My last PGT Genetic Counselor wasn’t helpful. Why will DNAide be different?
Sadly, I hear from a lot of fertility patients that they met with a Genetic Counselor to review their PGT results and they didn’t find it helpful. Things like:
“It’s like they were reading off of a script”
“They just read what was on the report. I can do that myself”
If this was your experience, it makes sense that you would be hesitant to meet with a second genetic counselor, especially if you have to pay out of pocket for the appointment. But my patients usually leave appointments with me having had a completely different experience and feeling like it was worth the money spent. What makes the experiences so different? I haven’t been a part of your past genetic counseling sessions, but I do have a few thoughts about what the differences might be.
DNAide’s PGT Consultations are 1 hour long
I’ve heard from my patients that sometimes they only had a 15 minute call with their initial PGT genetic counselor. At DNAide, out PGT Consultations are 1 hour long. This can sound like a long time, and not everyone needs the full hour. But it does mean that we have time for things that can make your appointment the best it can be.
We spend time getting to know you and your goals
Since we have more time together, at the start of the appointment we have time to get to know you, and what you are hoping to get out of the appointment. Some people know a lot about PGT and have specific questions based on the research they have done. Others are trying to make decisions about embryo transfer vs another egg retrieval. Some people have had past life experiences that are playing a role in the decisions they are making. All of these things are crucial for your genetic counselor to know about as part of working with you. We want our discussion to be a mutual process of sharing information so that you can make the choices that are right for you. Since we have an hour together, we have time to spend getting to know you and your goals. Sometimes this is the difference between an appointment that feels helpful to you and one that doesn’t.
We have more freedom in how we can help you
DNAide’s genetic counselors are independent. This means that we work for ourselves, not your PGT laboratory or fertility clinic. Where a genetic counselor works changes their conflicts of interests and their “scope of practice”. Basically, depending on where we work, our job description is different. If you didn’t find your previous genetic counselor helpful, that could be because their job description prevented them from helping you in the way you needed. Some genetic counselors are only able to explain what the test results mean, but can’t help you make certain decisions. At DNAide, we don’t have very many limitations since we work for ourselves. As long as we have the expertise to guide you and answer your questions, we will!
Still not sure DNAide will be a good fit?
We get it! It’s hard to trust a new healthcare provider, and we wouldn’t want you to spend money on something you aren’t confident will help. Contact us and request a free 15 minute discovery call so you can get to know us better. We won’t be able to discuss your test results, but we’ll talk more about what we can and can’t help with, you can get to know us, and make sure meeting with us makes sense before booking your longer consultation.