Hello Crystal
I wouldn't mind sharing this information with all members here, may be it would be beneficial to any one.
I have the same problem here in Egypt too because PGD is used only in sex selection, but in diseases it is only 60% accurate. Anyway, the name of the medical center is the ''Reproductive Genetic Institue '' in Chicago. When i emailed them, i was asking about the possibility of concieving a baby with no thal in addition of having a HLA type matched with my son (who is a thal intermedia as i was thinking of a transplant at that time)
Anyway they told me that this is possible and that you have to spend from 7 to 10 days in Chicago and the prices were as follows:
*IVF (for one cycle) is for $10,000
*Setup (includes DNA tests for the parents, designing their plan in biopsy in terms of time and whether the PGD will be done on the blastomere or the polar body, other tests,...etc) for $7000
*Biopsy for $ 1500 ( that is a flat price, no matter the number of embroys available)
* PGD for thalassemia is for $ 2500
* PGD for HLA matching for $3000 ( you will not need it in your case )
* You can check for Down's syndrom ( that is optional for $ 2000)
These prices exclude the medications taken. They mentioned that after pregnancy (each embryo that is transferred to the womb has a 30% chance that is going to continue and by the way this is the normal percent even for normal conception. That is why in IVF they usually transfer more than one embryo in order to increase the chances of having a baby) a CVS or aminotic tests should also be done to confirm the PGD. Their success rate is 98%.
To tell you the truth, i discussed with them having the IVF in Egypt ( by the way they are very nice and gentle people in this center) in order to decrease the price because IVF is much much cheaper in Egypt and at the same time we have here high sucess rates. So i suggested that they send me an embroyologist here in Egypt to do the biopsy (biopsy is done here,but it needs a lot of skill and well trained doctor in order not to damage any embryo because
in my case only 3 embryos out of 16 are suitable for me), then to take the cells to chicago to do the PGD and then send me by fax which are the suitable to be transfered. By the way in this cenario, my embryos will be frozen till i get their answer because embryos should be transfered either in day 5 after egg retrival or be frozen and be transfered the following month.
Actually at first, they said that they don't do this unless i am in the USA as they can send their doctors across the states only. But at the end they agreed but of course i have to pay for the doctor flight ticket, accomodation, hotel, food,....etc .
Now i am in the process of evaluating all this story in terms of money, family circumstances,other varaibles,.....
My advice to you is to contact them and if in Malaysia, they are good at IVF and embryo biopsy so you can do them at your country and send the cells to chicago to be tested there.
Hope these information could be of any help to you. Please if you can't understand anything, just ask me
Take care and good luck
Manal