In Vitro Fertilisation

Babies with three parents possible within three years

2012-01-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

The child would inherit their identity from
their mother and father but would take their
mitochondrial DNA from the donor

Babies with three biological parents could be a reality within three years using an IVF technique which eradicates hereditary disease by using the undamaged DNA of a third party.
Researchers have secured £6m in funding to develop the groundbreaking treatment which could prevent genetic conditions affecting the heart, muscle or brain being passed on to children and future generations.
But the method is controversial because it involves transferring the parents' DNA into a donor egg, meaning the resulting child would inherit a tiny fraction of their genetic coding from a third party.
Regulations currently forbid scientists from implanting such eggs into patients.
SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk

Something New in Southeast Fertility Treatment: Low-Cost IVF

2011-12-25T15:52:00.000-08:00

For those who desire to become parents, but have trouble getting pregnant, these are optimistic times. Advances in fertility medicine, such in vitro fertilization (IVF) and PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis), provide new options that weren’t available in the past.
But all that advanced medicine comes with a price. IVF treatment can easily cost $25,000 and up, with no guarantee of success. That puts fertility treatment out of reach for many.
Two Georgia infertility specialists are hoping to change all that. Drs. Edouard Servy and Joe Massey founded the Servy Massey Fertility Institute (SMFI) in August 2011 with the belief that fertility treatment should be more accessible to all.
SMFI’s goal is to provide IVF treatment at reduced prices, offering initial in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles for only $6,575 – almost half the cost offered at many other clinics nationwide. The goal is to provide exceptional and affordable fertility care so patients can pursue their dream of having children.
Servy and Massey are both pioneers in reproductive endocrinology and the treatment of infertility, and have been helping patients build families for more than 30 years.
The Servy Massey Fertility Institute has locations in Atlanta and Augusta and works in collaboration with the Georgia Health Sciences University. The fertility docs say they are committed to eliminating hidden costs and unnecessary testing, recommending assisted reproduction only when conventional treatment fails or is not an option.
Sara and Kirby Yawn are just one family that found help at SMFI. The Yawns came face-to-face with infertility when Kirby was diagnosed with low sperm quality. Sara had already tried several treatments, including ovulation stimulation medication and a cycle of intrauterine insemination (IUI), but pregnancy seemed no closer for the Georgia couple.
Finally, Sara and Kirby met with Dr. Edouard Servy at the Augusta office to discuss in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“Dr. Servy reviewed our case and explained what he thought was the best option,” Sara says. “He was very thorough in helping us understand the entire process and was optimistic that our success rate would be high.”
In the past, the high cost of fertility treatment – especially IVF, one of the most expensive treatments – has been a barrier for many couples diagnosed with infertility. But with the creation of SMFI, Drs. Massey and Servy can work together to provide infertility solutions at affordable prices. The institute’s unique low cost program not only provides affordable treatment to hopeful couples, but continues to keep a high standard of quality and results.
“Because of the skill set required for a successful IVF procedure and the number of people involved, the cost of in vitro fertilization can be very pricey,” Dr. Massey explains. “At the Servy Massey Fertility Institute, we take pride in our expertise and never cut corners, but we also believe that everyone should have the opportunity to build a family. This is why we’ve taken great care to reduce costs wherever possible to offer affordable, low cost IVF.”
IVF is often one of the only ways for a couple diagnosed with infertility to achieve pregnancy, but has a high success rate – one of the reasons the SMFI team decided to pursue a low-cost IVF program.
For Sara and Kirby Yawn, IVF was just what they needed. After a few months of treatment, the couple found out they were pregnant. Lilian Grace Yawn was born the next year.
“We named her Lilian, which means pure, innocence and beauty, and Grace, which is a blessing from God,” Sara says. Although they know having more children may not be easy, for now Kirby and Sara are thankful to have one of their biggest dreams – parenthood – come true.

SOURCE: 2whbf.com

DuoFertility Or IVF For Infertile Couples?

2011-11-23T05:34:00.000-08:00

duo fertility monitor

A new study published in European Obstetrics & Gynaecology (European Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 2011;6(2):92-4) shows that DuoFertility used for six months (a small body-worn monitor coupled with an expert consultancy service) gives the same chance of pregnancy as a cycle of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for many infertile couples. This study demonstrates that there is a viable non-invasive, drug-free alternative to IVF for thousands of couples, with the potential to save them (and the NHS) millions of pounds each year. The paper, by Chausiaux et al, is the first peer-reviewed publication of clinical pregnancy rates using the new DuoFertility product and service. The lead author, Dr. Oriane Chausiaux, has been researching infertility for over a decade in Paris and Cambridge. Summarising the results, she said "Although we have been observing higher than anticipated pregnancy rates with this programme for some time, and reporting this at academic conferences, this is the first study with sufficient statistical power to meet the stringent criteria of the peer review publication process. The results show that for couples suffering from unexplained infertility as well as a variety of other factors, six months using DuoFertility is as effective as a cycle of IVF and twelve months using DuoFertility yields a higher clinical pregnancy rate than a cycle of IVF - even at the 95% confidence level". The study followed the first 500 couples using DuoFertility from launch in 2009, including 242 who qualified for IVF/ICSI treatment, of whom 90 had previously had the procedure. The one-year clinical pregnancy rate for those who qualified for IVF was 39%, which is higher than either the UK or EU clinical pregnancy rates for a cycle of IVF (26% and 28% respectively), whilst the corresponding rate for those who had already been through a cycle of IVF/ICSI was 28%. The impact of the study by Chausiaux et al is clear. For many couples, not only is IVF invasive for the woman and demeaning for the man, it is a procedure needlessly costing the NHS, or the couple themselves, thousands of pounds. Whilst a typical cycle of IVF costs the NHS around £4,500 including drugs and consultancy, the cost in the private sector (which accounts for 80% of IVF procedures performed in the UK) is typically £7,000. By comparison the DuoFertility program offers a year of monitoring and support for £495 and has now been shown to be equally or more likely to achieve pregnancy. Not only this, but the company offers to refund those couples who have not achieved pregnancy after a year of using DuoFertility as directed - a guarantee that caught the attention of TV 'dragon' Theo Paphitis and and Boots, the UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer, resulting in the product being stocked by Boots after appearing on the BBC documentary series "Britain's Next Big Thing" earlier this year. The publication coincides with reaching the 200th reported pregnancy by users of DuoFertility, which was celebrated with a party hosted by medical personality Dr. Miriam Stoppard. Dr. Stoppard, addressing the assembled parents and parents-to-be, said "[it is] the first product or service that I have seen in this arena which truly wraps around all of the needs of the couple, from the medical monitoring, to the review of this data by experts, and then the all-important emotional support that is provided."..."The results of the scientific studies on pregnancy rate are very encouraging, but do need to be followed up with live birth rates, and I look forward to seeing further research." IVF and assisted reproductive technologies have been in the spotlight recently with a damning report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility. The report showed that fewer than one-quarter of NHS Primary Care Trusts are providing the number of IVF cycles recommended by the NHS guidelines, and that there is widespread evidence of PCTs adding extra conditions on infertile couples that prevent them obtaining treatment. Gareth Johnson, MP leading the group, said "One in Seven couples in the UK suffer from infertility problems, indeed more women attend GP surgeries to obtain advice on infertility than any issue other than pregnancy. This shows just how big an issue infertility is for so many people". It is perhaps not surprising therefore that Cambridge Temperature Concepts, the company behind DuoFertility, was recently recognised at Downing St as one of nine innovative small businesses to help reduce costs in the public sector through the Cabinet Office Innovation Launchpad programme. The study authors caution that although non-invasive and drug-free, DuoFertility is not suitable for all couples. Dr. Husheer, inventor of DuoFertility explained "although DuoFertility is suitable for around 80% of infertile couples, there are some couples with medically identified conditions that prevent natural conception, such as a woman with two blocked fallopian tubes. In these cases IVF is absolutely the right thing to do, enabling conception where it was previously a physical impossibility."
source: medicalnewstoday

