Let’s take a step back. If you have been following along, you may remember the egg retrieval I had back in December of 2022 prior to starting chemotherapy. I had 10 successful eggs retrieved. This seemed like a lot to me and I was pumped- maybe eventually we can have multiple kids and all of this will be behind us. Then I got the results that I was BRCA1 positive and I had over a 50% chance of passing this along to my children if we tried for kids naturally. So, we opted into turning our eggs into embryos and testing them for the BRCA1 genetic mutation to prevent passing this along to our children. So after cancer treatment and recovery we have decided to move forward with this process.
Out of the 10 eggs I had retrieved, 7 of them were successfully turned into embryos (1 did not survive the thaw and 2 did not fertilize). Next step was to test the embryos for chromosomes matching or better known for testing for birth defects (PGT-A testing). Out of the 7 embryos, 4 of them were “healthy” embryos called euploid. Now, it was time for the BRCA1 genetic testing (PGT-M). Out of the 4 healthy embryos, ONE came back “low risk” for the genetic mutation. ONE. Out of 10 eggs, you are telling me we only have 1 chance to have a healthy, supposedly “cancer free” baby? Wow. This was supposed to be the fun part.
So now we have to decide… do we do another egg retrieval and start this process all over again? Shoot for the 1 embryo we have and hope it works out? Who knows if I can even do another egg retrieval due to chemotherapy damage. So here we are. Big decisions are about to be made.
Oh P.S. the one embryo we have… is a GIRL!
Mandafit 