has anyone had a baby with PDG?

[lynniecat]

Have you considered CGH? PGD does not check all the chromosomes where CGH does. With CGH you do a round and have your embryos frozen after cells are taken for the test. If the embryos come back normal, you put back the normal one(s) in a subsequent cycle. It takes something like 6 weeks to get the results. But perhaps PGD looks at the problem you are concerned about and you don't need CGH.

I believe the success rate when putting back CGH normal embryos is over 90 percent.

[bighope2009]

Lynniecat, thanks a lot for the information. I haven't heard of CGH before so I think it would be interesting to search the Net and find out more about it

Anyway, in our case, it's a single gene disorder that needs to be tested. Single gene disorders are genetic conditions caused by the alteration or mutation of a specific gene in the affected person’s DNA. Examples of single gene disorders include cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, Fragile X syndrome, Thalassemia and spinal muscular atrophy. My DH and I are both well as we are just carriers of a genetic trait, but if both those traits were passed on to any child, she/he would be having a very serious genetic disease!!!

So I think PGD in our case is different from when it's done for chromosomal translocations where they try to distinguish between chromosomally normal and abnormal embryos.

May I ask you if you are having CGH?

Bighope x

[lynniecat]

I did not do CGH or PGD. I did not have the embyros. DH has Factor 9 deficiency (hemophilia) but the way its inherited we knew a male would be fine and a female a carrier. We are having a girl....


I believe CGH will give you your answer as well. At CCRM I know they charge 5K (or did last year) for PGD and 6K for CGH. CGH gives you lots more info, but only a few places do it. I used to work in a bio lab doing research and I would def do the CGH if I could swing it, had the embryos, etc.

I searched quickly and found this link!


http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... rates.html


Several ladies on this forum have used this technique. Sher institute has a banking program where you do 3 rounds and they test the embryos and you save the good ones over 3 months. At the end you put back the ones you know are fine. I am sure you can find more information. I lady named NY5thtry just started this process at Sher and already has two perfect embies on the freezer. She is in the oct/nov/dec thread with me..

[lynniecat]

OH and Sher does this technique in a different way than CCRM. CCRM takes the cells from the blasts, not the polar bodies. Sher could have changed by now ... but I know they used to do polar bodies....

Polar bodies are the left over products of meiosis. When an egg is being created it starts out with a 4n cell (4 times the final amount of DNA), it divides into two cells to get 2n in each cell, then they both divide to get 1n in each of the NOW 4 cells. When the egg combines with the sperm 1n + 1n = 2n (which means 2 copies of each chromsome, one from dad, one from mom). Anyway of those 4 1n cells --- one becomes the egg and the other 3 are by-products called polar bodies. Sher sequences those. I used to work on this stuff in a lab at MIT... Anyway the problem with this is that a. this is only looking at mom's DNA and b. its not the actually embryo its by products so not necessarily a true representation.

You really want the embyro cells! Anyway, you can research more if you like. I was at CCRM so they explained this stuff and said they could do either the polar body or embyro CGH. I would definitely do the embryo CGH...

This actually might be overkill for your issue, but its something many women do who do have a single gene mutation, but rather want to optimize their chances of success by only putting back genetically normal eggs...I think you can kill two birds with one stone here (ooo I hate that expression)...

Good luck!

[bighope2009]

lynniecat, thanks a lot for all the information and the link too. You know a lot about this. You would make a brilliant IVF consultant It must be really exciting working in a lab and knowing about all this stuff.

I've been reading about CGH or as they also call it Staggered IVF (St-IVF) and it's amazing how much it improves the birth rate per embryo transferred! It says it can be used to identify chromosomally normal embryos/blastocysts but nothing was mentioned about whether it can be used to identify single gene disorders.

To be honest, I don't know much about PGD as this is going to be our first attempt. I remember they mentioned in the first appointment that they were going to test the embryos for the gene change or mutations running in the family and then use DNA linked markers

Anyway, it's definitely worth investigating about CGH and see if it can be used in our case because it would be brilliant to check for all chromosome problems at the same time. We are still waiting for our probes to get ready and then we'll have an appointment with a consultant, which hopefully should be in June or July.

