Trying to Conceive

What You Need to Know About TTC in Your 20s

If you’re in your 20s and are trying to conceive, chances are good that you’ll be able to get pregnant naturally. Women who are between the ages of 20 and 29 are considered to be at peak fertility. Women are born with all the eggs they will ovulate throughout their fertile years, and younger women typically have a plentiful and healthy egg supply. If you are TTC in your 20s, you have about a 33 percent chance of getting pregnant each month.

Our providers offer the following advice for young women who are ready to become mothers:

Seek pre-conception counseling. If you’re ready to go off of birth control to TTC in your 20s, it’s always a smart move to schedule a visit with your OBGYN to make sure your body is ready to proceed. Your physician will review your medical history, advise you of any risks you need to be aware of, and inform you about any lifestyle changes you may need to make to help you become pregnant and have a healthy baby.

Start taking prenatal vitamins. These special vitamins contain important nutrients to support fetal development and reduce the risk of certain birth defects. It’s wise to begin taking these vitamins at least a month before you start TTC in your 20s.

Get to know your cycle. One key to getting pregnant is to know when you ovulate. Ovulation predictor kits can be purchased at any drugstore. With regular use, you can find out which day of your menstrual cycle you are likely to ovulate, so you can make sure to have intercourse a day or two before.

Give it time. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of TTC, but it’s also important to be patient. It’s normal to see a few negative pregnancy tests along the way. In fact, it may take up to a year for a fertile woman in her 20s to get pregnant with regular, well-timed sex.

Find out if you need genetic testing. If genetic conditions run in your or your partner’s family, it’s very important to see a fertility specialist at Northeastern Reproductive Medicine before you start trying to conceive. We can assess your risk of passing on an inherited disease to your child, and have treatment options to reduce or eliminate the risk to your future children.

Get help if you need it. While infertility in younger women is rare, not all 20-somethings find that the path to parenthood is easy. If you don’t see a positive pregnancy test after 12 months of TTC, it’s time to see a fertility specialist. Women younger than 30 have about an 85% chance of getting pregnant within a year, but if you find yourself in the “other 15%” group, don’t wait to reach out for testing and support.

Fertility Testing When You’re TTC in Your 20s

If you need a little help getting pregnant in your 20s, we are here for you. When you schedule a fertility consultation with our experienced reproductive endocrinologists, we begin by taking a thorough medical history of you and your partner, including your experiences while TTC in your 20s.

Next, we will order a complete fertility evaluation for both partners, which will help to pinpoint any potential issues that could be interfering with your ability to conceive naturally.

A variety of tests may be recommended, depending on your situation, potentially including:

• Blood work to check hormone levels and ovarian reserve, or egg supply

• Pelvic ultrasound checking for any physical issues with the reproductive organs

• Semen analysis to evaluate the male partner’s semen volume, sperm count and concentration, motility (sperm movement), morphology (sperm shape), and other factors

• Sonohysterogram (SHG), a special test to check the fallopian tubes and uterine cavity

• Genetic carrier screening to evaluate your risk for passing on genetic disorders to future children

Depending on the results of these fertility tests, our team will create a personal treatment plan to help you achieve your family-building goals.

If You Need Help With TTC in Your 20s, Contact Our Experts

If you find yourself struggling to conceive in your 20s, try not to worry. The good news is that with the right treatment, your chances of having a baby are still high. Our experienced New England fertility doctors are happy to offer advice if you are TTC in your 20s, and stand ready to assist you with achieving pregnancy if you need us.

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Fertility Testing Is the Key When TTC in Your 30s

If you’re in your early 30s and trying to conceive (TTC), you have about a 75% chance of getting pregnant within a year. Once you turn 35, those odds drop to 66%, and by the time you hit 40, to 44%. That’s because women who are TTC in their 30s normally experience a drop in egg quality and quantity. Thankfully, our providers offer many testing and treatment options to help you create the family you dream of at any age.

