Emma and Alice opinions IVF

[SparkleFly]

Have recently had my 4th embryo transfer, have had positive pregnancy test and am awaiting my 7 week scan.

1st pregnancy resulted in miscarriage around 8.5 weeks.
2nd pregnancy was trouble-free, gave birth to a healthy baby who is now 3 ❤️
3rd pregnancy I had missed miscarriage again, would have been about 7 weeks so must have occurred just after my scan.

Consultant recommended doing the Emma/Alice test for infection in my womb BUT as I'd had a healthy pregnancy in-between 2 miscarriages I thought it was perhaps a bit OTT so decided not to waste any time and just go for another live cycle. I am 40 and feel very much like I just want to get on with it now without any delays. Also, when I researched the Emma/Alice test I came across an article by Prof Robert Winston who said that it's unproven and there's no evidence to say it's worth doing, and that in fact women should be paid for taking part in a 'trial' of the test, not paying for it.

4th pregnancy so far have had a positive test, but nearly 5 weeks in a noticed very faint pink blood when wiping after a number 2 (sorry tmi) and again on a couple of other occasions since. No cramping or anything but this is what happened with my previous 2 miscarriages so now I am out of my mind with worry that I've been foolish and should have done this test.

I am taking women's probiotics as well as the cyclogest, progynova, vitamins...

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here, I have a week and a half until my 7 week scan and I guess I just want to know what everyone else thought about the Emma/Alice tests. Do you think it was a waste of time? Did it change things for you in terms of miscarriage?

Thanks for reading. x

Hi there
I was just searching for posts on this and came across yours…. I just had my Emma and Alice test Wed gone…. I had one natural miscarriage last year July (41) and decided to give IVF a go (now 42) luckily I have a budget through my bupa at work so was able to do this. Managed to get three good and viable embryos and didn’t opt for PGT as I didn’t want to lose them. Went ahead with transfers (one fresh and one frozen) and two failed. Consultants told me about the EndomeTRIO tests and figured I may as well give it a go to see if there is any inflammation or other underlying issues like endometriosis that could be causing the embryos to fail implantation. I decided to go ahead with the test as I’m due to leave my job and my budget ends and seen as I still had some left and one Emby still on ice, figured I had nothing to lose …. I don’t plan on doing the final emby transfer till nov so figured if there were any problems, I can treat them ahead of that to give that final emby a chance ….anyway…. My call with the consultant with my results is due in 3 weeks so let’s see what they come back with 😑

Thanks for sharing, it will be interesting to see how your results come back. All of my transfers have been successful initially which is why I wondered if the Emma/Alice was really necessary. I kinda felt like my consultant was using me as a guinea pig at my expense but we'll see.
I'm just very dubious of the whole test after I read what Prof Winston had to say about it. Also it seemed to me that 1 in 4 pregnancies result in miscarriage anyway, and I'd previously had a very healthy pregnancy, telling me to get my womb tested seemed a bit of an overreaction. If it was free and I was younger I'd probably do it though.

@SparkleFly Your post drew my attention to Robert Winston and my gosh have I gone down a rabbit hole reading all the FAQs on his site. It’s making me question if I should even trust my ivf clinic doctor or if I should be doing treatment. Anyone else?

re the Alice Emma test - my ivf clinic doc advised to do it but I don’t think I will unless I have another failed cycle.

@Blossomofhope hello 👋

Well I am now 18 weeks pregnant so all going well so far 😊 I still think that I was recommended the Emma/Alice test to use me as a guinea pig which is disappointing when you are vulnerable and put your trust in these people at great expense!

How many failed cycles have you had? I have been taking women's probiotics just in case there was any truth in what my consultant said. You could start taking those just to see if it makes a difference. Good luck with it!

@SparkleFly aw amazing congrats!!

I’ve had 4 failed iuis and 1 failed ICSI/ivf.

ya I hadn’t really considered taking a probiotic, I already take so many pills 😅 .. Does it matter what kind? Did you take a probiotic in the end?

@Blossomofhope yes the probiotics were recommended by the consultant too but that's a lot cheaper than £1500 for a test cycle so I figured I'd go with that! Might not have actually needed them but thought it wouldn't do any harm to give them a go. I was recommended vaginal ones but I couldn't find any?! Just just bought an oral one from Holland and Barrett and take 1 a day.