Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
Our Center is capable of offering the exciting alternative for couples who carry a genetic disease: pre-implantation genetic diagnostic testing. Currently, couples at high risk for having a child with a serious condition can only reduce this risk through avoidance of pregnancy, adoption, sperm or egg donation, or prenatal diagnosis followed by selective termination of affected pregnancies. We now have technology so that genetic disorders can be diagnosed before pregnancy begins. This approach offers couples a new option to reduce their risk. This process uses technologies developed for infertility patients to stimulate the production of many eggs (oocytes), retrieve the eggs, and fertilize the eggs to determine which embryos carry a particular mutation. Only the embryos which do not have the genetic mutation are placed in the uterus to establish a pregnancy. As this testing is performed prior to initiation of pregnancy, the couple is not faced with the difficult issue of deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy when prenatal testing shows the fetus is affected. Although this "high tech" approach to reproduction will not appeal to all couples, many couples feel that pre-implantation testing is emotionally or morally more acceptable than currently available options.
