8 replies to this topic

[Vienna35]

Ladies, 

 

I am writing to find if anyone had an experience with PGS testing. 

 

I am about to start my third fresh IVF cycle.  All my transfers, including 2 FET transfers, resulted in chemical pregnancies.

 

 In the meantime I switched to Dr. Virro's clinic who suggested to do a PGS testing.  

 

My diagnosis is very trivial - I have endo stage III, for which i had surgery in 2014.   I am 36 years old, otherwise, absolutely healthy.

 

 If anyone had a similar situation, i would be happy to find out as to how PGS testing went, what should i expect, when does the actual transfer occurs.  I will start my cycle in September  and hoping that if everything goes well, the embryo transfer will follow shortly after. 

 

 

 

 

[smurfette_w]

I've had PGS testing done on my second IVF cycle and have an almost one month old daughter.  Unless your clinic has an in-house PGS lab, in which case they can maybe do a fresh transfer, then you'd be doing an FET because the samples are sent to an external lab.  Basically, they take a few cell samples from your embryos on day 5 and then freeze the embryos, and then have PGS testing done on those samples.  Results come back in about 2 weeks, depending on which lab your clinic uses.  Other than that, there is no difference in your ICSI cycle in terms of meds or timing.

 

Just a caveat, PGS-normal embryos does not = live birth.  I had a chemical pregnancy with a high quality PGS-normal embryo.  My daughter was the result of the second FET with another PGS-normal embryo.  I was 35 during that cycle, DH was 37, we had 4 embryos for testing and all 4 came back PGS-normal (we were very lucky).  We still have 2 embryos frozen.

 

Good luck!

[mirka]

Make sure you book a meeting to review your PGS results with Dr. Virro as soon as possible. I had to wait almost a month just to learn the result, because he was booked.

 

As for the process, as smurfette already mentioned, it's no different than a normal ICSI cycle.

 

You will have to pay $2000 for the biopsy even if you only have one blast. If you need to do another cycle, you have to pay again.

 

At the age of 36, hopefully you will have enough eggs and 5 day blasts that can be biopsied. Good Luck!

[allthecats]

I wish I had done PGS testing, just to know which of my 4 embryos were viable.  PGS is $5000 at our clinic, but we've already spent $8000 for 3 FETs.  I feel like, depending on the number of embryos you have, it might end up saving you time and money.  If we do another round of IVF, we will definitely do PGS.

[ilovemydogs]

We did PGS testing on our last cycle and ended up with no normal embryos. There was one top quality embryo that I'm sure we would have been told was beautiful, but would have caused a miscarriage if it had implanted. As far as I'm concerned, preventing an inevitable miscarriage of an embryo not compatible with life is money well spent having already been through one at 11 weeks.

[jenmort]

I too am a huge proponent of PGS - I have used it for both of my IVF cycles.  I agree with ilovemydogs - preventing an inevitable ​miscarriage has ultimately saved both money and heartbreak.  My first cycle yielded 2 "beautiful" high-quality 5 Day blastocysts, but PGS revealed that they were both chromosomally abnormal.  My current cycle yielded 6 high-quality 5 Day blastocysts, but after PGS, only 1 came back normal (much to our shock and dismay).  In both cases, without PGS, we would've moved forward with transferring 2 at a time... only to result in inevitable heartbreak and disappointment.  I am currently waiting for my next cycle to transfer the only PGS normal embryo, and I feel so much more confident that, although we only have one, we've already cleared some of the most difficult barriers.  Best of luck to you in your journey...!

[annagon24]

Vienna 35,

 

PGS testing has been recommended to us by both RE's we have worked with (Dr. Dixon at First Steps and our current RE Dr. Baratz at CREATE). There is no fresh transfer option available if you proceed with PGS as results do take some time (unless you work with Mount Sinai as they apparently have a rush option and can give you results on the following day, for extra charge). 

 

On our first IVF round with Dr. Dixon, we ended up with just 1 day 5 blastocyst and it took about 2 weeks for our results to come in. Therefore, we had to sit out a cycle as they didn't want to start prepping me for the transfer until my PGS results were in (embryo was normal!). The cost was $5,000. In the meantime, we got pretty frustrated with Dr. Dixon after I had to beg her staff for half an hour to let me have a follow up appt with her to discuss our IVF round, among other frustrations we had in dealing with First Steps (they overcharge for everything!!!!).

 

We went to Dr. Baratz for the 2nd opinion and decided to switch to CREATE. My friend now has a healthy and beautiful baby boy thanks to Dr. Baratz. As I am 38 and my husband is 45, we have decided we wanted to have more than 1 embryo prior to starting FET cycles and therefore, we proceeded to do another retrieval cycle and this time around we ended up with 2 day 5 blastocysts. PGS results came in a week later (good news as well) so we didn't have to sit out a cycle. (also, I should mention that PGS costs $4,000 at CREATE).

 

We have had our first FET on July 29th and now anxiously awaiting our first u/s on Aug 29th.

 

While PGS testing is expensive and there are no guarantees, we glad we did it as it eliminated the risk of m/c due to chromosomal abnormalities.

 

I should also say that majority of embryos do not make it to day 5 and that was the hardest part, learning how few we had to test.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

Best of luck!

[Vienna35]

Girls, thank you so much for your replies.  I am really hoping to have a few good embryos and hoping to get finally pregnant.  

 

I wish all of you luck in getting pregnant. I will keep you posted on my progress.  

[Psykhe]

Another huge proponent of PGS. After 3 losses both DH and I were tested and had no abnormalities. We still had PGS done on all subsequent embryoes. We're very lucky in that 100% of our embryoes make it to day 5, however only about 50% of them come back as chromosomally normal despite all "looking fantastic".

 

I agree with ilovemydogs, it is worth the peace of mind. PGS saved us 9 potential heartbreaks.