There was a time when having kids was just about having kids. But as science has progressed, it has shown us that we can choose and be wiser about our family planning as well. Because bringing a new life on the planet is a matter of great responsibility and it shouldn’t feel like a shot in the dark. It should be planned, thought over and taken care of. It should align with the healthy future and vision of the family as well as protect the child from any foreseeable medical issues.
Myra IVF’s visionary,Dr. Sarita Sukhija, says, “Parenthood is all about planning. It’s not about going with the flow, or settling with whatever you’re given. It’s about making choices and being more active than passive, and ensuring that you do whatever you can for the better future of your offspring.”
One of the most crucial scientific procedures in the journey of parenthood is that of ‘Family balancing’ which can be done by those who have opted for IVF. Pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) is a technology used in family balancing which tests and analyses the chromosomal makeup of an embryo. It has an accuracy of 100% so if you conceive and embrace pregnancy safely, you can be confident about your child planning.
There are several benefits to this process. First and most importantly, it can help prevent chromosomal problems and genetic diseases which can be identified in primitive stages of the Family Balancing process. Secondly, sometimes, one gender is more prone to a certain kind of genetic disease. In such a scenario, proper planning can ensure that the offspring who’s being chosen is the healthiest one. One such example of the same are haemophilia and muscular dystrophy which only affects male kids, and are often passed down from the mother.
Having family balancing done that can help you assess the possibility of passing down any such disease can help you make wiser decisions. Likewise, sometimes one gender exhibits the growth of disorders like autism more than the other. Sometimes, in many cases, where families have lost a child, family balancing is preferred to having another child of the same sex. Doing this helps them cope with their grief as well. In a lot of scenarios where a family already has one child of a particular sex, they want to have a balanced family by opting for another one. It gives a chance to bring to life a child with less represented gender in their family. Likewise, if a parent only wants to have one child, they might want to plan it better. All in all, family balancing offers a wide range of benefits to assess your family and plan your and your offspring’s life better.
However, the process of family balancing starts with the IVF cycle itself. The first step is to obtain multiple healthy embryos by the fusion of ovum by the female partner and sperm by the male. The embryos are then analysed and studied to assess their chromosomal structure and at the same time, it also establishes the sex of the embryo. This process is PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis) which provides the medical specialists with enough information about the genetic makeup and gender.
The process of PGD begins by taking a small portion of tissue from the embryo and it tests and retrieves data of the 24 chromosomes with high accuracy rate. Based on the results, the medical specialists guide the potential parents through the journey of Family Balancing. Once the healthiest and preferred embryo is opted, it’s transferred into the woman’s uterus, marking the beginning of her pregnancy. While the remaining embryos can be frozen for the future.
Dr. Sarita Sukhija from Myra IVF highlights, “The family balancing process is a fairly simple procedure and happens in sync with IVF itself. People don’t realise it, but so many disorders can be averted once they opt for this process. When to-be parents embark on their IVF journey with me, they do have a lot of apprehensions about the health of their offspring. And in such a scenario, I do recommend them to get the genetic makeup tested. Science has evolved so much to not only let you have a child, but a healthy child. And a healthy life is the best legacy you can pass on to your kids.”
Truly, science has gifted us with innovations to plan our lives better and to enable us to make more conscious and healthy choices.
