Figure 1.
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) use for people with sickle cell disease and their families
ART might be used for fertility preservation, infertility treatment, by LGBTQ couples, and for preimplantation genetic testing. (1) Sperm, eggs, ovarian tissue, and embryos can be cryopreserved as care standards whereas testicular tissue cryopreservation is experimental. (2) Embryos are made by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) at the time of fertility preservation or gametes can be used to generate embryos via IVF once pregnancy is desired. (3) Embryos can be stored, or (4) sampled for testing to assess aneuploidy, for monogenetic diseases such as sickle cell disease, or for haploidentical matching with sibling before (5) introduction to the uterus.