I know that Fertilysis tests menstrual blook and the Era, Emma/Alice test tests a biopsy sample, but it looks like it tests very similar things. Has anyone looked into this? Is one better than the other? Do I need to do both?
These offerings are not based on science so questioning if I should do it at all or just continue to transfer remaining embryos and hope for the best.
Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated?
I did the fertilysis testing. Although it tests for the microbiome it doesn't include the receptivity part/ for how long you need progesterone (ERA). My clinic which is also in Greece wasn't interested in the fertilysis results. Whilst they would recommend the ERA, EMMA etc if they thought I needed them.
From the very little I looked into this the EndomeTrio tests are more common and more acknowledged by clinics even with the lack of evidence.
As to whether you should have them or not what does your clinic say?
It usually depends on how may failures with good quality blastocysts someone had. If I am not wrong after 3 transfers of good or euploid blastocysts clinics recommend more testing. Which can include the ERA etc.
If it is an embryo quality issue like in my case then these tests are unlikely to help.
From what I understand in most failures it's an embryo issue and the cases where the endometrium was the problem are significantly fewer.
Hence clinics prefer to gamble with transferring as many embryos as possible.
Saying that, you will get a lot of women in here swearing that the ERA etc (not many had the fertilysis) was the answer to the problems.
Thank you for this thoughtful response. My clinic and my second opinion do not recommend ERA due to lack of scientific evidence. They have suggested testing cells from my uterus - I think looking for inflammation.
I have transferred 3 euploids with no success but have limited access to testing due to being in Africa. So trying to navigate this extra complexity.
My doctor recommends that I continue transferring, but have 1 euploid and 2 mosaics left. It was suggested I do another egg retrieval while I have more tests done.
Hi lovely, the fertilysis microbiome test is fairly equivalent to - though a bit more comprehensive than - the Emma/Alice tests. Whereas the Alice and Emma tests only look at the uterine biome, fertilysis looks at both the uterine and vaginal microbiome and tests for a greater variety of pathogens. Though as Ththketnf mentions, it doesn’t address receptivity like the ERA does.
After three failed transfers I did the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss panel through fertilysis (which includes the microbiome test) and found it very useful. Although my results came back normal, I would absolutely recommend it to others if you’re trying to figure out a cause for failures. It was non-invasive, you can do it at home, and I felt so much better once I knew that I could cross that worry off the list and move on to other investigations.
xx
Thanks so much for this recommendation. We are moving to Europe next month and Fertilysis looks like a quick way to get more answers. I'm leaning towards that.
I went for a second opinion today and the doctor said I have some adenomyosis so suggested Lupron before next transfer. So I am going to look into that now.
What are you doing for your repeated implantation failures?
My doctors really seem to be at a loss. They want to do sperm DNA fragmentation tests, even though we make euploids.
We are falling into a small group which struggles with this. There is no clear path from here on.
