PGD?

Mellyknu

DH and I had a consultation with my RE today to get the ball rolling on IVF.  We don't have any genetic risk factors, but he highly recommended PGD to increase our chances of a successful cycle.  I'm curious about your experiences with it.  Did you do it?  Did you decline?  Why?  Any insight is appreciated.  

Spring78

If you have no known genetic risk factors, then PGS seems more appropriate than PGD. PGS looks at the chromosomes for abnormalities (such as trisomies), whereas PGD looks at actual genes to identify inherited diseases. Chromosomal abnormalities can happen to anyone at any age, though rates do go up as you age. You cannot tell by looking at an embryo if it is chromosomally normal or not. Most chromosomally abnormal embryos will not implant at all, and of those that do, only a few will produce a viable fetus (with life-long health consequences). Trisomy 21, for example, is the cause of Down Syndrome for those babies born alive, but 70% or more of babies with Trisomy 21 will be miscarried naturally (I had no idea the rate of miscarriage was so high until after it happened tome). So... I guess what I am saying is that if you can afford it, PGS is a very useful tool -- it identifies embryos that likely would not implant at all or, if they implanted, would likely end in miscarriage. It can save a lot of money & heartache in the end.

Twinkie0612

We considered CGH testing on our embryos for IVF #3, but decided not to go through with it because we only ended up with 2 blasts.  We just decided to transfer both.  It didn't seem worth the extra expense to test only 2 blasts and at the time we had planned on it being our last IVF cycle.  Looking back it would have been nice to know if that transfer failed because our embryos were aneuploid, but at the time I think we made the right decision.  Personally I don't feel like it is necessary for your first IVF, unless you have some known risk factor (age or RPL).

Mellyknu

@Spring78 I think you're correct: PGS sounds correct.  I found it very interesting when he mentioned abnormal embryos miscarrying.  It does make sense, it's just not something I've ever really had to think about.  

@Twinkle0612 I would have probably made the same decision if there were only two blasts.  

Thanks, ladies!

kristi&p

*** Loss mentioned ***

I was offered IVF w/ PGD testing due to a balanced translocation. I had two CP and was sent for RPL testing. Once the translocation was discovered I was sent to a genetic counselor. I was given a few odds of what the out come would be and my chances of having a normal embryo or an embryo with the same translocation as me that could result in a  successful pregnancy and live birth. The odds were pretty low. That was when I decided it wasnt an option that I wanted to go with just due to the odds. 

Wishing you the best of luck @mellyknu

LilyHarper

*losses mentioned*

Typically they recommend it if you have some genetic reason or repeat losses. We didn't do PgD, but I kind of regret not doing it, as it would have meant that I didn't have my last mc. At the same time, we had reasoned that if we had done pgd we couldn't have afforded an FET for a while...so it was a crap shoot. Prior to ivf I had a cp and a triploidy mmc. First round of ivf I had a tetraploidy. Chances of that are extremely unlikely...so my RE would kill to have genetic results of our 6 frosties...but the man isn't paying, so we didn't. And, at the time, he didn't think it was necessary...However, I apparently am very very weird, so my situation is ABSOLUTELY not normal. Anyway, point is, sometimes, even with normal karyotyping (which we have) it can be useful. But it's expensive...and that's always a factor. It's not an easy decision.

O2girl

*****loss mentioned *****
When we started on our journey we declined the PGD. Neither H not I have anything in the background of our family to raise concern. We had a MMC in April and a D&C. From that we got tissue from one of the twins and she was chromosomally normal.

Then we changed REs and took our remaining 6 embies with us. Before my last transfer we thawed all 6 and had PGD done. Of those 6, 1 had turners syndrome and the remaining 5 were normal.

My H looked at it like a Percentage of risk. I just see it as we had one known unhealthy embryo. And that eliminated our chance for having another MC or having to make a decision we don't want to make because the fetus isn't viable. No hope that makes sense.

GL on your journey.

Mellyknu

Thanks for your insight, everybody!