? about mini-ivf (siggy)

Manderlin923

Hi, I hope it's okay that I'm posting here. I wasn't sure if I should do a siggy warning or not. I hang out on ttcal/sec.if but I thought I might find some good advice here. I recently found out I have a balanced translocation (a genetic disorder) after getting testing done after my last m/c. One of the options, is of course IVF, which I know many of you ladies have been through. With my bt, we have about a 50% chance of getting a good egg, the others would be unbalanaced and miscarry or survive to term, if they fertilize, with severe birth defects. My RE recomends IVF but the cost, as you probably are aware, is insanely high and we have no insurance coverage for it.

I'm wondering if anyone has done mini-ivf and though it would give us much fewer eggs, the cost is so much more affordable. The thing is though, that we need to do PGD (testing on embryos) on day 3. Is it possible to do a mini-ivf, fertilize the few eggs I get, freeze them, then do another round and do the same thing, then thaw, do PGD and then transfer? Then I'd have more eggs. I just don't know when they normally freeze them and if the timing of the PGD would throw things off (they need to do it on day 3). Sorry, I hope that makes sense. I will give my RE a call, too, just hoping for some insight. Thanks! Happy and healthy 9 months to you!

 

stei8086

If I understood your question correctly, it might be wise to do PGD with embryo banking. You would do a few rounds of mini-IVF (two or three) and then they would PGD all at once after you have gotten enough embryos worth testing. 

 I did PGD and there is one thing that a lot of people don't know. There are two parts to the testing-the biopsy and the analysis. The total cost is around $5000. I asked the financial specialist at my RE's office if it would be covered and she said no way. Even though I have absolutely NO fertility coverage, we found out that part of the PGD would be covered by our insurance. I forget which part, but I know the PGD was half the price. So definitely check with your insurance company. Good luck!!

 Hope this helps!

 PS-The cost of IVF sucks, but I know a baby is worth it!

aebaby

I did one round of mini-ivf with the intention of doing mulitple rounds to bank 6-10 embryos.  You're correct in the cost is much less than traditional IVF, but over time (and depending on how many rounds you do) the cost can be as much as or often times higher than traditonal IVF.  And then you have to pay for the transfer(s).  The idea behind the theory is quality vs quantity...and I think it can work for people.  Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.  We were able to harvest three eggs, two of which fertilized with icsi - all of them arrested and we had nothing to work with.  It was heartbreaking and looking back I wish I would have done traditional IVF instead in order to get a larger number of eggs to work with.  My egg quality was terrible in the first place so I'm not sure why my RE at the time wanted to try and get a few instead of a lot.  We were not planning on and did not do anything with PGD. 

It was a frustrating experience and we've since moved on to DE.  Good luck to you in whatever route you decide!

Jackie2200

Meds are expensive but Egg Retrievals are just as costly. If you're a normal responder, I would do a full round of IVF to hopefully get 10+ eggs. A miniIVF will only give you 2 or so eggs so you'll have to go through many ERs to get enough eggs to to PGD. All those ER will probably cost more than the meds.