What is the future of PGD? What is yet to come?
PGD is rapidly advancing with improvements in accuracy and availability. More and more genetic disorders will be able to be diagnosed. New techniques are being developed that will allow all the chromosomes from the embryos to be checked, improving the success rates of IVF. PGD is an exciting technology that offers couples at risk an alternative to pregnancy termination of an affected fetus. PGD of aneuploidy has the potential to decrease miscarriage rates and possibly increase implantation rates. Further studies are required to demonstrate whether or not patients with repeat IVF failures, recurrent pregnancy loss, and advanced maternal age could benefit from routine application of PGD. Finally, PGD offers the promise to become an important tool in clinical IVF to select for transfer a single embryo with the greatest potential for implantation, thereby maximizing pregnancy outcomes and at the same time reducing the risk of multiple births.