So you are expecting a girl ....Congratulations on being pregnant. I should've known from your signature!!! When's she due?

In our case, if the embryos tested were carriers of my trait or my DH's, they will still be transferred because there's no problems with that. It's just that the two traits together will cause a serious disease!

Thanks again for your help.

Bighope x

[busybee]

Sorry to intrude, but I've learned so much from you gals, I just had to let you know! I just discovered this board after posting a question about PGD and chemical pregnancies last weekend.

bighope2009- All the best to you

lnniecat- My RE wants us to do PGD with our next cycle. My DH pointed out CGH on the cost sheet. Thanks to you I now have a clearer understanding of what both entail. One quick question and I'm sorry if you already mentioned this...with PGD do they use embryo cells or polar body cells?

Many thanks!
-Heidi

[lynniecat]

PGD uses the actual embryo! I think that as time goes by and more labs offer CGH, less people will use PGD. At least that is what it looks like to me. Right now CGH is available only at a few places.

Of course, one can always do a CVS or amnio later in the pregnancy ... but then if you have a problem, you would have to face the decision to terminate. I think most people are more comfi putting back the genetically normal embryos to start!

[C&C12806]

Hey Ladies, sorry to intrude but I have a question. We are going for our transfer tomorrow. We originally had 15 eggs, and 11 fertilized. We did PGD and they called today and said they were only able to biopsy 6 of them cause the rest were growing too slow. I'm kinda sad cause that doesn't sound like a very good number considering 1in4 will possibly have the genetic disease we are testing for and there could be some that are going to inconclusive. My question is, for those that have done PGD before, how many embryos were left with on trasnfer day? I really wanted to transfer two and have some to freeze, but I'm starting to think that's not going to happen now.

Thanks Ladies, Candice

[AmandaM]

Candince

I was testing for a condition 1 and 2 would test positive for my genetic condition. Out of the 15 eggs that fertilized on my last cycle only 3 were left on the transfer day. Of those 3, 2 implanted and resulted in my 3 week old twins.

I know the numbers can be scary, but it can happen.

Best of luck

[C&C12806]

AmandaM: Thank you so much!!! You made me feel so much better!! Hopefully we'll have at least one really good one tomorrow!!! Congrat's on your twins!!! That is awesome!!!!

Candice

[AmandaM]

Candice

I was thinking of you and wanted to see how it went today. I hope you had some good embryos to choose from.

Sorry for the typeos yesterday. Remember it only takes one

[C&C12806]

Amanda, Thank you so much for thinking of me!! We actullay only had one embryo to transfer. Out of the six we tested, 2 had the disease, 2 weren't growing very good, and 1 was inconclusive. So hopefully the one that made it is our little miracle!!! We are trying so hard to stay positive!!!! Keep your fingers crossed for us!! Question- after the transfer, did you stay on bed rest at all? My doc said take it easy today but can resume normal activites tomorrow. My mom thinks I should stay home and rest tomorrow as well. I don't know what to do, cause I want to give this lil guy the best chance possible!!

[AmandaM]

Sorry you didn't get the results you wanted. But it only takes one Try to stay positive. What was the grade of that one?

I was on complete bedrest for 48 hours.

When do you go in for your beta?

[C&C12806]

Hey Amanda! I believe they said it was a level 1-2 blast. Not sure how all that works, but we are hoping for the best!!! I went ahead and took today off and lounged around. Don't want to have any regrets if it's a BFN. I haven't called and scheduled my beta yet, but ten days will be the 29th so I'm hoping its then!!! How are the twins?? Boys or girls?? My husband wanted twins so bad, but I guess thats out now!!

[AmandaM]

Hey Candice

Not sure what level 1 or 2 means. My clinic graded it A through F. Twins aren't completely out...you could still have identical twins. But let me tell you, twins are very very very very hard. I am so sleep deprived it isn't even funny.

My twins are a boy and a girl. So now we are completely done. My clinic didn't give me the choice of when my beta was. It was always schedued based on the ET date.

And don't be worried all week if you don't feel pregnant or feel like AF is coming. I swore I was getting my period and then I got a BFP.

I will say a prayer for you.