Introduction - my first post!

hi everyone - i have been lurking for a bit and decided i would say hello!

I was married about two months ago and DH and i are starting to think about having children. i have a rare disease that is a sex-linked disease that we don't want to pass on to our children. so, we're thinking about doing PGD (pre genetic testing) along with IVF.

i have my first appointment with Dr. Hershlag at the end of the month

i had a few questions though - the IVF meds - how long do you take them before they can retrieve some eggs?

i am so glad i found this board - it's nice to have people to talk to about such important issues!

Re: Introduction - my first post!

You probably take them about 3 weeks before the eggs are retrieved. You usually start off with another 3 weeks of birth control pills.

I did PGD on my first IVF cycle and totally regret it. Even though my embryos looked beautiful, PGD found only one normal. The cycle resulted in a BFN. For my second IVF, I am going to not do PGD (my husband is a carrier for a translocation) and instead do a CVS at 10 weeks. I will reduce if any embryos are abnormal at that point. The reason for doing this is that PGD has a tendency to identify embryos as abnormal even though they might result in healthy babies. There is evidence that the embryo discards the abnormal cell and autocorrects itself. However, once you do PGD and they find an abnormality, you have to discard it.

So at this point I rather put all of my eggs (no pun intended) in getting pregnant and then hope the abnormal embryos miscarry naturally. Then confirm at the end of the first trimester that the embryos that I am carrying are genetically normal. The pain of doing it my way is the uncertainty of not knowing whether I am carrying potential healthy babies and/or the pain of having to go through selective reduction. At this point, I prefer to go through that torment over doing IVF again and ending up with no or few embryos to transfer.

Re: Introduction - my first post!

thank you for the information - that is so interesting and i never thought about that! i am going to talk to Dr. Hershalg about all of this at the end of July - the only problem with the disease that i carry is that it won't ever auto correct itself and the abnormal embryos won't discard naturally. both my brother and myself have this disease so i was thinking about doing PGD so i could ensure that my children don't have it.

what you said is very interesting though - thank you for your help!

Re: Introduction - my first post!

Best of luck to you with your upcoming cycle!

Re: Introduction - my first post!

Good Luck!!!

Re: Introduction - my first post!

thank you!! i am really excited and am keeping my fingers crossed!!