ESHRE preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) consortium: data collection II (May 2000).

In 1997, the ESHRE PGD Consortium was formed as part of the ESHRE Special Interest Group on Reproductive Genetics, in order to undertake a long-term study of the efficacy and clinical outcome of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). In December 1999, the first PGD Consortium report was published discussing referrals of 323 couples, 392 PGD cycles and 82 pregnancies and 79 children born. In the second round of data collection, contributing centres were asked to send in data from their PGD activities before January 1997, as well as from 1st October 1998 until 1st May 2000, in order to have as complete as possible an overview of PGD practices in these centres. A further 563 referrals were sent in as well as 926 PGD cycles, and data on 89 pregnancies (including seven pregnancies ongoing from the previous group) and 83 children were collected. This has led to a considerable amount of cumulative data being acquired: over a period of 7 years (the oldest PGD cycle reported dates from 1994), referral data on 886 couples, cycle data on 1318 PGD cycles and data on 163 pregnancies and 162 babies were collected. In all, these data are encouraging: they show first, that the practice of PGD is becoming more and more established, and an increasing number of different applications is emerging; and second, that collecting these data is worthwhile, as they will be a valuable source of information for all those involved, e.g. in counselling patients and interacting with governmental bodies.