IVF experts..I have what seems like a silly question but I'm still going to ask

HugginAngel

Because the medical people spend so much time with the egg do they do any testing on it or anything to help the pg be as successful as possible. Like genetic testing of sorts?

I apologise if it sounds really dumb but I wondered that this morning and figured you'd all answer me without laughing at me.

schen0510

There are no silly questions.

During the retrieval process my RE does NOT do any type of testing.  The reason for this is that they do not want to "harm" the egg in any way.  However...once the egg and sperm have done their thing in the dish...they do grade the quality of the embryo to ensure a healthy embryo is placed back inside the ute.

Hope this helps!! 

HugginAngel

schen0510:

There are no silly questions.

During the retrieval process my RE does NOT do any type of testing.  The reason for this is that they do not want to "harm" the egg in any way.  However...once the egg and sperm have done their thing in the dish...they do grade the quality of the embryo to ensure a healthy embryo is placed back inside the ute.

Hope this helps!! 

Thanks!!!  That completely answers my question.

rjl07

There is also something called PGD which can test the embryos to make sure that a genetic condition isn't passed along.  I don't know much about it, but it's very expensive.  There is also Assisted Hatching which doesn't test the egg, but it breaks the shell of the egg a bit so that the sperm have an easier time getting in to fertilize it.

momagain2009

rjl07:

There is also something called PGD which can test the embryos to make sure that a genetic condition isn't passed along.  I don't know much about it, but it's very expensive.  There is also Assisted Hatching which doesn't test the egg, but it breaks the shell of the egg a bit so that the sperm have an easier time getting in to fertilize it.

Hi Ladies!!!!

We were going to do Assisted Hatching and although it's true they scratch the surface of the egg to thin the outer shell....the embryologist was also going to inject a sperm into each egg to better our chances of fertilization.  I never knew they could do this until we had our consult.

 

Pixiestx

I know someone way back on another board had preimplantation genetic testing done b/c she had something like 5 m/c's in a year.  It's also an option if you are a known carrier or have certain diseases, although what they can test for is limited.  Some of the more fatal conditions can be tested and of course the sex of the child.  That's important for people like my friend b/c her husband has muscular dystrophy. His type can't be determined by PGD, but girls are much less affected if the gene is passed on so they could possible choose to do IVF and only implant female embryo's.  (disclaimer: they are not sure if they are ok with this, just saying it's how the process can work and it's an option)

schen0510

momagain2009:

rjl07:

There is also something called PGD which can test the embryos to make sure that a genetic condition isn't passed along.  I don't know much about it, but it's very expensive.  There is also Assisted Hatching which doesn't test the egg, but it breaks the shell of the egg a bit so that the sperm have an easier time getting in to fertilize it.

Hi Ladies!!!!

We were going to do Assisted Hatching and although it's true they scratch the surface of the egg to thin the outer shell....the embryologist was also going to inject a sperm into each egg to better our chances of fertilization.  I never knew they could do this until we had our consult.

 

When they inject the sperm into the egg this is called ICSI.  My RE does this to 3-4 of our eggs to insure that we have some that fertilize...since we are MIF. 

Scout05

If and when we go the IVF route, we will be doing so with a PGD component - they will run a genetic screen of all embryos before transfer. Given that our losses have been genetic in nature, it's the only way we would be willing to do it.

babygirlpriest

There are two types of testing that can be done - PGD and PGS... but most just call it all PGD.

I'm having IVF with PGS testing. It tests all the chrom. on every embryo. It will cover all tri issues, and any other Chrom.-related issues.

There is a slight decrease in successful implantation with PGD but for me it's worth the risk. We've had 3 mc, lost 4 babies, and all were due (or suspected to be due) to chrom. issues.

Insurance RARELY covers the cost of PGD - even if it WILL cover IVF. For us it will run about $3500. Part of that includes the cost of freezing embryos so if you are planning multiple pregnancies with IVF, you only have to cover the cost of PGD once and can use the tested, frozen embryos for later IVF cycles.

momagain2009

schen0510:

momagain2009:

rjl07:

There is also something called PGD which can test the embryos to make sure that a genetic condition isn't passed along.  I don't know much about it, but it's very expensive.  There is also Assisted Hatching which doesn't test the egg, but it breaks the shell of the egg a bit so that the sperm have an easier time getting in to fertilize it.

Hi Ladies!!!!

We were going to do Assisted Hatching and although it's true they scratch the surface of the egg to thin the outer shell....the embryologist was also going to inject a sperm into each egg to better our chances of fertilization.  I never knew they could do this until we had our consult.

 

When they inject the sperm into the egg this is called ICSI.  My RE does this to 3-4 of our eggs to insure that we have some that fertilize...since we are MIF. 

Ha ha!!!  I forgot what it was called.  I tried to purge everything from memory.

mindyschaller

I'm so glad you asked this:)