Palm Beach Fertility Center Now Offering Treatment Regimen Featuring Acupuncture Alongside IVF

2011-09-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

The Palm Beach Fertility Center has recently announced that they are now offering a new form of treatment for couples that have been unable to conceive a child naturally. The experienced medical specialists within the facility have developed a treatment regimen that combines the benefits of acupuncture and IVF to increase the chances of a successful pregnancy.

This additional service is the result of a new study within the field that suggests that women who paired their IVF treatment with acupuncture had a 65% greater chance of becoming pregnant through the treatment. This study was released through the reputable and established British Medical Journal and included 114 women who had been approved for IVF treatment. It found that, of the women who received acupuncture, there were fewer miscarriages, more pregnancies and a 7% higher birth rate than those who did not receive the acupuncture treatment.

This study was founded upon previous research by the same medical team in which they studied 147 women who had responded poorly to IVF treatment. This previous study found that the pregnancy rate was 40%, with 11% more babies born for those who received acupuncture during their scheduled IVF treatment.

Renowned worldwide fertility treatment experts such as Raymond Chang of New York’s Meridian Medical Group have been using acupuncture within their fertility treatments for the past decade and have experienced great success.

"Acupuncture provides better circulation and better blood flow to the womb. It will give a better chance for the eggs to be nourished and therefore carried." - Dr. Raymond Chang, Director of New York's Meridian Medical Group

Now, with this additional treatment offering through the Palm Beach Fertility Center, many women from across the South Florida area will have an increased opportunity to conceive a child of their own.

SOURCE: PR.COM

Heavier women may have less IVF success

2011-08-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

The heavier a woman is, the more trouble she may have getting pregnant and having a baby through in vitro fertilization, or IVF -- and may lose the baby more often, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers led by Barbara Luke of Michigan State University found that women who were overweight or obese were less likely to become pregnant using fertility treatments than normal-weight women.

Past studies have also hinted at worse IVF outcomes in heavier women, although they don't prove that the extra weight is directly responsible for the reproductive troubles those women experience.

"Treatment and pregnancy failures with increasing obesity significantly increased starting with overweight women," Luke and her colleagues wrote in Fertility and Sterility.

They drew data from a reporting system that includes more than 90 percent of IVF treatments done in the United States -- information on 150,000 fertility treatment cycles done in 2007 and 2008 at 361 different clinics.

For each cycle, the reporting system included whether the cycle was canceled, if it led to a pregnancy, and whether that pregnancy ended early in a miscarriage or stillbirth, or if the woman gave birth to a live baby. For most cycles, it also had data on women's height and weight before starting treatment.

From the beginning through the end of fertility treatment, heavy women saw poorer results.

"We know that being overweight and obese is not good (for IVF), it's just how bad is it and where are the bad effects?" said Brian Cooper of Mid-Iowa Fertility in Clive, who wasn't involved in the study.

About nine percent of cycles in normal-weight women were stopped early, compared to 16 percent of cycles in the heaviest women -- those with a body mass index over 50, which is equivalent to a 1.6 meter (5 foot 5 inch) woman who weighs over 136 kg (300 pounds).

Normal weight women had a 43 percent chance of getting pregnant during each cycle using their own, fresh eggs for IVF, compared to 36 percent for very heavy women. Rates for overweight and less obese women fell in between.

For women who did get pregnant, the trend continued, with the heaviest about twice as likely as normal-weight women to lose the baby in many cases.

For overweight and obese women trying to get pregnant, even a little bit of weight loss helps, said Howard McClamrock, an infertility specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

"This is what we're constantly faced with: ideally she might like to lose weight, but she might not have that much time," added McClamrock, who was not involved in the study.

Though he noted that research has been pointing more and more toward a connection between extra weight and worse IVF outcomes, the reason is unclear.

One explanation is that extra fat tissue releases estrogen, which fools the brain into thinking the ovaries are working when they really aren't, so it doesn't do its part to kick the ovaries into gear, Cooper said.

Luke and her colleagues said that thin and heavy women may have different causes of infertility, though they added that they did not have data on lifestyle factors that may affect IVF success, or any data on the male partners.

