Opinions on PGS

APM_SLP · August 2016

Hi all!

im still debating on PGS and would love some guidance/opinions. My RE is advising against it due to my age (35), and good egg quality. This is our first try with IVF or any IF treatments for that matter. We are on day 3 right now and have 10 embryos going strong. Obviously not sure what our final number will be yet! If we only have 3-4 embryos when all is said and done, I don't nessecarily feel as though PGS will be worth the cost?

We are lucky that our insurance covers all transfers related to this one retrieval, once our detectable has been met- which at his point of course it has been!

If we had a ton of embryos I could see PGS being worth it, to save us the heartbreak of numerous failed transfers.

Is my line of thought correct here? Would love to hear what you all think!

thanks!

babylonghorn16 · August 2016

Hi @APM_SLP! I am 27 and my RE said we probably didn't need to do PGS testing since the research showed that 1 in 500 would be abnormal for my age group. With the odds in our favor, we still decided to do PGS just to cover all the bases. I didn't want the added stress of not knowing if the embryo(s) we were transferring had some genetic abnormality that would cause transfer to fail. Also my imagination was running wild with "what if we have some genetic disorder we don't know about, and we spend another year transferring non-viable embryos!". Just freaked me out and wanted piece of mind. Out of the 8 we tested, 7 came back normal. 1 was missing the long arm of chromosome 4. We still have 4 that are untested, bc the testing we paid for only covered 8. I hope this info helps you in your decision! Good luck!!

Rachnan · August 2016

I was 32 when I had my ER and we decided to do PGS testing. My RE told me that based on my age group, around 80% would be good. Boy am I glad we paid the extra $$ since only 4 of my 8 came back normal!

This is is an individual decision and you have to do what's right for you. If you have the money or it's covered, you should seriously consider.

joneser1281 · August 2016

Hi @APM_SLP ,

We did not do PGS. Our main reason for not was the cost... and also because we'd heard there's some risk to the embryos for the testing. I guess we were also thinking that had we gotten pregnant on our own, we wouldn't have any idea what was going on with our embryos at such an early stage in development. I guess we feel that such defects are the risk we are taking on when trying to have a baby. But I agree with the ladies... If it's something you have money or coverage for and will lessen your stress about everything, I would consider it too. This was our first IVF cycle and being that I'm considered young (ha!) and healthy, it wasn't highly recommended to us. Now you all are making me worried! Haha.

AandDM2014 · August 2016

Hey! I was 26 when my eggs were retrieved, and it was not recommended that we get them tested. 6 failed embryos later (with 3 up in the air) I really wish we had. It would have saved us a lot of heartbreak and money. If we do another round of IVF we will for sure be doing PGS testing. Especially if your insurance covers it, there is no reason not to do it (unless your religion has problems with not letting all embryos be transferred).

APM_SLP · August 2016

Thanks for your replys!

i guess I should have specified that our insurance doesn't cover PGS (or I would definitely do it), but rather it covers the transfers only.

It it sounds like if end up with a good amount of embryos, we should do it. But maybe not worth the money it if we only end up with a couple.

emgem819 · August 2016

If you can afford the PGS I would say go for it. I wish we had. We ended up with 8 embryos and first one didn't stick and this second one looks like it might turn out to be a MC so it was likely chromosomally abnormal too. If we had done the PGS testing we'd have been able to tell which embryos were normal and wouldn't have gone through all this. PGS testing was $4000 so on top of the already big price tag we didn't choose to do it for that reason. also my re told us it wasn't necessary. But if you can swing it, I'd definitely do it.

cmm012 · August 2016

I'm 35 and had 7 embryos. Three were normal. I'm so glad I did the testing even though it was expensive. We are able to transfer one embryo at a time which is much safer. Plus I feel like we saved time and money by not transferring embryos that were not viable. This is a very personal decision, so it's important to weigh the pros and cons. Best of luck with everything.