If you’re in your 30s and trying to get pregnant, here are some things you can do to increase your chances:

Get a preconception health check. Your OBGYN can offer valuable advice about how to prepare your body for pregnancy, including baseline tests and recommendations for supplements and lifestyle changes that may be right for you.

Track your ovulation. You can find ovulation predictor kits at any drugstore, and they can help you determine how to time intercourse to give you the best chance of conception. They can also help you find out if you have irregular cycles, which might indicate an issue with ovulation that means you need to see a fertility specialist.

Take care of your body and mind. When TTC in your 30s, it’s important to eat healthy, lose weight if you need to, avoid alcohol and tobacco, take prenatal vitamins, and get plenty of sleep. If you have any medical conditions, such as diabetes, see a specialist to get them under control. While it’s exciting to try to conceive, and negative pregnancy tests are normal, the process can be stressful, so be sure to take care of your mental health as well.

Give it six months. If you’ve been TTC in your 30s for six months without success, make an appointment for an evaluation with our New England fertility physicians. This is especially important if you are older than 35, as egg quality and quantity typically rapidly decline around this age.

Fertility Testing When You Are TTC in Your 30s

For women and couples who are trying to conceive between the ages of 30 and 39, fertility testing provides valuable information about your egg and sperm supply, as well as about your body’s capabilities for supporting conception and pregnancy.

When you are TTC in your 30s and come to your first visit with our providers, be prepared to provide detailed information about your and your partner’s medical history. You can also expect our doctors to order fertility tests for both partners at this first visit.

For the male partner, we will order a semen analysis, which measures the following important factors related to sperm health:

• Volume of semen

• Sperm count

• Concentration of sperm in the ejaculate

• Sperm motility, or movement

• Sperm morphology, or shape

For the female partner, we will order the following of these several tests to evaluate overall reproductive health:

• Blood tests to evaluate hormone levels related to ovulation and pregnancy

• Pelvic ultrasound exam to evaluate the reproductive organs and ovarian reserve

• Sonohysterogram (SHG), a special test to check that the fallopian tubes are open, along with checking the uterine cavity.

• Genetic carrier screening for both partners, which can assess the risk of genetic disorders that could affect your future children

Once your test results are in, our team will share them with you and create a personalized plan to get you on the quickest path to pregnancy.

Don’t Wait to Get Answers

If you’re TTC in your 30s and are struggling to conceive, schedule a visit with our New England fertility physicians for a complete fertility workup. The longer you wait, the harder it may be to get pregnant, with or without fertility treatment.

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Yes, You Can: TTC in Your 40s and Beyond

For some women, the best time for motherhood comes later in life. While women’s fertility declines as they grow older, it’s still possible to get pregnant at 40 or older – you just may need a little bit of expert help while you’re trying to conceive. Today’s advanced fertility treatments make it possible for women of any age to have a baby. If you’re TTC in your 40s and beyond, our infertility specialists offer options to help you create the family of your dreams.

For women 40 or beyond who are trying to conceive, you have about a 44% chance of conceiving if you try for a year. The challenge often comes from a low supply of good-quality eggs. Because women are born with all the eggs they will ovulate each month over their lifetimes, by the time they reach 40, their egg supply is likely running low. Egg quality also declines through the years, making it harder to conceive a baby and potentially creating genetic problems in a developing fetus. This is why you may hear the term “advanced maternal age” mentioned as a common cause of infertility in women.

The good news is, a mature or menopausal woman’s body is just as capable of carrying a pregnancy as a younger woman’s, and age-related fertility challenges can often be overcome with the right fertility treatments.

Fertility Treatments for TTC in Your 40s and Beyond

If you are TTC in your 40s and beyond, you may not need fertility treatment to conceive. But, it’s good to know that these advanced fertility treatment options are available if you need them:

• Medication to prompt ovulation. For some women, prompting ovulation with ovarian-stimulating medication can make a world of difference. If we recommend a medicated cycle, you will be closely monitored in our office to optimize success and reduce your risk of becoming pregnant with twins or multiples.

