This cutting-edge IVF technique is being developed to help couples where one or both partners carries a serious genetic disease, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and beta-thalassemia, or X-linked chromosome disorders.
The technique involves many hours of intricate lab work so that faulty genes and chromosomes can be detected in fertilised embryos after they’ve been fertilised using IVF or ICSI and only the ‘non-faulty’ ones put back into the uterus. It can take many months of lab work-up before a couple can proceed to IVF in such cases and only a few babies have been born following PGD so far.
However, PGD is set to offer more and more couples an invaluable alternative to the previous situation where anyone carrying such disorders faced the prospect of becoming pregnant and possibly having to terminate the pregnancy if early diagnostic tests showed the baby was affected.
The process was first developed in the UK around 12 years ago and around 10 infertility units, several of them in London, have now been granted a HFEA licence to do this important work, giving hope to couples who want to avoid their baby being born with a serious or life-threatening disease.
For more information about PGD, log onto the HFEA website at www.hfea.gov.uk or ask your GP for further advice.
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