos tested euploid so our journey continues, I am completely overjoyed and still processing the news ❤
oh my how wonderful! I’m
Sooo happy for you this is great news! ❤️🙏🏻 when are you thinking of having a transfer?
I know this all can be hard but hope you feel a bit more relaxed now I know what the wait for updates can feel like eek xxxx
Thank you so much for sharing in my joy! Yes, the wait was agony but receiving the call this morning also made me feel quite ill with worry. I'm planning to have a number of tests done next (EMMA/ALICE for chronic endometritis, Natural Killer cells and a hysteroscopy to check for scarring following my multiple MCs and for other uterine abnormalities), just want to make sure I've done all I can to create optimal conditions for transfer. Probably won't be scheduling this before Feb/March next year! 🤞 xx
Awww so amazing hearing this! ❤️I think I the Era is good my clinic are promoting this for me too but not until we have the pgs results first. My dr has said he wants me to do one more round at least and then Dee how many embryos we have to decide pgs testing. Xxx so likely if any we will do a transfer in April time or March x
Hi lovely, we tested. We had 2 miscarriages prior to ivf. Very low amh and I was 39. The miscarriages and recovery from them was taking months and I knew if I had to go through it again a big chunk of my remaining fertility would be gone. The testing gave us more control. Tested embryos have much higher statistical chance of live birth. In saying that. One of our embryos came back without a result. When I asked if we can retest my clinic said they don’t thaw embryos just to test and freeze again as it could harm them or we could lose it in the process. I think it is up to you of how much in control you want to be, how many embryos you have and what your gut tells you to do.
thank you so much for sharing means alot. Did you test many? As that’s my fear not many embryos and testing them reduces the pool of embryos for us x ❤️🫶🏼
We tested 3. Two came back good and one with no result. I do realise how lucky we were with that result. And unlucky for the 2 mmcs that came before this. The rest of our 19 eggs we got over 3 cycles either did not fertilise or did not make it past day 3 or 4. We did ivf so we could test. The stats I read at that time made sense to do that. It was also cheaper for us to test an embryo than transfer an embryo that had very low chance of working. Maybe check with your clinic if they would consider transferring mosaic or even aneuploid embryos if that would end up being all you would have. Then you would not lose any embryos and could still give them a chance if you did not get any euploids?
Hi, I’ve had 4 cycles of ICSI with 3 failed cycles and 1 MC. I’m 39 and have a normal but in the low range of normal AMH of 7.8. I’m about to embark on three cycles back to back and have decided to PGT-A as many of the embryos as I can. It’s been already so tough physically, emotionally and financially that I feel I need to give it the best shot. I accept the chances are I’ll have very little embryos left at the end (and worst case none) but I really can’t put myself through the pain of further embryo transfers and the two week wait knowing an abnormal embryo wouldn’t likely result in a pregnancy. But the decision is so personal and you need to do what you feel is right.
My clinic will take a biopsy from any suitable embryos after each cycle and then freeze the embryos, then after all three cycles they will be PGT-A tested and I’ll have to wait 5 weeks for the results 😬.
Wishing you all the best whatever you decide to do. I have everything crossed for you. X
I totally agree with the others above that they are doing the right thing for them by doing PGTA testing but I wanted to give a slightly different perspective here based on my own experience. After a complicated MMC conceived naturally, we started IVF purely for the reason that we could do PGTA testing to hopefully ensure we didn't have another miscarriage. However sadly all didn't go to plan. I was 43 when I had the MMC and 44 by the time I started IVF and had an AMH of 6.9 in August or 8.3 in Septembet and my consultant seemed to think I should be able to do a couple of cycles and bank embryos then test them. In reality that didn't happen. My first cycle was an abject failure in this regard with 5 eggs collected and only 1 that tried to make a blastocyst but which was very poor quality and could not be frozen and had petered out by Day 6. We tried another cycle about 3 months later having taken all the supplements and started the healthy living diet recommended in It Starts With The Egg. By this time, with also the advice from the consultant, my mindset had changed. I had already found myself freaked out at the idea that if the one embryo in my first cycle had been good enough to transfer but not good enough to freeze and test, I would have have had to let them dispose of that potentially perfectly good embryo and had no way of knowing whether I was losing out on a future son/daughter as a result as I had not been prepared with all the progesterone etc for a fresh transfer! So for our second cycle, when they rang on Day 5 to say they had two blastocysts and started booking me in for a fresh transfer later that day everything sort of moved very quickly and the elation of actually having some blastocysts sort of outweighed the possible worry of not having them tested. One was an early blastocyst and I assume the other wasn't good enough quality to freeze and test but either way the advice was to go for a fresh transfer so I did. Sadly BFN. But then after that for all of the rest of my cycles, my biggest worry seemed to be not having anything to transfer rather than not having anything to test and the advice always was to go for a fresh transfer. After my first cycle I also became concerned about my clinic's policy on mosaics and that they would insist on disposing of any embryos which tested positive for Downs Syndrome even if you would be happy to have a transfer of an embryo which had tested positive for Downs - not all clinics do this apparently. I realised that I could end up testing and finding I had embryos that I would consider transferring and giving a chance which the clinic would refuse to let me transfer and they would then be allowed to dispose of them at great heartache for me and strangely that was as much of an issue for me as suffering another miscarriage at least in my head at that time. So I think you will need to weigh up what risk concerns you the most ie the lesser of two evils - the risk of putting something untested back and this potentially resulting in a miscarriage or the risk of having nothing to put back either because the day 3 embryos are thawed and a) don't make blastocyst or b) don't make blastocysts good enough quality to test or c) make blastocysts that are tested but the clinic says you can't put them back due to their particular policies even though you would be happy to yourself or d) they are tested and are all aneuploid. I would check out your clinics policies carefully before making your decision and work out your own views in relation to this- not all are as harsh as my clinic thankfully. For some people the risk of having a miscarriage will be too high and they would always want them tested and I totally get that but I didn't have that choice really in the end.
I am similar situation
My doctor is quite talented and keep up with the all research work and sits in bristish fertility executive committee too.
I asked same question today in my consultation and she said in her expert opinion it’s not good idea as you would loose one of your precious embryo.
To do any sort of test they take genetic material from embryo and after embryo might not able to make up that again. So why to waste it, it’s better to keep in natural environment ie uterus and hope for the best results.
Luckily you have 3 but no one can say which one would reach to blastocyst stage, how to choose? Dr said if the one we choose for testing, if can’t repair the genetic material that means one loss, and if other one can’t survive then second loss- so she keeps on giving me perspective to have day 3 transfers and no testing.
So we are not going to test it, too precious to risk it at age of 41 for me. With low amh it’s hard to get frozen embryo.
All the best
Why did they freeze them at day 3 as opposed to letting them go to day 5 or 6 in the first place? Freezing then unfreezing then freezing again seems a bit much. Unless you have some specific issue for which testing is necessary, I would let this one go and probably test them fresh if another round is needed.
Hmm, that's odd. All my clinics batched only day 5 or 6 embryos. How would you even know that they are making it to blasts if they freeze day 3? Especially when they have to be a certain quality on day 5 in order to be suitable for testing. I would say let them go to day 5, as it's unlikely that all 4 will result in testable blasts. Depending on how many you are left with test or skip the test. If you come out with 2 testable blasts or less, it's probably better just to skip testing and transfer. Hopefully you get a bunch of good ones!
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