Genesis Fertility Centre is committed to fertility patient care, and screening for chromosomal abnormalities can help reduce the probability of a failed cycle, miscarriage, or abnormal pregnancy from an IVF cycle. At our clinic, we offer preimplantation genetic screening (PGS); pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A), also known as comprehensive chromosomal screening (CCS); and, pre-implantation genetic testing for monogenetic/single-gene defects (PGT-M), also known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Why Pursue Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening Prior to Trying to Conceive? 

• Increase your chances of a healthy successful pregnancy, faster: lower your risk of a failed transfer and/or miscarriage, lower the risk of your future child being a carrier for a genetic condition
• Known family history: specific familial conditions or diseases you want to rule out for your offspring
• Carrier screening results: following you and your partner (or donor’s) carrier screening results, you may choose to pursue additional testing based on the outcome (for e.g. if you are both carriers of the same gene, etc).

Should a patient warrant specific genetic testing to intentionally bypass a known (or unknown) gene or condition, IVF is
a valuable path forward allowing more comprehensive genetic testing to take place prior to pregnancy.

The Value of PGT-A

PGT-A allows fertility specialists to identify a chromosomally balanced embryo for transfer with 98% certainty. Screening embryos prior to transfer can help achieve higher success rates and fewer pregnancy losses, particularly for women over 35 years old, patients with multiple failed IVF cycles, implantation failures, or repeated miscarriages.\

For women under 35, more of their embryos will be chromosomally normal (euploid). Nevertheless, there are some women who will opt for PGT-A because we know that it can improve implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates to >70%.

For women over 38, most of their embryos will be chromosomally abnormal due to age-related infertility, and so PGT-A can help reduce the time needed to successfully conceive by avoiding the transfer of an abnormal embryo.

The Value of PGT-M

PGT-M is a test offered to patients who have a high risk of transmitting a known single-gene defect to their child, such as Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, and cystic fibrosis.

The conversation around genetic testing is an important one to have with your patients on their path to parenthood. We are here to support you and would be happy to meet with your patients for a consult to discuss next steps, should IVF be considered on their journey.