Answered by Dr Raul Olivares, Medical Director of Barcelona IVF
For a 28-year-old undergoing IVF for the first time, PGT-A may not be necessary when there is no history of recurrent miscarriage, repeated implantation failure or another indication of a higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities.
Dr Raul Olivares explains that embryos can usually be transferred without PGT-A in this situation. Testing during pregnancy, such as non-invasive prenatal testing, can then be considered.
The Patient’s Question
The following question was shared by a patient in our Facebook fertility support group:
“So, my husband and I need to decide over the weekend if we’re going ahead with the PGT testing. We are struggling really hard with this decision due to cost and how long it takes. I’m 28 and he’s 32. I have PCOS but literally everything else is fine. How do you decide if it’s worth it? This is our first time doing IVF.”
You can check the question here
Doctor’s Answer
The approach to PGT is slightly different in Europe compared to the United States. While they tend to recommend it in all cycles, here in Europe, we usually recommend to consider it only when we think that the risk of having chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos is going to be high, either because the patient has more than it’s older than 40, because there are recurrent miscarriages or implantation failures.
In all these cases, we want to check whether the embryos are not just pretty in terms of morphology, but also normal in terms of genetics. So the short answer in your case, taken into account your age, and it seems that is the first try of IVF, is that you, don’t need to consider PGT yet.
I mean, you can transfer the embryos, get pregnant, and then once you’re pregnant, you can do another kind of test, like non-invasive prenatal test to check and confirm that the embryos are, genetically normal.
About Dr Raul Olivares
Dr Raul Olivares is the Medical Director of Barcelona IVF. He began working in assisted reproduction in 1996, created one of Spain’s first international fertility departments in 2003 and became Medical Director of Barcelona IVF in October 2010.
About Barcelona IVF
Barcelona IVF is a private assisted reproduction clinic located in Barcelona’s Bonanova neighbourhood. It opened in 2010 and has a multidisciplinary team of gynaecologists, andrologists, embryologists, anaesthesiologists and psychologists.
Important Information
This content provides general educational information and does not replace an individual medical assessment.
The decision to use PGT-A should be discussed with a fertility specialist based on age, treatment history, embryo development and individual medical circumstances.
