PGT-A testing - is it a good idea?

[BelleCrescent]

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if anyone here has had any experience with PGT-A testing? We're just planning our second IVF cycle which will be self-funded. I'm 41 yo and my husband is 42. Our fertility clinic recommends that we try PGT-A but I've found contradicting advice on the HFEA website. Sounds like in some cases it could cause harm to the embryo, and the results are not always reliable. It's also very expensive, as we're doing a DuoStim, we may end up with a few eggs that need to be tested. Any advice or sharing of stories about your own experiences would be appreciated. Have you tried it/would you try it, and how did you find the process if you have? Thank you. :)

Hi @BelleCrescent ,

I hope you are doing well! I am aware that this post is a little old but I wondered if you ended up doing the PGT-A testing on the embryos and if you were happy you did it? I am about to start my first EC (I'm 41 my partner 42) and the consultant advised us to do PGT-A as I had a mc due to chromosomal anomaly and of course our age. I was happy to do it but now I am having second thoughts so I wondered what your experience was. Thanks for any advice. Chiara

Hi @Golosa83, your timing is perfect - we received the results of our 1st PGT-A test today! We're doing a duo stim with 2 back to back egg collections and the doctor recommended that we go for PGT-A due to our age. I'm 41 and my husband is 42, we had one previous miscarriage and one failed transfer (with an untested embryo). Tbh our result was a bit disappointing. We have 2 embryos so far, one of them is high mosaic and the other is 'no result'. The latter basically means is that they didn't manage to test the cells for whatever reason. We didn't get a proper explanation, but they offered to retest. We'll have genetic counselling in a couple of weeks time where they'll answer our questions. The high mosaic embryo may be suitable for transfer but then again, this comes with risks so we'll have to make a decision. If we manage to find an euploid embryo in our next cycle, that means our chances for a healthy pregnancy will be much higher. (I believe the stats are over 50%.) If you had a previous miscarriage then I think it's a good idea. Why are you having second thoughts?

Hi @BelleCrescent , thanks for replying and sharing your experience. Sorry to hear that the results weren’t what you were hoping for. I can imagine that it is a difficult decision to make now, but I’m really hoping that whatever you decide you get to have your healthy pregnancy and healthy baby at the end of the journey! The reason why I am now doubting the PGT-A testing is just that after reading HFEA guidance about it I’m worried that we might have potential good embryos discarded and I doubt that we will get many embryos considering my age and numbers. Also even though the risk of damage to the embryo is minimal there is still a risk. We haven’t started the process yet and I think as it is approaching (my period should start in about 12 days) I’m overthinking everything.

We are also doing pgta - anxious wait for results now. @Golosa83 one thing to check with your clinic is if they will transfer mosaics. Ours won’t transfer any abnormal embryos but will transfer mosaics but I’ve heard some clinics will only transfer euploid embryos.

Hi @SamVan, thanks for your message ! Good luck with the results! I hope it all goes well! I know how long two weeks can feel :) I did check with the clinic and they will transfer mosaic as I had read about the risk of loosing healthy embryos if the clinic doesn’t transfer mosaic. I have a couple more weeks to think about it 😅 it sounds like a good idea, I think I’m just having last minute anxiety about my choices. We’re also probably going to sign up for assured fertility multicycle plan which means we can’t do embryo batching so if we only get one embryo it will be a choice of transferring fresh or testing it anyway even if it’s only the one. There are so many tricky choices to make. Keep us updated on the results! I’m crossing my fingers for you!

@Golosa83 thanks! I know what you mean. The issue is it’s relatively new so there aren’t great studies supporting its use. It was such a hard decision for us too and I wavered until the end. Eventually we decide to do pgta only if we had at least 3 embryos given the risk of damage. Also to flag the embryo needs to be a level 5 embryo for them to do the biopsy. We had one which was day 6 and a 3ab but they have to keep it to day 7 which isn’t ideal just to see if it’ll grow to a 5. If we had less embryos I would prefer to just freeze it and not test.

Hi@SamVan , I was thinking the same, if we get less than three I don’t want to do PGT-A. I’m also worried because I’m 41 and my partner 42 and we have a male factor infertility, which has improved a lot (DNA fragmentation) but still not great. Plus my age. So I’m worried we won’t even get that many embryos, let alone of good enough quality to be tested. I guess we’ll have to give it a try first and if it doesn’t work out we might change on the second round.