ladies, I just lost the embryo at 3.5 weeks after transfer. It was developing well , but then slowed down and my doctor says it’s the beginning of the end. She also suggested that PGTA might have damaged the embryo because there is no reason like my health is not good enough as all parameters are normal. She also offered to do another round without PGTA, but this is scary as 3 out of four my embryos were tested abnormal. And the only normal resulted in miscarriage.
what are your thoughts regarding possible damage of PGTA to embryos?
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Diana1981
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Im going to probably sound quite harsh here - if this were me I’d be finding a new doctor if that’s the response I got.
If you are using own eggs I’d still be doing PGTA if your others were abnormal and you are older (not old, just older). Yes PGTA can damage an embryo but there are a million reasons why losses happen that have nothing to do with that and a lot of Doctors don’t know why it happens, especially when you’re in perfect health. Some people have further testing (I did) - blood tests, immune protocols for support, further tests (hysteroscopy etc), dna fragmentation etc and that can give them answers.
I’m sorry for your loss and I hope you’re doing ok.
PGTA is so advanced now that it is unlikely to cause damage to the embryo in that way. But unfortunately even with an Euploid/normal embryo there is still only a 50% chance of a live birth. As there can be other things at play both within the embryo and the body. I had 2 separate euploid transfers fail to even implant. And I have a friend who sadly miscarried two separate euploid embryos. We both ended up needing some reproductive immunology testing and then needed steroids and blood thinners etc in order to get and stay pregnant. For both of us it worked the third time and resulted in live births.
Were your other three embryos definitely abnormal (aneuploid) and not mosaic? If mosaic they still have a decent chance of working but abnormal is highly unlikely to work. It’s important that your clinic will allow mosaic transfers. My third transfer was a mosaic and is now my 9 month old baby so I feel it’s def important to give mosaics a go.
My only concern would be that it sounds as if your clinic and doctor is not that experienced in PGTA from what they have said. Could it be possible you move clinics to one that does work more with PGTA etc. My clinic were specialised with PGTA. Given your previous results were 3 out of 4 abnormal then I think it’s important you still do PGTA.
Hope that helps and isn’t too overwhelming! Do give yourself a little time to process it all too. Sending strength xx
Thanks a lot dear friend! The three abnormal embryos were not mosaic unfortunately. The clinic mentioned specific chromosomes that were tripled and didn’t recommend transfer of those. I also have blood thinner as I have some issues with density of blood. However,it didn’t help to develop the pregnancy. I felt like the doctor wasn’t sure what exactly caused the embryo to stop growing and she said she guessed it might be PGTA causing damage. However, it sounded strange to me as the embryo did grow initially and the HGCh was doubling for the first 3 weeks, then slowed down completely. Yes, I’m considering changing the clinic now.
I’m sorry for your loss. I have a very healthy little boy from a PGT-A tested embryo - also they take the cells from the zona rather than the actual embryo so there really shouldn’t be damage - especially enough to cause a miscarriage.
I also had a loss at 8.5 weeks with a PGT-A tested embryo so it’s not the silver bullet I think we’d like it to be in terms of success. As TTC0011 says there can be so many reasons for miscarriage so I would be looking for a second option too. I think sometimes the embryo simply doesn’t have enough energy to keep growing.
I also totally agree with your approach, as recent studies indeed show that abnormal embryos give healthy babies. But aneuploid lead to failed pregnancy more often. And she seems to have a tendency to produce more abnormal embryos than normal ones. That’s a hard one but I would test again.
in reserved… I had 15 embryos PGDed, 11 came back normal. I have used 6 so far, Had Two viable pregnancies and I am waiting for the result of the last transfer now. Only 1 embryo did not survive being unfrozen and one transfer was done outside of my window in such a way that I was standing no chance (doctors error). PGD is extremely well managed nowadays. If you had 3 embryos out of 4 that came back aneuploid, I would do it again in order not to waste any time. I think you were extremely unlucky this time, the next one will be the right one. I think that the reason given by the clinic is not convincing, as should the embryo have been damaged by PGD, I doubt it would have resisted decryogenisation and implanted in the first place, and further evolved until nearly a month. You’ve got this !
Thank you Sara! I agree I wasn’t convinced by the response I’ve got from the clinic. Exactly my thoughts how come it survived almost a month and then stopped?!
I’m so sorry for your loss and to hear of your clinics reason. Like other ladies who have replied, there are so many other factors that could mean the pregnancy didn’t continue 🩷✨ but it doesn’t mean your next won’t stick for longer! 🙏🤞 keep your hope xx
When PGTA was offered to us the embryologist explained that to do the test they remove a few cells from the outer shell to test, if the embryo has a high number of cells so a top graded one this usually won't effect it but if the embryo has less cells so a lower graded one then even if PGTA comes back as normal the removal of those cells means it's got less cells now and this lowers the chance of success. We had one top grade and 4 lower graded at the time she said she could test all but by removing cells from the lower grade ones would leave them less likely to implant or miscarry. So we didn't do the testing in the end.
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