# PGD views and experience



## Daisy1972 (Nov 11, 2011)

Hello ladies,

I am still considering my options and this week I wen to a new consultant, who looked at my clinical history (MS and old maternal age but decent number of eggs) and suggested PGD. I thought it was quite a risky procedure but he seems to think that things have moved on and providing I do it with a super embryologist it should be fine.

Have any of you done it? Was it successful ? Do you know which are the best clinics for PGD? I am considering CRM Care in London and potentially Oxford Fertility. Had my first cycle at the satellite clinic of the Lister. I was also thinking about ARGC but have a few concerns not least the cost and intensity plus there is an 8 week list at the moment just to get an appointment and time is not on my side ..

Thanks in advance.


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## morganna (Sep 16, 2008)

Not sure about UK but I had PGD incyprus.......dogus clinic. It cost 1500 Euros on top of treatment.
I had it forsexselection 
Controversial...........but my choice!!
I now have a beautiful baby girl. Light of my life.
m. Xx


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## Rosalind73 (Apr 25, 2012)

Hi Daisy,

I've recently had PGS here (at the Lister) and am probably going to do another PGS cycle in Greece. It was successful in the sense that I now have one chromosomally normal embryo frozen (out of 4 blastocysts biopsied).

There is a 5% risk of mosacism (getting the wrong result) with day 3 CGH and 1% risk of mosacism with day 5 CGH. The risk of damage to the embyro is apparently 5% with day 3 CGH and much less than that with day 5 CGH. However I think in reality it's very unlikely as the embryologists won't do a biopsy unless it's on a very good quality blastocyst and for day 5 CGH they take cells from the trophectoderm, which forms the placenta not the fetus. For example one of the embryologists at the Lister told me she has done hundreds of biopsies and has never damaged an embyro.

Basically it costs about £3000 here, but I've just found a clinic in Greece which does it for 800 Euros (and their lab comes recommended, which is important). It's perfectly legal in Greece by the way but not for sex selection (as per the UK).

How it works is that most clinics take a biopsy from the embyro and then send it away to a lab for specialist testing. Peronally I think it's best to find a clinic that uses Reprogenetics in Oxford (e.g. Lister) as they are pioneers in the field. Although they don't work at the weekends or bank holidays, so that does mean you have to time your egg collections accordingly. I think ARGC might do it in-house (which presumably is every day of the week) and there are other clinics that send their biopsies to Italy (CRGH i think), so in that case you would have to freeze any embyros that are tested for use in a future cycle as it takes a few weeks to get the results. 

Reprogenetics offer 24 hour CGH so if you have a blastocyst ready for testing on the morning of day 5 you can still have a fresh transfer on day 6. They are hopefully going to launch 4 hour testing soon (not CGH but another technique) which means there's even more chance of doing PGS and having a fresh transfer (cheaper too as you don't have to pay for a FET).

Anyway, let me know what else you need to know and I'll try and help.

P.s. I don't work for Reprogenetics in case you were wondering! I genuinely think they are the among the best in this field. And the guy that runs it (who I don't know at all) spoke to me on the phone for free for 45 minutes purely because he wanted to help me


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## Daisy1972 (Nov 11, 2011)

Rosalind thanks for the very comprehensive explanation, I am blown away. If that is ok I'll PM you.

Daisy x


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## Rosalind73 (Apr 25, 2012)

No problem Daisy.

By the way I was probably over-egging the importance of using Reprogenetics....I'm sure there are some other good labs out there that also do a great job.

Perhaps it's more of a factor when going abroad - I'm not sure I would trust just any old lab to do a biopsy on my embryos and then be 100% competent at doing CGH (or other PGS techniques).


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## Rosalind73 (Apr 25, 2012)

Another place that clinics seem to be using is Genesis.

They look quite good - seems like you can do 24 hour CGH but with only one or two embryos (good for those who aren't going to produce many blastocysts) and pay a reduced rate, rather than a flat fee for up to 8 embyros (as you do with Reprogenetics). Although don't actually know what it costs...

http://genesisgenetics.org/pgs/pgs-batching/

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## emmabm73 (Sep 1, 2013)

After first IVF round miscarried at 9 weeks with trisomy 16 (additional chromosome). My clinic (ARGC London)  are now encouraging me to have PGS.  I have also spoken to another gynacologist awho advised most common form of miscarriage & luck of the drawer, hence PGD over the top in my case. Apart from my age (42), I have no infertility problems but can only conceive via ICSI due to husbands low sperm count (vascetomy reversal).
Can't help but feel they throw everything at everyone even when evidence doesn't call for it. 

Any advice welcome.


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## Rosalind73 (Apr 25, 2012)

Hi Emma,

The stark facts are that at age 40, about 20% of embryos are normal. For women over 42 it's apparently close to 10%s. That's in the average woman so you could be a little bit better or worse than that.

Have a look at the table in this link:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20131010/IVF-and-chromosome-testing-an-interview-with-Dr-Santiago-Munne.aspx

If as your signature implies you had 6 blastocysts (did you?) then you can expect around 15% of them to be normal. It's less in day 3 embyros (as by getting to blastocyst stage some natural selection is taking place). The fact is that you're more likely to miscarry than not (or at least you're as likely to miscarry than not), and by having another miscarriage you are losing precious time in your reproductive life, not to mention the emotional and physical turmoil, plus the fact that if you have to have an ERPC you are risking damaging your uterus.

On the other hand you've only had one miscarriage, and you could get lucky with your next cycle.

I've had 3 miscarriages and have recently had a cycle with PGS. Out of 4 blastocysts (from two cycles of IVF - I have a low AMH) I had one normal embryo. The one that was the best "quality" i.e. it was a high grade and was developing at a good pace (embryologists can't really see whether embyros are of good quality or not) and which the lab said they would have recommended I have transferred (had I not been doing the CGH testing) turned out to be abnormal. And it only had one chromosomal abnormality which meant it probably would have implanted and resulted in another miscarriage. If you have embryos with multiple chromosomal abnormalities they won't implant.

So I'm very pro the testing if you can afford it.

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.uk or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


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