PGT-A testing for frozen embryos after losses: worth considering at 32?

[Mgky]

Hi,

I'm really unsure whether to have some of our frozen embryos pgta tested. I'm 32, partner also 32, we've two early losses before we moved onto IVF. I have PCOS and was told we wouldn't be having a fresh transfer due to the number of follicles I had.

We retrieved 41 eggs during the egg collection which has resulted in 15 blasts. 11 day 5's and 4 day 6's. The 15 have now been frozen and we're waiting for my next cycle to come around before a transfer. I have a follow up call on Monday with the clinic to discuss next steps.

I don't know whether to just try a transfer or to go for PGT-A testing on some of the embryos. Of course this will mean more cost and we won't be able to test them all, but as i've had two early losses is it worth doing? I'm seeing conflicting info online. I know as i'm 32 clinics wouldn't typically advise it, but I wondered if it would maybe narrow things down for us.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and have any advise? thank you!

I’d personally transfer first and see if any take, maybe one or two rounds? It could be you need progesterone support etc and embryos are fine.

unfreezing to biopsy, to re-freeze and then unfreeze can cause damage and destroy the embryo.

Thank you. That’s where my head is at I think

I'm someone who did end up defrosting and testing frozen embryos.

The back story is that I had 31 eggs retrieved and 14 embryos made at age 30. Between me and my wife (same sex couple) we had 6 embryos transferred over 6 transfers, of which 4 had been miscarriages, 1 a fail and 1 became my son.

Based on this, we decided to test 4 of the remaining 8. Of these, 3 came back mosaic and 1 euploid. My wife is now 30 weeks pregnant with the 1 euploid.

A lot of people are anti testing already frozen embryos because it does slightly lower success rates on average. However if your personal success rate is already pretty low, it can be really helpful. I wouldn't PGT in your position, but would if the first couple don't work out.

After 5 fails with 7 embryos, (4 no implantations and 1 m/c) age 35/36 my DIL and son decided to PGA test their 4 remaining - but already frozen - embryos. All the last 3 FETs were top quality AA embryos. clinic said ok to testing because of the history but didn’t usually recommend before 38.
All 4 embryos defrosted, expanded well and were successfully biopsied and refrozen. Of the 4, 2 came back euploid, one was aneuploid and one had complex aneuploidies.
They did a FET with the first euploid and she’s due to give birth in the next few days.

Who knows if it was just a numbers game, but she was very close to burning out mentally, with a 50/50 chance (as we now know) of the next untested FET being aneuploid, they would have stopped at the next failure. Testing helped them to carry on.