Screening early, eve before you implant the embryo can save your child from certain hereditary disorders. Genetic testing is one effective way of ensuring your baby’s health and is, therefore, recommended by fertility specialists.
With screening and testing methods such as PGD and PGS (PGT – A), IVF has become a more viable option for thousands of couples who are planning to conceive their own child. Dr Goral Gandhi, Founder, Director and Chief Embryologist at Indo Nippon IVF, a leading fertility clinic in India, tells us how genetic testing can help resurrect the genetic makeup of an embryo.
Getting screened before you try to get pregnant can reassure you and help in making a more informed decision related to your pregnancy through family planning. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) are ways of genetic testing that are performed on an embryo in the early stages of development.
Goral Gandhi IVF consultant, a clinical embryologist having experience in assisted reproduction for more than two decades, is a dedicated professional in performing embryo biopsy procedures. Telling us how PGS is different from PGD, she talks about the screening options in great lengths for patients to understand the best choice for them. Read about it here: https://goralgandhi.com/pgd-and-pgs/
“While PGS allows us to look for chromosomal abnormalities, PGD is used for couples who are predisposed to certain genetic, or experiencing in-vitro fertilization failures, or even a history of genetically abnormal pregnancies,” explains Dr Goral Gandhi.
Getting embryo tested is the best way to ensure a healthy and safer IVF pregnancy, as each tested embryo has a better chance of developing into a fetus. Genetic testing is also vital to the process of IVF as tested embryos also decrease the risk of miscarriage and pregnancy loss, especially in older women, and the ones who have experienced recurrent miscarriage or are at an increased risk for chromosomal abnormalities called translocations.
Both PGD and PGS take place during preimplantation. This is unlike prenatal testing, where implantation has already occurred. That said, the perks of testing are multi-faceted as it also improves the odds for success with elective single embryo transfer.
How Is Ivf Performed Along With Pgd Or PGS?
Preimplantation Genetic Testing is a process where a biopsy of few cells from the embryo can tell you about the health of your embryo. The biopsy is recommended on Day 5/6 of the embryo, when it becomes a blastocyst. After the biopsy, all the blastocysts are vitrified (frozen). Once the results are available, the female patient is given medications to suppress ovulation and prepare the uterus for implantation. At the right time, one healthy embryo will be thawed and transferred, states Dr Goral Gandhi.
Talking about the best option to go with, Goral Gandhi, an expert Clinical Embryologist at Indo Nippon IVF, opines that it depends on the age of the patient, the type of infertility and many other factors. She believes that IVF is all about customization and individualization of the treatment plan.
