Embryo Screening

When you undergo assisted reproduction, preimplantation screening ensures the embryos are healthy and have the best chance of developing. Jie Deng, MD, PhD, HCLD, FACOG, and her colleagues at Think Fertility in Bellevue, Washington, offer embryo screening to all women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). With their advanced genetic testing, you can be confident your embryos are strong and healthy. Call Think Fertility to learn more about benefitting from embryo screening, or schedule a consultation online today.

What is embryo screening?

Embryo screening is a procedure used before the implantation stage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to identify which embryos are most likely to develop into healthy fetuses.

IVF takes healthy eggs and sperm and combines them in the lab to produce several embryos. Healthy embryos can be implanted into the woman’s uterus, from where pregnancy progresses as with natural conception.

Think Fertility uses preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) to improve your chance of successful implantation and bearing a healthy baby. Benefits of embryo screening include:

• Increased pregnancy rates per embryo transfer
• Reduced miscarriage rate
• Lower risk of multi-pregnancy and accompanying prenatal complications
• Avoiding babies inheriting genetic conditions

Embryo screening identifies genetic conditions like aneuploidy (abnormal number of chromosomes) and specific single-gene disorders such as muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and thalassemia. It can also assess embryos for abnormal chromosome structures that could cause recurrent miscarriages.

Who should undergo embryo screening?

Embryo screening is advisable if you‘re over 35, have had multiple failed IVF cycles, have experienced recurrent pregnancy loss, or if you or your partner has chromosome abnormalities. You can also use embryo screening to choose the baby’s sex to balance your family.

A woman’s age significantly affects the odds of embryos being competent enough to establish a pregnancy. The chance of an embryo having aneuploidy, resulting in either no pregnancy or pregnancy loss following the transfer, is:

• 20% at age 30
• 40% at age 35
• 70% at age 40
• Over 90% at age 45

To avoid embryo transfers that can’t succeed and pregnancy loss after IVF implantation, Think Fertility’s embryologists take several cells from each embryo on the fifth or sixth day after they establish. The cells undergo an evaluation to determine the embryo’s genetic makeup and identify potential problems.

Is embryo screening safe?

Embryologists only extract 5-6 cells for PGT embryo screening, so it’s considered very safe. The cells taken for testing during PGT will develop into the placenta that nourishes your baby — no damage occurs to the inner cell mass that develops into a fetus.

However, as with any medical procedure, there’s a minimal chance that cell removal could damage the embryo. Think Fertility’s embryologists have extensive experience and world-class skills, so the possibility of embryo damage from PGT is under 1%.

Call Think Fertility to request more information on embryo screening or book an appointment online today.