Hellobee Boards

@cityliving: hi there and welcome husband and I are currently going through PGD / IVF for the exact same reasons. my mother is currently in the advanced stage of a terminal disease that is dominant and we [her children] have a 50/50 chance of having. none of my siblings nor myself have been tested nor do we want to be. before husband and I began our baby journey we knew we wanted a healthy baby free from my mothers heinous illness. having a healthy baby would stop the disease from his/her lifeline forever. so yes, we have chosen to do PGD [Pre implantation Genetics Diagnoses] / IVF. I just finished my IVF meds and tomorrow is my egg retrieval. Pls feel free to ask me any questions. I went into it pretty blind and I am more than willing to assist in any/all ways I can!

good luck @filly and @jenn23.

just curious - so are you guys testing the egg/sperm to make sure they're not carrying the disease before you implant them?

@filly: Yay! Good luck at retrieval tomorrow! Your babies will be well traveled so early in life Will you get the embryos back quickly, or do you have to do an FET with them later?

@cityliving: our experience with ivf is pretty much the same as tequiero. I don't know much about the genetics side of it, but fire away with any IVF questions! The more you know, the more comfortable you usually are with it all Good luck, whatever you decide!

Good luck, Cityliving... and welcome to Hellobee!!!

@cityliving: started taking prenatals before the whole ivf procedure.... best to get your folic acid built up.

i did have an allergic reaction to the medrol - some antibiotics or something you have to take for a week or so after the transfer. just hives near my buttocks haha. i'm assuming it was the medrol because once we stopped taking that, hives were gone.

the menopur (sp?) or bravelle stung, but it's manageable.

I find this all fascinating. We just found out my nephew and probably my brother have a genetic condition. I had a miscarriage in Nov, so I'm concerned they could be related. My gyn referred me to a genetic counseler, but some people have told me I'm nuts to go, one miscarriage was just a fluke, etc etc. I have been stressed since finding this out so I don't know what I will do.

Bumping a really old post, hoping for some more responses/input!

We're waiting for the results of our genetic testing still. Mine are back, but DH's aren't yet. We're trying to see up a call to discuss the results but I'm thinking about some things in the meantime.

@tequiero21: Not yet. This cycle will be our first IUI though. My RE sent us both for genetic testing. I have a call for my results tomorrow so I don't know if that'll have any effect on things?

We ended up having to do IVF w/PGD. Currently 17.5 weeks pregnant as a result!
@LindsayInNY: When you say "genetic testing" are they karyotyping for chromosomal abnormalities?

I feel like I have typed my story so many times everyone probably already knows it and is sick of it But if there's anything specific you want to know, hit me up

@SweetiePie: @LindsayInNY: Just to chime in, as far as fertility goes, I've heard of 2 types of genetic testing. The "standard" one is where you get checked for being a carrier of various things: CF, Tay Sachs, etc.

Karyotyping is way less standard (I only had it done after 2 m/cs) and it checks that you have normal pairs of genes, ie. no translocations (genes stuck together). Just an example (not that this would ever happen), but if for some reason someone didn't know they had Downs, karyotyping would show that they had an extra copy of a gene. I didn't get any information about carrier status when doing it either, just that everything was fine.

Hope all is well in your results @LindsayInNY!

@LindsayInNY: @Mrs.Someone: @spaniellove: Yes that's what I was trying to get at. We went straight to actual karyotyping because after my 2nd miscarriage the fetal tissue came back with a somewhat rare abnormality (partial trisomy 18...it's the partial part that threw a red flag).
So, we got karyotyping done and sure enough I have a balanced translocation between chromosomes 18 and 20. Basically a part of those two are switched with each other. Since it's balanced in me it doesn't present any issues. But when our eggs are formed they only take on half of our chromosomes (I'm obviously majorly simplifying here, I'm not a doc!) so there's some chance (not sure how they calculate) that the "bad" chromosomes get passed on. For me, the chance is greater for bad than good. Basically 80-90%. Again, not sure how they calculated but that's what they gave me. And Trisomy 18 and 20 are very serious, usually fatal or severe disability. Most don't make it to birth and the ones that do usually only live a few days unless on major life support.
So our best recourse was IVF with PGD. We started the process in September, started stims around thanksgiving, retreival early December. 13 retrieved, 10 fertilized, 8 survived the biopsy for PGD on day 5 and were frozen. Of the 8 biopsied, only 1 was normal. Remember that even without my own issues, every woman is going to produce some bad eggs "de novo".
So on Jan 8th we transferred our 1 good embryo and now I'm 18 weeks tomorrow He's healthy so far, all tests have been passed (NT, Verifi, sequentials, etc) and already moving around a lot so that I can feel him.

Anyway, that's my story. I should save this so that next time I post about it i can copy and paste. Haha.

@LindsayInNY: Curious what condition you're talking about? Feel free to ignore the question if you don't want to share!

@Mrs.Someone: I might end up deleting this later but I'm a carrier for ((deleted)). The 1 out of 190 things that came back from my testing. And I'm as Roman Catholic as they come (all of my family too). I'm also from various European backgrounds so maybe that's it? DH is almost half French Canadian which is another likely carrier so I'm really hoping he isn't...

@Torchwood: I saw part of your story when I was on vacation but didn't get to read it in its entirety... I hope everything is okay for you and LO though.

@LindsayInNY: Based on your description, thats what I thought. Its nothing to be ashamed of! Given your backgrounds its highly unlikely that will be a problem for you, but its much better to know now.

As for where it came from, tons of people have unknown pieces of Jewish ancestry. This doesn't mean you do, but given that we have a very persecuted history, lots of people converted for safety reasons over the decades, especially around WWII. (let me know if you want me to delete this for your privacy)

@Mrs.Someone: I deleted the actual term but don't mind discussing things otherwise I don't want to jump to conclusions but, yet I am, and worry about what we'll do if DH is a carrier too... I hope it's not a path we have to go down though.

@Shutterbug: I never would've even suggested they test it which is why it's so random! We're waiting for DH's results now to see if it's an issue. And proceeding with medicated IUI this cycle too. I didn't really think about what genetic testing would entail because, in a way, you're kinda playing God. I'm glad it's something science has developed though, in an interesting way.

@Mrs.Someone: I think it's the 1 in 4 odd that's are tough... Meaning, there's a 3 out of 4 chance that a LO would be completely fine. But if we take that chance and LO is that 1, then what... Those are options I'm hoping we don't have to ever discuss. I hope (as always) that I'm just preparing for the worst.

@Mrs.Someone: Oh really? I found these odds online: "ANYONE can be a carrier. The carrier rate for the general population is 1/250. Some evidence suggests people of Irish / British Isle descent have an increased risk over the general population between 1/50 to 1/150. French Canadians, Louisiana Cajuns and Ashkenazi Jews are all considered high risk with a carrier rate of 1/27." DH is French Canadian, just don't know how much...