Last chance IVF PGS normal embryo should I be doing immunes

[Brightertimesahead]

Dear everyone
I’m looking for some advice
Having recently decided to do one last fresh IVF cycle with PGS testing in an attempt to conceive a second child - we miraculously managed to create one PGS normal embryo Grade B
I’m 41 - have conceived with IVF before but miscarried all the subsequent FET rounds I did with the batch of embryos that my son came from.
I’ve had hysteroscopy and bloods investigated for miscarriage- my clinic felt the miscarriages were likely chromosomal due to my age ( embryos made ages 37) hence the reason we did a fresh cycle with PGS recently.
So now I’m heading into a FET with our one final precious PGS normal embryo
I’m terrified of it failing and me not having done enough to make it work
Which brings me to immune testing. My clinic don’t ‘ believe’ in it. I’m looking for advise as to whether I should even start going down this route given time / expense - I don’t want the months to carry on rolling by - however neither do I want to be the reason a PGS normal embryo fails.

I suppose my question is should I be really looking into / considering this given that I managed to have my son through IVF before? Am I putting myself in a situation where I will feel I have to follow up with all the treatment if something ‘controversial’ is identified ?
Advice much appreciated - thank you

I had a child then went on to have multiple losses. I’m about to start IVF for the first time and will have immune testing among other things.

My clinician has mixed feelings about it but also knows I’m going into this with a ‘no stone unturned’ mindset. I want to know I’ve done all I can.

I suppose the question to ask yourself is, if it fails, will you wonder ‘what if’ you’d done immune testing? Could you have tests at another clinic?

Thanks for replying and really good luck with the IVF
I think if I was going into this at the beginning again i think maybe I would have explored the immunes things more - we did look at it during our second round of IVF which gave us our son but I remember at the time being very nervous about the suggested treatment for anything identified. Luckily in the end I had my son without - however the losses that have followed have me questioning. Like you said I don’t want to be left feeling ‘what if’ but after many many years of going through this process I’m feeling fatigued and the thought of more investigations and potential treatment before that final transfer already makes me feel exhausted !
Best of luck with your cycle - I hope your investigations prove straightforward and all goes well

@Brightertimesahead I know this is an old post but how did you get on? I have a son from IVF imsi. I didn’t test for immunes then but I did one good ivf cycle at 40 and got 7 day 5 blastocysts. Due to previous issues with my husband’s morphology, we never used to get many blastocysts. So we decided against PGS testing with a predicted low number. I had two untested blastocysts transferred in July 2023 and I got pregnant with one. Unfortunately, I miscarried at 8w 1d. I keep thinking if only I had done the steroids. Problem is I was batting bv due to taking antibiotics a lot which made things worse. Therefore, my consultant decided against it. I had treatment for low nk cells in endometrium which affect implantation but avoided steroids for slightly high nk cells in blood. I feel that even though I have 5 day 5 blastocysts left, that was my last chance at a sibling for my son. I have since found out that the first pregnancy will not cause problems for nk cells, but nk cells get worse with future pregnancies.

How did you get on?

Hi there - thanks for your sharing your current situation and I’m so so sorry to hear you miscarried. There is nothing right or fair about that and I hope you are doing as well as you can be under these circumstances. It’s really positive that you got so many blastocysts- I know you feal that was your one chance to provide a sibling but it’s not. You still have chances with the remaining embryos.
I was lucky and ended up with a daughter from my final embryo but didn’t go down the immune testing route. I decided that the commitment to that at this late stage in my own fertility journey was too much of an unproven and costly gamble. I completely respect and understand the choices that others would have made differently at that stage - but I wouldn’t get hung up on the ‘if only I’d done the steroids maybe things would have been different’ because it’s all an unknown really. All these treatments and add ons we go for during our treatments - maybe they are the reason something works , maybe they’re not - you’ll never know - but it’s misguided to place so much belief that they hold the ultimate key to your success with pregnancies - or that your decision to not follow them is the cause of a failed pregnancy. That’s not to say they don’t have their value because they do. What they do provide , is a sense of control and pro- activeness in a scenario that leaves us women who struggle to conceive feeling so helpless and powerless and I think that is a very positive and very helpful option to have available to us. However - it’s important to keep a measure of things. Do what you need to do to feel like you are happy with the efforts and steps you’ve taken to conceive. If you don’t go down the steroid / immune testing route - make your peace with that comfortable in the knowledge that ultimately nothing is proven and unfortunately a successful outcome really just seems to be down to luck versus bad luck. I didn’t go down the steroid route and I got lucky. Had I not conceived would I have questioned whether I should have done ? Of course ! But I did feel confident at the point of decision making that I was making a fully informed choice that had genuine limits to its effectiveness or lack of effectiveness in determining the overall outcome. I wish you the best of luck with whatever decisions you make and really hope that everything works out for you x