Using Genetic Carrier Testing When Choosing an Egg Donor

For fertility patients who are choosing an egg donor, the health of the donor is a critical concern. One way recipients can be assured of the health of the donor is to work with a fertility clinic that provides genetic testing to ensure donors will not pass along conditions for which they are carriers. These should be one of the routine tests provided by the clinic.

Choosing an Egg Donor

It is best to choose a clinic that:

• conducts a phone consultation between the prospective donor and a geneticist, in which the geneticist recommends tests for the most common conditions based on the donor's ethnic background
• performs the genetic tests recommended
• requires tests showing that these conditions are not present in order for the donor to be admitted into the donor program

At InVia Fertility Specialists, we take all of the above steps. In addition to tests recommended base on ethnic background, we do a general panel testing all donors for:

• Cystic Fibrosis
• Fragile X Syndrome
• Alpha-Thalassemia
• Beta-Thalassemia
• Sickle Cell Disease
• Bloom’s Syndrome
• Fanconi Anemia Group C
• Niemann-Pick Disease Type A/B
• Canavan Disease
• Gaucher Disease
• Tay-Sachs Disease
• Familial Dysautonomia
• Mucolipidosis Type IV

Unless any of these conditions run in your family, you may not have heard of them. These conditions are all autosomal recessive, meaning that both partners have to be carriers of this condition for their child to have the possibility of being affected by the disorder. For example: if the mother is a carrier of Cystic Fibrosis and the father is not, the child has a chance of being a carrier, but not of being affected by Cystic Fibrosis.

If testing shows a prospective donor to be a carrier of any of these conditions, she is immediately removed from the program. We do not proceed with the egg donor cycle, and we discuss and explain these results to the donor as well as the intended recipient. The donor is then referred to a genetic counselor to discuss the implications of her test results.

If you are looking for a fertility specialist that provides genetic screening to all prospective donors, make an appointment at one of InVia's four Chicago area fertility clinics.