PGS testing

[Lemongrass1]

Hi, wondering if I could get some info from people who’ve had PGS testing on their embryos. I’m 41 and have 8 frosties from an ICSI cycle when I was 38. I know that statistically at least 50% and probably more will be aneuploid. Will be having a transfer this week so it’s too late for this one but I’d like to get the rest tested if this cycle is unsuccessful. Am transferring one at a time and I don’t think I could physically or mentally face multiple transfers. I don’t plan on any further fresh cycles and am aware I could end up with nothing to transfer if all come back abnormal. For those of you who had PGS testing done what was the outcome? How long did the process take and were they able to test embryos that you previously had frozen? Most of the embryos we have frozen are average/ borderline quality so I’m assuming some will not survive the thaw/ refreeze process.
Thanks in advance 😁

I haven’t had it done, decided not to, but they told us it would take two weeks to get the results from the time they take the sample. Don’t know much more than that, sorry!

@Shamoo thanks for the response, that’s v helpful. If you don’t mind me asking, what made you decide against PGS?

No problem! We were going to do it but on the cycle we were going to use it on we only got 3 5 dayers, and were always going to do a fresh transfer: that only left two for testing and I was scared we would lose some mixed ones/to damage that could have made it given a chance. Not sure if it was the right decision. Speak to different experts and they have very different views. I found it quite overwhelming to decide so I think I took the easy option. Now we have two frozen I would consider testing in another round. I realise that probably makes no sense, as I say I found it very tough! I just don’t think I could have emotionally coped at the time to be told there were none viable.

Lemongrass1 watching this with interest. I have 9, 5 day blastocysts from a round at age 38 and following a miscarriage on my first FET my clinic have suggested PGS but I am terrified that they will all come back abnormal.

I PGS tested last year - I didn't get any "normal" embryos and I was 36 - we were allowed to transfer the 1 low level mosaic we got but it ended in BFN

I have to say in answer to the @lemongrass original post that actually at age 40 statistically much less than 50% are likely to be "normal"

• not sure if the clinic have that statistic but it's very wrong according to what I've been told. And over 40 something like only 10% are likely to be normal

I decided not to test on future cycles as what was the point if we were prepared to transfer them anyway and I'm a member of a lot of online groups for PGS testing and in USA abnormals are much more likely to be transferred and many women had healthy babies

So no more testing for me and In currently 8 weeks pregnant with twins.....

Ivfdreaming thank you so much for your response. Please can I ask, I’d assumed that if they were abnormal then you’d just not use them and have to go for another fresh round until you (hopefully) did get at least one normal but your post suggests that people transfer abnormal ones anyway? Did you get your twins on another round that presumably gave you either one or two normal embryos?

@Pineapples1980

In the UK clinics refuse to transfer abnormals on moral and ethical grounds. Depending on the chromosome affected they often will transfer a low level mosaic which is what I had but you have to sign a disclaimer and also go through genetic counselling.

It's only really in America you'll find clinics that will allow the transfer of abnormals. It's impossible in the U.K.

I only tested as I've had 5 miscarriages and it was the last test we could think of to explain what was happening and I suppose we got our answer in that we didn't get any normal embryos.

I didn't test on any further IVF cycles - the twins I have on board at the moment we didn't PGS test. The only change I did was to change from short protocol IVF to natural modified as it was clear that forcing my body to create lots and lots of eggs wasn't doing anything for the quality.

My twins are from the cycle where I only got 2 follicles by taking hardly any drugs.......

Thanks ivfdreaming, that’s such helpful info. I had a miscarriage on my first FET (I didn’t have a fresh transfer due to risk of OHSS) back in jan 2020 and then miscarried again from a natural pregnancy (never happened before in 2 years TTC) during lock down. So whilst on paper it’s good to have so many blastocysts it’s suddenly dawned on me since my second miscarriage that they could all be abnormal. My clinic is open but still not heard from them so just sat waiting and worrying.

Thanks for everyone’s perspectives. In answer to the rough aneuploidy rate I was mentioning, that was what I found in the (admittedly v quick) literature search I did for around age 38 - roughly 55% but rapidly/ steeply increasing at 40+. Anyhow this could be wrong and I will be speaking to the clinic in a week or so as current cycle looks to have failed. Still in 2 minds about whether we do PGS or not!

I’m 39 and partner is mid-40s. We’ve just had PGS testing on our first ICSI cycle as I’ve had 3 early miscarriages and an ectopic in the past 18 months (from naturally conceived pregnancies). The clinic didn’t push PGS - we asked about it - and they advised us only to test if we got 3+ fair to good quality blastocysts because of the chances of biopsy damaging the embryos - with an age-related expectation of euploidy we would hopefully end up with 1x normal embryo even if one is damaged.

Partner had high sperm DNA fragmentation which has been reduced to moderately high after seeing a urologist who specialises in this issue. We had a new sperm selection treatment in the ICSI cycle using a microfluidic device which is unproven but which clinic said they’ve been having anecdotally good results with.

We got 9 embryos to biopsy stage in the end and are waiting for the results.

For me, the point of PGS is partly to reduce chances of further miscarriages, and partly diagnostic in that percentage of normal embryos might give us a clue as to cause of previous miscarriages. The first suggestion of Drs is always age-related egg quality (and sperm quality) but have also suggested natural killer cells testing which is expensive to test and treat. We wanted to get a clue as to embryo quality before going down that road.