Thin and normal-weight women generally had higher rates of endometriosis, in which cells from the lining of the womb grow on other organs. Polycystic ovary syndrome, where the ovaries become enlarged and contain several small cysts, were more common in very heavy women.

Cooper said that weight still isn't as big an issue for fertility as age, or whether a woman smokes.

"Weight isn't everything, but it's an important factor that we have control over. Fix it now, because even a little bit (of weight loss) can make a big difference," he added. SOURCE: bit.ly/pjwsra

(Reporting by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Fertility Meds Work, Stress Or Not

2011-05-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

Stressed by the fact that you are trying to get pregnant? Not to worry, the stress you are experiencing won't impact the effectiveness of the fertility drugs you may be taking, so don't sweat it. Stress and tension don't decrease the success of a woman's fertility treatment, a new study suggests.

Three and a half thousand women that took fertility treatments were surveyed in 14 studies for the presence of stress and anxiety compared to levels before they begun treatments. Many women believe that emotional distress can reduce their chances of becoming pregnant naturally or having success with fertility treatments, but the researchers say that's a mistaken idea based on anecdotal evidence and myths.

The results proved that there is no association between emotional distress and the likelihood of becoming pregnant.

Jacky Boivin, a professor in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University in Wales states:

"These findings should reassure women that emotional distress caused by fertility problems or other life events co-occurring with treatment will not compromise their chance of becoming pregnant."

Health experts say that about 15 percent of couples are infertile. Infertility means not being able to get pregnant after one year of trying. Or, six months, if a woman is 35 or older. Women who can get pregnant but are unable to stay pregnant may also be infertile.

Infertility treatment can be physically uncomfortable, time-consuming, exhausting, and costly, all without a guarantee of success. The infertility experience for many can range from multiple diagnostic procedures through progressively more aggressive treatment options, all of which impose demands upon the emotional and physical self. It's no wonder that many women experience severe stress, depression, or anxiety during treatment for infertility.

Medical treatment of infertility generally involves the use of fertility medication, medical device, surgery, or a combination of these.

If the sperm are of good quality and the mechanics of the woman's reproductive structures are good (patent fallopian tubes, no adhesions or scarring), physicians may start by prescribing a course of ovarian stimulating medication. The physician may also suggest using a conception cap cervical cap, which the patient uses at home by placing the sperm inside the cap and putting the conception device on the cervix, or intrauterine insemination (IUI), in which the doctor introduces sperm into the uterus during ovulation, via a catheter. In these methods, fertilization occurs inside the body.

If conservative medical treatments fail to achieve a full term pregnancy, the physician may suggest the patient undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF and related techniques (ICSI, ZIFT, GIFT) are called assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques.

ART techniques generally start with stimulating the ovaries to increase egg production. After stimulation, the physician surgically extracts one or more eggs from the ovary, and unites them with sperm in a laboratory setting, with the intent of producing one or more embryos. Fertilization takes place outside the body, and the fertilized egg is reinserted into the woman's reproductive tract, in a procedure called embryo transfer.

In 2007 the FDA cleared the first at home tier one medical conception device to aid in conception. The key to the kit are cervical caps for conception. This at home insemination method allows all the semen to be placed up against the cervical os for six hours allowing all available sperm to be placed directly on the cervical os. For low sperm count, low sperm motility, or a tilted cervix using a cervical cap will aid in conception.

SOURCE:MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Assisted Reproductive Technology: Uterine Health More Important Than Egg Quality

2011-02-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

For women seeking pregnancy by assisted reproductive technologies, such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a new study shows that the health of the uterus is more relevant than egg quality for a newborn to achieve normal birth weight and full gestation. This study, published in Fertility and Sterility, an international journal for obstetricians, offers new information for women with infertility diagnoses considering options for conceiving.

The study was conducted by Dr. William Gibbons, director of The Family Fertility Program at Texas Children's Hospital and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, along with colleagues at the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART) Marcelle Cedars, MD and Roberta Ness, MD. They reviewed three years of data that compared average birth weight and gestational time for single births born as a result of standard IVF, IVF with donor eggs and IVF with a surrogate. While the ability to achieve a pregnancy is tied to egg/embryo quality, the obstetrical outcomes of birth weight and length of pregnancy are more significantly tied to the uterine environment that is affected by the reason the woman is infertile.

There were more than 300,000 IVF cycles during the time of the study producing more than 70,000 singleton pregnancies.

"This is the first time that a study demonstrated that the health of a women's uterus is a key determinant for a fetus to obtain normal birth weight and normal length of gestation," said Dr. Gibbons. "While obvious issues of uterine fibroids or conditions that alter the shape of the uterus are suspected to affect pregnancy rates, conditions that result in poorer ovarian function to the point of needing donor eggs are not known. Further research is needed to fully understand this complex issue."

As assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in the U.S. mature, increasing attention is directed not just to pregnancy rates but also to the obstetrical outcomes of those resulting pregnancies - meaning the newborn's birth weight, health and gestational age. Currently, about one percent of U.S. births are the result of ART therapies such as IVF, donor eggs, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, embryo cryopreservation, embryo donation, preimplanation genetic diagnosis, and male infertility surgery and medical therapy.

The study explored several scenarios and found that the birth weight associated with standard IVF - in which the patient carried the embryo created with her own egg - was greater than that associated with donor egg cycles, and less than that in gestational carrier cycles. This finding held true even when other factors were considered showing that the woman's own uterus may be a determining factor.

Gibbons said the study also determined that a diagnosis of male infertility did not affect birth weight or gestational age, yet every female infertility diagnosis was associated with lower birth weight and a reduced gestational age.

Patients diagnosed with a uterine health issue, such as fibroids or other factors, had babies with the lowest birth weights and gestational ages. This led the researchers to examine the uterine environment as it relates to the type of therapy being considered.

Gibbons explains that in standard IVF, an embryo is transferred to a woman who has just undergone controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, while in donor egg IVF and gestational carrier IVF, the embryo is transferred to a "natural" or unstimulated uterus. Then, the researchers looked at IVF utilizing frozen embryo transfer in which an embryo created with a patient's own egg is transferred to her own unstimulated uterus. They found that babies born of frozen embryo transfer cycles had markedly greater birth weights than those born as a result of standard IVF.

