Hi-tech baby: Bengaluru doctors help couple with their bundle of joy
Bengaluru: A month after the United Kingdom welcomed its first baby conceived using a new technique, the Next-Generation Sequencing for Pre-implantation Genetic Screening or PGS-NGS in May, Bengaluru got its first baby using the same technology 18 days ago.
Proud parents, businessman, Satyan Chawla, 34 and his wife Avani, 30, are ecstatic at having welcomed their son, Shreyas into the world after waiting years for a child.
Avani, who had repeated IVF failures and could not conceive naturally either for some seven years, confessed to feeling depressed and helpless until this technique helped her avoid another failed pregnancy and ruled out the possibility of any deformity in her baby.
"I felt helpless as I wanted a baby and could not have one," she says. Adds Satyan, "The long wait was depressing but now we can now enjoy the bliss of parenthood free of any worries."
Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) is a procedure used to examine embryos for genetic/chromosomal defects before implantation. It is a boon for many couples as it helps identify embryo disorders at an early stage and prevents unwanted pregnancy losses or defects in the child besides implantation failure. While in routine IVF/ICSI pregnancy the loss is around 12 to 15 per cent , implantation failure is around 30 per cent. Both can be avoided by using PSG, say doctors.
"The technique has been around in India for two or three years and offers high precision in embryo biopsy to help couples exposed to increased risk of genetic abnormalities in their children," says Dr Bina Vasan, head, reproductive medicine, Manipal Ankur Andrology Reproductive Services (MAARS), who helped Avani conceive and also delivered her baby .
"Avani had multiple IVF failures and never conceived naturally either. But with the help of this technology we could get one genetically normal embryo," she adds, explaining that with PGS and NGS it is possible to get more detailed genetic information through the genome sequencing of embryos. The sensitivity and specificity of the test is said to be 99 per cent.
