What is PGD – Anyway??

I have had a lot of messages asking me what is PGD. So I thought I would just jump on here and explain it to everyone.  A little bit of the backstory starts at my sons birth. Five days after Hayden was born he was diagnosed with Hemophilia -at that time we had no idea what hemophilia was. We quickly learned it was an X-linked gene disorder . We were told the gene could have randomly mutated in Hayden, or that I was a carrier. When he was 15 months old we found out that I was, in fact, a carrier. I had unknowingly passed this gene onto my son. Are you confused yet… Yeah – well so was I. Here is how I explain it …

My DNA ( XX – Carrier) –  I have one good X that does not have hemophilia and one bad X chromosome that does have the hemophilia gene

Dan DNA (XY) –  Since Dan determines the sex of our children he will give me an X or a Y

 

We have four genetic mixes when we create our little Labianca’s

(XX) – this is a non carrier little girl ( she received my good x and dans x)

(XX -carrier) – She received my hemophilia X and dans good X – BECAUSE she has one good X  to balance out the Bad X – This little girl would only  carry the gene but NOT have hemophilia – but like me will risk passing this gene on to her own children.

(XY) – Healthy little boy with no Hemophilia

(XY – Hemophilia) – My son… He received my bad X and with no good X to balance it out he has severe hemophilia.

Once we found out that I was a carrier – we knew this would effect how we would have anymore children.  While we could “risk” it and have more children with Hemophilia – We decided what was right for our family was to protect any more of our children from having this disorder. Thus began the long and painful road of IVF.

So NOW to chat about what is PGD. PGD (pre-implantation diagnosis) .. is exactly how it sounds. It is diagnosing the embryo BEFORE it implants in the Uterus. In order to diagnose the embryo you must  first  go through IVF – where they surgically remove my eggs and create little embryos in petri -dishes.Once those embryos grow to day 5 – they  then remove 5 cells out of the embryo and send it off to a clinic in Chicago at which point they can determine which embryos have the hemophilia gene. While we wait for the news, they  freeze all of the embryos –  ready to be implanted the following month  once we know which ones to put back in.  Each Cycle costs $20,000 without one dime being paid by insurance. … so  as you can imagine the process is emotionally, physically and financially exhausting.  As the one “responsible” for carrying the gene – I felt it to the depths of my core.

So you can imagine how much I was yearning for this baby #3 when we decided to embark on this journey again. After a devastating  loss in early 2012 – we were “gifted” our next cycle from some of the kindest and most generous friends that we have ever met.  While they will remain nameless… you can not imagine  how incredible it was to let go of that financial stress. After enduring the surgeries and shots and hormones through that IVF – they only ended up retrieving 7 eggs and only one embryo made it to day 5 for us to do PGD on..we felt scared and a little defeated to only have one embryo to biopsy… but we held onto hope and found out a week later that is was a healthy little boy who DID NOT have hemophilia.  We implanted that embryo… and dreamed… I dreamed of the smile on Haydens face when we  told him it would be a little brother. I dreamed of names.. ALOT of them. I planned when the due date would be and how I would make it through the sweltering heat of Texas 8 months pregnant. I was so certain that cycle worked that I took  my pregnancy test on Emerson’s Birthday so that I would find out on such a special day. … well if you read my blog from that birthday.. you will know how that turned out.

This  most recent cycle  was far different from our last cycle. We ended up with 21 eggs and by day 5 we had 8 embryos to biopsy.  We lost 3 embryos due to the biopsy fiasco. We still wanted to get the biopsies on all of them just to see what we had… This is the fun part -finding out what the breakdown was

We Know:

5 boys (only one had hemophilia)

3 girls (one had Trisomy 21)

We ended up with only 2 to transfer – since we lost 3 in the re-biopsy and  3 other embryos had random chromosome disorders that would have miscarried if they had implanted

PINTHIS

 

I did not want to know what we were implanting this time since I can not control my vivid imagination… and if it doesn’t work – the crash is ALOT harder.

Now that I am in my second trimester.. I feel like it is ok to have hope…. it is ok to dream – So needless to say My dreams are running WILD.

 

So without further adieu – Baby #3 – our  little fighter embryo .. My missing puzzle piece will be…..

 

Sutton Elizabeth LaBianca 

 

 

We are beyond excited… and Hayden…. well lets just say…. he is finally warming up to the idea.