[munchymoo]

Hi ladies, I'm 38 (nearly 39) and DH 42, we're just starting our first IVF cycle at the Lister.  We've managed to conceive naturally twice this year but sadly both have ended in miscarriage so we're embarking on IVF to try to bank some embryos - if we are lucky enough to get any! We are doing 2 banking cycles back to back and then seeing where we're at, we don't plan on transferring anything at this stage. 

I know the outcomes are completely random and we could do well or get nothing, but I've been told they expect to harvest approx 10 eggs in each cycle with approx 3 embryos getting to 5 day blastocyst stage, at which point they would do NGS PGS if we want them to at the end of each cycle and then freeze all embryos pending results. 

We don't know what to do.  We're concerned about poss risks, both now to the embryo in terms of damage and potentially destroying a perfectly healthy embryo, but also no-one knows the long term health risks of PGS to the child born from that embryo as it's such a new technology.  I get that if we had 10 embryos then PGS may be worthwhile but if we only have 2 or 3 (if that), is it worth it?  I'd almost rather risk another mc by having an abnormal embryo put back in than do something that could potentially be risky either in the immediate term (the embryo not surviving the invasive procedure) or long term health risks (like they announce in 10 years that PGS children are more at risk of blah blah blah etc).

Can anyone help?  The Lister have said we need to let them know by the end of this week as they need to control my cycle more if we're doing PGS owing to the genetics lab only being open on certain days.  I don't know what to do!  Please help! xxx

 

[Tincancat]

Hi Munchymoo
If you have only a few embryos I'm not sure it's worth the cost.  Freezing the embryos will lead to another natural selection with only the strongest surviving the process.  However if you say want to avoid putting back a Downs, Patau or Edwards embryo then it might be worth doing PGS.
TCCx

 

[flossybear]

For us we chose to, I felt if it was going to work it would survive all the extra things it went through with testing etc. For me knowing the one transferred back in was as healthy as it could be gave me more confidence it would take.  9 went off for testing all made it and we had 8 clear of the genetic issue and frozen. Our first transfer is now a 4year old happy health little boy x

Wishing you lots of luck c

 

[Qpmz]

I did NGS PGS following back to back cycles and got a normal embryo but it didn’t stick, I was totally distraught! In hindsight I don’t think it’s worth it unless you get loads of embryos. It’s better to transfer 2 or 3 untested ones simultaneously and let nature do the PGS for free. This is only my experience though and I’m sure some people have a more positive outcome. Sending you positive vibes whatever you decide.

 

[kittykat76]

I did PGS, id had several miscarriages after natural conception and was starting immunes during my IVF cycles, for me it took away a reason for my  losses so we could concentrate on the other reasons my body couldnt hold onto a pregnancy. I produce a lot of eggs and always had 9-14 embies on day 5 ( and would have 2 or 3 normal ones each time) so if I had been putting back untested embies I could have had several cycles before finding a normal embie and paying for immunes each time as well as the heartbreak of miscarrying. If I only had one or two day 5 blasts and not doing immunes then I poss would have taken the chance and just put those back,or i would have banked them and had them all tested at once. PGS is expensive (think mine was 2,800 for 8 embies) but for me it was the right decision and allowed me more confidence that they cycle had better chance of working. Unfortunately due to my immune issues I still miscarried 3 more times but eventually found a combi that worked

 

[miamiamo]

I did PGN NGS, and it could be a coincidence, but treatment was successful