Hey Jojo - as you can see this forum is a source of information and support that you can't find anywhere else. Post any question at all and someone will have info or personal experience or just empathy. Tell your husband too - it is my husband who has the HD but I am the one who uses this forum. Best of luck...

and wow, summer xmas, wine and cheese on a NZ deck sounds like HEAVEN to me now!!! Enjoy!

Hi again Jo,

I'm in Palmy (originally from Wellington) where are you from? That's good you have an appointment, just note you have to pay for the first visit ($220 up here) and there's also costs associated with travel such as if you're in the North Island you have to travel up to Auckland for egg retrieval/implantation. I'm not planning on starting ivf til 2012 so I can't offer you anymore info sorry!

All the best

Hi Jayb,

Thanks I didn't know there were cost's involved, but did know you had to travel to Auckland, I think i will look more into the process. Im from Feilding.

Oh wow crazy how close we are, my soon to be husband is from Feilding! You might even know the family, his sister is your age.

Anyway feel free to PM me if you ever want to meet up and chat about things, I have a dvd that Fertility associates gave me about ivf which you're welcome to borrow - it's not about PGD in particular but I'd be happy to post it out to you.

Have you thought about how hard it would be to have your children watch you with HD? I am not saying you should do one thing or another. I am just speaking from my experience. I have watched my great grandma and grandma die from HD and now my mom has it. I also have HD and I am so scared of the pain it is causing and will cause for my children to see me waste away with HD.
But it is great that if you choose to have children that they will never have to worry whether they carry the gene!
Just my experience no judgement!
Melissa

Hi Melissa,

I too have watched my grandfather, great aunts and now my mother with HD, yes its hard, but my mother was/is the best, and thats how i will remember her. I have a friend who's mother died for cancer the same time as my mother had HD, which is just as hard to watch. What im trying to say is that you can't protect your kids from the unknown, you don't know what's around the corner, so just live each day as it comes so your kids can have happy memories of you.

I also have a amazing husband who knows the risk of having children with me,that one day he may have to raise these kids by himself, but he has ensure me we can do this. Thats why i want to try and have a HD free child.

Hi Jojo,

I am also 27, from NZ and with a repeat of 42...and I have had my first appointment at Fertility Associates - we are thinking of starting pgd ivf at the end of the year. For me, it was never a question of whether we would go the pgd option, but a question of whether it's the right decision to have children at all. I really struggle with the thought of my kids having to look after me and watch me deteriorate the way I did with dad. And I struggle with the thought of my fiance having to go through it all. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I was on my own. That way, when symptoms start, I won't feel too bad if I just can't go through with it. I don't think I have symptoms yet, but I am obsessing about it at the moment for some reason - perhaps because I am mulling over whether to have children. I am having the odd emotional meltdown - I just love being alive and healthy and can't bare the thought of losing it.

Is this the same for you? I feel so helpless.

Megan

Megs, Jojo posted this several months ago and not sure if she's been reading since or not. But if I may, when it comes to having kids and raising them in an HD environment, that's always a question I have too. My kids grew up in a pretty poor one. Others have better luck. It's really hard to relate what went on here with HD and their mother to others. My very first concern is this generation at least is responsible to not pass on the gene, and you have that firmly in mind. Some HD households have been pretty bad. Others have had better luck... and they feel they just had some challenges.... but life and childhood wasn't too bad. I think my kids will look back at childhood as something they survived. Or at least long stretches of it. Certainly not carefree. What was growing up with HD like for you? Is that where your thinking is coming from?

Welcome JoJo!

Carla

Welcome, Megan.