Hi lovely Rose
Know we have spoken elsewhere but just wanted to chip on for extra MN support
Hope you're doing as OK as you can be: I say that within the context of the situation, as I know post ERPC I was physically OK but emotionally I was in bits. However like you, I found it helped me to deal with it by throwing myself into thinking about next steps
I wanted to leave no stone unturned after my miscarriage, and wanted to be as thorough as possible with further investigations before putting another embryo back
Stuff I did:
- thyroid function tested
- infection testing (ureaplasma and mycoplasma)
- hysteroscopy
- level 2 immunes
Immunes wise I had already had all the level 1 immunes before my cycle - I didn't actually need the level 2 immunes tests insofar as my Dr prescribes empirically for failed implantation or miscarriage, so the treatment would have been the same with or without testing
However for my own peace of mind I wanted to understand if there were any major immunes red flags - eg if I had significantly elevated NK cells, would that suggest a higher dose of prednisolone might be indicated
I had my level 2 immunes tests done with Locus Medicus, the Athens lab who Serum use - their tests are identical to the Chicago tests, except that they use intralipids instead of IVIG for the NK cells cytotoxicity test, but significantly cheaper. I paid €300 for a three in one panel - which was about £300 including blood draw and overnight shipping to Athens.
They also do the thrombophilia tests for level 1 immunes, although if you have a kindly GP, they may agree to do them (officially NHS won't do any investigations for miscarriage until you've had 3 consecutive losses, but some posters on FF have been able to get the tests done after 2 miscarriages)
An alternative to consider would be the uterine NK cells biopsy with Prof Quenby and Brosens at the Coventry recurrent miscarriage clinic - I believe it's something like £350 and you can self refer
As you know from other threads, we decided to have our frozen embryos PGS tested. The main reason for this was because the tissue testing of the products of conception after the ERPC showed the baby was chromosomally normal - the problem was with the soil not the seed. From a diagnostic POV, we could do everything possible to work on the uterine environment, but if we had BFNs or more miscarriages, we wouldn't know if we had addressed the problem with the soil or not
Moreover, as we had miscarried a normal embryo, we reckoned if we'd already transferred a decent one, the chances of the next transfer being a dud seemed higher.
Our clinic said they were increasingly doing PGS testing on frozen embryos - there is obviously an increased risk because the refreezing and rethawing process puts additional stress on the embryos. However they also said that in their experience, euploid embryos generally survived the thaw
Here to support you on the next step of your journey whichever route you take 