Gestational Carrier with PGS tested embryos - can it still not work?

[Anonymous]

I've done 5 IVF cycles (2 with own eggs and 3 with donor eggs). The embryos with donor eggs were all PGS tested and still all 3 failed to implant. We are pretty much out of hope and out of money. We still have 4 more PGS tested embryos frozen and are now considering a gestational carrier. It 's very expensive and would involve taking a home equity loan for us to afford it. We're prepared to do that if this is truly the solution to building our family. But after all the hope and disappointment we've been through, I'm wondering if this is really a sure thing. For anyone out there who had used a carrier, can you reply to let me know if it worked and if so, after how many tries? I would also being interested in hearing from anyone who did not have success going this route. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I've had 5 failed IVFs w my own uterus before switching to GS. We transferred 2 PGD normal blasts and both took on first try with GS. We lost one between 13-14 weeks, but baby girl is now 2 weeks old and sleeping on the couch next to me. It's more likely to work with PGD normal embs but it is by no means a guarantee. But if you are going the GS route, it's definitely wise to use tested embs before investing so much money in the surrogacy. You want to put your best foot forward so to speak. Sounds like you may have an implantation issue. Eliminating your uterus from the equation and putting those normal embs in a GS seems like the most likely way to succeed. It was for me at least. Don't waste those precious embs! Use a proven carrier to bring them to life. Sure, there is the grief of not being able to carry but once your baby is here it will no longer matter and you will be able to work through that. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Have you been tested for immune problems? Honestly, that kind of implantation failure makes you sound like a classic case. Immune treatment isn't cheap but would be much less expensive than going the gestational carrier route.

[Anonymous]

Same PP here. Just want to add that I now have many friends in the surrogacy world and have followed a lot of people on their journeys. I've seen more success stories than failures. Using PGD normal embs would put you in the more likely to succeed category for sure. I've seen some PGD normals fail but it's the minority. Ive had several friends use untested embs in their surrogates and fail one or more times then finally decide to do the testing then they succeed once they use normal embs. It CAN work!!

[Anonymous]

OP, we are also on the brink of the GC journey though with OE PGS tested embryos. Our RE has said that while no means a guarantee, the combination of a good uterine environment and tested embryos has the highest chances of success.
I have severe adenomyosis. My doctor is not opposed to immune treatments but has said that since there is a basic structural defect other things may not help. Since we do not have embryos to spare we will move to a GC though it will involve serious financial sacrifices.
There is a 'surrogacy roll call' thread on the Resolve forum that may be helpful.

[Anonymous]

OP, I have similar questions as you. I have done 9 cycles and lost 13 embryos, 4 out of which were PGS normal. We have some left and are considering GC. I am really not sure if they will work even in the GC as I suspect my eggs could be bad. We will not know unless we try out that option.

[Anonymous]

I am 17:50 again. If you are about to consider GC, please go ahead and do not waste time on immune treatments. They are expensive, there is no guarantee, their odds are worse than GC and there is no end to immune protocols. I wasted 1.5 years on them.

[Anonymous]

Our GC had two failed transfers with our PGS tested embryos. She was an experienced GC. We had the option of paying for thousands of dollars of tests to find out why, or moving on.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the OP has structural issues, and not likely immune. But I will give a strong vote to at least trying something different and checking all your bases -- to include light immune treatment, natural cycle FET, checking Vitamin D levels, checking TSH frequently, and checking lining receptivity (EFT Yale test or similar.) We also failed some OE cycles, and then failed 3 PGS-tested donor egg cycles. I decided to try one more cycle doing all things I listed above, and it worked.

[Anonymous]

Have twins via a GC (my eggs/embryos). I've mostly seen it used/work for women with underlying health issues (like cancer, blood or kidney disease, etc, but also including things like uterus/carrying-to-term). We did one frozen cycle with GC that did not work, then fresh cycle that worked. I'd suggest going to see one of the REs who does a relative high number of GC cases (although it's not 'uncommon' in this area, it is still really a small number of overall cases -- two at Shady Grove are Widra or Mottla) - for a consultation. They tend to be pretty straight forward about if it's a good option based on your circumstances and about the relative odds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have twins via a GC (my eggs/embryos). I've mostly seen it used/work for women with underlying health issues (like cancer, blood or kidney disease, etc, but also including things like uterus/carrying-to-term). We did one frozen cycle with GC that did not work, then fresh cycle that worked. I'd suggest going to see one of the REs who does a relative high number of GC cases (although it's not 'uncommon' in this area, it is still really a small number of overall cases -- two at Shady Grove are Widra or Mottla) - for a consultation. They tend to be pretty straight forward about if it's a good option based on your circumstances and about the relative odds.

congrats on twins

[Anonymous]

OP We tried for nine years. I lost count of the # of cycles. We did finally succeed with GC & DE. I think your body may just not do it. Mine wouldn't. But we have lovely healthy twins now. I will say that one has some unusual genetics so that might have been The problem all along. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Pp above be careful about the finances we took many years to recover

[Anonymous]

NP here. We already have 2 pgs tested embryos. So how much it will cost for the rest?

[Anonymous]

CSP has a breakdown of lots of the costs. Their agency fee is about $5-10 higher & you can cut out the counseling fee if you go with some other agencies - and some also depends on if you are paying your GC's health premiums and other things (bed rest, travel, etc). But you will have agency/lawyer fee, payment to the GC herself, and other costs as outline. Generally, the variable costs are probably around $90-150K for total GC end-to-end. You've done the 'first half' of IVF, so you can probably account for $15-20K of that there... but still have to do the implementation/transfer. Also we had to do a second round before we were successful.

http://www.creatingfamilies.com/intended-parents/?surrogacy-costs-gestational-surrogacy-in-vitro-fertilization-44