• Intrauterine insemination, or IUI. This fertility treatment involves similar medications and monitoring as a medicated cycle, but with the added benefit of directly inseminating the uterus with sperm from the male partner or sperm donor. In addition to ensuring that insemination is timed exactly right, this procedure can also overcome additional challenges that happen when sperm count or quality is low.

• In vitro fertilization. This highly effective fertility treatment can often overcome many causes of infertility, including low ovarian reserve associated with advanced maternal age. In IVF, the woman takes medications to prompt the maturation of multiple eggs at the same time, which are then retrieved and fertilized in our IVF laboratory using the partner’s or donor’s sperm. Any resulting embryos can then be transferred to the uterus one at a time, or frozen and stored for future use.

• Genetic testing of embryos. Called preimplantation genetic testing or PGT, this process involves removing a few cells from embryos created through IVF so that they can be checked for chromosomal or genetic abnormalities. With PGT, we can ensure that only those embryos proven to be free of specific genetic defects are transferred to the uterus, increasing the chances of successful pregnancy and eliminating the risk of chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome.

• Donor eggs. For women with very low ovarian reserve who are not candidates for IVF with their own eggs, but who wish to experience the joy of pregnancy and birth, IVF using eggs from a donor has very high success rates for women of all ages. This procedure enables the hopeful father to have a biological connection to the child, and has helped countless thousands of families bring babies into the world later in life.

To determine the best treatment approach for you, our New England infertility specialists begin with fertility testing for both partners. Through blood tests and ultrasound exams, we can give you an accurate assessment of your remaining ovarian reserve, or egg supply, and create a targeted treatment plan to help you achieve your goal.

If you’re TTC in your 40s or beyond, it’s critical to seek assistance from our experienced team of reproductive endocrinologists as quickly as possible. Because time is of the essence, we will prioritize your care to maximize your chances of success. Schedule a consultation today to schedule a consultation with our New England infertility specialists.

Helping You Find Answers: Uncovering Infertility Causes

The uncertainty and frustration faced by couples trying to conceive usually can be summed up in one word: “Why?” At Northeastern Reproductive Medicine, our Vermont fertility specialists will work with you to discover infertility causes.

When you and your spouse or partner are growing frustrated when trying to conceive, fertility testing of both male and female partners is an important first step. An initial consultation allows us to better understand your reproductive health and provides a wealth of information about factors that might influence your ability to conceive. The data gathered from fertility tests will guide the development of a customized plan in hopes of making your family-building dreams a reality.

Fertility Testing for Women

For a woman, fertility testing will provide important baseline information about hormone levels and anatomy. This can aid in revealing infertility causes.

An initial evaluation generally includes the following:

• Blood tests to evaluate hormone levels related to ovulation and pregnancy

• Pelvic ultrasound exam to evaluate the reproductive organs and ovarian reserve, or number of eggs left in your ovaries.

• Sonohysterogram (SHG), a special test to check that the fallopian tubes are open, along with checking the uterine cavity.

• Genetic carrier screening for both partners, which can assess the risk of genetic disorders that could affect your future children.

Fertility Testing for Men

Male fertility tests are an important part of the equation when couples are trying to conceive. Semen analysis can provide the following information about the sperm’s ability to fertilize an egg:

• Quantity of sperm

• Shape of sperm

• Movement of sperm

If men have previously fathered children, semen analysis is still recommended to provide updated information and possibly reveal infertility causes.

Providing Answers and a Path Forward

Our NRM Vermont fertility specialists have considerable experience diagnosing couples’ underlying fertility issues. Our three board certified reproductive endocrinologists and infertility (REI) physicians, along with our nurse practitioners, nurses, embryologists, ultrasonographers and staff, work as a team to serve couples in need of fertility services from across Vermont, the northeast United States and Canada.

We can offer many effective options to treat infertility, including the use of medications, intrauterine insemination (IUI) and more advanced options, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). Sometimes couples need extra help when trying to conceive, and we can connect you to sperm or egg donors or a gestational carrier.

We know exploring infertility causes can be stressful. But in understanding your individual situation, we work to empower you by understanding infertility causes and devise a customized path forward to help you and your spouse or partner become parents.

