Preimplantational diagnosis, method to detect diseased embryos

More than 3 million Spaniards and 29 million Europeans suffer from one of the nearly 8,000 rare diseases that exist. Currently, it is possible to prevent the transmission of many of these diseases, which are characterized by being degenerative and life-threatening, sometimes at an early age.

Preimplantational Diagnosis

Preimplantational diagnosis (PGD) is a technique that provides an answer to those who suffer from hereditary diseases and who fear having sick children because of the high probability of transmission. One example is Huntington’s chorea, a progressive degenerative disease caused by the alteration of chromosome 4 of the DNA, and whose symptoms usually appear towards the middle of life. In this case, the descendants of the affected person have a 50% chance of suffering from the disease.

In Assisted Reproduction, techniques such as PGD can detect embryos affected by the disease, so that only healthy embryos are transferred to the mother.

Spontaneous miscarriages

The PGD technique, a method applied in one of the few centers nationwide, Zygos, is also effective in cases of “repeat” miscarriages. This situation occurs when the woman has suffered two or more miscarriages, the reasons for which are unknown, or if it is known that one of the parents has an altered karyotype. This is a distressing situation since the woman achieves gestation, but is aware of the possibility of losing the pregnancy.

PGD to ensure pregnancy

There are couples who have some healthy children and several miscarriages. In these cases, PGD should also be advised. There is a great variety of family situations in which this technique solves sterility problems or miscarriages, such as those in which the woman has managed to have a first healthy child, but later suffers miscarriages. It may be that a first child is had by natural methods, but in the second child there are difficulties to conceive.

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