has anyone had an ERA test done?

[womet]

I had my last blood draw yesterday following our m/c. My nurse left a message saying that my hcg was now negative and that my doctor wants to discuss having an ERA (endometrial receptivity analysis) test done. Has anyone had one before? From what I've read, it sounds like this helps determine the best time to do that FET.

We are 100% OOP at this point, so I want to make sure I've got all of the information before we make a decision. While I'd rather spend a bit more $ to give us the best chance of having a successful pregnancy, I don't want to throw money towards a test that isn't going to improve our chances much. 

Thanks! You ladies are the best and I don't know what I'd do without you!

[calliejo]

I did. And as I type this out I can see that there are a lot of details to share!

It turns out that I need an extra day of progesterone before doing the transfer, so thye test was definitely worth it for me. I had 3 failed transfers before having the test done. We ended up only doing the ERA test one time even though the official recommendation is to repeat it if the results are abnormal. But, I've had about 10 cancelled cycles due to mid cycle bleeding...I started doing a second mock cycle to repeat the ERA test and had to cancel it due to mid cycle bleeding again. My doctor didn't really think the repeat was necessary, so H and I decided that we had to start transferring embryos whenever we have a bleed-free cycle.

We transferred an embryo last fall and it ended in a miscarriage. With the miscarriage the embryo stopped growing so my doctor is confident that we at least transferred it on the right day this time. In the past with my failed cycles my HCG always came back at 0, so the embryo was never able to even start implanting. I'm really glad I did it and didn't waste any more embryos before doing the ERA.

[megamous]

I am really glad I did the ERA test. I'm pretty sure now my issue in getting pregnant (never had a positive pregnancy test before) was implantation issues. As you can read below, I was very pre-receptive at a time in my cycle when most people would be receptive.

I wrote this a few weeks ago in response to another person:

I had testing done to test my uterine receptivity. It entailed doing a mock frozen embryo cycle (taking all the medications) and then doing a biopsy of my uterine lining instead of a frozen embryo transfer. The first time I came back pre-receptive - my uterine lining was not ready for implantation. So we did another mock transfer and another biopsy but I started the meds a day earlier. I still came back pre-receptive but not as much I guess? So for my frozen embryo transfer we started meds 1 and a half days early (yay for doing shots in the morning rather than at night) and that seemed to do the trick because I am currently 22 weeks pregnant.




The cycles cost about $1000 plus meds (I was doing progesterone in oil and estrogen injections), about $500 for the RE office procedures and about $500 for the testing. It was slightly cheaper the second time because the lab charged less for a repeat biopsy. The biopsy was a bit painful for the 15 seconds or so it takes to get a sample, but otherwise was not too bad. I don't think I had any restrictions after the procedures like I did after embryo transfer. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[midwest07]

My RE is starting to do this now after a patient has more than one failed transfer. I had one failed transfer and we would have considered doing it, but then ended up with a successful transfer after that.

[womet]

Thanks ladies! So here's where I am confused. This past cycle was our first IVF cycle, and I got pregnant from it. Since I had a positive hcg, wouldn't that mean it implanted? And if that's the case, then we had the right time? Or am I missing something?

[megamous]

I found this: haveababy.com/fertility-information/ivf-authority/interpreting-beta-hcg-pregnancy-test-results

"Often times, an initial rise in hCG (between the 1st and 2nd test) will be slow (failure to double every 48 hours). When this happens, a 3rd and sometimes even a 4th hCG test should be done at 2-day intervals. A failure to double on the 3rd and/or 4th test is a poor prognostic sign. It usually indicates a failed or “dysfunctional” implantation but in some cases a progressively slow rising hCG level might point to a tubal (ectopic) pregnancy. Diagnosis requires additional serial blood hCG testing, ultrasound examinations and clinical follow-up to detect any symptoms or signs of an ectopic pregnancy."

So even if you had an initial rise in HCG, it could still be implantation dysfunction. I can't remember how long your HCG rose before it started falling, but maybe you fit in this category?

[womet]

Thanks megamous! We only had 2 betas, and it went from 623 on 13dp5dt to 1355 on 15dp5dt. The loss was 18dp5dt. I will also bring up the idea of repeat betas (beyond just 2).