Medical advances — such as genetic testing applied to reproductive medicine — offer helpful new techniques designed to improve your chances of having a healthy baby.
If in vitro fertilization (IVF) is used – where embryos are created by combining eggs and sperm in the lab – preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) can check for abnormal chromosomes or genes so that genetically unhealthy embryos are not transferred to the uterus, improving the likelihood of a healthy live birth.
All women at all ages have some eggs with chromosomal and genetic abnormalities and this increases with age. Some women may also have a medical history and other factors that increase their risk of specific chromosome or genetic abnormalities. This all reduces the chances of making an embryo that will enable a woman to get or stay pregnant with a healthy baby.
