This gender selection treatment option is most suited for patients in more advanced age brackets, with diminished ovarian reserves. We recommend combining MicroSort procedure with IVF+PGS treatment especially for patients older than 35 years of age. In higher age brackets, we observe that the ovarian reserves will have highly diminished and the quality of the remaining oocytes will be sub-optimal. A woman with lower ovarian reserves and lower quality oocytes is less likely to achieve pregnancy with or without IVF treatment.
With MicroSort IVF + PGS, we offer our patients a higher chance of success with gender selection. The reason is twofold:
1- MicroSort® is the only scientifically proven preconception method that helps to increase the chances of having a boy or a girl. MicroSort® technology separates sperm into two groups after the sort process: The sperm that produces a girl (X bearing) and sperm that produces a boy (Y bearing). X and Y bearing cells are separated based on the density of DNA bore in sperm cells. The sperm cells with an X chromosome will contain slightly more than 2.8% more of human DNA compared to its Y counterpart. Therefore, the sort mechanism will identify the higher DNA density from the lower DNA density cells and sort the sperm sample accordingly. Even though the sort procedure is not 100% accurate, its accuracy is around 75% for male sperm selection and 90% for female sperm selection, therefore, we can make sure that the sperm cells that have been sorted are mostly male or mostly female.
With the sorted sperm, when we proceed with ICSI treatment, we guarantee that majority of the fertilized embryos will be of desired sex. Therefore, even if you only have just a few good quality oocytes, we can make sure that most of these oocytes fertilize into an embryo of desired sex. This allows us to offer women with diminished ovarian reserves a chance of pregnancy with gender selection treatment.
However, it should be kept in mind that the MicroSort procedure requires that male partner's sperm sample has more than a certain amount of total motile sperm cells, regardless of the volume. This is an important criterion for the effectiveness of the MicroSort procedure. It is also important that the sperm's morphology parameters are in accordance with the WHO criteria of at least 14% normal sperm cells in the ejaculate. If the male partner's sperm sample fails to meet these criteria, then the efficiency of the sort mechanism is compromised and the likelihood of obtaining accurate results with MicroSort diminishes greatly.
2- The PGS procedure after fertilization of embryos will allow us to screen the embryos both for gender and for genetic abnormalities. Even though MicroSort makes sure that majority of the embryos are going to be of desired gender, in order to be 100% sure, the PGS procedure is needed. With the PGS procedure, we will also be able to screen for genetic disorders, which is a very important benefit, especially for patients in older age brackets, when the occurrence of genetic disorders in embryos is more prevalent. So PGS does not only make sure that we get the gender right for sure, but it also allow us to hand select the genetically health embryos for transfer.
MicroSort IVF + PGS procedure works very much like the IVF+PGS procedure. The only difference is, with MicroSort IVF+PGS, the male partner's sperm sample is sorted into male and female bearing cells before the eggs are fertilized. The rest of the procedures will be identical to the IVF+PGS treatment.