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cb38 - October 25th, 2006 8:08 PM

I'm 38.75 yr old. We got pregnant easily in March after only 2 months of trying (newly married) using timed intercourse, resulted in miscarriage at 12 weeks trisomy 18. Decided to do PGD to avoid another chromosomally abnormal pregnancy.

1st IVF cycle, Lupron 10 units then decrease to 5 units, 3 vials Bravelle & 1 vial Repronex for about 10 days, I responded well with 15 mature eggs. Did ICSI and fertilization rate not so great - 8 embryos. 2 tested normal with PGD. We tranferred one blastocyst on day 4 (it was a bit fast, 14 cell on day 3) and froze one blastocyst on day 5. BFN. We did single embryo transfer because we're trying to avoid twins!

Will be doing PGD again with this upcoming 2nd cycle. If we transferred two PGD normal embryos what do you think would be the % chance we'd have a multiple pregnancy at my age? What are your thoughts on single embryo transfer with PGD? In your opinion, is there anything we could do to improve the fertilization rate or do old eggs just not fertilize well?

Thank you!


Dr Smith - November 7th, 2006 12:13 PM

Your chances of twins is low, not zero, but low. I would not hesitate to transfer 2 PGD "normal" embryos to attempt a pregnancy in your case. PGD can only assess the tip of the genetic iceberg and does not detect the vast majority of genetic problems. In other words, embryos sanctioned as "normal" by PGD may still be genetically abnormal.

The fertilization rate was within the expected biological variation considering your age. You might do better on a subsequent cycle or you might do worse. When an egg doesn't fertilize after ICSI, there's something wrong with it, usually genetic. This is nature's was of stopping abnormal embryos right from the start.

BekyVice - November 15th, 2006 10:53 AM

Hello! I'm curious how your next cycle went... only because I'm at "mature age" as well, way older than you (42!) We, too, transferred one good blast and 2 good embies on day 5, we had ICSI and AH (male factor). They had retrieved 15 eggs, 13 fertilized, 9 progressed to blast, but the quality wasn't superb for most, just the three they transferred. None to freeze. I find out this Friday if good news or bad news. Just wondering how yours is going, now that it's been a month.

cb38 - November 15th, 2006 4:08 PM

Just had the baseline yesterday and start Gonal F on Friday so retrieval is estimated to be Nov 28th or 29th. Will probably do PGD again. I'm cautiously hopeful that things will go well...

I hope you get good news on Friday! Let me know

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