Are IVF/PGD babies/kids healthy?

Hi all! One of the reasons why I'm hesitant towards HT is because of the "tampering" with the embryos - there already is tampering with regular IVF, but extra tampering with PGD. I actually saw a TV piece on HT recently and they say they remove a cell from the embryos to analyse it when they're 8 cells large. Now that's 1/8th of the embryo that is never "returned"? Won't that affect the child later on, to have had a cell removed at such an early, crucial stage in development? Do they put the cell back in? I guess that's the more scientific part which I don't quite grasp! To those who have been thru the procedure: 1) Did your doctors explain that part to you - were you reassured? and 2) Are your IVF/PGD babies/kids healthy today? Sorry, I guess that just makes me a bit nervous and I'm one who wants to understand everything! ;-)

Both of mine are healthy:)..the way it was explained to me is that an embryo that early in development is able to recover the lost cell or 2..I did do icsi because that was my clinics standard for ivf and it was explained to me that using icsi there may be a very small,minute chance of an increase in certain types of defects(the percent was so low i didn't really think it was worth worrying about)..both of my twins were born healthy-violet was 7 lbs 2 oz and Wyatt was 7 lbs even and they're now 6 months old and honestly,they're more advanced than some "normally" conceived babies I see.I too worried about that missing cell but truly it hasn't made a difference.the only issue I have with either one is that my daughter has a wicked case of acid reflux but that could be any baby..

The studies I've seen on IVF babies seem to indicate they are 'generally' as healthy as naturally-conceived children.  I have seen one big article published in the last few months that indicates a somewhat higher rate of birth defects (like a few percentage points).  However, it is not yet known if that is linked to IVF treatments, or something to do with the patients' underlying infertility issues, or something else.

But that's on IVF in general.  I don't recall any issues known with PGD specifically.

In our case, we also used MS, and the oldest MS children were only ~12 at the time, so I had to exercise a little judgement and faith on that decision.

So we have 2 IVF/MS/PGD children, they are just over two years old, and they are both healthy and normal to date.  Their physical development has been very average, and cognitively, I'd say one is average and one is above average.  

I do reserve a small risk of 'unknowns' possible in the future due to the technologies we used, but overall I feel secure and comfortable that our kids will be just fine.  I wouldn't have proceeded otherwise.

BTW, when I was pregnant, my OB did tell me that ICSI babies had a higher chance of heart defects (like 3-4% higher), so I was tested for that, but in our case the girls were 100% healthy.

HTH,

GZ

Absolutely, my beautiful IVF/PGD daughter is perfect.  And, although she is not quite two yet, she is super smart...full sentences and great communication, etc.  Physically she is strong, healthy, and growing.  So, although there is never a guarantee with babies, I don't have a concern there at all.  Also, one thing that my Dr. mentioned a long time ago that might help you with the "science" is that when these cells are removed, they are continuing to multiple at such a fast rate and there is enough "potential" in the cells if you will to advance into a perfect healthy baby...and, in some cases, they even split and there is enough for two beautiful babies...in the case of identical twins...remember, that is when the cell splits to make two babies!  Anyway, that helped me to understand what all these cells are capable of!  Good luck!

My DD is absolutely perfect and nothing in my pregnancy (post 12 weeks), birth or development has been any different to my boys. As hoping said above, at that stage every cell in an embryo has the ability to go on and become a baby. You are not removing part of the baby as it will be one of the cells that remains that becomes the baby. At this stage and later an embryo can split creating indentical twins, triplets etc so nature has it's own way of doing something similar.

Thanx so much for the reassurance ladies. I'm glad your kids are healthy - after a long journey with HT you deserve it! Can anyone remind me what ICSI is and why that could be an issue tho?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intracytoplasmic_sperm_injection Intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

The one thing that made me comfortable with PGD is natural twinning. An embryo, which starts out like all other embryos, for some unknown reason just splits into 2 on day 5-7 after fertilization. Half the cells are removed, and it results in two healthy identical twins! After that, removing just one cell for biopsy does not seem like a bid deal