LeFemmeViolette · August 2016

Our RE strongly recommended PGS, even though I'm only 31 (30 at the time of ER). She said that she thinks PGS testing will be the norm in a few years.

While I was really sad about the results, I feel it's a good thing we did it. We sent 4 embryos samples to get tested and only ONE came back normal. Had we not done PGS, I could have wound up with 3 miscarriages.

Ultimately it's up to you. Our insurance did not cover it, so it was a hard decision to make, but we decided we wanted to give our embryos and my body the best chance there is to make everything work.

wifeinraleigh28 · August 2016

We decided to do PGS for the reasons the other ladies mentioned above. I do not want to put myself through miscarriages (physically or emotionally) and the extra money for PGS is worth that alone to me. I'm 30, so it is not like I have a high likelihood of having abnormals, but as you can see from the others before me, just because you're young doesn't mean you automatically get perfect embryos!

PNW12RN · August 2016

According to my RE, at age 35 50% of the embryos will have a chromosome problem. With my age-35 embryos, one was PGS normal and one was abnormal. The abnormal one was a 5AA grade and would have had no chance to actually become a baby, even though it looked perfect.

Why go through all of this stress and money just to put in an embryo that has no chance to succeed?? The stats I have seen say that 80% of IVF failure is thought to be related to a chromosomal problem with the embryo. We had a failed FET last month, but I know the embryo we put in was picture perfect and we did everything possible to give her a chance to succeed. We are in the process of getting donated eggs from my sister and absolutely plan to do PGS on those embryos, too.

teamginger13 · August 2016

We are also doing PGS testing even though our insurance doesn't cover it. Like many of the ladies said I felt like it was better to give us a higher chance of success since we were already spending so much money. I feel like there is no reason to go thru the emotional and physical stress of miscarriages if you don't have to.

APM_SLP · August 2016

@PNW12RN we wouldn't be wasting money because my insurance covers all of our transfers. But we would be paying for the PGS.

I know now I will do it if we end up with a decent amount of embryos. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth it if we end up with like 2 embryos.

cmm012 · August 2016

@APM_SLP When I was researching PGS testing, it read a couple of research articles that suggested it's not in a couple's (or woman's) best interest to do PGS with one or two embryos. The authors said it would be better to transfer them without testing.

APM_SLP · August 2016

Thanks @cmm012. So much to consider!

hnkirk81 · August 2016

@APM_SLP The genetics lab my RE uses recently started offering a plan for those with fewer embryos to test. The package for 8 embryos is ~$2000, but if you do one at a time the first is $750 and each additional is $250. Even though we've only ended up with 3 embryos after two transfers, we opted for the plan that includes 8. We will do one or two more cycles before moving to donor eggs. The package will cover those embryos as well, if we haven't reached the limit at that point.

All three of our embryos have come back abnormal so far. For me, not having to go through the failed transfers or MC is worth the investment.

Tulips29 · August 2016

We decided to do PGS testing, even though my RE said it's probably not necessary for my age (32). We had 3 embryos and decided that it's worth it even though insurance didn't cover it either. Out of the 3, only 1 came back normal in time for my transfer. One was missing a chromosome and 1 came back undetermined. We re-tested the last one and now have a second normal embryo left. At the end of the day, it's your personal decision. Yes, you take the same risks getting pregnant naturally. But we felt like if we have this option to do the testing, why not take it to ensure that we get the best results. Like other ladies said, avoiding possible heartbreak or a MC are worth the investment alone to me personally.

caseyw8784 · August 2016

We are doing PGS as a byproduct of having to do PGD. If they have to go so far and spend so much time to look for a specific single gene disorder, they said that it would kind of be stupid/pointless if they also didn't look at all the other chromosomes, since an embryo might be listed as "normal" in terms of the genetic disorder, it could still have missing/extra chromosomes and would not be viable after all.

If we didn't have to do PGD, based on my age (31) my RE probably would say that I wouldn't need it;. However, I would want to do PGS to be reassured that they were transferring back the "best"/healthiest embryo, but the money would definitely be the deciding factor...

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