Waiting for results is hard. I want to have as many normal embryos as possible but from a miscarriage point of view I guess it could also be a good result to get, say, 2 or 3 out of 9 normal as that would suggest that it was quality which caused the previous miscarriages and it could be different going forward with genetically normal embryos.

Dreading the possibility that all 9 could come back abnormal. Should get results back in around 2 weeks time.

My two pence is for our first round of IVF we’re proceeding with PGS testing. This is due to a natural pregnancy I had last year unfortunately ended in a TFMR at 14 weeks due to downs. We were 36 (now 37).

For me it’s not worth the risk of going through another dramatic experience so we’re doing PGS to avoid the heartache. I’m not convinced about the argument regarding chromosomal abnormal embryos should be transferred, there are mosaic embryos that CAN be transferred after a thorough diagnosis on what the abnormality is which they can determine when the results are in. We went through training and some thorough thought process and for us this is the best way to have a healthy baby. Good luck OP x

Hi I’m about to go for counselling about pgs testing as due to have it with my ivf in a month. I’ve had 4 mc in one year , I’m nearly 40. I wanted to know how everyone got on ? @Lemongrass1 what did you decide ? X

Hi shineshinelove8,

I’ve just had it done. I’m 40, had IVF last September, had 10, 5 day blastocysts, one FET which resulted in a MMC at 10 weeks in Jan 2020, a second spontaneous miscarriage in May at 7 weeks, so decided, on the advice of my consultant, to have PGS. I’ve only tested 4 of the 9 remaining, one didn’t survive the thaw, one was low mosaic and two were normal. I definitely think it’s worth doing and will test the rest of my next FET in November fails. Good luck and hope it goes ok.

We ended up with 5 of 9 testing normal (a few weeks shy of being 40 at time of egg collection so very lucky). From a recurrent miscarriage point of view it’s really good information (at my age doctors always suggest that it could just be unfortunately due to egg quality and therefore abnormal embryos, but I guess not). I’m worried that there is still no explanation for the miscarriages now though! Going to try a transfer (hopefully) soon and we’ll see...

@Pineapples1980 and @Createyourusername
Oh I’m wishing you both so much good luck ! Those are amazing results , I’ve seen a lot of people, especially our age get all abnormal , so it’s great to see you have normals . Do you have normal amh , mine is very low so I don’t think I’ll respond as well as you to ivf ? It’d be a dream to get one or two normals ! X

I was so scared of them all coming back as abnormal, it felt almost like a TWW in terms of stress. My AMH is good, in the 80s, which the consultant said is higher than you’d expect for someone my age. Of course it begs the question why I’ve been TTC for nearly three years and still not got a baby!

Also did you do short protocol ivf or something else ? X

Sunshinelove I have fairly high AMH for my age and did short protocol. However one of my friends had low-ish AMH and ended up with 10 blastocysts frozen from IVF (not PGS tested but pregnancy worked out from 1st transfer) so AMH isn’t always a good predictor of outcome. Did your doctor check your partner’s sperm DNA fragmentation BTW? We had this tested last year and turned out to be high which associated with increased miscarriage rates, so partner had treatment for this and it came down quite a bit which may have influenced the outcome of IVF too.

Yes my dh was checked and doctor said he had perfect sperm and his motility tests etc were also amazing . Probably why I get pregnant so much even with dud eggs . I guess I’ll just have to try it out . I just have a feeling with such low amh I won’t get the eggs retrieved to give me the same chances . I’d love to get your result ! X

Useful thread here. I have 7 blasts remaining having just been through a miscarriage. My partner had MFI and am seriously considering PGT-A testing them. Will the processing of thawing them to test and refreeze damage them? The thought of single transfers failing 7 times is making me scared. My DH is not keen on twins

Hi Tikha,

I had four of my 9 tested and one 'didnt make the thaw' so I suppose you could say that I lost it due to PGS however perhaps chances are, it wouldn't have thawed at the point of transfer either. I must admit I can concerned that once I come to my FET being re-thawed (again) might all be a bit much for them and we might loose the two good ones but i just have to hope that wont be the case and trust the science.

@Pineapples1980 thanks for getting back to me. The whole thing is so stressful. I have some time now as its going be a while until I get my next period since I just had a MVA

Tikha If it helps, I’ve had a MVA this year and got my period within two weeks, although I know everyone is different but you won’t necessarily be waiting ages. Hope you can crack on with it as quickly as you’d like x

@Createyourusername You mentioned earlier in this thread that your clinic has used a new 'microfluidic device'. Was that the Zymot device, do you happen to know? I'm interested because our urologist mentioned that last year, but at that time he didn't know of any clinics in the UK using them yet. Which clinic were you using?

I had my pgs consultation with my clinic . So they test 5 of 150 cells which make up the placenta . They don’t test more because you could affect the embryo . The result could be

• abnormal ( but a 2-5 % chance that embryo is actually normal)
• normal ( but a 2-4% chance embryo is abnormal )
• mosaic - mixed abnormal and normal cells , the amount of ‘normal ‘ determines the decision whether to class as abnormal or offer the decision to the patient .

At my age 40 , with low amh , good sperm with dh , the chance to get through ivf and pgs and produce a viable normal embryo which implants is just 10 % ... gulp x