Small blastocyst?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never tested. I had one blast (4BB) at 43 after years of IF due to DOR. She’s a healthy 2.5 year old now.

My oldest DD (7) was from a day 3 fresh transfer.

Wow that’s great thanks for sharing. So with the day 3 transfer and not testing, was this a suggestion per your clinic or did you have to push hard for it? For me, I find that my clinics always recommend FET with testing starting from when I was 34 years old. This hasn’t changed over the years, from when I had normal AMH at 34 to DOR now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never tested. I had one blast (4BB) at 43 after years of IF due to DOR. She’s a healthy 2.5 year old now.

My oldest DD (7) was from a day 3 fresh transfer.

Wow that’s great thanks for sharing. So with the day 3 transfer and not testing, was this a suggestion per your clinic or did you have to push hard for it? For me, I find that my clinics always recommend FET with testing starting from when I was 34 years old. This hasn’t changed over the years, from when I had normal AMH at 34 to DOR now.

Day 3 transfers are a waste - at 40 likely 95% of the embryos are abnormal. (At 39 85% of my embryos were abnormal)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never tested. I had one blast (4BB) at 43 after years of IF due to DOR. She’s a healthy 2.5 year old now.

My oldest DD (7) was from a day 3 fresh transfer.

Wow that’s great thanks for sharing. So with the day 3 transfer and not testing, was this a suggestion per your clinic or did you have to push hard for it? For me, I find that my clinics always recommend FET with testing starting from when I was 34 years old. This hasn’t changed over the years, from when I had normal AMH at 34 to DOR now.

Day 3 transfers are a waste - at 40 likely 95% of the embryos are abnormal. (At 39 85% of my embryos were abnormal)

Age is such a killer...the regret of not trying earlier.

I find that my euploid rate stayed about the same, but we're talking about a very small sample size as I don't make many blasts. When I was younger at 34 (2 euploid out of 5 blasts) vs now (1 euploid out of 2 blasts). Perhaps the Omnitrope is doing something or just luck of the draw. But regardless I tend to fall on the wrong side of the coin so I am not too optimistic.

[Anonymous]

Also regret not trying sooner and its all I can do not tell every young person I meet. Glad to hear you had one successful pregnancy, OP, hoping your next is around the corner.

[Anonymous]

If you’re only getting one to test then you should just transfer without testing. There is an attrition when you have to have only euploid blasts to test, they have to be “freeze” quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also regret not trying sooner and its all I can do not tell every young person I meet. Glad to hear you had one successful pregnancy, OP, hoping your next is around the corner.

Thanks so much! Me too, I also talk about my regret to young folks. None of my family members had fertility issues, I got my period every 28 days, and I don't think fertility issues were as much of a focus in the media (maybe I just didn't pay attention to it). I always heard about people having kids when they were 40+ so I didn't think I would struggle.

When I discovered I had to do IVF, I was upset as I never thought I would have to go through this invasive route. Now multiple cycles later, IVF has become a part of my daily routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re only getting one to test then you should just transfer without testing. There is an attrition when you have to have only euploid blasts to test, they have to be “freeze” quality.

Last ER I had 3 blasts including one CC blast which wouldn't survive the freeze and thaw. So we only did PGS testing on 2. I know CC is the worse quality, but it hurt a bit to just throw it away as it's been so difficult for me to make these blasts.

I'm going to discuss with my RE the possibility of fresh transfer/not testing again, especially as I only got 1 blast this cycle. But I have a feeling he will still push for PGS testing. He always gives us his recommendation but leaves the decision up to us. Given how much he advocates for testing, it's hard to go against it. My husband really believes in PGS testing too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re only getting one to test then you should just transfer without testing. There is an attrition when you have to have only euploid blasts to test, they have to be “freeze” quality.

Last ER I had 3 blasts including one CC blast which wouldn't survive the freeze and thaw. So we only did PGS testing on 2. I know CC is the worse quality, but it hurt a bit to just throw it away as it's been so difficult for me to make these blasts.

I'm going to discuss with my RE the possibility of fresh transfer/not testing again, especially as I only got 1 blast this cycle. But I have a feeling he will still push for PGS testing. He always gives us his recommendation but leaves the decision up to us. Given how much he advocates for testing, it's hard to go against it. My husband really believes in PGS testing too.

PGS testing lowers the take-home baby rate from damaging the embryo with the biopsy to mosaics that get discarded and false positives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re only getting one to test then you should just transfer without testing. There is an attrition when you have to have only euploid blasts to test, they have to be “freeze” quality.

Last ER I had 3 blasts including one CC blast which wouldn't survive the freeze and thaw. So we only did PGS testing on 2. I know CC is the worse quality, but it hurt a bit to just throw it away as it's been so difficult for me to make these blasts.

I'm going to discuss with my RE the possibility of fresh transfer/not testing again, especially as I only got 1 blast this cycle. But I have a feeling he will still push for PGS testing. He always gives us his recommendation but leaves the decision up to us. Given how much he advocates for testing, it's hard to go against it. My husband really believes in PGS testing too.

PGS testing lowers the take-home baby rate from damaging the embryo with the biopsy to mosaics that get discarded and false positives.

Agree - damage to the embryo is something I worried about. My RE noted that's why it's important to choose a clinic with a good lab, and apparently their lab is excellent. Since we're only taking a sample of a few cells, there's also the risk that those extracted cells are abnormal but other cells are normal. When I brought up my various concerns, including whether embryos can self correct etc, seems the benefits of PGS testing outweigh the risk per my RE, even if I only made a few blasts. He quoted a specific study, don't remember which one but that study wasn't not specific to those with DOR.

Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback, it really makes me think harder about testing/fresh transfer given my situation.