karyotype blood testing

On January 22, 2016 Mitch and I headed down to the clinic for blood work. We knew we would most likely be starting IVF this year so we wanted to get ahead with some of our tests. That day, we had our blood drawn for infectious disease, my Anti-Mullerian Hormone level as well as both of our Karyotypes. The infectious disease blood work is covered by OHIP (Yay!), the AMH was $160 and the Karyotypes were $245 each for a grand total of $650! Who knew our blood was worth so much? I do appreciate the process of Karyotype and what the technicians do...but none the less, expensive!

Infectious Disease:
The Hannam Fertility Centre does not perform IVF on couples or individuals who have HIV or AIDS, so this is a standard test they do prior to treatment. They also test for other infectious diseases. Of course our tests came back clean so we are good to go!

AMH (Anti-Mullerian Hormone):
This is a hormone blood test that studies fertility and ovarian responsiveness to IVF. It also gives insight into a woman's ovarian reserve in regards to her eggs. The AMH is a hormone produced by cells in the follicles in women's ovaries. My result was 36.0pmol/L which is very high and in the "Optimal Fertility" section of charts. I am SO happy that my level was high. My doctor was not surprised of my level considering my age, health and health history. #feelingthankful

Karyotype: 
The other tests came back within a week but this one takes about 3-4 weeks. The result came in today (February 22, 2016)!!! The results from this test are something that we can't change and reflects an outcome that remains unchanged since we were created.

The Karyotype blood tests analyses your chromosomes. Each person should have 23 pairs of chromosomes, equalling 46. The test looks at each chromosome structure and reflects exactly how many chromesomes an individual has. The process of obtaining a result involves growing the cells, extracting the chromosomes and then studying them. If there are any parts of chromosomes missing, or rearranged with others ones, the test will show it. The test provides insight to possible risks of birth defects as well as miscarriage. We didn't loose sleep over this test but it was in the back of our minds. I am SO happy to tell you both of ours came back normal! As soon as I got the emailed today I burst into tears and called Mitch.

Today is a great day.

Our hashtag on Instagram for this journey is #letterstobabyhanley

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