My first cycle I only had one embryo make it to day 5. We did not PGS test it and it did not implant. Second cycle we had 7 make it to day 5 and did test. Had two normals. Implanted both(39 years old) and resulted in twins.

Anonymous wrote:With my coverage (ACA/ MD health exchange) I had up to 3 transfers and was certain I only wanted single embryo transfers (I have a few friends who had really difficult twin pregnancies.) I did 2 retrievals with about 8 eggs each time and 7 total making it to day 5 for PGS testing. My first batch had 3 "excellent" (or should I say egg-cellent!) embryos by all the old school standards. PGS showed they were all had chromosomal abnormalities-- I forget the exact issues but they were very common, severe, and would have most definitely resulted in miscarriages if they even implanted! I was heartbroken but so grateful we did PGS testing! The 4 tested in the subsequent batch resulted in 2 normals embryos , one that is an adorable 11 month old. (Hopeful sibling in the freezer for later.) All that being said, my sister went through the same process and never had embryos that made it to testing and opted for fresh transfers...sometimes it isn't even an option. I am very grateful it was an option for us. Good luck!

how did it turn out for your sister?

Anonymous wrote:With my coverage (ACA/ MD health exchange) I had up to 3 transfers and was certain I only wanted single embryo transfers (I have a few friends who had really difficult twin pregnancies.) I did 2 retrievals with about 8 eggs each time and 7 total making it to day 5 for PGS testing. My first batch had 3 "excellent" (or should I say egg-cellent!) embryos by all the old school standards. PGS showed they were all had chromosomal abnormalities-- I forget the exact issues but they were very common, severe, and would have most definitely resulted in miscarriages if they even implanted! I was heartbroken but so grateful we did PGS testing! The 4 tested in the subsequent batch resulted in 2 normals embryos , one that is an adorable 11 month old. (Hopeful sibling in the freezer for later.) All that being said, my sister went through the same process and never had embryos that made it to testing and opted for fresh transfers...sometimes it isn't even an option. I am very grateful it was an option for us. Good luck!

Did your sister have any luck with the fresh transfers? How many cycles did she go through before deciding to try fresh transfers? Do you mind sharing your ages?

With my coverage (ACA/ MD health exchange) I had up to 3 transfers and was certain I only wanted single embryo transfers (I have a few friends who had really difficult twin pregnancies.) I did 2 retrievals with about 8 eggs each time and 7 total making it to day 5 for PGS testing. My first batch had 3 "excellent" (or should I say egg-cellent!) embryos by all the old school standards. PGS showed they were all had chromosomal abnormalities-- I forget the exact issues but they were very common, severe, and would have most definitely resulted in miscarriages if they even implanted! I was heartbroken but so grateful we did PGS testing! The 4 tested in the subsequent batch resulted in 2 normals embryos , one that is an adorable 11 month old. (Hopeful sibling in the freezer for later.) All that being said, my sister went through the same process and never had embryos that made it to testing and opted for fresh transfers...sometimes it isn't even an option. I am very grateful it was an option for us. Good luck!

It's not a scam, but also not a magic bullet. After lots of research and experience, I currently think that PGS is great for those who will have many blasts. Even in young, healthy women, about 50% of blasts will be abnormal. With PGS, you can figure out which embryos have the best chance and transfer those, potentially saving time, $ and lowering miscarriage risk.

For older women who produce few blasts, it's not that helpful. Most to all blasts for older women will be abnormal. There is evidence to suggest that PGS may show an embryo as abnormal that could have resulted in a healthy baby, although it's rare. Also, the biopsy procedure does pose some risk to the blasts. If you're older with few blasts, you probably don't want to take the chance with PGS. Plus, I think the charge is the same for the first 8 or so blasts, so if you only have a few at a time, it's also not great economically. (You can bank and test, but then you get into thawing and refreezing, which is even more risk to the blasts). While there is a chance that you may miscarry, in many cases, abnormal embryos will result in a BFN or chemical, so I don't think that the possibility of miscarriage outweighs the negatives of PGS in cases of older women who have few blasts. Docs may like PGS even for older women since if you do get a normal blast, the odds that it will result in a pregnancy are much higher.

Anonymous wrote:PGS poses slight risk to the embryo. So when you only have 2-3 embryos and implantation odds are 50%, why bother?

It is a number game, it doesn’t mean PGS is a scam. If you have more embryos, you’d have the luxury to pick and choose.

I guess to avoid miscarriages-- that's valuable.

We had over 20 failed transfers with six egg donors (under 35) and seven surrogates, plus many, many, many miscarriages and it wasn't until we transferred screened embies that we finally had a live birth. Our embies, even with healthy and young egg donors, had multiple genetic abnormalities despite normal to great results on all fertility tests. We literally wasted a decade and $100 grand in failed transfers (some in US, some overseas) before we tried PGS and finally had success.

We're certainly outliers, but that's probably only because we could afford to keep going when many others cannot. In hindsight, I would have insisted on PGS from the start. I know it isn't a guarantee of success, but it gives you a heck of a lot of helpful information.

That said, if you only produce a few eggs, you are willing to tolerate possibly multiple miscarriages, and you have money to keep transferring embies until you get to one that sticks OR you're willing to set and stick to a max budget for trasnfers (even if treatment fails), then don't bother.

It depends on your age and on the number of embryos that will make it to blasts. I probably would not bother with PGS for women under 35. For those over 40, I would say PGS testing makes a lot of sense, but those women may no produce many blasts to test. So, like the PPs said, it's a numbers game. Our RE did not even mention it until we brought it up. At the end, I believe it saved us many miscarriages/BPNs.

I think PGS makes sense if you can generate a good number of embryos per cycle. If not it might be better to just roll the dice with transfer.

Anonymous wrote:In just the 2 years I have been doing PGS I have seen a major change in thought about PGS. Everyone was overly confident. Now doctors are reluctantly admitting it’s not nearly as good as we’d been led to believe.

Can you share more on this? Seems like the doctors at SG are very into PGS, especially if you’re over 37. Where have you cycled? Can you share more about what you’ve heard are the major changes in attitude over the past two years?

PGS poses slight risk to the embryo. So when you only have 2-3 embryos and implantation odds are 50%, why bother?

It is a number game, it doesn’t mean PGS is a scam. If you have more embryos, you’d have the luxury to pick and choose.

In just the 2 years I have been doing PGS I have seen a major change in thought about PGS. Everyone was overly confident. Now doctors are reluctantly admitting it’s not nearly as good as we’d been led to believe.

have you done any cycles yet? I never had enough embryos for PGS to be worth it (I always just had one or two embryos by day three).

for example: https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13048-017-0318-3?fbclid=IwAR2lo2k0CI0GDVfDrvXPLiYfQVDesOaujoGCZ2hxmAru_VAWLD8-YGLlM18

What do your REs say about PGS for DOR? or more generally, how hard do they push PGS?

My RE says she doesn't recommend it since DOR patients barely make any embryos. Other REs I've heard through friends are die-hard bank+PGSers. I did some academic review/articles research and it seems like the PGS train is a lot of marketing and not nearly as much research backing that I assumed.