"That finding may help women seeking pregnancy and their physicians to consider frozen embryo transfer as a possible option if the uterine health is not a consideration," said Gibbons. "This study shows us how so many factors are related to a successful outcome and we continue to learn where further research may be needed."

source:medicalnews today

Delaware Fertility Centre Overcomes Miscarriages and IVF failures

2010-12-26T22:42:00.000-08:00

Major advances utilizing embryo genetic testing with in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology have led to many new and expectant families, as reported by Reproductive Associates of Delaware (RAD) in their recent presentation at the October national meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Denver, CO.

"This is a milestone of progress," noted Ronald F. Feinberg MD, PhD, the Center's IVF Medical Director. "We have merged our latest IVF techniques with successfully testing all 24 chromosomes within an embryo before it is placed back in the mother's uterus."

RAD's study demonstrated that almost 50% of 167 well developed and normal-appearing blastocyst embryos contained major chromosome defects, all of which were incompatible with normal pregnancy. The technology was applied to 26 patients who had previously suffered with miscarriage, unexplained infertility, and/or prior IVF failure. Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) with blastocyst trophectoderm biopsy was the technique utilized.

Following PGS, 71% of patients who were found to have at least one normal embryo achieved a successful pregnancy to date, despite previously negative outcomes and poor prognosis. One RAD patient that had never been pregnant had very few normal embryos via PGS. However, she successfully delivered healthy twins earlier this year after having two normal embryos biopsied via PGS and later placed in her uterus. All of the other PGS pregnancies at RAD have been singletons, following placement of just one normal embryo.

"We likely have a new and important reason for offering IVF and PGS to patients with infertility, prior IVF failure, and miscarriage", said Marc Portmann, Director of Lab Technology and Innovation at the RAD Center, who was also the lead author of the study. "This advance in IVF is of great significance because it will improve success rates, foster increased confidence in single embryo transfer, and will lower costs and risks of IVF." Many authorities within the field believe PGS could be applied to all patients undergoing IVF, but the larger benefits need to be fully evaluated.

Though many consider IVF and PGS to be expensive treatments, RAD's physicians believe this should be weighed against other factors, such as the health, emotional, and societal costs associated with infertility and miscarriage. High risks and costs of multiple gestations caused by other suboptimal treatments, including the transfer of multiple embryos during typical IVF procecures, must also be considered.

Approximately 15-20% of reproductive age women and men attempting pregnancy have infertility, a miscarriage history, or have experienced both.

source:sfgate.com

New Method Could Make IVF More Effective

2010-10-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Researchers using a microscope and time-lapse photography believe they have developed a method for predicting which test-tube embryos are the most likely to develop properly, and are licensing development of a commercial test.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, also provide some new insights into the development of days-old embryos, such as how babies inherit some genes from the mother and some from the father.
They said the new test could help fertility clinics pick the best embryo to implant in the womb.
This would save mothers from having several treatments and help improve on the current method of implanting multiple embryos to try to get one pregnancy and risk multiple births in the process.
"Our results shed light on human embryo development," wrote Renee Reijo Pera of Stanford University in California and colleagues. "Our methods and algorithms may provide an approach for early diagnosis of embryo potential in assisted reproduction."
So called test-tube babies are conceived by uniting egg and sperm in a lab dish and transferring the embryo into a woman's uterus to develop. Most do not develop properly and labs have been looking for ways to improve their success rate.
Although it is not recommended, some IVF clinics will implant more than one embryo into the mother's womb -- leading to the birth of triplets, quadruplets and even more. Such babies almost always are born too early and face lifelong health problems.
All pregnancies are tenuous, even those achieved the old fashioned way. The March of Dimes, a charity founded to battle birth defects, estimates that as many as 50 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage -- most often before a woman knows she is pregnant.
For the new test the researchers watched embryos divide and develop from the time sperm met egg in a lab dish. As the embryos split and grew, they also tested gene expression -- looking at which genes activated, and when.
To their surprise, they found that almost from the very beginning some of the handful of cells had different sets of active genes.
An embryo's fate -- whether it would develop normally or not -- seemed determined in many cases from the moment of conception and relied heavily on the mother's egg cell, they found.
Embryos most likely to form a ball of cells called a blastocyst developed at a certain, measurable rate, they found.
Auxogyn, Inc., a privately held medical technology company, said in a statement it had acquired an exclusive license from Stanford University to develop products related to the findings.
"Blastocyst formation is a critical time point in human embryo development and provides more objective criteria for selecting which embryo(s) to transfer," Lissa Goldenstein, president and CEO of Auxogyn, said in a statement.
"For years, researchers have searched for ways to predict the embryos most likely to reach the blastocyst stage in order to enable earlier transfer and ultimately improve live birth rates for in vitro fertilization procedures."
The company estimates that there are 500 clinics in the United States providing in vitro fertilization or IVF services, with combined annual revenues of nearly $2 billion.

SOURCE: REUTERS

IVF treatment: 66-year-old childless woman gives birth to triplets •As world’s oldest mum says she is dying from IVF complications

2010-06-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

A 66-year-old Indian woman has become the oldest person in the world to give birth to triplets after IVF treatment at a controversial centre.
Childless Bhateri Devi gave birth to two boys and a girl –– who are now being treated in intensive care after being born dangerously underweight.

Mrs Devi received IVF treatment at the National Fertility Centre in Haryana –- where the world’s oldest mum, Rajo Devi Lohan, was also treated.
However, the doctors said the triplets, weighing 2 pounds 6 ounces, 2 lbs 4 ounces and 1pound 7 ounces, were being monitored in the intensive care unit of the centre.
Mrs Lohan, 72, who gave birth 18 months ago aged 70, has revealed she is dying –– and hit out at the centre for not explaining the risks to women about having babies later in life.
However, officials at the centre proudly boasted of their latest achievement.
Dr Anurag Bishnoi, who supervised Mrs Devi’s treatment, said: “According to the birth certificate issued by a government hospital in Rohtak district, Bhateri Devi was born on May 21, 1944 in Madina village of Rohtak.
“This birth is authentic and therefore she has become the oldest mother in the world to give birth to triplets so far.
“Bhateri Devi was coming to us for the last months for the treatment. She has become a mother for the first time and conceived only in our third attempt through IVF technique.
“For the first two attempts, only two embryos were transferred in each cycle.
“But in third attempt three embryos were transferred in her uterus, resulting in the birth of three children by caesarean.’
Mrs Devi’s husband of 44 years, Deva Singh, 64, said he was ecstatic at becoming a father for the first time.
“Bhateri has fulfilled my dream of having a child and gave my family an heir.” he said.
‘She was my first wife and after she failed to conceive a child, I married twice but again I did not have any child from my other wives also.
“I am very happy and I will provide all the best facilities to my children in the coming years.”