To learn more about fertility testing for couples, schedule a consultation.

Support and Options for Same-Sex Male Couples to Start a Family

Northeastern Reproductive Medicine is proud to support family building for same-sex male couples in an inclusive environment. Our caring Vermont fertility specialists proudly stand by members of the LGBTQIA+ community in helping start and grow families.

With ongoing advancements in fertility options, same-sex male couples can achieve biological fatherhood and share in the amazing journey of starting or growing a family.

The process of family building for gay couples is multifaceted and you can trust that we will support you and answer your questions every step of the way. We are excited to see what results we can deliver on your path to parenthood.

Getting Started With Semen Analysis

While there are many steps involved for same-sex male couples to start a family, the first step is an initial consultation and evaluation. Information from your health history and screening can sometimes help determine which male partner’s sperm will be used, based on viability.

It is important that at least one partner, or both men, undergo a semen analysis. This analysis is a simple lab test in which a sample of ejaculate is evaluated for sperm count, activity (motility) and shape (morphology). Another important factor that is considered in the evaluation process is testing for infectious disease.

Using Our State-of-the-Art Lab to Pave a Path to Fatherhood

For gay couples who want to be connected biologically with their children, in vitro fertilization (IVF) with donor eggs and surrogacy is a proven option. IVF requires several steps, and we stand ready to navigate you through this entire process.

The IVF process begins by using the sperm of one or both partners to fertilize eggs from a female egg donor. The genetic blueprint of your child will come from the sperm provider and the egg donor.

NRM offers an amazing fresh egg donor program, working with local, healthy donors. We also work with egg banks, if that’s the right decision for you.

The donor will take medication to stimulate egg production, and her eggs will be retrieved by an embryologist. The eggs are then fertilized with sperm from one or both partners. A resulting embryo will then be transferred to a woman who will carry the pregnancy, known as a gestational carrier.

This obviously is a multistep process, and we stand equipped to provide you with the necessary support and resources through it all. Our Vermont fertility clinic is ready to welcome you and help make your family building goals a reality.

We offer extensive laboratory resources as part of the Ovation® Fertility network, and our staff can assist you in securing an egg donor and a surrogate. In addition, we have a team of attorneys and counselors experienced with family building to help you through the legal aspects of IVF with surrogacy. Schedule a consultation to learn more about this highly effective option for gay couples who wish to become parents.

Support and Options for Same-Sex Female Couples to Start a Family

For years, Northeastern Reproductive Medicine has been proud to support an inclusive environment for same-sex female couples to start or grow their families.

With ongoing advancements in fertility options, same-sex female couples’ dreams of starting a family can be a reality. The first step is to set up an initial consultation and fertility evaluation with a caring Vermont fertility specialist.

Considerations for Same-Sex Female Couples and Donor Sperm

Lesbian couples will need to consider who will provide the egg and who will carry the pregnancy. Our Vermont reproductive endocrinologists can help you make an informed decision. A sperm donor is required to fertilize an egg for pregnancy to occur.

Same-sex female couples can choose sperm from an anonymous donor. There are a number of sperm banks across the country where patients can consider a donor based on a variety of characteristics, including physical traits, family history and academic achievements.

We encourage lesbian couples to consult with us to understand how we ensure thorough screening and testing of donor sperm.

Pathways to Pregnancy: Intrauterine Insemination and In Vitro Fertilization

There is more than one pathway to pregnancy for same-sex female couples. When formulating your personal treatment plan, our Vermont fertility specialist will consider the results of your fertility evaluation and your goals. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, and we work closely with you to consider your preferences.

There are generally three avenues lesbian couples consider in family building:

• Intrauterine insemination (IUI) using donor sperm. This is sometimes called artificial insemination. Your doctor will gently insert prepared sperm into your uterus using a catheter. This is a quick process, as it takes only a few minutes to insert the sperm, and you will be asked to lie down for about 15 minutes afterward. This option is usually considered if there are no existing fertility issues. This is a commonly used option and is less complex than in vitro fertilization.

