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Hi Dr. Smith,
Do you have any thoughts on using comparative genomic hybridization for pgd?
If frozen blastocysts have undergone cgh analysis twice (using polar body and then later a blastomere) and were found to be normal, would you hypothesize a success rate higher or the same as the standard 25-35% per frozen blastocyst?
Thank you!
T.
P.S. Another theoretical question, but am interested in your opinion: What purpose in the grand scheme of things do you think it might serve that human beings are so inefficient at reproduction (i.e. high rate of aneuploidy compared to other species)?
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Dr. Smith,
Thanks for your reply. I guess a natural and somewhat logical conclusion could be that pgd using cgh could potentially be better at screening abnormal/aneuploid embryos and producing healthy pregnancies since ALL of the chromosomes can be evaluated, vs. 8 or 9 ( if I remember correctly) using the FISH method. But, I realize that we really can't make that statement with confidence if it hasn't been proven scientifically. This is a hypothetical question; and even with my limited knowledge I realize that any technical method has its limitations. What do you think, hypothetically?
Related to the question I asked about human reproductive efficiency, at what age does fertility begin to decline, in general? If it's 10 years after puberty, that could be in a woman's early 20's! Pair that with recent studies that found that maternal age at time of birth greater than 30 was associated with much better outcomes for the children. I guess this is the whole dilemma that the infertility industry is based on.
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
TS
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I agree that, [i]theoretically[/i], embryos deemed "normal" by PGD/CGH should result in more term pregnancies (i.e. fewer first trimester loses).
PGD studies suggest that by the time a women is in her mid twenties, approximately half of her eggs are genetically abnormal. From a biological point of view, the game's half over by that point.
I'm not familiar with the study you mentionioned regarding pregnancy outcome for women in the thirties, but obstetrics is out of my area of expertise.
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