In November 2008, 70-year-old Mrs Lohan made headlines after she gave birth to a girl through IVF technique at the same centre.
She and her husband, Balla, 73, are uneducated farmers who said they did not understand the risk of having a baby at such an old age

Is IVF Good Value For Money?

2010-06-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Children conceived by Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR) have fiscal implications for government both in terms of future government spending and tax revenue. Based on public funding to conceive a MAR child - after factoring in education, future health and pension costs, and future tax contributions of this child - the discounted net tax revenue (the difference between future government spending and tax revenue) of a child born in 2005 is roughly 127,000 euros in today's value.

Considering an average treatment cost of approximately 15,000 euros to conceive an IVF-child, this represents an 8-fold return on investment (ROI) for governments [1]. While the costs of MAR treatment represent a substantial proportion of a patient's annual disposable income, MAR typically represents less than 0.25% of total national healthcare expenditure. By comparison, obesity accounts for 10% and 2-4% of total health care spending in the US and Europe respectively.

MAR treatments elicit significant medical, reproductive and economic influence in developed countries with 3.5 million children estimated to have been born worldwide since 1978. These children make up a substantial proportion of national births with up to 4.1% in Denmark and 3.3% in Belgium. In the US, Europe, and Oceania over 600,000 treatment cycles resulted in 120,000 children being born in 2005. The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Task Force on 'Reproduction and Society' reviewed the economics of MAR to evaluate the benefits of funding of MAR for society and to inform policy makers on effective, safe and equitable financing of MAR. Dr. Mark Connolly and colleagues who published this review paper in the journal Human Reproduction Update based their findings on key epidemiological and economic studies. Affordability of IVF is one of the main drivers of treatment utilisation, choice of treatment, and embryo transfer practices which ultimately influence the multiple birth rate and infant outcomes.

Although the poorer clinical outcomes are well known, the indirect costs and hence the economic burden associated with MAR multiple birth children - which may extend well beyond the perinatal period - are less appreciated. Lack of affordable treatment may force patients and clinicians to opt for cheaper fertility treatments such as stimulated intrauterine insemination and ovulation stimulation which have less controllable means of minimising multiple births. If treatment is appropriately funded, there is less of a financial incentive to achieve pregnancy in a limited number of cycles. Additionally, restricted treatment and limited financial access coerces some patients to seek cross border reproductive treatment in countries where cheaper or less restrictive treatments are offered. The ESHRE Task Force on 'Cross Border Reproductive Care' showed in a recent survey that, of those patients that sought cross border reproductive care, only 13% received partial reimbursement and 4% total reimbursement in their own country. Different standards of care and less responsible embryo transfer practices are amongst the risks patients' face when going abroad

IVF HOPE AFTER BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ON EMBRYO SCREENING TECHNIQUE

2009-12-04T23:33:00.000-08:00

baby oliver with simon fishel

The first baby conceived with the help of a new egg screening technique which could offer hope to women for whom IVF has repeatedly failed has been born.
Oliver was born to a 41-year-old woman who had had 13 failed IVF treatments.
The new screening method, developed in Nottingham, allows a rapid analysis of the genetic material in fertilised eggs to check for chromosomal abnormalities.
The British Fertility Society said the technique was promising but that more research was needed.
Professor Simon Fishel, who led the team, said Oliver's arrival showed that the test could help couples who have repeatedly failed to become pregnant.
"All the team have been waiting for this very special baby to be born.
"Oliver's birth is an important landmark in shaping our understanding of why many women fail to become pregnant.
"Up to half of the eggs in younger women and up to 75% in women over 39 are chromosomally abnormal.
Array Comparative Genomic Hybridisation is used to screen eggs or embryos in an IVF cycle, evaluate all the chromosomes and select the most chromosomally normal embryos."
Before an egg is fertilised, it ejects half of its own set of chromosomes to leave space for the chromosomes coming from the father's sperm.
Miscarriages
These "spare" chromosomes are kept in a structure on the edge of the cell known as the "polar body".
Array CGH involves extracting the polar body and looking to see if there are too few or too many chromosomes.
It is believed that two out of three women fail at each IVF attempt because of chromosomal abnormalities in the implanted egg.
The team at Care Fertility Clinic have found a way of speeding the analysis of the genetic material they extract.
Two years ago US scientists announced that 18 women had given birth after having their eggs screened using a similar technique.
But in those cases the resulting embryos had to be frozen and re-implanted later.
The Nottingham team can get the results back in 24 hours which means that the mother can undergo IVF in the same cycle of treatment.
Oliver's parents had 13 previous failed IVF cycles and three miscarriages.
Eight eggs were tested and only two found to be chromosomally normal. One of those produced Oliver.
Great hope
British Fertility Society chairman Tony Rutherford said the technology offered much promise but the widespread use of it should await the outcome of further rigorous research.
He said there was no compelling evidence yet that pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) tests, in which embryos are looked at for genetic abnormalities before they are implanted in the womb, improved the pregnancy rate or live birth rate.
He said: "All too often we see groundbreaking news about techniques that seem to offer great hope, but fail to live up to expectations when applied in widespread clinical practice."
Professor Peter Braude, head of the department of women's health at King's College London, said he was delighted that the mother had achieved her positive outcome after so many years of trying but he too sounded a note of caution.
"At the moment this can only be viewed as a potentially very lucky result," he said.
Stuart Lavery, a consultant gynaecologist and director of IVF at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said: "This technique is a very poweful tool that may allow us to detect which embryos of the many produced in an IVF cycle have the best chance of implantation and resulting in a birth.
"Clearly this is very early days, and our optimism needs to be tempered with caution until we have more evidence of the technique's safety and effectiveness.
"My own unit at the Hammersmith has recently been given an HFEA licence for microarray CGH and we look forward to contributing to this promising new field."
SOURCE: BBC.CO.UK

Controversial egg modification technique could increase IVF success in older women

2009-11-21T02:13:00.000-08:00

A controversial new technique to improve the quality of eggs from older women undergoing IVF is being developed by Japanese scientists.

