Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to keep in mind is that the new chromosomal blood tests now can be done very early - like 9 weeks and are exceedingly accurate and inexpensive and now I think test for more things than PGS. If something is abnormal you can get a CVS done ASAP. Obviously no one wants to deal with facing a termination at ~11 weeks should it come to that, but it’s not like the old days where you’d have to wait for an amino.

I wouldn’t make the PGS decision based on this but if you didn’t do PGS you could use this to make yourself feel better about the decision.

First of all, doing PGS is to avoid having a miscarriage due to chromosomal abnormality. That’s the main reason ppl do it. We don’t want to go through all the hassle and money only to transfer an abnormal. That being said, we transferred one embryo untested and was successful. It wasn’t as common as it is now compared to then.

Also, I was told that PGS is the gold standard as far as testing is concerned. If you are referring to cell free DNA testing, it doesn’t even come close to PGS.

doesn't even come close - true but not in the way you think.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: First of all, doing PGS is to avoid having a miscarriage due to chromosomal abnormality. That’s the main reason ppl do it. We don’t want to go through all the hassle and money only to transfer an abnormal. That being said, we transferred one embryo untested and was successful. It wasn’t as common as it is now compared to then.

Also, I was told that PGS is the gold standard as far as testing is concerned. If you are referring to cell free DNA testing, it doesn’t even come close to PGS.

What do you mean “doesn’t even come close”? The newest cell free DNA tests can sequence the entire fetal genome if you want. I don’t think you can get all that from one embryo cell. CfDNA is 98-99% accurate. If you mean it’s not 100% accurate then you’re correct, which is why doctors won’t terminate based on the blood test alone.

+1

I decided not to do PGS. Not the same but - For some reason I never got pregnant with frozen embryos - only fresh worked for me. Therefore, even after a few miscarriages on my third try for second kid I just wanted to do a fresh transfer. It worked.

OP here - just wanted to update to say that I am really glad to have done PGS. I had 25 eggs, 24 mature, 14 fertilize, 4 frozen and only 1 normal. I just found out and am feeling devastated but glad to have the knowledge. Although, I will say that my normal was 4AA while the 3 abnormal were 3BB so in my case the embryo grading correlated with the PGS testing.

Anonymous wrote: First of all, doing PGS is to avoid having a miscarriage due to chromosomal abnormality. That’s the main reason ppl do it. We don’t want to go through all the hassle and money only to transfer an abnormal. That being said, we transferred one embryo untested and was successful. It wasn’t as common as it is now compared to then.

Also, I was told that PGS is the gold standard as far as testing is concerned. If you are referring to cell free DNA testing, it doesn’t even come close to PGS.

What do you mean “doesn’t even come close”? The newest cell free DNA tests can sequence the entire fetal genome if you want. I don’t think you can get all that from one embryo cell. CfDNA is 98-99% accurate. If you mean it’s not 100% accurate then you’re correct, which is why doctors won’t terminate based on the blood test alone.

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to keep in mind is that the new chromosomal blood tests now can be done very early - like 9 weeks and are exceedingly accurate and inexpensive and now I think test for more things than PGS. If something is abnormal you can get a CVS done ASAP. Obviously no one wants to deal with facing a termination at ~11 weeks should it come to that, but it’s not like the old days where you’d have to wait for an amino.

I wouldn’t make the PGS decision based on this but if you didn’t do PGS you could use this to make yourself feel better about the decision.

First of all, doing PGS is to avoid having a miscarriage due to chromosomal abnormality. That’s the main reason ppl do it. We don’t want to go through all the hassle and money only to transfer an abnormal. That being said, we transferred one embryo untested and was successful. It wasn’t as common as it is now compared to then.

Also, I was told that PGS is the gold standard as far as testing is concerned. If you are referring to cell free DNA testing, it doesn’t even come close to PGS.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the new chromosomal blood tests now can be done very early - like 9 weeks and are exceedingly accurate and inexpensive and now I think test for more things than PGS. If something is abnormal you can get a CVS done ASAP. Obviously no one wants to deal with facing a termination at ~11 weeks should it come to that, but it’s not like the old days where you’d have to wait for an amino.

I wouldn’t make the PGS decision based on this but if you didn’t do PGS you could use this to make yourself feel better about the decision.

We have an embryo damage story. We kept having transfer failures, so we took a risk at the urging of our new doctor and unfroze our remaining embryos to have them biopsied. You would think that would be our problem. it was not. The lab at the fertility doctor did a great job. We waited by the phone to find out which ones were normal, because we'd just had so much heartbreak. We waited. And waited. I knew something was wrong. The PGS company didn't even have the decency to have the tech call us; they had their counsel call us (yes, legal counsel). They had destroyed ALL the DNA from the biopsies. They were "so so sorry." So not only did we un-freeze and biopsy our embryos for nothing, we ended up with NO information about our embryos, and the embryos were worse off, having been biopsied. One later become our DS, in a "blind" transfer (blind in the sense that we know nothing about abnormality). We have no clue whether our remaining frozen embryos are normal. We have no clue whether we'll just be wasting our money doing frozen transfers on abnormal embryos. We have no idea, if the embryo doesn't take, if that's related to a second unfreezing.

So a couple things: One, make the decision now. Don't risk unfreezing/refreezing, which was the unexpected position we found ourselves in after our first doctor told us he wouldn't do PGS/PGD. Two, don't rule out these sorts of accidents. I don't think they happen to the majority of embryos by any stretch, but through the process with the DNA company's legal representatives, we learned that it isn't as uncommon as you'd think. So it's not guaranteed.

Just had my first retrieval and got 24 mature eggs! 6 blasts PGS tested and only 1 came back normal! I know it only takes 1, but now I have doubts that we are discarding embryos that could autocorrect. The research studies are so conflicted on PGS, and I can't believe at 36, like just turned 36 that 5/6 are abnormal. There are case studies that these "abnormal" embryos can become normal healthy babies. So I don't know.

I did not. When our first transfer failed, I was happier not to know whether it was a problem with the embryos or my own body or who knows what. Our first FET worked. I was under 35 and had never been pregnant when we decided not to test. I probably would have felt differently if I had already gone through miscarriages.

I would do it for peace of mind and b/c I got pregnant via Clomid and the embryo had trisomy 18. We're doing IVF now and I'm definitely testing. As you get older, the chances of abnormal chromosomes increases. If you're spending all this money, why not focus on those that are PGS normal to give yourself the best shot?