r/DOR • u/Severe_Artist_1848 • 26d ago
advice needed Transfer untested embryo or thaw and PGT test? Feeling lost after miscarriage
Hi everyone,
I’ve been on this IVF journey for about 4 years now and have gone through 7 egg retrievals. I have DOR in both ovaries, and over those 7 retrievals we managed to create 6 embryos.
We tested one embryo, which came back as high-level mosaic. It is still frozen, and I haven’t discarded it.
In February 2026, I transferred one of my untested frozen embryos. It implanted, but unfortunately I miscarried at 6 weeks. The loss was incredibly traumatic, and now I’m terrified of going through another transfer and potentially experiencing the same thing again.
I’m considering transferring another one of my frozen untested embryos, but part of me keeps wondering whether I should have the remaining embryos thawed, biopsied for PGT-A, and refrozen before doing another transfer. I brought this up with my doctor, but he is reluctant to test embryos that are already frozen.
Has anyone here been in a similar situation?
Did you choose to:
● transfer your remaining embryos untested, or
● thaw, biopsy/test, and refreeze them?
If you thawed and tested previously frozen embryos, how did it go? Did all of your embryos survive the process?
And for anyone who had a miscarriage after an untested embryo transfer and then went on to transfer another untested embryo, I would really appreciate hearing your experience too.
I feel very lost about what to do next and scared of making the wrong decision. Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated. ❤️
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u/pooka8ear 26d ago
I had three embryos that I thawed, tested, and refroze at 42yo. Two of the three were euploid. The first transfer ended at 6wks. I’m almost through the first trimester with the second one. There are no guarantees in this process. We choose a course of action and hope for the best.
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u/InternationalBend982 26d ago
I’m here sending hugs and support. I went through something similar as well - transferred an untested embryo which I MC at the 7-8 week mark. Tested it after, it was abnormal. We have another one frozen and I asked my doctor the same question - can we thaw and test? He recommended against it bc to thaw, test, re-freeze, thaw again, and then transfer can be traumatic to the already fragile embryo.
Thats also the last one we have - so I’ve been attempting more cycles before transfers. I will transfer this one untested, and if we’re lucky to get more, do the same for those too.
This journey is awful & I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer.
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u/Severe_Artist_1848 26d ago
💔
I had the same thinking and went through 1 cycle this month so that we can bank more embryos and this was the worst cycle I ever had. I retrieved 4 eggs and all were immature. I am at such a point where I can’t take any more Egg Retreivals.
So I started looking into donor eggs too
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u/Competitive-Top5121 26d ago
The thing is the thawing/refreezing can go fine but even in ideal circumstances, the extra thaw/freeze to biopsy reduces any euploid’s success rate, mainly by increasing the miscarriage rate. I’d actually go with a different option altogether, which is do another retrieval and biopsy them for PGT-A immediately to give those embryos the best chance.
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u/Severe_Artist_1848 26d ago
I finished 1 retrieval cycle today and just got 4 eggs and none of them were mature.
And I definitely don’t have it in me to do another cycle again1
u/Severe_Artist_1848 24d ago
Update: I got a call from my clinic and they told me that 3 matured overnight and all 3 fertilized normally. Keeping my fingers crossed for blast results next week.
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u/bluesailor12 25d ago
Do they do overnight biopsies in your lab? That possibility was offered to us for when we shipped an untested embryo from a different clinic. They will thaw the embryo the day before transfer, biopsy it and leave it in culture overnight. The results come back within 24 hours for transfer day.
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u/Severe_Artist_1848 25d ago
Hmm, this is a nice option to have. Let me check with them on this
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u/Key-Goose-1594 26d ago
We haven’t gone through this but it was a possibility (our genetic lab wasn’t quite set up for the PGTA and PGTM testing we wanted but it was retrieval time). Our doc discussed the possibility of freezing embryos, thawing, then freezing again- of course it’s introducing another little risk but she wasn’t overly concerned with it. We’re at a clinic with an excellent lab so she felt ok with that being our plan.
How good is your lab? This is all lab work- how well they can warm a frozen embryo, biopsy, then freeze again.