Gender selection with IVF
As Dr. Elena Trukhacheva, president and medical director of the Chicago-based Reproductive Medicine Institute, explains, once embryos are created in vitro, they are sometimes screened in order to choose the healthiest ones to implant into the mother's womb. Called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), it's a complete chromosomal analysis of each embryo.
"The screening is in response to medical indications, such as multiple miscarriages or failed past IVF cycles, or advanced maternal age [over 35]," Trukhacheva says. "With a regular cycle, about 40 to 50 percent of implanted embryos will result in a healthy pregnancy. Using a screened embryo increases those chances to about 60 to 70 percent."
Trukhacheva says that if screening indicates that there are healthy embryos of both genders, about half of patients ask to choose the gender to implant. Trukhacheva doesn't have an ethical issue with gender selection at this stage, particularly because she has not seen a pattern of discrimination against one gender. "It's usually an issue of balance, that the couple has two boys and would like a girl, or vice versa."