Because the procedure involves using eggs from two women to create a single viable egg for fertilisation, it has sparked a media furore over the potential creation of what have been inaccurately dubbed 'three-parent embryos'.
The success rate of IVF declines dramatically as the age of the woman undergoing the procedure increases. One of the reasons for this is thought to be the accumulation of abnormalities in the cytoplasm (the jelly-like substance that surrounds a cell's nucleus) of eggs from older women. Researchers at the St Mother Hospital in Kitakyushu, Japan, took the nucleus out of an egg cell from an older woman undergoing IVF and transplanted into an egg donated by a younger woman (under the age of 35) which had first had its nucleus removed. The resulting egg had the nucleus from the older woman but the cytoplasm from the younger woman.
The research team presented their results at the American Society for Reproductiove Medicine meeting in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2009. Out of 31 eggs on which the procedure was performed, 25 appeared to have transplanted successfully and looked healthy and so were used for fertilisation. Out of these 25 eggs, seven (28 per cent) formed early-stage embryos after being injected with sperm. This was a dramatic improvement on the usual three per cent success rate for the fertilisation of eggs from older women.
In this case, the embryos were not implanted back into women, but team leader Dr Atsushi Tanaka told New Scientist magazine: 'If we could transfer these constructed new embryos, I believe the success rate would be high'.
Although the vast majority of human DNA is contained inside the nuclei of cells, a handful of genes - just 37 genes out of around 25,000 genes in total - are found in the mitochondria, tiny structures that exist in the cytoplasm and provide power to cells. The embryos created by Dr Tanaka and his team would inherit only these 37 genes from the younger donor of the empty egg and cytoplasm, and their remaining 25,000 or so genes from the woman who donated the egg's nucleus and the man who donated the sperm. For this reason, a similar technique of nuclear transfer has been proposed in order to enable women who have severe genetic disorders associated with mitochondrial genes to have children of their own without passing on their condition.
The use of this technique on eggs intended for implantation is currently banned in the UK. However, the new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act recognises what it calls the 'devastating effects' of mitochondrial diseases and will allow for secondary legislation to sanction treatment of mitochondrial diseases should therapies be developed.
SOURCE: BIONEWS.ORG.UK

For the mother 13 times unlucky with IVF, a miracle boy at last

2009-09-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

His mother has suffered the trauma of two miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy and 13 failed IVF attempts.
Having been through all that this little baby boy can only be described as her miracle.

The child, identified only as Oliver, has become the first in the world to be born using an IVF technique that is said to more than double the chances of pregnancy.

Oliver, from the south of England, was born in July after doctors devised a way of counting the chromosomes in eggs, allowing them to pick only the best for fertility treatment.
After years of IVF disappointment, his mother, aged 41, had all but given up hope of ever having a baby of her own.

It's hardly surprising that her doctor says the woman and her husband - who have requested privacy - are still in shock at the birth.
Simon Fishel, of the Care group of fertility clinics, said: 'You get to a point where you don't believe it is going to happen to you.
'They are absolutely thrilled, as anybody would be, but believe it is almost more of a miracle in their case because of their history.
'Oliver's birth is an important landmark in shaping our understanding of why many women fail to become pregnant.'

So far, another six or so women have become pregnant thanks to the technique. But in time it could help many more women achieve their dream of motherhood.

Initial studies suggest it can more than double the odds of conception, cutting the cost and heartache of failed IVF attempts.
The technique, known as array comparative genomic hybridisation
Healthy eggs should have 23 chromosomes but many have more or less than this, greatly cutting the chances of pregnancy and raising the risk of miscarriage and of having a child with a condition such as Down's syndrome.

Up to three-quarters of miscarriages are thought to be due to embryos having too many or too chromosomes, with eggs from older women particularly likely to be problematic.
In trials, a more basic form of the technique doubled the pregnancy rate from 25 per cent to 50 per cent.

The latest version, pioneered at Care's Nottingham clinic, removes the potentially risky step of freezing and thawing the eggs or embryos and so could boast even better results.
Dr Fishel said: 'I really don't want to raise hopes unnecessarily but I do believe that because chromosomal abnormalities are so vast in cases of IVF failure that this technique will produce higher live birth rates.
'I am hoping it will double, or even more than double, the chances in most groups of patients.'
Optimising the chances of pregnancy would also allow doctors to reduce the number of eggs they implant in a woman at one time, cutting the odds of risky twin and triplet pregnancies.
The Care team is now trying out the method on embryos, something-that could increase the chances of success even further.
Although the method is mainly being used in women who have repeatedly failed at IVF, younger women could also benefit, as up to half of their eggs have chromosomal problems.
However, the £2,000 price tag, on top of the £3,000 or so for IVF, may put many off.
Experts urged caution about the development.
Tony Rutherford, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said that while the technology offers 'much promise' more research was needed to ascertain its value.

He said: 'The widespread use of this technology should await the outcome of such research to ensure we know which patients might benefit.'
Professor Peter Braude, head of the department of women's health at King's College London, said: 'I am delighted that this patient has achieved her positive outcome after so many years of trying.
'However we need to be cautious as to whether the new technique was responsible.

New IVF test increases pregnancy chances, say researchers

2009-09-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

A new technique for screening embryos for genetic defects during IVF more than doubles the chances that the embryo will implant in the mother's womb, according to a pilot study by UK and US researchers.
The method, which has several advantages over an existing screening technique, led to established pregnancies - meaning that foetal heartbeat was detected using ultrasound - in 78% of the 23 women who underwent the treatment. Genetic screening involves testing embryos produced during in-vitro fertilisation for abnormal chromosomes that could prevent the embryos from being carried to term.

