Genetic testing question...

Sorry, I know I haven't been on much in the past week. I just needed a break from the world as much as I could get it.

I had my D&C on Wednesday as you know. The dr. told my DH he got the chromosomes needed... so I'm hoping he's right.
What could this show? I don't even know if this will make sense, but I'm trying to put my thoughts/fears into words.
IF nothing is wrong with either one of them genetically, then what? What if something is wrong with only one? Why would BOTH heartbeats stop? I just keep thinking about all of this. I can't sleep well b/c I'm terrified of the unknown right now. If something is wrong with both, what does that mean for the rest of the frosties we have left???

I just keep thinking maybe it had something to do with my clotting level being too thick in the beginning... or something with my natural killer cells, etc... they were still high but Dr. B said they were fine b/c my T cells were high also so they were fighting back.
If it's genetic, then what? He said ultimately genetics is a "#'s game"... well what does that mean? We put back 2 twice and got twins... none of them are with us. We've put back 3 and gotten none to take; we've put back 2 and had 1 take, and still nothing to show... where does that leave us?
Does this even make sense? I don't want to put back 4 and have 3 take and then 1 left at the end... however many we see is what I will fall in love with, and it will still be a loss if we lose any of them (if not all), kwim? How do people go thru this?
I get the outcome is to get me a successful pregnancy... I do. But, ugh, I can't even put what I want to say into words right now I guess... I just don't know how we move on from here.
I want answers a week ago and we're not getting them for another 1-2 weeks (if we get any)... plus then we have to wait more for my uterus to fully heal before I get an MRI of it to see if there's anything else going on...

Re: Genetic testing question...

I totally get it... I really do....

Not to scare you, but I don't think they test BOTH sacs. For my triplets, they were in two separate sacs since two were identical and shared a sac. For the d&c, just one sample of tissue was sent for testing. I thought both sacs would be tested, but I was told it's not done that way. I was surprised by this...... but what we did learn that at least one of my babies (not sure if it was the singleton or identicals) was a genetically normal female.

I probably told you this already, but my loss was due to a subchorionic hematoma that was either caused by the way the identical twins implanted, or my clotting issue.

If you find out the test comes back that they were genetically fine, then there must be some thing on the immune/clotting end that was going on. It just doesn't make sense otherwise.



I don't even know what to say... I wish I had a way of comforting you. I know for me, knowing someone understood was just never enough. On the one hand, it pained me to know that anyone else was going through what I had gone through.... and on the other hand, I also didn't believe that anyone REALLY understood what I was going through since my road is so unique.

I think we can both agree that this suucks all around. I've been a mess this week.

ETA: I'm going for an MRI of my uterus too, probably this week.... though I've been back and forth on if I even wanna go for it.

Message edited 9/25/2011 6:16:20 PM.

Re: Genetic testing question...

I wish I had answers for you. All I can tell you is my experience so far. When I started with Dr. B over a year ago, part of my testing was a karyotype, and it showed that I had a balanced chromosomal translocation. That means that some of my eggs are going to be chromosomally unbalanced. My 4 losses were all before I ever got to see a heartbeat, but I did have a D&C with the last one, which revealed that the embryo had an unbalanced translocation.

This is my first round of IVF, and our options were to to Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to test the embryos to see which ones were "normal", or to put back 4-5 embies and hope for the best, and possibly have to do selective reduction, which makes me a little nervous. Dr. B prefers the latter, b/c he says that embryos can correct themselves.He also called it a "#s game" for us. This time, we decided to skip the PGD, partly b/c we're paying OOP, and it's another $5000. I'm not sure how many we're putting back yet.

It is definitely scary to me to think about the idea of multiples taking and then losing any naturally b/c of the translocation, or more terrifying, doing selective reduction, but I am willing to do it in order to have one healthy baby. It certainly isn't right for everyone, so maybe PGD is something that would work for you if you find out that there is a genetic issues.


I know it's hard having so many questions and waiting for the answers, especially when the answers may not be what you want to hear.

Re: Genetic testing question...

Selective reduction isn't an option for me... or my DH. That's part of what worries me so much, and Dr B didn't seem like a fan of PGD when I asked him b/c he told me we'll lose embryos.

We can't win... we can get downright awful, unfixable news, or we can get awful, fixable news... neither of which will bring back what we lost. If it's clotting related I will blame myself for not being more proactive, even though I tried. If it's immunological related I'll be irritated that we didn't increase my neupogen dose when my #'s came back high... but those 2 things would be my "best case scenarios".
Genetic terrifies me. The fact that they may only be testing 1 of my sacs terrifies me... what's the point of only testing 1? They were 2 seperate individuals w/ 2 seperate heartbeats... what does only testing 1 do? I emailed dr. B to make sure they are testing both.
It's going to be a long couple of weeks...

Re: Genetic testing question...

Posted by MrsMessina


We can't win... we can get downright awful, unfixable news, or we can get awful, fixable news... neither of which will bring back what we lost. If it's clotting related I will blame myself for not being more proactive, even though I tried.

Re: Genetic testing question...

Posted by MrsMessina

Selective reduction isn't an option for me... or my DH. That's part of what worries me so much, and Dr B didn't seem like a fan of PGD when I asked him b/c he told me we'll lose embryos.

Re: Genetic testing question...

If it's genetic, instead of doing PGD ask Dr. B about CGH egg and/or embryo testing. They can do it on your frozen embryos but would take about 3 weeks.

Sorry that you are feeling like this.
This isn't an easy road and for some it seems like it's terribly, overwhelmingly painful and difficult.

Re: Genetic testing question...

Message edited 10/4/2011 10:01:11 PM.