# Can we talk about PGS testing



## teppar (Mar 1, 2018)

As I gear up for my first round of IVF with donor sperm I'm thinking more and more about PGS testing. What are people's thoughts on this? Risks? Experiences? Would love to know what others think as I'm totally lost.


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## Kiss (Oct 23, 2017)

Hiya
My clinic have from the beginning suggested it for me as I am 43 so more likely to have abnormal embryos, they believe it will save me the heartache of miscarriage and at my age I felt it was sensible as I don't have lots of years to be trying. Hope that helps with my thinking.
Clare X


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## Nicnik (Feb 17, 2016)

Hi Clare, 

I am undecided about PGS.  I had PGS testing with a clinic in Spain (as they insisted because of my age) however, even after transfering a chromosomally normal embryo, it still ended in a negative outcome.  I hear mixed reports about PGS testing to be honest.  My new clinic don't rate it - they feel is is still a relatively new procedure and that it can be invasive to the embryo, with a risk of damage.  I have also read / heard that the testing can occasionally produce false results.  I also read an article a few months ago about a woman who had several embryos PGS tested and the test results were that they were ALL abnormal - she insisted that some of them were transferred to her endometrium and she ended up pregnant, having a healthy baby in the end.  

That said, I have read that it has worked for a lot of woman, but there is a definite 'grey' area on this procedure, from what I have read. 

Wishing you the very best of luck with your cycle, whatever you decide to do. xx

P.S we have chosen NOT to do PGS our last two cycles with our clinic in Greece and we have have 4 top grade embryos frozen, so we will find out soon enough if any of them viable.


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## Kiss (Oct 23, 2017)

Yes I read that article too, I think that the author had mosaic blasts transferred back, so not fully abnormal ones, as in the Uk they won't allow fully abnormal ones to be put in but mosaics are allowed and is your own decision. Putting a normal embryo back doesn't guarantee you success as we know, I guess it gives you a bit more knowledge though of why things could have resulted in a BFN.


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## Nicnik (Feb 17, 2016)

Ah I see, Kiss - my mistake....and thank you for clarifying.


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## morganna (Sep 16, 2008)

I had PGD because i wanted another girl.
It had the added benefit of:


egg donor produced 11 eggs
9 fertilised


with PGD testing, only 3 were normal!!


luckily for me those 3 were transferred and i got a BFP.


PGD is great. It weeds out the abnormal embryos.  So your chances of inplantation are higher. Of course there are no GUARANTEES!!


BUT at least you KNOW you are putting in HEALTHY embryos to start!!


I could have gone without PGD and transferred 6 unhealthy embryos over a period of time and that would have been devastating!


I used TEAM MIRACLE .  My clinic also offer blastgen embryoscope and embroglue.  I had all of that too.
Morganna xx


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## Sapphire952 (Aug 6, 2014)

I'm considering it too wth a few days to EC.  My m/c was devastating and I would pay good money to avoid another but it's costly and doesn't give you any guarantees!


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## teppar (Mar 1, 2018)

Thanks everyone for your responses....Is PGS only to get healthy embryos that implant better or a way to make sure there are no inherited chromosomal illnesses in the embryos so the child is healthy? As an older mum I'm concerned about what my aging eggs could pass on and is PGS the way to make sure everything is healthy? I'm lost....

*NicNik* I'm looking at Serum too for my IVF. Would love to hear more about your experience there.

*Morganna* why did you pick PGD over PGS? Its been explained to me that both do the same thing but with PGD you remove a cell from the embryo and with PGS its gentler with cells from the part that develops into the sac. Am I totally off base?


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## morganna (Sep 16, 2008)

I think PGD is for gender selection.
You would think i would know all this stuff by now!
I just know that the embryos that were tested, resulted in the healthy ones being transferred.  And they (luckily) were all female. which is what i wanted.


Good luck to everyone that goes with PGD/PGS.


It is more expensive yes.........but at least you know you are getting the healthiest embryos. That is a good start!!


Morganna x


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## Spanglyboo (May 18, 2014)

PGS will look out for abnormalities so downs and turners syndrome etc
Some clinics use a more updated version of pgs called array cgh 

It is thought transferring a ‘normal’ embryo will lead to more success


It also picks up the gender but not all countries allow you to ask for
a specific gender and then transfer it


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## teppar (Mar 1, 2018)

Thanks Spanglyboo. This is so stressful. I'm just worried about long term repercussions for messing with the embryos. Are they going to have life long problems because of this.....urrggghhh.....so difficult to know what to do.


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## Spanglyboo (May 18, 2014)

Teppar

Why would they have problems? From what I remember the newer techniques take cells from either the outer layer or the area that becomes the umbilical cord so doesn’t damage the developing embryo

Something like that anyway


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## Kiss (Oct 23, 2017)

That's how my clinic explained it too. They take the cells that are on the edge, it's worth getting your embryologist to explain it as that's what I had and it helped me understand. X


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