I hate statistics

Statistics are not on our side. Not that I thought they were actually on our side to begin with, but now I know for sure that they are not.  

I previously said that the medical field speaks in generalities and hesitates to give hard numbers.  I am retracting that statement because I recently got all of the hard numbers I could stand in one phone call with the PGD genetic counselor.

We were told by our first genetic counselor that I had about a 40-50% of having a good egg come through for us to lead to a healthy baby.  Then, after speaking with the embryologist at our RE’s office during IVF orientation, he gave us around 30% chance of having healthy embryos free of chromosome abnormalities.  Finally, after speaking with the genetic counselor from the company that will actually be performing the PGD, we were quoted a rate of 5-10% chance of an embryo without chromosome abnormalities.

The new, lower rate is primarily driven by the fact that my inversion spans around 80% of my chromosome 7.  I knew I had a pericentric balanced inversion, and I knew it was large, but it practically takes over my entire chromosome.  Almost all parts of my genetic material are reversed, and that means higher likelihood of my egg cells having this defect…and thereby leading to an abnormal embryo.  Not just abnormal, incompatible with life and with excess or missing genetic material.

I feel like we just got kicked in the stomach again.   I don’t know what to do with this information.   This is substantiating my previous fears that we are going to spend all of our time and money shooting me up with drugs, harvesting eggs, performing PGD, and no embryos will be viable.  The unfortunate part about this whole process is that there is no way to find out unless you complete the cycle. 

They say the best way out of hell is to go straight through it.  I haven’t even started my drugs yet, but my body is already burning.