Abu Dhabi: More and more couples across the UAE are today undergoing genetic testing in a bid to have successful pregnancies and healthy babies, medical experts say.
Genetic tests can help parents to select the gender of their baby or to ensure that the child is not susceptible to genetic diseases. Increased awareness has led to a surge in the number of residents who opt for genetic analyses.
Parents understand that it is easier and better to raise a healthy baby than one with an incurable genetic condition, and removing the gene that leads to the abnormality is just one of many treatments possible with the advances in reproductive medicine, Dr Michael Fakih, founder and medical director at renowned fertility clinic Fakih IVF, told Gulf News.
One in every five couples in the UAE currently requires fertility treatment and with clinics often offering testing facilities in-house, genetic analysis has gained acceptance, experts say.
Compared to last year, we have seen a 30 per cent rise in the number of couples who seek genetic tests, especially parents who want to ensure that their babies are not born with hereditary disorders, said Dr Ali Hellani, reproductive geneticist at Fakih IVF. The facility sees about 2,000 fertility treatment cycles a year, and a quarter of these couples apply for genetic tests.
Dr Monika Chawla, reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Burjeel Hospital, reported a similar increase in the demand for genetic testing.
About 50 per cent of the 800 fertility cycles we facilitate each year include genetic tests, she said.
This increase in the demand for testing is, in turn, leading to geneticists encountering more rare hereditary diseases, and greater opportunities for progress in reproductive medicine as many patients travel from abroad to UAE-based fertility centres.
In just the last week, our facility has come across five rare genetic conditions that we can now analyse and study, said James Cooper, laboratory director at Dubai-based Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic,
Bourn Hall, which aids 1,000 fertility cycles each year, has seen a ten-fold increase between 2013 and 2014 in the number of couples who get tested genetically. About 200 would-be parents have undergone the tests over the last year alone.
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UAE fertility clinics report genetic screening surge