• In vitro fertilization (IVF) using donor sperm. This advanced treatment has been around for more than 40 years. IVF involves fertility medication, egg retrieval from the ovaries, and fertilization by donor sperm. One fertilized egg (embryo) is then transferred to the partner’s uterus. IVF is an option to consider if you or your partner has fertility issues.

• Reciprocal IVF presents an option for both female partners to be involved in the excitement of pregnancy. One partner provides the egg for the IVF procedure. The other partner will receive the embryo and carry the baby. This is a great way for both partners to share in the joyous experience of the birth of their child.

NRM offers extensive laboratory resources as part of the Ovation® Fertility network. Our state-of-the-art lab serves IVF patients in Vermont, the Northeastern United States and Canada. Schedule a consultation to explore your family building options as a lesbian couple.

Get Support to Start a Family as a Single Mother by Choice

If you are considering starting a family as a single woman, Northeastern Reproductive Medicine can provide you with support on the path to motherhood. Creating life as a single mother by choice doesn’t mean you are alone. Our Vermont fertility specialists will stand by you as we empower you with information and listen to your concerns.

The first step is an evaluation, where information from your health history and screening can guide your future decision-making. From there, you can decide if you’re ready to begin family building, or if it’s time to preserve your fertility through egg freezing. We are here to help.

Considering Options Using Donor Sperm as a Single Mother by Choice

If you know that you are ready to start a family as a single mother by choice, a sperm donor is needed to fertilize an egg. Single women can choose sperm from an anonymous donor. There are a number of sperm banks across the country where patients can consider donors based on a variety of characteristics, ranging from physical traits and family history to academic achievements, talents and interests.

Generally, there are a few treatment options available to help single women become mothers:

• Intrauterine insemination (IUI) using donor sperm. This is sometimes called artificial insemination. Your doctor will gently insert prepared donor sperm into your uterus using a catheter. This option is usually considered if there are no existing fertility issues.

• In vitro fertilization (IVF) using donor sperm. This is a more advanced fertility treatment that is more complex and involves several steps. IVF can involve fertility medication, egg retrieval from the ovaries, and fertilization by donor sperm in a lab. The fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs (embryos) are then transferred back into the uterus. IVF is usually considered for women with underlying fertility issues.

• Donor egg IVF. If your ovarian reserve (quality and quantity of eggs) is diminished, and you still want to experience pregnancy and birth, our providers and staff have experience with donor egg IVF and are well-equipped to match donors and recipients and navigate the many aspects of third-party reproduction.

Freezing Your Eggs to Preserve Your Fertility

Perhaps as a single female, you want to wait on family building, but you’re concerned your fertility will decline with age. Freezing your eggs can allow you to proactively preserve your fertility and peace of mind. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, women in their 30s are about half as fertile as they are in their early 20s, and a woman’s chance of conception declines significantly after age 35.

Our team can ease your concerns for the future with the latest techniques in cryopreservation. The process is like the first steps of IVF – we monitor you carefully and retrieve your eggs. We then use an advanced process known as vitrification, or flash-freezing, to preserve your eggs. They will be safely stored until you are ready to become a single mother by choice or become a mom with a partner.

Learn how our Vermont fertility specialists can make motherhood a reality for single women and schedule a consultation

Support to Start a Family as a Single Father by Choice

If you are considering starting a family as a single father by choice, Northeastern Reproductive Medicine can provide you with support and options to become a biological dad. Our Vermont fertility clinic can provide family building tools to make your dream of fatherhood a reality.

A Vermont fertility specialist at NRM can build a customized plan using in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg donation and gestational surrogacy to make it possible for you to be a dad.

We Help Single Men With Fertility Treatments

It is not uncommon for a single male to want to start or grow his family. The first step of an evaluation is to analyze your semen, which involves testing sperm count, activity (motility) and shape (morphology). We also will test for infectious diseases.

Single fathers by choice will rely on an egg donor, whom we can help locate for you. This could be someone known to you, or an anonymous donor. Our nursing team can help you identify a donor who is a good match, and that donor is screened by NRM’s fertility doctors to offer you the best chance at conception.

