Embryo testing

I’m 36 and we have been trying unsuccessfully to conceive for 6 years. This year we finally decided to take the plunge on IVF and are currently undergoing our government funded IFV cycle. Luckily we had 12 embryos reach blastocyst on day 5 at a mixture of 3&4 aa ratings. My husband thinks we don’t need to do the pgs testing, but I’m not convinced. Even if I just test the 4AA that would be 8 tested at $5000. Is it really worth it to test?
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How much does it cost to do a FET where you are? If you think about it probably a few might be aneuploid and if you end up doing FeT for those abnormal embryos then have to have a miscarriage etc. the time and the cost of those cycles is what you have to weigh up. Having had a previous miscarriage it wasn’t something I was willing to risk.

I havent had any miscarriages. I’ve failed to conceive at all. The government sponsors the entire cycle with the exception of drugs and any additional testing. So I don’t have to pay for the transfers themselves only the medication.

Fair enough then. I guess then it’s up to you and whether or not the risk of going through a miscarriage that might be avoided by not transferring an abnormal embryo. What was your doctors thoughts, could they give you advice? Your maternal age puts you at slightly higher risk than say in your 20s of having abnormal chromosomes. But without knowing all your other history I don’t know how likely those embryos might all be normal. Either way hoping this happens for you and all works out well!!

Just wanted to offer another perspective to help you make the decision that’s best for you. I have to do PGT-M testing and with that my clinic automatically does PGT-A testing. My one euploid/normal embryo from my first cycle did implant and I was pregnant but I had a chemical pregnancy anyways. My doc said testing can’t account for everything. It ensures the embryo has the correct chromosomal count and in my case didn’t carry an abnormal gene I carry but he said the embryo can still have cellular abnormalities even if it starts to implant. All that to say you can still miscarry or not have a tested embryo implant. Again, weighing the risk/reward benefit is important to make sure you feel confident about the money being spent knowing it’s not a 100% guarantee/success rate.

Our clinic advised against testing even though I have had 3 failed FETs. Their words were, it's a waste of money, embryos are good grades & while I am being funded for FET i can save money. If I paid for testing, I could end up with no viable embryos to use, as they discard ones that are ameuploid, when in fact it could develop into a normal healthy baby.

It’s a personal decision but I’m glad I did it. I had great numbers and a lot of blasts with most embryos with excellent grades of mostly 5AA/5ABS and we still didn’t have any euploids from our cycle at 36. I would have wasted a lot more money in failed transfers than what PGT cost us without testing.

Thank you all for your detailed responses. Our doctor didn’t have any recommendations overall. They try not to push you into a decision. I’ll think on it some more for sure. Maybe try with one and then test the others if failed.

I would do the testing unless the cost is too big a burden. At age 36 approximately half of your embryos will be euploid and viable. Each FET cycle is time consuming and you have to take more drugs and hormones that are hard on your body, it’s a waste to do FETs with non-viable embryos. Unrelated, but where do you live that IVF is government funded? That’s amazing!

I’m in Ontario Canada. They fund only one full cycle - this includes implanting all the eggs retrieved during the stimulation process.

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