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Preconception Carrier Screening

Dallas IVF takes a proactive approach with preconception carrier screening

Our DFW fertility doctors believe knowledge is power, so they recommend preconception carrier screening to every couple who wants to start a family. This type of genetic screening can help hopeful parents determine if either partner carries a genetic disorder that could be passed to the couple’s children.

If one or more parent is a carrier of an inheritable genetic disorder, our DFW fertility doctors offer treatments that can help them avoid passing the disorder to their children.

Preconception carrier screening can determine if either parent carries a genetic disorder

All men and women who visit our DFW fertility doctors hope to have a healthy baby. It can be shocking when a baby with a genetic disorder is born to parents who appear to be healthy. In this situation, the parents are asymptomatic carriers.

Most genetic disorders are autosomal recessive, which means that if both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance their child will have the disorder and a 50% chance their child will be a carrier.

Because asymptomatic carriers do not show symptoms, preconception carrier screening is necessary to determine whether either parent carries an inheritable disorder that could be passed to their future children. Without testing, parents may have no idea that they are at-risk of passing a devastating genetic disorder to their children.

A look at the process of preconception carrier screening

Our DFW fertility specialists recommend that all hopeful parents receive preconception carrier screening before trying to conceive. Each patient only needs to provide a blood sample, which will be screened for all indicated autosomal recessive disorders.

If testing indicates that hopeful parents carry an abnormal gene, they can still have a healthy baby with help from in vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Between the steps of fertilization in the IVF lab and embryo transfer, our reference genetics lab combines a genetic probe with a few cells from the embryos. This allows the laboratory to determine which embryos are healthy, which are affected by the genetic disorder and which embryos are carriers.

Our DFW fertility doctors will only transfer embryos that are healthy to ensure that hopeful parents have the best chance of developing a successful pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby.

Contact us to schedule an appointment and learn more about preconception carrier screening.