Gender selection, or sex selection, refers to selecting the sex of your unborn baby prior to pregnancy. At North Cyprus IVF Centre, this option is offered to two groups of patients:
1 — Couples who would like to select the sex of their child due to a known genetic predisposition to a sex-linked (X-linked) condition. X-linked diseases aresingle gene disorders that point to the presence of gene mutations or gene defects on the X chromosome. Since males only acquire one copy of the X chromosome from the mother, only one mutated allele is sufficient to cause a sex-linked disease on males. This suggests that males are more prone to the majority of X-linked diseases compared to females.
2 — Couples who already have children and would like to balance their family by having another child of the opposite sex. This group of patients usually have no fertility issues and are able to have healthy children via natural conception methods. However, natural conception may not always produce “balanced” offspring, therefore, assisted reproductive technologies come into play.
Regardless of your reasoning, gender selection can be legally offered at North Cyprus IVF Centre to both groups of patients.
When it comes to gender selection, there are a few important factors that help us identify which treatment method will be more suitable for your unique needs. These factors include the following:
— Age of the female patient: Female patient’s age is very important due to a number of reasons. First of all, as age increases, the ovarian reserves also diminish. Secondly, with increased age, genetic problems become more common, which increases the likelihood of genetic defects in children.
— Semen analysis results for the male patient: At North Cyprus IVF, we have a number of gender selection alternatives, and one of these is known as MicroSort, the patented sperm sorting technology, which can successfully sort the specimen into X and Y bearing cells. This technology requires that the male patient's sperm parameters comply with minimum requirements. Therefore, even though the male partner may have fathered a child before, it will still be a good idea to have a semen analysis done, especially, if treatment program will include MicroSort.
— Hormone levels for the female patient: Hormone levels indicate the level of ovarian reserves as well as the quality of oocytes remaining in the reserves. This information helps us make a more effective assessment of your needs and carefully identify the right medication regimen. Therefore, if we know exactly what type of a reserve we are looking at, we can optimize the outcome of a treatment cycle by carefully calculating the dose of medication to be administered. This is a necessary step even if you have conceived naturally before. The purpose of the tests is not only to assess whether you are fertile or not, but rather, to tell us precisely what dose of medication will give us the desired results.
Below are the methods employed in selection of the sex of your baby:
MicroSort for Sperm Sorting: North Cyprus IVF Centre is the only official clinic offering MicroSort sex selection technology in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa. MicroSort is a sperm sorting method which enables us to sort a sperm sample chromosomally into X (female) and Y (male) bearing cells. The sorted sperm, in turn, is used to fertilize the female patient's eggs so that pregnancy can be planned with a desired sex.
Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS): Cyprus IVF laws do not allow for PGS to be used as a sex selection method, unless there is a genetically inheritable X-linked disease that runs in the family, in which case, PGS becomes the only option of having a healthy child. Therefore, we do not use PGS alone as a sex selection method.
1) MicroSort IUI for Gender Selection (costs 2,800 Euros)
This treatment method is mostly suitable for fertile couples in their 20s, where the female patient’s ovarian reserves are still very well intact and a well response can be obtained with a very mild stimulation cycle. The male partner’s sperm count, concentration, motility and morphology are also very important when determining whether the sperm will be an ideal candidate for the MicroSort procedure or not.
MicroSort IUI works very much like regular IUI, where the female patient receives a very mild stimulation medication to produce multiple oocytes in order to increase the chances of pregnancy at the time of insemination. The MicroSorted sperm is injected intra-uterine in order to achieve pregnancy.
MicroSort for gender selection with IUI treatment has a very high accuracy of gender selection. Regarding success rates, MicroSort IUI has similar success rates to IUI treatment success rates, which is about 20-25% for women younger than 35 years of age, and about 10-12% for women older than 35 years of age. It should be kept in mind that MicroSort IUI may need several attempts before pregnancy can be achieved. If a higher chance of success is desired with gender selection treatments, IVF treatment should be considered rather than the non-invasive IUI.
2) MicroSort IVF for Gender Selection (Costs 3,700 Euros)
This treatment option is more like regular IVF-ICSI treatment. The male partner’s sperm is sorted into X and Y bearing cells for gender selection, just like in the IUI option. However, as opposed to injecting the sorted sperm trans-uterine, female partner’s eggs are taken out and the sperm is injected directly into the nucleus of the egg for fertilization. In other words, IVF+ICSI does not let nature take its course, but rather, does the job in the lab environment.
IVF treatment requires that the female partner uses stimulation medication in order to produce a higher count and quality of eggs in a given menstrual cycle. It is through this medication protocol that we are able to obtain a higher count of eggs in order to increase your chances of pregnancy.
Pregnancy rates with MicroSort IVF are considerably higher than IUI since IVF procedures allow for multiple eggs to be fertilized and transferred back into the uterus.
3) Microsort IVF with PGD: 6,200 EUR
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER ***
Due to ethical considerations, we employ MICROSORT technologies ONLY as a gender selection method. However, it should be kept in mind that while PGS is not used for gender selection per se, it is still a very important component of our treatment program as it helps us choose the genetically healthy embryos for planning your pregnancy.