PGS - all abnormal

[Ajak]

Hi All - i am new to this but hopefully someone can help. We had PGS done and all 8 embryos came back abnormal. The clinics policy is to discard them. I was wondering whether anyone has experienced something similar? And if so, would you go ‘again’? My concern is that if they were all abnormal this time, the same will happen next time (despite the doctor stating that every menstrual cycle is different). 37 old.

Hey I haven't got practical experience yet as we start our 2nd round of IVF next month but it will be the first time of PGS testing - I'm petrified of the results showing all abnormal

From what I've been told at our age (36/37) it should be 50:50 - 50% coming back abnormal and really unusual to get nothing. That being said I've been eating healthy and on Proceive Max supplements and coq10 for months now - If we don't get anything to transfer from this next round we won't try again. PGS is so expensive as it's about £850per embryo at my clinic

Thanks for your reply. Hope your results come out positive! Im just scratching my head about whether a new batch of embryos will make a difference or whether the result will always be the same. This is a question that i havent seen being asked on other forums as i guess its a very unique situation. If anyone out there has been through this please shout

This happened to me, I didn’t try again

I know of several people who have had an all aneuploid result and then had a second egg collection and found euploid embryos

I've just had my results from 3 embryos, all abnormal (2 MCs from same batch). Totally gutted, it's not fair and I'm really worried the eggs are crap. I'm 36.

At 30 I had 4/4 embryos abnormal
At 33 totally different result - 3/4 normal

Every cycle really is different. I did the same protocol each time.
I rem how devastating it was to hear they were all abnormal, but things really can change every cycle.

I did PGS testing all abnormal. Embryos were discarded and then read and researched and it would seem many abnormal PGS embryos have been used and produced healthy babies. I now wish we had not done it.

Thanks everyone for your response. Gained a bit more confidence in perhaps going again. Its just so emotionally and financially draining and serious thought needs to go into this! Its interesting that some studies show that abnormal embryos can still make it. Leaves you in a bit of a dilemma.

I'm going into my next round soon with some hope that at least 1 will be normal this time. My doctor is optimistic. I had no idea when starting all this I would be in this position.

Suggest reading this article, PGS results are not that clear cut....

www.thecut.com/2017/09/ivf-abnormal-embryos-new-last-chance.html

I've read that article and others that are similar. I'm trying to avoid/minimise the chance of miscarriage after having 2. I can honestly say going through a miscarriage is beyond heartbreaking and grief that I have never felt. I really don't think I could transfer an abnormal embryo given the high chance of miscarriage or not even implanting. I've struggled to find any real research and stats that really look into abnormal embryos leading to healthy babies, it's mostly anecdotal. It's great that it's worked out for some people.

Lilly that’s exactly why I did pgs after many miscarriages. I couldn’t take another mc (obviously u can still mc with pgs normal but at least one major cause of mc is eliminated). All the best x

Similar situation but we only had 1 embryo suitable to test and it came back abnormal.

Thinking of going again for the last time. I'm 40.

One of the issues is that uk clinics discard abnormal embryos so if all come out abnormal, you have to call it a day. Another way, perhaps, (depending on how many blasts) is to hold 1 or 2 back and PGS the rest. Thats what we are now thinking anyways. Purely based on the fact that many believe abnormal ones can self-correct

I asked my clinic about what happens the PGS abnormal ones as in America they will transfer them but my clinic has a policy of non transferral

Depending on how many we get (we only got 3 last time) I think I will talk to the embryologist about PGS the better quality ones and not doing the lower rated ones

Is that legal to discard embryos against your will? They don't belong to the clinic but to you.

Back to the subject, just don't get them tested. We did our IVF with one of the top clinics (Zita West), same age as you and that was 2 years ago. The doctor told us not to bother with PGS as embryos have high rates of genetic mosaicism. Some that are supposedly abnormal do turn into healthy babies. I did read about a study where couples only had 'abnormal' embryos so they had them transferred and I Think almost half resulted in normal babies (the rest didn't produce any babies at all).

So in your shoes, I'd go again quite soon but not get the embryos tested.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30246223

Here's a recent study. These embryos were mosaic but still a 46.6% turned into babies. Generally, there's a lot of research going on in the field.

In terms of miscarrying, it hits some women extremely hard but it isn't always so bad. I've had a miscarriage recently and it got me down for a few days but I felt that if it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be. Whilst feeling down about it, it never upset me enough to even cry.

JoJo That was what we were advised by the doctor at Zita West. Now, however, after two miscarriages and one failed transfer he's out of ideas and has actually suggested we bin the remaining embryos and start again with PGS testing this time, or if we can't afford that, defrost the embryos and PGS test them: as he also wants me to have a load of treatment for reproductive immunology, we just can't afford to start again.

@ginandtonicformeplease
Hm... Have you had your immunes tests? That's often what helps. Two of my friends had repeated mc and then carried babies to term whilst on immunes (very expensive unfortunately).

@JoJoSM2 Yes, I had immunes tested and treatment for high levels of NK cells before the last miscarriage - still miscarried. I had yet more treatment in preparation for another FET, immunes tested again, and treatment found not to have worked. So a very expensive treatment has been suggested, along with the PGS testing that was dismissed before we started. I've actually lost a lot of faith in the doctor after all this.

@ginandtonicformeplease

That sounds awful. How old are you?

@JoJoSM2 37 - IVF was because of MFI, started when I had just turned 36.

Did your partner ever get his sperm fragmentation test done?

We also had MFI so had ICSI.

@JoJoSM2
My clinic will transfer Mosaic embryos - they rank them either euploid, minor mosaic or significant mosaicism. It's the aneuploid embryos they refuse to transfer (ones with extra chromosomes, or not enough)

With severe mosaicism we have to have genetic counselling before going ahead with transfer

@JoJoSM2 We did ICSI too - the fragmentation was another that we were told wasn't necessary when doing ICSI. There's no point now as we can't afford to start again.