PGS & PGD both can be new terms to hear for the common man like us but these are quite important and advanced tests done to prevent the babies to inherit the particular disease from the parents.
PGD means the pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and PGS means pre- implantation genetic screen, these both tests are done on the embryos during the last step of IVF treatment procedure to lower down the risk of inheriting any genetic disease from the parents. During these tests, embryo biopsy has been done.
What is Embryo Biopsy or PGD?
PGD test allows the doctors to know about the quality of embryo at the chromosomal and genetic level. This test is generally performed for the parents who are at higher risk of inheritable genetic disease so to prevent their baby from this genetic disease this embryo screening has been done. With this test, parents could know that which embryo carry the genetic disease and which is not so they can select the best quality embryo without genetic disease for implantation.
During this testing single cell taken from the 8, cell stage embryo has been removed and sent for testing to make sure the implantation of embryo free from disease.
Why it is beneficial?
This testing is beneficial for the parents with genetic diseases as this test ensures that embryo that has been implanted in the mother womb is of the best quality and without any genetic disease.
In the past days, doctors could have only the microscopic view of the embryo and on that basis, they used to judge the quality of embryo and choose the healthy one for transfer. But the method of testing the quality of seeing the appearance of the embryo was not correct and reliable but this screening is quite reliable and can ensure the implantation of an embryo that does not carry chromosomal abnormalities. So this is the best advantage of this testing that even the parents with a genetic disease could have the baby without genetic abnormalities. This testing has the following benefits
- This testing can be performed for testing more than 100 genetic conditions
- As this testing is done before implantation so the parents could take the decision accordingly to choose the pregnancy to go ahead or not if there has been seen any abnormality in the embryo.
- This testing reduces the risk of passing one genetic disease from the parents to their biological offspring
What is PGS?
Pre -implantation genetic screening is the procedure used to denote the procedures that do not look for the specific diseases means this testing is done to identify the embryos that have chromosomal abnormalities due to which IVF failure or miscarriage can occur.
Thus these both tests PGS and PGD are the testing techniques of embryo cells and these both are done to detect the genetic irregularities so are very beneficial for the intended parents as due to these tests parents can have a baby without genetic diseases or any other abnormalities. These tests can improve IVF success rates.