Fertility doctors using the current technique take one or two cells at day three of the embryo's development, when it has eight cells. Once healthy embryos have been selected, they are implanted back into the patient's uterus. The technique, fluorescent in situ hybridisation, is controversial, with some studies suggesting that it provides no benefit or is counter-productive. The long-term effects of manipulating the embryo are unknown.

The new technique, called comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH), allows doctors to remove cells from the embryo at a later stage, when it is five days old and has more than 100 cells. Removing cells at this stage should be less damaging, and by analysing five or six cells the clinician can be more confident that the genetic abnormality exists in the whole embryo, and not just a few cells.

The researcher who has developed the new technique is planning to offer it in the UK for about £2,000, on top of the fee for IVF, and around the same as standard screening techniques.
"The pregnancy rates we've got so far are absolutely phenomenal," said Dr Dagan Wells at Oxford University and Reprogenetics UK, who led the study. "We're ready to begin a trial in the UK, and we have a couple of licence applications in to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to start offering CGH to patients." The HFEA is the UK's regulator of fertility clinics.

Dr Mandy Katz-Jaffe at the Colorado Centre for Reproductive Medicine, near Denver, who is part of the team, said: "The patients who are going through this knew this was their last chance of conceiving without going for donor eggs. They have a poor prognosis, with multiple failed cycles. The effect on those patients who have conceived has been beyond anything I can describe." Wells's team tested the CGH method in 23 women aged 30-42, and transferred 50 embryos. After screening and embryo transfer, 20 of the women became pregnant (foetal heartbeat confirmed by ultrasound).

Better infertility treatments may help many to become parents

2009-08-05T15:34:00.001-07:00

An advertisement which said "Choose from a bevy of healthy super-ovulated women to make your family complete" encouraged Audrey and Derek (names changed), residents of New Castle, UK, to go doctor shopping for a baby across four continents. Finally, they zeroed in on Dr Aniruddha Malpani, who runs the Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai.

Audrey was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, having gone through multiple cycles of fertility treatment without any results. The couple had spent nearly 50,000 pounds in the eight years that they had been desperately trying for a baby. From swanky doctor studios they had even done the rounds of astrologers, herbal doctors and miracle-promising mendicants, driven by a single-minded obsession to become parents the biological way.

This cycle of hope-disappointment-hope was finally broken when they had Derek Jr. through In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment in Mumbai.

Audrey and Derek are one of the many childless couples who come to India with the hope of going back home with their very own bundle of joy. Fertility tourism is big business now - the industry reportedly brings in hundreds of millions of dollars into the county. In fact, reports also suggest that the number of such cases has more than doubled in the last three years. The reasons: pocket-friendly treatment, world-class heath care facilities, a large base of English-speaking doctors, relatively fewer legal hurdlest the list is long. Dr Vibha Bansal, a Delhi-based gynaecologist, elaborates, "Fertility tourism has received a great deal of media attention of late. The cost of IVF in the West is astronomical and countries enact laws that drastically curtail women's access to assisted reproduction. However, countries like Thailand, Russia, China and India, where such treatments are easily accessible, see people not only from the developed world seeking treatment but also from places like Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, where such options either do not exist, entail long waiting periods or are not of a satisfactory quality." She adds that the government has made things easier by not cluttering the space with too much legalese. According to Dr Malpani, "IVF, embryo adoption and egg donation are very popular and a major reason for this is its cost effectiveness." Take a look at the monetary contrast: At private clinics in the US, which do 70 per cent of all IVF treatment, costs can run up to $18,000 a cycle. Indian clinics offer the same at around $7,200. And to make the deal even more irresistible, many fertility centres offer package deals, throwing in plane tickets and hotel stay as well.

Other than the cost factor, Dr Malpani believes "foreigners choose India because doctors here are known to be more caring". Also, while British clinics may allow doctors to implant only two embryos in a surrogate's uterus, in India this can go up to six embryos at a time - increasing the chances of conception. But Dr Amudha Hari, Consultant Gynaecologist and Laparoscopic Surgeon in Chennai, doesn't see this as positive development.

She believes that there will always be doctors who agree to treat women deemed too old or too overweight by western standards for IVF, never mind the resultant medical complications. Which is why a patient must do a thorough recce and demand to get all his/her questions answered before going in for treatment. "Infertility is like a chronic illness and couples invest a lot of time, energy and money to fulfill their desire of building a family," says Dr Hari.
After three failed rounds of IVF treatment, Bhaskar and Anita, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) in the US, found the answer to their problem in an advertisement. It led them to Nisha, 23, from Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, who was willing to be a surrogate. Everything seemed compatible, she was of the same build and skin colour, except for the fact that she was not married. The issue posed an ethical dilemma for the couple but it was resolved when they were convinced that she was not under any duress but wanted to fund her education to be a nurse. Anita sent her Rs 20,000 every month until the baby was born. She even monitored Nisha's diet and doctor's visits. Their son Rohan's birth, says Anita, was "nothing short of a miracle. We had lost all hope of becoming parents and are now considering having another child after three years, the same way."

Infertility treatments, whether through IVF or surrogacy, creates families. In the process, they also help surrogates find stability in life. In fact, surrogacy has helped poor people pay off debts and get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and, in Nisha's case, get her an education. But, unfortunately, this exercise is not all about gains. If driven solely by commercial interests, fertility treatments can have dangerous consequences. There is always the question of high-risk pregnancies. Sometimes women have to go through repeated surrogacies, getting injected with hormones and the like without proper medical surveillance. All this means compromising dangerously with their health.
Dr Hari recalls a case where a woman in a Mumbai slum had been pushed by her husband to attempt surrogacy for the 18th time. The husband had made this into a kind of domestic enterprise, albeit a failed one, since the poor woman suffered from tuberculosis and was unable to deliver a child successfully. Luckily, a local NGO got a wind of what was going on and took her into a rehab where she is now recovering.

