Has anyone had GeneXmatch offerd at ESB before ordering sperm ?

[Bigsky]

Hiya,
I'm still very much at the deciding  point with deciding on a donor to undergo treatment as a single lady,
In the last month or so the European sperm bank has started to offer Genexmatch at an extra cost to match your own genetics against your possible donor to help to reduced the risk of any gene X related gene been relayed to a future child.

Obviously its another cost to consider and as far as i'm aware the ESB are the only sperm bank offering it, so far they have been my favourite any how due to the ease of browsing the sight and the great deal of donor info they provide.

Has anyone else used this service or something similar?
What are the general thoughts on it?

[FertilityFriends]

[63smc]

I also saw this a few weeks ago and found it interesting at first, but in the end don't think I would pay extra for this. Donors are screened for some inheritable diseases anyway and this new test doesn't guarantee anything.There are still many diseases that they don't test for, there are spontaneous mutations that can always suddenly come up and then even more things that can go wrong like trisomies that you also cannot exclude with a test like this and which are a lot more common than the diseases they cover with this test.
With this test they look at your chromosomes and his, but that still doesn't mean that all sperm cells and all egg cells are healthy regarding this specific disease. You can have a perfect result and be a really good match and then the biologist picks a sperm cell for ICSI that coincidentally is not chromosomally normal.
Would you go to a geneticist with your partner/husband before starting a family? I would only do this if I had a reason based on family history. So if your family doesn't have a history of inherited diseases, there is no need. Donors are asked about this as well. (They could lie about family history, of course, but you need a little trust going into this anyway and you pick a donor that sounds truthful and authentic anyway, right?)

I don't know. I would much rather invest in pre-implantation diagnostics of the fertilized embryo if I was seriously concerned or wanted to avoid trisomies, because with this you know the status of the actual embryo.

You can never be 100 % sure. It is still biology, and biology consists of lots of coincidences and spontaneous events that you can't control.

[ClaireCupcake]

I don't know. I would much rather invest in pre-implantation diagnostics of the fertilized embryo if I was seriously concerned or wanted to avoid trisomies, because with this you know the status of the actual embryo.

Many people have an issue with testing an already created child. Even though we refer to an embryo as such, they're by fact still a child. They can die, but not be unmade. It's surely better to try to ensure their health before they're made, rather than cherry pick a child from a bunch later. As many people believe it isn't right to kill an already existing child. Even if they have less ability or 'health' than planned. A child should never be treated as a throw away purchase. However they're created we owe them every possible opportunity to survive. Not treat them as a mere tree branch to be hacked off if they don't grow as we want.

[Axel]

Hi BigSky,
So I've just received my GeneX test from the European Sperm bank to do a saliva test and send back.  I did a 23 and me genetic test years ago just for fun and it turns out that I'm a carrier for a skin disease called junctional epidermolysis bullosa which could be devestating to be passed on.  This was a complete surprise as there is nothing like that anywhere in the family.  Although I really thought hard about the extra money and time, I decided if I had it done it would be one less thing to worry about.  Saying this if I hadn't done the 23 and me thing, I wouldn't have known and would have just gone ahead with the IUI unknowingly and hopefully it would have been fine.  It's a hard one to decide but if you're in any way anxious about it, it might be worth it.  I'll let you know how quick they are to get back to me with the results.

[magicpillow]

I considered this as we are going with the European Sperm Bank but we are actually doing donor egg treatment too so I wouldn't need to as it depends on the egg donor!  I'd consider it though, can see both sides.