a procedurePreimplantation genetic testing

A few cells are taken from the outer layer of a five-day-old embryo, the embryo is frozen, and the cells are sequenced. PGT-A counts chromosomes and reports each embryo as euploid, aneuploid or mosaic; PGT-M looks for one inherited condition already known in the family; PGT-SR looks for a structural rearrangement a parent carries. The transfer happens weeks later, after the results. Nothing is done to the patient: the biopsy is done to the embryo, and the anaesthesia belonged to the egg collection days earlier.

PGT-A is the clearest case on this site of a test being sold hard while its own regulator rates it down. The HFEA gives PGT-A at blastocyst stage a red rating, defined as: on balance, the findings from moderate or high quality evidence show that this add-on may reduce treatment effectiveness. The same page states there is no evidence from randomised controlled trials that PGT-A at this stage is effective at improving the chance of having a baby for most patients having IVF, and treats the miscarriage-reduction finding in older patients and those with repeated loss as a secondary outcome. The rating was last reviewed on 16 October 2023.

Meanwhile the CDC's national rows put 58.2% of all US transfers in 2022 as involving at least one embryo that had been through preimplantation genetic testing — 53.6% among patients under 35, 65.6% among those aged 38 to 40.

Inference — a red-rated add-on on a majority of transfers in the largest single market is not a clinical consensus; it is a commercial one. Trade practice — the pricing explains part of it. PGT is charged per embryo, so the patient with the most embryos pays the most, and the decision is taken at the moment of greatest hope and least comparison shopping — after a retrieval has already succeeded.

The travel argument attached to this test is different from the rest of the batch. It is not mainly about price. Where the law restricts what embryos may be tested for — sex without a medical reason, late-onset conditions, tissue matching for a sibling — the test moves to a jurisdiction that permits it, and that is circumvention rather than saving.

Priced per embryo everywhere, on top of a cycle. Reprofit's list valid from 1 January 2026 charges 600 EUR for the biopsy and examination of one embryo for PGT-A or PGT-SR; PGT-M is 1,995 EUR to prepare the karyomapping panel and then 775 EUR per embryo, with Sanger sequencing a further 740 EUR where the panel cannot be used. Testing embryos already frozen costs 1,040 EUR for the first including biopsy and a year of storage, and 735 EUR for each one after. A consultation to interpret the results is 40 EUR. The same clinic also sells the whole thing bundled, as a cycle with PGT-A on all embryos at 7,775 EUR. A US clinic quotes its PGT from 3,899 dollars depending on how many embryos are tested.

Two rules move this test across a border. What may be tested for: the permitted indications are set nationally, and sex selection for social reasons, testing for adult-onset conditions and tissue typing sit on different sides of the line in different countries. And what may be done with the results: whether mosaic embryos may be transferred, and whether embryos found unaffected must be used before a fresh cycle is funded, are regulatory questions rather than laboratory ones. The rule records carry the instruments and the dates.

As of September 2026 the published prices read off pages for this record run from 600 EUR per embryo in Brno to 3,899 US dollars as a starting figure in New York state, with the cycle that produced the embryos outside all of them. The UK regulator's red rating on PGT-A stands as last reviewed on 16 October 2023, and the most recent US national figure has the test on the majority of transfers.

This page describes a test and reports what its regulator and the US register say about it. It is not medical advice, and it does not say whether any particular embryo should be tested.