Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough call. I'd lean towards not testing so you have more $$ for more IVF cycles. If you think about it, PGS cannot create a normal embryo from a batch of abnormals. In that way it cannot increase your chances as long as you are willing to chug through all the embryos with FETs. The only way it could increase your chance is if you are in danger of "burning out" and not transferring all the embryos you get.

Would your doctor transfer 2 day 3s?

DH also says the same thing you're saying - that the test cannot create a normal embryo from an abnormal batch. And if we get no normals, then what next? Also we are trying to gather info about the results of transferring an abnormal embryo, so to say. Whether it has resulted in a pregnancy and a healthy birth, or produced opposite results.

I don't understand the thinking that "a test can't create a normal embryo, so why test." The point of testing is so that you don't put your body and mind through the stress of multiple FETs and potentially devastating miscarriages or terminations for medical reasons (TMFR - you will see this acronym on various infertility boards). You also won't waste more months of your rapidly waning fertile years going through months of useless FETs when you could be doing more egg retrievals in hopes of finding a good one. I am not unsympathetic, OP, I did six rounds of IVF over ages 41-42 and the drop-off over that time period in both eggs retrieved and their quality was striking. PGT testing is a really pretty small cost compared to the IVF process as a whole - and NO amount of money can buy back the time you may lose with repeated FETs of untested, ultimately non-viable embryos.

Also one popular argument against testing I hear a lot is people saying they would welcome a child with Down Syndrome anyway, for instance. But what about one with an abnormality that doesn't necessarily prevent a full-term pregnancy but is incompatible with life, e.g. Trisomy 13 or 18? That's another thing to think about. I know there is a lot of talk in some circles these days about how abnormal embryos might somehow correct themselves. I think that's highly unlikely at best and frankly suspect there are some pro-lifers at work in those conversations who are not concerned with the mother's (or father's) mental, physical, and financial stressors at all. At 42, I would absolutely test all your embryos if you're able to get them to blast stage.

Whatever path you take, I wish you good luck. It's a hard road but there really is a lot of wonderful stuff medical science can do these days. Fingers crossed for a healthy baby for you, OP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough call. I'd lean towards not testing so you have more $$ for more IVF cycles. If you think about it, PGS cannot create a normal embryo from a batch of abnormals. In that way it cannot increase your chances as long as you are willing to chug through all the embryos with FETs. The only way it could increase your chance is if you are in danger of "burning out" and not transferring all the embryos you get.

Would your doctor transfer 2 day 3s?

DH also says the same thing you're saying - that the test cannot create a normal embryo from an abnormal batch. And if we get no normals, then what next? Also we are trying to gather info about the results of transferring an abnormal embryo, so to say. Whether it has resulted in a pregnancy and a healthy birth, or produced opposite results.

Anonymous wrote:41 and don’t make any blasts (everything arrests after day 3). My 5 year old DD was a day 3 transfer. Currently 16 weeks after a transfer of my first blast ever, untested due to the false positives and potential embryo damage. If you make enough blasts i would test, I didn’t have that luxury

Anonymous wrote:We didn't PGS even though we got 8 embryos under the rationale that the biopsying process can't possibly improve the embryo and the RE said an untested blast has a 40% chance while the normal is 65%.

Anonymous wrote:I am very similar to you - one cycle this summer at 42, I made 6 blasts. Sent them to testing and glad I did because I only got one normal, and that could have been a tremendous waste of time and heartache. Also m/c can have complications that further diminish fertility! Also I have read EVERYTHING and I think the shortcomings of PGT are somewhat overstated and really only apply to edge cases. I think on the whole it’s pretty good at sorting amongst blasts.

Anonymous wrote:Tough call. I'd lean towards not testing so you have more $$ for more IVF cycles. If you think about it, PGS cannot create a normal embryo from a batch of abnormals. In that way it cannot increase your chances as long as you are willing to chug through all the embryos with FETs. The only way it could increase your chance is if you are in danger of "burning out" and not transferring all the embryos you get.

Would your doctor transfer 2 day 3s?

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't clear if the embryo stage is day 3 or day 5. If you can't make blasts or only make 1 or 2 per cycle, it doesn't pay to test, because of the false positive rate and/or damage to the embryo. PGT testing helps when you have a lot of blasts and need to chose the best ones.

Anonymous wrote:At 42 I would definitely test. I’m surprised SG hasn’t more strongly recommend that. They won’t transfer abnormal embryos though so if that is all you get you will have to do another retrieval. We are very glad we tested.