PGS Testing - has anyone done this?

Marissa6609

I met with my RE today to determine whats next for us. Since we only have 1 frozen embryo, we are going to move forward with another fresh cycle. My Dr  will be increasing my Follistim dose (to 600 iu/day!!) with the hopes of getting more follicles. Last cycle on 300iu/ 450iu Follistim we only ended up with 5 mature eggs, 2 transferred and 1 frozen.  

Anyways, one of the things he had suggested was to do PGS testing on the embryos to look at the number of chromosomes, make sure everything looks good. According to my Dr about 20% of the embryos have chromosomal abnormalities, so this would reduce the chance of a loss due to chromosomal issues.  With this, we would have to then freeze the embryos while we wait for the results, then move forward with a FET the following cycle.  My DH does not think this is necessary, and I am on the fence (more so because I want to do everything possible to make this successful after having back to back losses). 

Has anyone had this testing done? If so, why did you have the testing done? Did you think it was worth the cost? Any advice?  Thank you!! 

hmz819

We are doing the testing. We are banking embryos and will test all blasts once we are done banking. We are banking because I don't make a lot of blasts each cycle so it makes more sense financially this way. I am doing the testing because I have been told I have poor egg quality and I would like to know if we make normal embryos.

gnl42

I asked a similar question after my chemical pregnancy and received a lot of helpful replies. The link below also has links to prior discussions. A lot of women find themselves asking this question. (note - CCS and PGD/PGS are often used interchangeably now)

https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12408613/ccs-testing-questions

I'm not over 35, only had the one chemical pregnancy and it at least *looked* like we made great embryos. I brought up the idea of testing and my RE did not recommend it... But, we still decided to do it. I read a lot of the medical literature for and against testing and we discussed all of the pros and cons. I had a difficult time with the chemical pregnancy - the emotional roller coaster of getting our hopes up and being crushed. We decided that if we could, we wanted to avoid that again - or even worse, a miscarriage later on if there was an abnormal embryo that implanted. Overall, we just wanted to decrease our chances of a loss and increase our chances of success per transfer. We had 11 remaining frozen embryos, so we did the testing on already frozen ones, which made things even more complicated. We ended up with 5 normal. 2 of the abnormals were high quality, ie they *looked* great. We were able to have a very fast turnaround with test results and do a day 6 transfer, re-freezing the remaining normal ones. For us, the testing cost 5k for up to 8 embryos and then there was an additional cost per embryo. I wish I had been offered the testing from the start. It's a significant additional expense, but well worth it in my opinion given the information that you gain.

Pintobean39

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We did PGD because I had 4 miscarriages in 10 months with 2 confirmed trisomy. It cost $5,000 but totally worth it. I had 10 embryos make it to 5 days and frozen but only 3 of them were normal. I got a copy of the paperwork on all of them and I was amazed how many were excellent quality but had either trisomy or monosomy and never resulted in a viable pregnancy.

I had to do a FET because my clinic doesn't do the testing in house. It's very nerve wracking BUT my Dr was able to push me harder for stims to get more eggs and able to get my body exactly how he wanted it for the transfer. There is always a chance of losing then in the thaw but my clinic has a 97% thaw rate so I felt a little better.

bunnybun4

I Will be doing PGS in November- like you my AMA is low (mine is lower than yours) and I also have three losses under my belt.  While I am scared of the risk of losing some due to freezing and testing- I just can't help but think that it is worth it to know which ones would cause a miscarriage or wouldn't even make it at all.  Also...as terrible as it sounds, if they are all unhealthy then as much as I hate it...there is our answer....we can know we did all we could and we can move on to the next step if need be (prob. an egg donor).  HTH!

Marissa6609

@hmz819 - My dr. talked about banking as well. Depending on how I respond to this next modified protocol, I may end up banking too. Last cycle I only had 5 embryos with 2 being transferred (5 day blast) and only 1 to freeze.  

@kaly75 - Thank you for the info regarding the 6 day transfer. My dr. didnt mention this as an option, so I will see if this is something we can do (I think he sends the testing out, but its worth double checking)

@gnl42 - Thank you for the link to the related thread. Also, congrats GL at your appt Monday!

@pintobean39- Thank you for your input. I too, am thinking that just because our embryos 'look great' it doesn't mean they are. I think my Dr. is willing to be more aggressive with my meds next cycle, since my body will have time to recover a bit before the FET. I am glad to hear that this is fairly common.  I have a question for you though - it looks like your ER was in June and your FET was in September - did you choose this time frame? I was thinking I could have my ER at the end of Ocotober and the FET at the end of November (dr. didnt go over the schedule with me yet) - is more time off needed between ER/ FET?    Congrats to you as well

@bunnybun4 - You make a good point - even if the results are not optimal, they are telling.

I am so sorry for the losses, grief, frustration and disappointment that you have each experianced through this journey.  This is a tough, unexpected road. Deep down I think I wanted the PGS testing, but since my husband was hesitating, it made me second guess it. I think in the big picture, its the right thing to do, especially based on the positive feedback you have all been able to provide. I hope you each have a great weekend!!!