Questions re gender selection via IVF

[BettyW]

Firstly, let me say that when I was having miscarriages and desperately ttc I found the idea of gender selection abhorrent. I was firmly of the mind that any healthy baby was a blessing and I still am. But I've now had two GORGEOUS boys and I would really like a girl. I think the biggest thing (aside from wanting to use the girl's name I've had picked since I was 14 and wanting to buy ALL OF THE CLOTHES) is that I feel like women are closer to their mothers and when my boys have their own families I won't get the same access I would to my daughter's children. I hope that makes sense - I'm very close to my MIL and she gets more time with my kids than my mother does, but she is very conscious not to overstep her bounds and I am an awesome DIL 😉 ...

Anyway so we have 6 embryos on ice. I know Australia doesn't yet allow gender selection for non-medical reasons (though I have heard it's under consideration). Does anyone know whether you can 'BYO embryos' to a country like Thailand or the US that does allow it? Has anyone done a fresh cycle overseas for that purpose? (I don't think I would TBH as I would feel too guilty about the embryos being left behind.)

[ScubaGal]

I'm sure that your embryos are your own and you can take them wherever you want so it's probably just a case of finding a clinic that will do it. That said, if they are five day blasts I think it's too late to test them as the testing normally happens before freezing? People who have done PGD can confirm but I asked once could I PGD my stored embryos and was told it has to happen earlier so once they are frozen it's too late to run tests (and keep the embryos).

[BettyW]

Oh really?? They are blastocysts, I think there's even one or two day 6 ones in there. Interesting, thank you.

And while they're mine and I could definitely take them to another clinic in Australia I wasn't sure about the logistics or legality of travelling OS with what is essentially human material, iykwim.

[BettyW]

I know they can test frozen embryos because I've heard of people doing a few cycles to bank up enough embryos to test at the same time, but not sure re day 3 vs day 5.

[BettyW]

Looks like day 5 testing is ok. http://www.advancedfertility.com/tro...erm-biopsy.htm

[Grace0908]

Hi Betty, yep you can definitely test on a 5 day embie, the problem is the time it takes to get the results - by the time you get results back the embryo is too old to implant, so normal method is to do fresh cycle, take a sample from day 5 embies and then freeze them while you wait for results.
But maybe there's a super fast way of getting results back somewhere? Not sure... Good luck