The egg donor goes through the IVF process, starting with taking medications to stimulate the growth of multiple eggs. One of our doctors will retrieve the eggs, and an embryologist will fertilize the egg with your sperm. The genetic blueprint of your child will come from you (the sperm provider) and the egg donor.

One resulting embryo will be transferred into the uterus of a different woman, the gestational carrier who will carry the pregnancy. Any remaining embryos can be frozen for later use. NRM partners with regional surrogacy networks in Vermont and New England, as well as a national network that can help match you to a gestational carrier.

Let us Help You Become a Single Father by Choice

Single men who are trying to conceive face an involved process, and our Vermont fertility clinic is here to support you and provide the resources you need.

NRM offers extensive laboratory resources as part of the Ovation® Fertility network. Our state-of-the-art lab serves IVF patients in Vermont, the Northeastern United States and Canada. Our staff boasts more than 50 years of combined IVF experience and we take a collaborative approach in helping men become single fathers by choice.

If you are considering your family building options as a single male, schedule a consultation to talk with our caring Vermont fertility specialists who are ready to deliver on your dream of fatherhood.

Hope for People Who Are TTC With Recurrent Miscarriage

A history of two or more miscarriages is rare, and when it happens two or more times in a row while trying to conceive, it is a heartbreaking situation known as recurrent miscarriage. While it’s possible that recurrent pregnancy loss can occur without an identifiable cause, tests can pinpoint certain causes that in many cases are treatable. Our New England miscarriage specialists understand the emotional toll of TTC with recurrent miscarriage, and we bring extensive resources and expertise to investigate and treat the causes to help you achieve a successful pregnancy and bring your much-wanted baby home.

Potential Causes of Recurrent Miscarriage

While it’s understandable to become discouraged after suffering a history of miscarriages, many people are relieved to finally discover a medical reason for recurrent pregnancy loss. Roughly half of cases of recurrent pregnancy loss have no known cause.

However, many causes can be identified and treated, such as:

• Endometriosis

• Uterine abnormalities, such as fibroids or structural defects

• Hormone imbalances

• Thyroid problems

• Chromosomal problems in embryos

• Chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes

• Infections

• Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome

• Immunological issues

• Environmental factors, including smoking, heavy alcohol use or drug abuse

Through a series of tests, our New England miscarriage specialists can often identify one or more contributing factors, putting patients on the path to treatment and hope.

Tests for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

When you come to our New England miscarriage specialists with a history of losses, we begin by documenting your medical history to learn more about you, your partner and your pregnancies. We also order a series of tests designed to provide a complete picture of your overall fertility and health.

For the male partner, we will order a semen analysis, which measures the following several important factors related to sperm health:

• Volume of semen

• Sperm count

• Concentration of sperm in the ejaculate

• Sperm motility, or movement

• Sperm morphology, or shape

For the female partner, we will order the following of these several tests to evaluate overall reproductive health:

• Blood tests to evaluate hormone levels related to ovulation and pregnancy

• Pelvic ultrasound exam to evaluate the reproductive organs and ovarian reserve, or number of eggs left in your ovaries.

• Sonohysterogram (SHG), a special test to check that the fallopian tubes are open, along with checking the uterine cavity.

• Genetic carrier screening for both partners, which can assess the risk of genetic disorders that could affect your future children

If our team identifies any problems during testing, take heart. Most identified causes of recurrent miscarriage can be treated, and many women and couples go on to have healthy pregnancies and babies.

For example, if a hormone imbalance is found, our fertility specialists can prescribe specific medications to ensure that hormone levels are stabilized before and during pregnancy. We can often correct uterine issues with minimally invasive surgery, and medical conditions such as infections, diabetes or thyroid imbalances can be successfully treated to reduce risks to a developing fetus.

