Should we do genetic testing on our embryos or not?

Question

I’m struggling. I reserved our IVF cycle yesterday which felt so good to be moving forward. I paid for the PGT testing because I was told we could not do PGT and get a refund if we changed our minds. The only reason I am leaning toward the PGT testing is for my own selfish reasons of not wanting to suffer through a miscarriage. I consider myself lucky, even though this journey has been long and very emotionally draining, we haven’t suffered an actual loss. So, my heart is leaning toward doing PGT to make sure we implant an embryo that will have a better shot at sticking but then I’m not wanting to do it for the fact of the damage it could do to my embryos and potential false results. Anyone able to put my mind at ease on this? I’m 31 and no health issues. We have MFI with low count and motility. No previous pregnancies.

Answer

You have to ask yourself if the embryos came back “genetically abnormal” would you be okay with them being thrown away or discarded? I was not okay with it so I chose to use all of mine. 
No judgment but that’s what I would think about.  
Good luck to you 💙💕

Answer

We did PGT testing. For us, everything was paid out of pocket. There was a chance we could end up spending more money on failed transfers than the retrieval and fresh transfer together. 
It’s a personal choice for sure, but I also would rather avoid miscarriages if possible - for the sake of heartache, time and money. I don’t think it’s a selfish choice at all.

Answer

Honestly, it’s such a personal decision. There is no wrong or right answer. I think it’s a great tool! Especially for those who are older or with multiple losses, or those who simply just want peace of mind. My husband and I personally did not PGS. We have been through 2 retrieval’s now. It wasn’t recommended for us based on my age. We only had 1 embryo my first round. We had faith and figured it was either going to work or it wasn’t. We left it in God’s hands. And thankfully it did! We have an almost 20 month old. We just finished up our second retrieval, and this time we have 10 embryos frozen! Again, we aren’t PGS testing. We will keep the faith and know that whatever’s meant to be, will be. We have faith that we have 1 in the bunch that will stick. Like I said I think it’s a great tool! We just personally feel that PGS testing is extremely invasive and not 100% accurate. We feel nature will take its course one way or the other. Good luck to you! 💕

Answer

We will be due to our history of recurrent losses. I was told we have a 60-70% success rate per transfer. Best of luck on your journey!!

Answer

Honestly I don’t think I would at that age. I’m struggling with this right now (mid-IVF-cycle), but I’m 36 so the chances of an abnormal are much higher. Worried about going through all this and ending up with no embryos we’re allowed to transfer, if we get them tested. My doctor suggested setting a threshold (ex, 3 embryos and we won’t test; more than that and we will).

Answer

I strongly stand on the side of PGTing your embryos. The chances of the biopsy damaging your embryos is low. However, if you change your mind down the road and want to PGT due to miscarriages or failed implantations, thawing and refreezing is a huge risk. This is the only chance you’ll realistically have to do it. IMO, there’s nothing selfish about wanting to prevent a miscarriage that’s entirely preventable, or a horribly detrimental birth defect that could cause your child to suffer long-term (or potentially not survive). There have been women on here that have suffered trisomy related miscarriages that could have been screened out far into their pregnancies and were heartbroken. You do what’s right for you. For me, the peace of mind was worth the couple thousand dollars. Out of my 12 embryos, 8 came up entirely normal. That was past the high end of what my doctor expected to get back. I’m grateful that any of those 4 were not transferred, and that I didn’t have to go through an additional FET (plus extra time, medications and associated costs). I now know that my next transfer will also be a normal embryo, as well. MFI, 28 at the time of collection and transfer.

Answer

I strongly support and advocate for PGT. Its become quite common and most labs have done it so many times that the chances of it causing fatal damage to the embryo are marginal.
Another thing to consider is that most protocols now include “assisted hatching”. This essentially consists of the lab puncturing the egg’s shell so that the embryo can readily find its way out (“hatch”) upon transfer. For those that do PGT, the shell is already punctured from the biopsy from when they take the PGT sample so you shouldn’t have charges for the assisted hatching. So you aren’t just ensuring genetically normal but also helping that embryo hatch!
Making these choices are hard and there are so many decisions when dealing with infertility. Do what makes you feel the most confident and comfortable— your peace of mind is critical. Good luck!!

Answer

We had a missed mc our first (and only) pregnancy- for pregnant on our own. 12 months later, 3 rounds of Clomid/triggers/progesterone/timed intercourse/IUI and haven’t conceived we did a round of IVF. We did a fresh transfer (currently in TWW) and have 2 embryos on ice. The day of my transfer they asked what I wanted to do; originally we had agreed if 3+ embryos we’d do genetic testing. My husband and I are both young, healthy and he was game for just freezing; I ended up deciding to do genetic testing on them (my husband was fine with this too- basically whatever would help me sleep at night) because I don’t want to go through that heartbreak again and have them on ice go to use them and then miscarry. It’s such a personal decision and there’s no right or wrong decision.

Answer

Just know that pgt normal embryos can still miscarry. It just reduces the risk, but there's still a chance it can happen. 
We wanted to test, but we soon learned that my embryos don't make it to blast easily so fresh transfers and freezing early were our only option. In our 3rd retrieval, we actually did get 3 that made it to blast and we will not be testing them. It's either gonna work or not, I don't need to spend 2k+. If we had more than 8 embryos that made it to blast tho, we would have tested them. We have mfi. On paper, all my labs come back perfect. 
So I think it depends greatly on how your cycle turns out.

Should we do genetic testing on our embryos or not?

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