Age for PGD?

Hi Dr. Potter,

 I am currently 39 and pregnant with my 3rd son, which we are thrilled!  My husband and I are thinking about having one more and using the PGD method to have a girl.  I am set to deliver in March just 6 months before I turn 40.  How soon can we do the PGD and how long of a process is the procedure? Also, this baby will be my 3rd C-Section.  Hopefully I am not to old to have the procedure?

Thank You,

Christy 

I am currently 40 and on a rest down cycle prior to begininng IVF / PGD. I have a 4mth old. My dr decided that given this is my last shot (fertility is reducing but the big reduction is seen post 42) I should get going if I am ready, which I am oddly enough I just want to be done with the whole child bearing thing LOL. I think the big thing for you would be if you want to do microsort as you have to be 39, as a 40 year old I am not eligible as it currently stands. So if you are ready to go again when your youngest is about my baby's age then you could just get under the wire for Microsort. Otherwise you can do PGD when you are 40+ but you just need to be aware of the fertility clock and that the odds of success for the IVF / PGD are lower than someone of the same fertility history who is younger. I am not sure about the C-Section but I don't think it impacts the success of IVF and 3 CS is not a lot these days so unless your OB_GYN advises no more pregnancies for other reasons I would think you would be OK. Again not a Dr here but just thought I would reply as sometimes Dr. P does not get to everyone in time

Thanks for the response!  So did you start right after you had your baby?  What exactly is the difference between microsort and PGD?  We live in Atlanta so the closest place is going to be in New York for us.  Would you recommend we get our consult soon or wait until the baby comes?  We are just starting to read up on all of this, so sorry if i sound "DUMB".  You will have to keep me updated on your journey, I wish you all the best! Christy

No I did not. I just started with a consult about 2 weeks ago and now I am on rest down cycle prior to stimming and hopefully an egg retrieval in early november. Here is my stab at answering your questions. Microsort is where they take a speciman of sperm and then using a process they sort out the sperm for the desired gender. They give you a sort purity (if you ask) and then you can use the sorted sperm for either IUI which means that if you had a sort purity of 91% for a girl then you would expect for a 100 women who get pregnant with the IUI that 9 of them will have boys. So it is not a guarentee it is merely tipping the odds more in favor of a girl but you may get a boy. Then there is PGD which you take the sperm (which can be microsorted sperm or not) and then in a petri dish take an egg and sperm and fertilize. Then they biopsy the embryo (this is the PGD process) and can determine those embies that are girls and these are the ones that you choose to implant. So theorectically you have almost 100% chance that if they PGD and say it is a girl that you get a girl if you get pg. To add more chance of the fertilized embies being girls you can microsort the sperm and then this mainly girl sorted sperm is used to fertilize the egg, pgd to again verify gender and you can check for some chromosonal anomalies and the you implant the embryo using IVF. If you do PGD you must to IVF as this is the only way to get the embryo back inside :) I think the timing of consult for you depends on whether you are going to go straight into the process as soon as you can - which is probably about the same time as me when your baby is 4mths old or so. I would probably wait and see how you feel after this baby and whether you want to do microsort as that will mean you have to get going as soon as you can after the baby is born for the cut off. Hope that helps.

Thank you so much! Yes I could def understand better now.  I want to take as much time and gather information so we can make the right decision for our family.  Best of luck to you with everything.  Would love to stay updated.

Christy

Sensible approach! I will post updates as I get going. I am sure it will take several cycles for me at the minimum for IVF to work but my Dr seemed to think the fact that I have just had a baby is a good indicator of my fertility so we will see.

good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and your research

crazycrusty:

Hi Dr. Potter,

 I am currently 39 and pregnant with my 3rd son, which we are thrilled!  My husband and I are thinking about having one more and using the PGD method to have a girl.  I am set to deliver in March just 6 months before I turn 40.  How soon can we do the PGD and how long of a process is the procedure? Also, this baby will be my 3rd C-Section.  Hopefully I am not to old to have the procedure?

Thank You,

Christy