For many people, IVF is a highly effective treatment that provides careful monitoring of every stage of conception and pregnancy, helping women and couples overcome many causes of recurrent pregnancy loss. With this treatment, we prescribe medications to prompt egg production, so that we can retrieve multiple eggs that can be fertilized in our IVF laboratory under tightly controlled conditions. The resulting embryos can be genetically tested to ensure that only those free of chromosomal defects can be transferred to the uterus. After transfer, we prescribe supplemental hormones that support pregnancy, providing the best chance of success.

Get Help if You Are TTC With Recurrent Miscarriage

If you are experiencing recurrent miscarriage, don’t hesitate to reach out to our New England miscarriage specialists to get answers. The sooner you seek help, the sooner you can be on the path to a healthy pregnancy and birth. Schedule a consultation to make an appointment to begin an evaluation for recurrent pregnancy loss.

Genetic Testing for People Who Are TTC With a Genetic Disease

Trying to conceive (TTC) with a known genetic disease can leave hopeful parents uneasy about their future children’s health. Thankfully, advanced genetic testing can now effectively break the chain of inherited genetic disorders in families. If you are considering TTC with a genetic disease that runs in your family, our New England fertility specialists can help you protect your future children’s health.

Preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders or single-gene defects (PGT-M), is a smart choice for people who know they are carriers of a specific genetic condition. PGT-M is also highly recommended for people who are affected by and living with a genetic disease.

What is PGT-M?

By choosing IVF with PGT-M, people who are TTC with a genetic disease can ensure that their future children will not be affected by a known genetic disorder, and will also not be carriers of the disorder who could pass it on through future generations.

PGT-M is a type of preimplantation genetic testing performed on embryos created through IVF. To perform the test, our skilled embryologists safely remove a small sample of cells from each embryo and send them to a specialized genetics laboratory. Because these cells are removed from the part of the embryo that would become the placenta – not the part that would become the fetus – the embryos are not damaged in the process. All of the embryos are cryopreserved and stored in the lab while we await the test results.

At the genetics laboratory, the sample cells’ DNA is examined, with genetic experts looking specifically at the single gene that is tied to the known genetic disorder. Any embryos that are found to be affected by the disorder are noted, so that only those embryos free of the disorder can be chosen for transfer to the hopeful mother’s uterus. Typically, just one embryo is transferred at a time, so choosing PGT-M can greatly increase the chances of IVF success and reduce the risk of miscarriage.

PGT-M can test for hundreds of single-gene conditions encompassing both rare and common disorders, including:

• Cystic fibrosis

• Hemophilia

• Sickle cell disease

• Tay-Sachs disease

• Congenital deafness

• Duchenne muscular dystrophy

• Spinal muscular atrophy

• Familial hypercholesterolemia

• Polycystic kidney disease

• Neurofibromatosis

• Huntington’s disease

• And many other genetic conditions

At the same time, PGT-M can identify each embryo’s sex and rule out any chromosome-related disorders, such as Down syndrome.

How to Know if You Are a Carrier

A person can be a carrier of a genetic disorder if it runs in his or her family, even if that person has no symptoms of the disorder. Many people discover their carrier status through preconception carrier screening, which checks both partners for common genetic disorders they could pass on to their children.

Our New England fertility specialists recommend carrier screening for all people who are trying to conceive, and especially for those who are:

• TTC with a genetic disease

• Struggling to conceive

• Affected by unexplained infertility

• Related to family members affected by genetic illnesses

Because genetic disorders are complex and often involve the combination of DNA from both the male and female partner, we recommend carrier screening for both partners.

Learn More About Options for TTC With a Genetic Disease

If you are TTC with a genetic disease that affects you directly or runs in your family, PGT-M gives you the power to ensure that your children and grandchildren will have the best possible chance to live healthy lives. Our experienced team of New England fertility specialists welcomes you to schedule a consultation to discuss your genetic testing options.

Statistics:

• https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/infertility/symptoms-causes/syc-20354317#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%2010%25%20to%2015%25%20of,or%20a%20combination%20of%20factors%20that%20prevent%20pregnancy.

• https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/using-ovulation-kits-to-predict-fertility

• https://www.cdc.gov/pregnancy/about/index.html