The Laurence A. Jacobs M.D. Blog

As a member of the Medical Advisory Board at the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders, I am working to spread the word on the importance of being screened for Jewish genetic diseases, such as familial dysautonomia, Tay Sachs, cystic fibrosis, Gaucher disease, Canavan disease and Niemann-Pick disease.

Recent studies have shown that 1 in every 3.3 Ashkenazi Jews (descendants of Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany) carry at least one of 16 detectable diseases. Just within the last year our capabilities for screening have increased significantly from 16 to 19, and this number is up from 11 in 2009.

If you want to be sure that your next child will be the gender you need or desire, be aware that no other gender selection method comes close to the success or reliability of IVF with PGD (greater than 99.9%). Available sperm separation methods, such as Erickson (60-75% successful gender selection) or MicroSort sperm selection (65-85% success) cant come close to the PGD gender selection methods. Using IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for gender selection, male and female embryos are identified and only embryos of the desired sex are transferred to the uterus. At our Chicago area IVF clinics, this is the method of sex selection we recommend. Whether doing PGD gender selection for prevention of sex-linked genetic diseases or for ‘family balancing’, the embryos can also be screened by our genetics team for ‘aneuploidy’ (see above). The aneuploidy (abnormal chromosome count) screening process, employed at the time of PGD gender determination, allows for the detection of various genetic count abnormalities, such as Down's syndrome (one "extra" chromosome 21). Comparative Genomic Hybridization-CGH is also available to screen all 23 chromosome pairs for genetic abnormalities and determine gender at the same time. PGD for gender selection IVF pregnancy success rates are similar to regular in vitro fertilization success rates and sex selection rates approach 100%.