City-based Gunasheela Fertility Centre has announced the launch of Gunasheela Genomics Centre, which will offer technology of Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening (PGS), a procedure designed to examine embryos for chromosomal abnormalities before implantation.

The technology aims to improve pregnancy and live birth rates by screening the embryos for chromosomal abnormalities.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Managing Director of Gunasheela Fertility Centre, Dr Devika Gunasheela, said, “Declining live birth rate is an increasing problem for families who choose to have children later in life. It is scientifically proven that late maternal age embryos have greater levels of chromosomal abnormalities. It is here that PGS plays a pivotal role as it allows assessment of chromosomes by their content and hence reduces the time to a live birth by selecting only euploid embryos.”

According to Gunasheela Fertility Centre Director, Dr Rajsekhar Nayak, in the absence of PGS, embryos are chosen based only on their visual quality and morphology, which cannot distinguish chromosomally normal embryos from chromosomally abnormal ones. In IVF (in vitro fertilisation) cycles that incorporate PGS, embryos are assessed by their chromosome content and are more likely to result in a pregnancy that is carried to the full term, he said.