Many couples carry pathogenic genes themselves, or have previously had a baby with a genetic disease, and have faced repeated setbacks and long-term anxiety on their conception journey. After evaluation in China, many families consider going to Georgia for PGT. To help everyone better understand IVF in Georgia, Gebei would like to walk you through: What genetic diseases can PGT in Georgia screen for?
Georgia’s accredited reproductive laboratories currently cover three types of testing, but what they check is completely different and should not be confused.
PGT-A: checks whether chromosome “number” is correct
PGT-A targets abnormal chromosome number, such as trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18, trisomy 13, and Turner syndrome. It scans all 23 pairs of chromosomes and screens out aneuploid embryos. It is suitable for families with advanced maternal age, recurrent miscarriage, or recurrent implantation failure, but no clear family history of single-gene disease.
PGT-M: checks specific “single-gene diseases”
This is the item families with genetic diseases need to pay most attention to. PGT-M targets known single-gene genetic diseases with clear pathogenic sites, determining at the embryo stage whether it carries a pathogenic mutation. The range of diseases that Georgian institutions can actually screen is relatively broad. Common ones include: thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), phenylketonuria, hemophilia, fragile X syndrome, myotonic dystrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, and others. Some institutions can screen for more than 1,000 types of single-gene diseases, covering the vast majority of common types.
PGT-SR: checks whether chromosome “structure” is disrupted
It targets structural abnormalities such as balanced translocation, Robertsonian translocation, and inversion. Carriers themselves usually have no symptoms, but embryos are prone to chromosomal imbalance, leading to implantation failure or miscarriage. PGT-SR can distinguish “completely normal” from “carrier” embryos, reducing repeated failure due to structural abnormalities.
In summary, PGT in Georgia mainly screens for chromosomal abnormalities and single-gene genetic diseases with clear sites. If you are interested in PGT in Georgia and want to learn more about overseas IVF, you can call us for a consultation. We will explain in detail to help you learn more about overseas IVF.