IVF vs. IVF w/ PGD, in layman's terms

For my family and friends, I want to clarify what the difference between regular IVF is and IVF with PGD testing.

A brief description of IVF-- used for couples facing infertility (not our case). The woman goes through a roughly month-long process of administering fertility drugs to herself (lots of shots, yuck) to increase her production of eggs during a cycle. Next comes the egg retrieval procedure, where all the eggs are taken out of her body and fertilized with the male's sperm. After a 3-5 day waiting period, usually one or two embryos are placed into the woman's uterus. After a 2 week waiting period, a blood test is taken to see if the procedure worked and she is pregnant!

IVF with PGD--same process but with the added step of testing the embryos for abnormalities before implanting them into the uterus.

Who might benefit from PGD?

In general, there are 4 major groups of patients that might be offered PGD (other indications could be considered as well):

1. Patients with inherited genetic diseases (this is rare)
2. Patients that are carriers of chromosomal translocations that have suffered recurrent miscarriages (rare) **
3. Patients that are having IVF with advanced female age - 38 or older (common)
4. Patients of any age with repeated IVF failure - usually defined as 3 or more failed attempts                                                   http://www.advancedfertility.com/preimplantation_genetic_diagnosis.htm