Gender Selection in Iran

Gender Selection

Gender Selection in Iran

A number of prospective parents inquire about the possibility of choosing the gender of their baby. Advances in reproductive technology have allowed  Fertility Centers in Iran to provide this exciting option to couples undergoing fertility treatment. We practice two methods to help prospective parents select the sex of their new baby – whether they choose to do so in order to help avoid gender-specific disorders or to better balance out their family.

What is gender selection?

Gender selection (also called sex selection) is a medical technique used by prospective parents who wish to choose the sex of their offspring. Gender selection is performed through sperm separation or genetic testing. The embryos with the desired sex are then implanted into the woman’s uterus.

How does gender selection work?

 PGS genetically tests the embryo for the presence of two X chromosomes (female) or one X and one Y chromosome (male). With PGS, the embryos are analyzed with almost 100% accuracy.

Why use gender selection?

Sometimes couples use gender selection to help prevent serious genetic diseases and chromosomal disorders that are gender-specific. For example, sex-linked diseases like muscular dystrophy and hemophilia that are inherited via the mother will only affect male offspring. In addition, conditions like Fragile X or autism often present more severely in one gender than in the other.

Other times, prospective parents turn to sex selection when they have a strong desire to complete or “balance” their family according to their own personal plans. There are also cases where a couple feels a psychological need to have a child of a certain gender, either because they feel better equipped to raise a child of that gender or because they lost a child previously.

What is the cost of gender selection in Iran?

PGS for a gender selection is an additional cost to the IVF cycle in the amount of $1000 for the first seven(7) embryos tested.

Each individual embryo tested beyond the first seven(7) (ex.9,10,11, etc,) is an additional cost of $120 per embryo.

Sex selection with IVF

 As Dr. Elena Trukhacheva, president and medical director of the Chicago-based Reproductive Medicine Institute, explains, once embryos are created in vitro, they are sometimes screened in order to choose the healthiest ones to implant into the mother's womb. Called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), it's a complete chromosomal analysis of each embryo.

"The screening is in response to medical indications, such as multiple miscarriages or failed past IVF cycles, or advanced maternal age [over 35]," Trukhacheva says. "With a regular cycle, about 40 to 50 percent of implanted embryos will result in a healthy pregnancy. Using a screened embryo increases those chances to about 60 to 70 percent."

Trukhacheva says that if screening indicates that there are healthy embryos of both genders, about half of patients ask to choose the gender to the implant. Trukhacheva doesn't have an ethical issue with gender selection at this stage, particularly because she has not seen a pattern of discrimination against one gender. "It's usually an issue of balance, that the couple has two boys and would like a girl, or vice versa."

gender selection with IVF