An Michiels

ESHRE PGD Consortium data collection VI: cycles from January to December 2003 with pregnancy follow-up to October 2004

The sixth report of the ESHRE PGD Consortium is presented, relating to cycles collected for the calendar year 2003 and follow-up of the pregnancies and babies born up to October 2004. Since the beginning of the data collections, there has been a steady rise in the number of cycles, pregnancies and babies reported. For this report, 50 centres participated, reporting on 2984 cycles, 501 pregnancies and 373 babies born. Five hundred and twenty-nine cycles were reported for chromosomal abnormalities, 516 cycles were reported for monogenic diseases, 137 cycles were reported for sexing for X-linked diseases, 1722 cycles were reported for preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and 80 cycles were reported for social sexing. Data VI is compared to the cumulative data for data collections I-V.

A proposal for reproductive counselling in carriers of Robertsonian translocations: 10 years of experience with preimplantation genetic diagnosis

BACKGROUND Carriers of Robertsonian translocations are at increased risk for infertility, repeated miscarriage and aneuploid offspring. In the present study, 10 years of experience with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for Robertsonian translocations is reviewed and these data are used to improve the reproductive counselling in the carriers. METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed of all requests and cycles for PGD for Robertsonian translocations at our centre between January 1997 and December 2006. Data on the characteristics of the couples and on the PGD cycles were retrieved from the medical records. These data were recorded for the whole group and according to the sex of the carrier. RESULTS A total of 111 couples made a request for PGD in our centre, of which 76 had at least one PGD cycle. In the PGD cycles embryo transfer could take place in 66.1% of the cycles with oocyte pick-up and positive hCG was found in 42.7% of the cycles with embryo transfer. The live born delivery rate was 20.2% per cycle with oocyte retrieval and 30.5% per cycle with embryo transfer. CONCLUSIONS With a live birth delivery rate of 32.9% per couple, PGD is considered a good option for these couples, especially when there is a coexisting fertility problem. PGD reduces the risk of miscarriage and allows couples to have a healthy child within a relatively short time span compared with spontaneous pregnancies. However, for young, fertile couples, the chances of having a healthy child after a number of spontaneous pregnancies, should not be ignored.