I am in the middle of an FET cycle and decided to test for gender on my frozen embryos.I have two day 3 embryos and three blasts.Has anyone done this? Did your embryos survive the thaw and refrozen if you did not need the embryos. My embryos are frozen using vitrification.I was told they will do PGD on the embryos. I am at New Hope fertility in nyc.
My first is a girl and I am hoping for a boy for the second.
Thanks for any experiences shared.
We did CCS testing on our two frozen embryos. Apparently they knew the sex because of that testing and asked if I wanted to know. I decided that I wanted to know if they are the same sex (but not identify the sex). Well, they are different so I know one is a boy and one is a girl. I am only transferring one and am not choosing a sex. Since they both have the same grade, I have no idea how the lab will select. Anyone know how that decision is made?
I’m pretty sure that you aren’t allowed to try to do gender selection right now in the US. If you are looking to avoid a specific genetic disease than you can justify thawing and refreezing. But if your just trying to select a gender most places will not do that. They think it’s a can of worms they don’t want to open… Next it will be genetic testing to select specific traits. Oh I have two blond children I really wanted dark haired children so let me select for that. Oh and he should have blue eyes too! Anyway, it’s IMHO I think you shouldn’t waste the money and risk your god embryos just to pick a boy. If it’s meant to happen it will. Keep in mind that even though that sounds like a lot of embryos you can easily go through 5 embryos and not get pregnant. I would never want to chance losing one off something like that. Good luck with whatever you choose.
I do PGD for other reasons (screening for a birth defect) but with PGD you can also find out the gender. My embryos all survived the testing, and the thaw but they were the best quality (day 5 hatching grade A). I wouldn’t PGD test the day 3 embryos on day 3, because the results are less reliable and the embryos have not grown to the point of cell differentiation between baby and placenta. By day 5, you can guarantee that the embryologist takes the cell to be tested from the placenta and not the baby. I did two rounds of PGD with day 3 testing and neither of those cycles worked. I HIGHLY recommend day 5 testing if you’re going to do it. Also, be prepared to lose at least half of your embryos due to abnormalities even if you’re young. PGD adds a whole new element to IVF, and you run the risk of not having anything or much to put back. I know this isn’t easy to hear, but it was my life for the last year and I know a lot about it. I didn’t do it for gender selection, but if that’s what you really want to do , good luck! I like you, (and probably every mother out there) would love to experience the joy of a son and a daughter. But getting there by PGD could take some time, $ and heart break. And in reality, if you’ve been ttc for a while, does it really matter what the gender is when they put that beautiful baby in your arms? 
Thanks everyone for your reply. You are right, I have decided not to do PGD or gender testing. I am already menopausal(age 44) and my husband does not want to do anymore IVFs other than the embies that we have so I guess I just have to pray for my hearts desire. Thank you.
Just think about it this way… you have to leave it up to fate. Two sisters can have this AMAZING bond. I really want a girl this time around, I have a boy who just turned two. But when I really think about it, I realize that it would be so awesome for my son to have a little brother. I guess I am just going to have to hope for 4 kids! Two of each! Thats what it is really about right? When we are gone, our children only have their siblings left… and we have to hope that they will have a great bond. Anyway, good luck on your next transfer!
Mjkb1- I tried to comment on your post but it wouldn’t work. I asked my Dr the same question you posted about and he said the lab would select based on quality. Are you against having twins? If not id suggest transferring both. I transferred 2 normal pgd embryos and am pg with one baby. The pg rates are higher if you transfer both:) good luck to you and all on this thread!!
I just realized my answer may not make sense since you said your embryos are same grade. Mine were also. They will thaw both and asses them then. I you only want one they will transfer one and refreeze the other. It’s safe to thaw and refreeze I asked that as well!
Thanks hopingfortwins! I will ask them if the plan is to defrost both, transfer one, and refreeze the other. I am only transferring one at a time because I have a 4 year old with some pretty significant special needs. While twins would be wonderful, I think it would be very overwhelming for me personally and maybe not so fair for my little one. So one at a time for me! Hoping for the best!
Have you thought about asking them to thaw your 3 day embryos and let them go to blast? I had a friend who did this and they all survived and are now refrozen as blasts. The success rate is much higher, she was terrified to do it but it ended up working out for her. Shes now pregnant and due in Feb.
I have two friends that cycled with me last IVF. They are both considering gender selection with their frosties. Their clinics definitely do allow PGD solely for the purposes of gender selection. I personally would never ever do it. Not all clinics offer it but apparently some do.
My clinic doesn’t offer PGS for gender selection and were only talking about it for 2nd children for “family balancing”. We only did PGS on our 5-day blast (before freezing them) to have a better chance at having a single-embryo turn into a live birth. The testing only covers 70% of known genetic disorders and there’s still 30% that it doesn’t test for. That 30% is why they think that I miscarried at 8 weeks. Who really knows though. The PGS also comes with a hefty $4k add-on and HORRIBLY painful Progesterone Injected Oil shots. Knowing what I know now, I will not do PGS for my next IVF round. If I were 5-7 years older, I definitely would think about it. It’s a hard decision. They make it seem easy when they sit there and talk to you about how great it is until you get disappointed along the way…hope this helps someone who is on the fence about it. Feel free to PM me if you want to ask any other questions.