PGD for Gender Diagnosis

PGD is a technique that can be used to diagnose specific chromosome or genetic conditions in embryos before they are transferred to the mother. As gender is a function of chromosomes it can be also diagnosed. So PGD just tell us what if the condition is present or not. As its name indicates it is a diagnostic tool. On the other hand, “gender pre-selection” is a procedure in which the proportion of sperm bearing X or Y chromosomes may be modified to change the ratio or probability of having a baby of the desired gender.

Many conditions non related to infertility per-se can be alleviated by PGD. Severe chromosomal problems (such as translocations) may result in repetitive miscarriages or cases of aneuploidy (abnormal number of chromosomes) may lead to severe malformations that affect the quality of life. With the use of PGD these problems may be diminished. In other cases, the spread of often lethal genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia can be prevented by eliminating the affected embryos before they are transferred to the uterus. Sometimes a couple may wish to select the gender of their child using gender selection. Gender selection can also be critically important in preventing the spread of genetic diseases such as hemophilia.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the only proven effective (virtually 100%) method to diagnose a child’s gender. PGD is performed on embryos on day 3 of their development in an in vitro fertilization cycle. PGD is done by making small hole in the shell protecting the embryo. An embryonic cell (blastomere) is withdrawn for examination using FISH for chromosomal analysis or PCR for single gene defects. The procedure does not damage the embryo or interferes with its development. If a female child is desired, only embryos determined to be XX will be transferred to the uterus and if a male is desired the embryo with the XY chromosome structure will be transferred.

Gender Pre-selection Methods. Currently there is only one single method to enrich sperm fractions that contain more of the X (female) or Y (male) chromosomes. The method is called Sperm-Sort. It is only conducted in the US but the service may be offered at our clinic. In our experience this method (Sperm Sort) can be carried out only with ICSI as the sperm samples come back with a very low number of sperm. Currently there is a 75-80% efficiency to enrich a fraction with “male sperm” while it is more effective for “female sperm”. There is one more method to separate X-chromosome -bearing sperm from Y-chromosome bearing sperm. It is called the “Ericksson method” and it is based on using sperm centrifugation to separate sperm. The only reason we discuss it here is to advise you to stay away from it as it has been from its inception just a scam.