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Genetics and Health

Rica Lode’s Personal Experience with PGD (Part 3)

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on July 3rd, 2006

Rica Lode is still looking for countries near Malaysia that can provide preimplantation genetics diagnosis for neurofibromatosis. If you’re new to this series, you may like to read Part 1 and Part 2 of her journey.

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“With regard to your enquiry, we regret to inform you that preimplantation genetic diagnostic procedure is not approved yet in Singapore.” With that, one option is closed. I’ve also email to Taiwan, Japan and Australia on PGD which I’ve yet to receive any reply. With the help from my friend in Australia, one Australian hospital whom she has contacted earlier on my behalf, mentioned that they do not provide PGD services. However, they suggested her to contact Monash IVF as its website has a fact sheet on the PGD procedure.

Ever since we discovered my husband’s health condition, we have countless discussion on whether to have a child or opt to have no children or to seek adoption. Questions like if our child inherits Neurofibromatosis (NF), are we psychologically ready to face its challenges together? Would he/she able to cope with it? Would his/her condition be mild or later develop to be a severe form of NF?


I came across this US based bulletin board for NF patients and family members which proved to be invaluable and useful in deciding on above questions. This is because of real life accounts of NF patients or from their loved one’s point of view. Sometimes it chills me when I read of young children or a baby as young as six months old having to undergo immediate surgery to remove the benign tumours from the spinal cord. With PGD it presents hope for our child to avoid a life of health complications. Recently I received an email reply from the fertility centre in Malaysia, giving me both good and bad news regarding PGD. I’ll share with you in the next post what lies for us next.

Rica will be sharing more of her journey with us over the coming months. Read Part 4.

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POSTED IN: Genetic Testing, Genetics of Disease, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis

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