Can IVF cause genetic diseases?
IVF technology is a kind of assisted reproductive technology, which can help infertile couples realize their reproductive dreams. However, many people doubt whether IVF will cause genetic diseases. This article will elaborate on this issue from several aspects.
background information
IVF technology refers to fertilizing the fertilized egg and sperm in the laboratory, and then transplanting the fertilized egg into the female uterus for implantation. Because of the emergence of this technology, many infertile couples have been given the opportunity to have children. However, whether IVF will increase the risk of genetic diseases is still a controversial topic.
Risk of genetic diseases
First, from the perspective of genetics, there is no essential difference in the risk of genetic diseases between IVF and naturally conceived infants. Because genetic diseases are mainly inherited from parents' genes, and have nothing to do with the mode of fertilization of the fertilized egg. Whether conceived by natural means or by IVF technology, parents' genetic genes determine the genetic diseases that children may suffer from.
Secondly, IVF technology has played a positive role in embryo screening. In IVF technology, doctors can conduct gene detection on embryos through embryo biology technology to screen out embryos carrying single gene genetic diseases or chromosome abnormalities. This means that embryos carrying disease causing genes can be excluded, thus reducing the risk of genetic diseases.
In addition, in IVF technology, if one or both parents carry a certain disease causing gene, there is a risk of genetic disease, doctors can use pre fertilization genetic diagnosis (PGD) technology. PGD technology can carry out gene detection on the fertilized eggs before fertilization, so as to screen out the fertilized eggs carrying pathogenic genes, and select the fertilized eggs with normal genes for transplantation, reducing the incidence of genetic diseases.
Real case
In order to prove that IVF technology will not increase the risk of genetic diseases, we can refer to the data provided by real hospitals. For example, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF Medical Center) conducted a study that analyzed 4000 test tube baby cases. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the risk of genetic diseases between IVF and naturally conceived infants.
The study also noted that in IVF technology, the application of embryo screening and PGD technology reduced the risk of genetic diseases, making it easier to ensure the health of IVF.
summary
In conclusion, IVF will not increase the risk of genetic diseases. Genetic diseases mainly depend on the genetic inheritance of parents, rather than the way the fertilized egg is conceived. Through embryo screening and pre fertilization genetic diagnosis technology, IVF technology can help exclude embryos carrying pathogenic genes and select healthy embryos for transplantation. Reference to the data of real hospitals also proves that there is no significant difference in genetic disease risk between IVF and naturally conceived infants. Therefore, IVF technology is a safe and reliable reproductive option.
