The Latest Edition to the Family

S.W. and her husband approached us as proud parents of two girls, both conceived through prior infertility treatment at another infertility center. After their second child was born, they had decided that their family was complete. Shortly before coming to us, they became aware, through the media, that there was a reliable technique available to choose gender.

In a first consultation, we explained to them that we, indeed, offered gender selection to some couples, in selected cases, utilizing Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). This technique allows us to determine the sex of each embryo created through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Once we know the gender of an embryo, we simply put only embryos of the desired gender into the uterus. Any subsequent pregnancy will then, of course, be of the desired sex.

CHR performs gender selection, however, only in accordance with ethics guidelines published by The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). These guidelines suggest that gender selection by PGD should not be performed, if it requires that IVF and PGD be done exclusively for that purpose. In other words, if there is another clinical reason to perform IVF, the procedure can be added, especially if performed for family balancing purposes.

In this case, all the conditions were met: The couple had two girls, now wanted a boy, and the female required IVF in order to conceive. The availability of a reliable method of gender selection changed this couple’s mind about the possibility of another pregnancy. Now that they could be fairly certain that a third pregnancy would, indeed, yield a boy, they decided to try and enlarge their family one more time.

We are very pleased to report that they succeeded. In February, a healthy boy was delivered.