balanced translocations and viable embryos

[Ervan Sisney]

colkin at athena.mit.edu (Catherine B Olkin) wrote:
>I also have a question about balanced translocations.
>In Feb 1996, I was about 20 weeks pregnant when I
>found out my baby would not live because she had
>too much genetic material.  Please excuse my simplistic
>terms -- I am an astronomer not a geneticist.  Tests
>of myself and my husband revealed that I have a
>balanced translocation of chromosomes 7 and 22.
>My daughter had too much chromosome #7.  My husband
>has no chromosome problems, neither do my parents,
>therefore the mutation occured in me.
>From the genetic councelor, I learned that it is
>unlikely that anyone else in the world would have
>the exact same translocation (since my parents
>don't have it).
>
>The probabilities of having a child with the chromosome
>structure my daughter had was quoted to me as
>1/10000 even given my translocation.  Also I learned
>that only 50% of my eggs would be viable.
>
>Now my husband and I have been trying to concieve 
>for a year and my doctor is recommending
>IUI (intrauterine insemination).  I was thinking
>maybe I should just have IVF since the zygote could
>be tested before implantation to be sure it is viable. 
>I know this is not an infertility newsgroup, but the 
>heart of the matter concerns the chances of having a viable baby
>given my translocation.
>
>If I am the only person with my translocation, then
>there seems to be a large uncertainty in any quoted
>probabilities because they would be derived from
>a distinctly different sample group.  So how could
>one know that all of my eggs will not be non-viable?
>

    






     I am not a geneticist (i plan to be one someday though), i dont 
think you can know if all of your eggs will not be non-viable.  There is 
always  the possibility that somtithing will happen. 







>One other bit of history: in the spring of 1994 I had
>a miscarriage which is now being attributed to my
>translocation.
>
>I would appreciate any opinions or suggestions.
>
>Thanks,
>Cathy
>
>PS.  I have never posted to a newsgroup before,
>I hope this works.  I have been reading this
>one for about 8 months though.
>
>