The
ESHRE (European Society of Human
Reproduction and Embryology) definition of patients
who suffer from recurrent pregnancy is a woman who has had two or more
pregnancy losses before week 20 of pregnancy.
What
are the causes of recurrent pregnancy loss?
The pathology has a number of possible causes including anatomical, coagulation, immunological and endocrine abnormalities and so on. Genetics is another […]
We have the latest technology to study and avoid the main hereditary diseases
Preconceptional genetic studies (also called carrier studies) aim to prevent the birth of a child with recessive diseases. Recessive genetic diseases behave in such a way that individuals can be either completely healthy, carriers or affected. Affected individuals are sick and manifest the […]
Hereditary disorders (disorders that are transmitted from parents to offspring) include a group of disorders known as autosomal recessive disorders. Disorders of this kind are uncommon. However, they do tend to be rather serious. Indeed, they are the reason why a significant number of children end up in hospital or even die. In recessive disorders, […]
Patients
undergoing an in vitro fertilization treatment usually ask if are able
to distinguish between male and female embryos while observing them in the lab.
Can we know the embryo
gender before implantation in the mother’s uterus?
Although
the embryo’s gender is established at the time of the egg and sperm union, is
not until week 5, approximately, when the embryo develops […]
We all have 46 chromosomes: 23 of them are inherited from our father and 23 are from our mother. The genetic information for our entire body is stored within these chromosomes. Two of the 46 are sex chromosomes and determine whether we are male (XY) or female (XX). Therefore, the Y chromosome contains all the necessary information for differentiating males from females as well as for sperm production.
What is the Y chromosome microdeletion analysis about?
The study of Y chromosome microdeletions consists of checking if chromosome Y is complete and, as such, has all the necessary information for satisfactory sperm production or if, on the contrary, small fragments are missing. The loss of such fragments leads to altered spermiogramme which can mean poor sperm production (oligozoospermia) or even no production at all (azoospermia).
[…]
What are genetics and epigenetics?
Genetics and epigenetics are two, closely-related branches of biology. The former is much more well known and consists of studying how hereditary characteristics are passed on from generation to generation. DNA is the molecule in which genetic information is stored in a 4-letter code: A, C, G and T. The combination of letters is […]
The human genome consists of 46 chromosomes: 23 of these are inherited from our father and the other 23 are inherited from our mother. Our organism’s entire genetic make-up is stored in these chromosomes. The 23 pairs are organised as follows: 22 pairs, known as autosomes, and one pair of sex chromosomes (X and Y) which […]
One of the main limitations of assisted reproduction techniques are its embryo implantation failure rates. The implantation rate is the embryo’s ability to implant in the mother’s uterus. In other words, not all embryos are able to give rise to a pregnancy. Some have a greater chance of doing so than others. If it were possible to select […]
It
is thought that about 20% of the reproductive problems are genetic or chromosomal.
That is why the genetic testing is
now an essential part of the fertility study carried
out on couples who come to our centre for help to have children. Karyotype,
chromosome Y microdeletions or the fragile X chromosome syndrome are tests
usually recommended in the fertility consultation. A positive result in any of
them […]
Many factors can intervene in arrest processes during embryo development which mean cell division is detained and, therefore, it is not possible to implant the embryo in the mother’s uterus and bring about a pregnancy.
In the first instance, the conditions for development are essential. Embryos that develop in vitro are subjected to a number of artificial […]
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