Thoughts on genetic testing for ivf?

Question

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Genetic testing at my clinic is an additional $4500. I'm 30 years old, healthy and husband is 31 and healthy. Do I do the genetic testing, and only healthy embryos will be selected for transfer. Or do I just skip the testing. If I skip the testing I can do a fresh transfer. If I do genetic testing I have to wait and do a frozen transfer. I don't know the stats on fresh vs frozen.

Answer

Yes it's expensive. You are young but something brought you to the IVF route. Frozen transfer results better - your body is sooooo stimulated now after the retrieval it let's it calm down, the embryos that survive freeze and thaw mean they are stronger. Now to PGS, your odds will be good to get 60% normal at age 30, but that is an average and variations are between people and between cycles you might have. So if you get 10 day 5 embryos you might do 4 transfers that don't work. The cost of that adds up to be worth the $, but there is also the emotional side of waiting in the the and either it not working or getting a miscarriage. A miscarriage can take up to 4 months to work through (the time in pregnancy and the time for hormones to reset, then to wait a cycle to do another transfer). How much if your time worth for peace of mind and giving yourself a much improved odds of success! Note that you can wait to see how many day 5 embryos you get, if it only 1-2 then might not be worth it but if you have 10+....Good fortunes to you!

Answer

I do recommend PGS after multiple IVF fail. 
Me: 1st IVFcycle: no embryo (I was 32 and husband 31)
2nd IVF: 4 embryos. Fresh transfer BFN. Second frozen transfer  BFN. 2 left but didnt divide after thaw.
3rd frozen IVF: BFN
4th frozen IVF: BFN
5th frozen IVF with PGS: BFP (rainbow baby born in 2018 and 4 frozen embryo frozen for later)

Answer

Studies show FETs result in more live births than fresh transfers. But that doesnt mean you will not have a successful fresh transfer. Just like it doesnt guarantee a live birth if you do the testing and only transfer normal embryos.

Answer

You can always transfer one fresh and send the rest for PGS testing. Have you had any losses?

Answer

We just met with our doctor and she advised against it at my age (31). She said if I have a failed transfer or two, then she would advise testing the frozen embryos. The cost is insane. Our hospital charges $2500 for it and doesn’t even include the labs charges, which they explained would at least double their charge. Our ivf is only costing about $4k with insurance ($3k of it is our deductible) and I didn’t see a reason to more than double that if the doctor didn’t find it necessary.

Answer

I'm 30 also and chose to skip the testing because I wanted a fresh transfer. Studies also show no significant difference of you do testing under 35. There have been women who have done the testing and still not ended up pregnant. FET is shown to have slightly higher chance of success because it gives your body time to unwind from the hormones. I got pregnant my first round with fresh transfer.

Answer

I really don’t know. I opted not to do PGS because my husband and I are young and have no reason to suspect any genetic conditions.. but I had an FET that resulted in an early miscarriage and I just wonder if I would’ve done the genetic testing if I wouldn’t have had to go through that. I have 4 embryos left and I don’t want to risk unthawing them to test, but if I had it to do over again I probably would. $4500 is rough though.

Answer

Are you in the US? We used a company called counsyl which was recommended to us by a fertility specialist. Cost me $300 out of pocket without insurance. Results came in and we were able to go over the results on the phone with the company rep

Thoughts on genetic testing for ivf?

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