Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis

This is a marvel of medical and laboratory recent advances. In these test an embryo ‘biopsy’ is made by cracking the embryo, taking cell samples, and running them through sophisticated lab analysis techniques. The tests run may be on the simple side of screening, making sure that the number of chromosome in question is normal, or more complicated when we test for a specific set of genes where we want to exclude the presence of certain diseases.

Some experts think they are of value if you had repeat failure with IVF, or a few miscarriages in a row. They may help us in determining if some embryos have chromosomal problems, so we will not transfer them. While this does not guarantee that if we transfer a ‘normal’ embryo that this will result in a pregnancy for sure. At least, we know that we excluded trials with abnormal embryos.