Tests
A Word About Genetics
After you have completed your infertility workup and have been given your "recipe for success," you still run a 20% risk of having another miscarriage. This will most likely be due to genetics. If you should happen to experience an arrested pregnancy, you should make every attempt to have the fetus analyzed for genetic defect. As soon as you learn of your situation a D & C (dilatation and curettage) should be scheduled as quickly as possible as fetal tissue degrades rapidly.
Contact the Alan Beer Resource Center For Reproductive Immunology & Genetics for instructions. Dr. Kwak will tell you where to send the tissue. Local hospitals are not usually equipped to handle such testing, and even if they are, the testing usually involves attempting to grow live cells from degraded tissue which can lead to inconclusive results. The method used by the lab affiliated with the Alan Beer Resource Center For Reproductive Immunology & Genetics involves sophisticated techniques that are unparalleled in deciphering the riddle of recurrent miscarriage.
Instructions for Preserving Fetal/Placental Tissue & Genetic Testing
Have your doctor preserve the placental tissue in Formalin and the fetal tissue according to directions by the Alan Beer Resource Center For Reproductive Immunology & Genetics.
You can have your own chromosomes tested at the University of Montreal via Dr. Tulandi. It is a simple blood test. I’ve recently heard that the Alan Beer Resource Center For Reproductive Immunology & Genetics is now using another lab for this so it is best to contact them for further instructions. In Montreal you may have the genetic testing of the fetus and tissues done at
Procrea
1100 Beaumont
Tel: (514) 345-8535
Unfortunately, genetic tests for IVF patients to test their embryos for chromosomal defect prior to embryo transfer is not yet readily available locally. It has only been offered by
T-CART in Toronto
Tel: (416) 972-0110
and
Dr. Feinman in California
Tel: (805) 374-1737
Both centres remove a cell from the embryo(s) and send them to a special facility in the US where the testing is done. As of July, 2001 this procedure costs approximately US$3,000 and should only be considered for couples who run the serious risk of passing on a serious genetically related disease to their offspring such as Cystic Fibrosis or Downs Syndrome. There is another centre in the US where genetic testing can be done.
St. Barnabas Medical Center claims to have the highest fertility rates in the US.
Tel: (973) 322-8286