Success stories with PGS tested embryos

[twinkledag]

Would anyone like to share their experiences of successes with PGS tested embryos?

I know lots of people who have! There's a PGS group on FB if you're interested in other perspectives?

Hi twinkle. I've done two transfers with pgs tested embryos - the first one was a chemical so my doc did a hysteroscopy and then added immune treatment to my second attempt. I'm now 14 weeks and still feeling cautious....

Thanks both for your replies.

Would be interested in that FB group, is t a public one?

Hi op, I currently have a 5.5 month old DD who was a PGS embryo, after 5 previous unsuccessful ivf cycles.

We had 2 fresh and 2 frozen cycles with no success, then a PGS cycle but all the embryos came back as abnormal (so we never got to transfer), then a final stim cycle that resulted in 3 normal embryos, one of which is now my DD.

Are you trying to decide whether to go down that route? X

I don’t have any success stories (yet) but will be starting my first cycle in a couple of months. It’s good to hear that people’s stories have had happy endings.
May I ask why you’re thinking of PGS, OP?

Thanks for the replies. We have one embryo waiting to be tested. This is my 4th cycle and I miscarried last year and couldn't face going through that again so we went for PGS testing.

I am following with interest @twinkledag as if we do another fresh round we will consider PGS

@MindatWork do you mind me asking how old you are? I had to do 4 fresh rounds to be successful, but we never did PGS. Did you always have lots of embryos to test? Do they test blastocysts of lower grade or ones that might not make it to freezing? We only ever had a maximum of 3 embryos by day 5 suitable for transfer or freezing.

Sorry for loads of questions! Delighted to hear of your success and have everything crossed for @twinkledag

OP I can invite you to the group if you'd like - pm me and I can happily do so

We did PGS but I miscarried 2 normals, and unfortunately weren't able to do any more transfers because my uterus was too damaged to sustain a pregnancy, so we have 5 normals on ice leftover, if we pursue surrogacy.

@Runforthehillock - no problem! I’m 34 now and was 31/32 when we had the PGS.

In our 2 previous fresh cycles and the first PGS cycle I never got more than 3 embryos to blastocyst. I always got lots of eggs collected, but had lots of drop outs through the 5-day fertilisation / development process. I had no success with the fresh transfers but had chemical pregnancies with both frozen transfer cycles.

In our last, successful PGS round, we threw everything at it - I got 8 good embryos to blastocyst, 3 of which came back as genetically normal (and one they didn’t get a result for, so it’s in the freezer with the other two).

We weren’t really given a huge amount of info about which embryos they test - I assumed they just tested whichever ones were still dividing by day 5, and I think they tested one on day 6 as well. It takes a couple of weeks for the results to come through, it was a horrible phone call to wait for.

The most frustrating thing is that embryos can look ‘grade a’ under the microscope but you’ll never know there’s a genetic issue unless they’re tested. Feel free to ask any other questions you might have.

@twinkledag I’m so sorry you’re in this situation - is your embryo frozen from a previous cycle or has it been tested and you’re waiting for the results? X

@MindatWork thank you for taking the time to reply - really helpful

Hi @MindatWork

Thanks for the useful info. When you say you 'threw everything at it', what did you do?

We have just had a fresh round (our 4th), 7 eggs collected, 6 got to day 5 but only 1 suitable to be tested 😢

Ah @twinkledag it’s such a stressful process, for you.

We had our unsuccessful cycles at Care and switched to CRGH in London for our successful cycle. They treat very aggressively as we had a history of multiple failures so we went right back to the beginning with a whole load of bloods, in depth sorry fragmentation analysis, the lot. We did a 3 month detox from booze and coffee, took lots of supplements (ubiquinol, omega 3 and vit d for me, selenium and proxeed for DH plus multivits) and we had a v high dose stim cycle with growth hormones and all the top drawer meds (I was on 4 injections a day at one point). For the transfer cycle I had numerous procedures including the scratch, and I was also on 4 different types of progesterone as they discovered I had an issue absorbing it properly.

We basically had all the ‘extras’ the news articles tell you are a waste of time. The clinic were v clear with us that a lot of the stuff hadn’t been peer reviewed or was NHS recommended, but it was an option if we wanted to do it. I won’t lie, it was very tough on me physically, but we had agreed that as it was our last go we would try everything.

Wishing you all the luck in the world for your results xxxxxx

Thank you @MindatWork - that's so useful and will read properly later when not at work 😁

May I ask how much it cost you?

Including everything from first consultation to final scan at 9 weeks, around £18k .

£12k of this was the IMSI + PGS + meds (and all the extras like extensive bloods, Embryoscope etc).

£6k for the transfer cycle, around half of which was for the meds I took up to 12 weeks once I got pregnant. We had no idea it would be this expensive as they don’t really spell it out for you. Also scans are £200 a pop and blood tests for Hcg/progesterone levels were £50 each every time you needed them done - it added up very quickly and we had a seemingly endless stream of invoices arriving at home every day. Obviously we had lots of extras so it needn’t be quite that expensive, but I wouldn’t advise going there unless you’ve got a considerable sum put aside (or a 0% credit card which we’re still paying off 😩). It was really stressful as once you get a bfp you’ll do anything to keep it, regardless of whether you can afford it or not.

Thank you @MindatWork. We already have £25k of debt from this, to think about adding another £18k makes me 😱😱😱😱

I need everyone to keep their fingers crossed for my one little embryo!

We're thinking of starting a new PGS cycle again.
I had a successful one abroad three years ago when I was 34. I had a failed FET. So this is why we decided upon a new PGS again.
Wish me good luck! Has anybody tried a second PGS cycle?
So stressed and worried to try once again because I'm 37 now and I ve got no idea how many abnormal blasts I 'll have.

Would anyone mind updating me on where they got to? I have 3 pgt euploid embryos. I have had 5 miscarriages in 18 months, then tried ivf in Greece during covid, one FET of pgt embryo but it failed and then fell naturally but will miscarry as no HB at 8 week scan. I just wondered if there is any hope for the last two embryos...?

There is always hope! I went through egg collection in spring 2019 with FET in autumn 2019. From 31 eggs, we had 16 embryos; only 5 made it to testing. We had the ONLY euploid transferred and he’s currently upstairs crying because he doesn’t want to go to sleep.
I know we were incredibly lucky for it to work first time but there are success stories out there.

@OhMy thank you so much for replying. That did make me feel hopeful.

This is a really interesting thread. I’m 35, never had a BFP ever, after 12 months trying to conceive naturally we had a fresh cycle of IVF in November, I got 12 eggs, all were mature and fertilized and 9 made it to blasts. I reacted to the progesterone which meant the worst embryo was transferred rather than the best one, I got a BFN and now I’m on my first FET, due the transfer on Wednesday.

If this transfer doesn’t work I think I will have the 7 remaining frosties PGT-A tested. It will cost £3,300 to do this (considering we got an access fertility package for £7,300 this seems to be a very high amount extra). But overall each transfer seems to happen about 3 months apart and the time between and emotional impact of unsuccessful cycles is huge. My concern is the risk of the embryos not surviving the thaw, risk of damage and because my specialist suggested that if mosaic the embryos could be destroyed. But then you hear stories of miscarriages and have to balance the risks I guess.

@unicorn9 I hope it works out for you.
@Unicorn9@Gardenlady543 I’m sorry to hear that your transfer didn’t work. £3000 does seem a lot but if you’ve paid all that money already, it makes sense to pay more for assurance. Many miscarriages of naturally-conceived pregnancies are due to chromosome abnormalities - if you have the option to eradicate the risk through IVF then why not? Good luck for your transfer.