First and second trimester of your pregnancy is a crucial one, it needs utmost attention. Complications in pregnancy vary from woman to woman, most common being the chromosomal abnormalities.
Chromosome abnormalities are more common than it is generally realized!
- More than 50 per cent of miscarriages in the early stages of pregnancy are due to abnormalities of the chromosomes.
- In about 0.5 to 1 per cent of all live births, the baby is found to have a recognizable chromosome abnormality.
Human body is made up of billions of cells, and each cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Inheritance of extra or missing chromosomes causes abnormalities that can affect a baby’s development. The most common chromosome abnormality affecting newborns is Down syndrome which occurs in around 1 in 500 to 600 pregnancies. In fact, every year around 23,000 to 29,000 babies are born with Down syndrome in India, which is the highest in the world.
The other type of abnormalities is structural alterations consisting of abnormalities in the structure of a chromosome, and in these cases a history can be traced to the parents. They require a personalized treatment in accordance with the type of alteration. Recurrent miscarriages, 70% of embryos are chromosomally abnormal, and 15% of patients have all chromosomally abnormal embryos.
Parental age is one of the risk factor for having pregnancies affected by chromosomal abnormalities. In couples where the mother is older than 35, the risk of miscarriage grows and the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities appears to be higher. Most embryos with an incorrect number of chromosomes fail to implant or miscarry during the first trimester of pregnancy. In women over 38 years old, 79% of embryos have chromosomal abnormalities.
To avoid pregnancy with chromosomal abnormalities we recommend that Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) be performed. PGS from IGENOMIX is an early genetic diagnosis of the embryo prior to its transfer to the uterus, and therefore prior to establishment of pregnancy. PGS allows only embryos that are free of chromosomal abnormalities to be transferred.