IVF PGT-A testing at 31 - is it worth doing?

[roamingcat]

I'm looking for advice on whether it's worth doing PGT-A testing and things to consider when making the decision. I'm 31 and my husband is 33 so we're relatively "young". We've been TTC for 13 cycles now and have never had a positive test, so we also haven't had any lossess. We're classed as unexplained infertility with mild male factor (husband's morphology is low).

We've decided to go private as we can't face the NHS waiting lists and our clinic is a big fan of PGT-A testing and recommend it as standard. I do see their logic, particularly in cases where you're keen for a second child down the line, as it reduces the risk of miscarriage/additional transfers. However, it is very expensive! For us, it would add about £5000 onto the total cost (based on testing 4 embryos, to cover both the testing and a subsequent frozen transfer). It would be great to hear some experiences if you did/didn't do PGT-A testing and things that helped you make your decision, particularly if you're of a similar age.

I wouldn’t. You are young so statistically a good proportion of your eggs can be expected to be of good quality. You also have only been trying for a year - which is very common and doesn’t actually indicate an issue - and have had no losses so there’s no reason to suggest that you currently have an issue with creating genetically euploid embryos. Also, there are risks with every intervention, such as damage to the embryo or incorrect results.

Not worth 5k at 31.

C. 70% should be euploid

I’m about to start my 7th cycle (4th egg collection) and having PGTA but I am 38 👵🏻

No I wouldn’t bother

I know 13 months sounds like a lifetime but you are well within the 2 years the NHS recommends to try before you can consider you may have a problem….

anyway my experience is that I did PGTA and didn’t get any normals - you have to destroy them as clinics in the UK won’t transfer them (you may get one to agree to transfer a mosaic but depends on the chromosomes involved). So you could spend tens of thousands and get nothing to transfer …. There is a big court case in America at the moment where clinics push PGTA on every cycle when in fact science and research suggests that many of these embryos could have resulted in healthy babies. PGTA also doesn’t rank highly on the HFEA website

i did it as I had many miscarriages with no obvious reason why so it was the last test I hadn’t done

after not getting any normals I decided not to PGTA test again and had twins on the next transfer

It’s worth doing as much research as you are able before making the choice - my clinic actually tried to talk me out of PGTA - you can imagine the doctors “I told you so” when I was discharged with twins on board

the science is that they only collect 5 cells out of maybe 100 from the outside of the embryo which would one day form the placenta - not the baby - on a different day with a different embryologist a different 5 cells could be chosen and you could get a totally different outcome

Yes .. I would 100% recommend, there can still be abnormal chromosome issues even with a younger age, after 30-32 eggs do decrease and depends on your diet /lifestyle also … also recommend especially if your partner has lower sperm perameters , we had the same issue and were not recommended sperm DNA fragmentation testing and had 5 failed transfers costing money and emotions, we then pushed for the test and found out he had dna frag .. even with perfect sperm perameters you can still have dna frag and this causes recurrent miscarriage , so I recommend dna fragmentation testing for your parent even if advised not to as this will determine if you need ICSI or just ivf , and defo pgta test embryos as it can’t hurt but having multiple failed transfers can, at lest you are ruling out quicker the fertility issue as if you know you are making good embryos you can focus on other things like uterus environment or clotting issues etc

I didn’t, I make very few eggs with ivf. Have had two mcs, but still didn’t want to risk harming a healthy embryo or a mistaken discard. I didn’t like the accumulative risk of biopsy, freeze and thaw on an embryo when I rarely made them. Plus, more treatment can be afforded if you don’t do it. And like others said above, rated red on hfea. You can still have a chromosomally abnormal fetus with a pgta tested embryo too. My mcs were from spontaneous pregs, but if I had lots of embryos and had had a few ivf mcs then yes I think I’d change my mind. But then I’m a good few years older than you. Why not see how your first round goes before moving on to pgta? There’s no clear benefit at this point.