Besides the health risks, there is the issue of adoption. "The many steps involved in adoption once the child is born can be a problem," says Dr Hari. The Indian Council of Medical Research has not issued any guidelines to help deal with foreign clients using Indian surrogates. So the child has to be adopted under Indian law and all procedures outlined in the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption have to be adhered to.

Experts are quick to point out that the global capital generated by the burgeoning fertility tourism market may thwart any concerted international response to the inequities and exploitation that arise in this context. The key to ensuring that the treatment process is relatively hassle-free is to choose the right clinic, one that lays down protocols and guidelines, advises Dr Hari.

Doctor shopping can be a very taxing experience. However, a welcome trend is the easy availability of information on the Internet, making it possible for potential clients to connect with doctors and seek referrals. Blogs and e-mail are handy tools in this regard. However, Dr Abha Majumdar, Head Ultrasound at the IVF Unit in the New Delhi-based Sir Gangaram Hospital, believes that the entire fertility tourism debate is over hyped. She says that the majority of those reaching out to her or those referred from other clinics are Indians (including NRIs) - foreigners make up just 10-15 per cent of that number.

SOURCE:NATIONITTFAQ.COM

REAL FACTS ABOUT EGG DONATION

2009-06-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

It’s becoming more the norm than the exception: women who are giving birth in their late 40’s and early 50’s.
Actress Geena Davis gave birth to twins at 48; Jane Seymour gave birth at 45; Cheryl Tiegs at 52.

Yet statistics show that once a woman reaches the age of 40, her fertility rate is pretty low. That’s why many women seek an egg donor for help.
What is egg donation? I took a closer look at the procedure and the female donors who are changing lives.

Pick up almost any college newspaper and you’ll see the ads seeking egg donors like this 24-year-old grad student who doesn’t want us to use her name.
Earlier this year at a clinic out-of-state, she donated 28 of her eggs, and she says she’s ready to do it again.
“I’m helping someone and they appreciate it,” she said.

The fact is, in a society where more and more women are waiting longer to get pregnant, egg donors like her are desperately needed.
Dr. Michael Steinkampf is the founder of Alabama Fertility Specialists, ranked among the top 25 IVF clinics in the country for women under age 35 by fertilitysuccessrates.com.
He says that when it comes to getting women pregnant, egg donation is the most successful form of invitro fertilization.
“This has become an important part of reproductive life in the United States because more women are working, more women are deferring their first pregnancy, and so more women are finding themselves with difficulty conceiving and in their mid 30’s or early 40’s and often the best treatment for them is egg donation,” Dr. Steinkampf said. “About 10 percent of all the invitro fertilization cycles in this country are done with eggs donated by another woman not the infertile woman herself.”

The problem is—there are more women needing eggs than donors. In Alabama, the average wait period for a woman to receive donated eggs is six months. In other states, up to two years.

And being an egg donor is a commitment. You must be in your early 20’s—and be no older than 32. You have a spotless medical history and agree to a strict medical regimen, including daily injections of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs and an outpatient procedure under sedation to retrieve them.

Complications are unlikely, and Dr. Steinkampf said the procedure won’t affect a donor’s egg supply.
“Taking fertility drugs being an egg donor it doesn’t use up your eggs any faster than what would normally be diminished,” Dr. Steinkampf said.But the concern for some is the lack of follow-up once a donor walks out the door.

Debra Spar is the author of “The Baby Business.” She says a national registry is needed to track the health of egg donor and ensure that egg donation is safe.
“There’s a difference here between asking people to undergo a procedure that’s about their own health and asking people to undergo a procedure that is directed toward somebody else.” Spar said.

But in countries like Canada where regulations have been in place since 2004, egg donation has dropped dramatically by 50 percent.
And while some doctors admit a registry makes sense, they point to legal and privacy issues as roadblocks.

Dr. David Adamson of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine said “We have to be very careful in our country that we don’t discriminate against the infertile and don’t restrict the reproductive choice simply because it’s about reproduction and the reality is that there have been tens of thousands of babies born tens of thousands of donors.”
And for many donors that’s what it’s all about: helping others experience the miracle of life. In some states, egg donors can earn up to $20,000 dollars per egg donation.

Alabama Fertility Specialists pays its donors $3,000.
Medical guidelines suggest a woman can make six donations in her lifetime.

SOURCE: NBC13.COM

Tips for In Vitro Fertilization - IVF

2009-05-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

Arm yourself with info, but don’t get alarmed. Our IVF doctor gave us a sheath of info and consent forms, and some of it revolves around the possible hazards of the egg retrieval and implantation surgeries. They list the possible problems (infection, intestinal punctures) and say “this is not to alarm or scare you!” One tip for IVF is to get all the info you can…but don’t let it freak you out.

Talk to couples who’ve tried IVF. When you get first-hand experiences, you’ll have more info than you ever wanted! To connect with other couples coping with infertility, ask your fertility specialist if they know of any support groups in nearby hospitals or communities. If you’re brave enough, you can ask your friends and family…and find blogs or websites like these!

Read fertility books. Current books about IVF, donor sperm, IUI, and natural treatments for infertility are great ways to learn about the procedure. The more you know about IVF, the more comfortable you’ll feel, which is why these tips for in vitro fertilization are so important.
Read Fertility Plus’ article called IVF Hints. I didn’t agree about the “don’t talk to your partner about his role, as this causes stress” part, but I think it depends on each couple. Everyone copes with infertility differently! If stress leads to performance anxiety, then by all means keep him calm…but if he’s not involved in the sperm donor process, then talk as much as you need!

Do a mock IVF transfer? This is one of the tips for in vitro fertilization suggested by Fertility Plus, but I don’t think we’ll do it. It may be good in theory, but I suspect it’ll cost more time, money, and energy than I can spare. A mock IVF transfer can give the fertility specialist an idea of the depth of your uterus, so when the real time comes, they’re ready.
Be prepared for anything. I’m prepared for pain, discomfort, mood swings, and the fact that this IVF could lead to pregnancy…or another disappointment. I’m prepared for things I can’t even fathom right now! I’m ready for anything.

Plan something fun for after the transfer! Some fertility specialists say to relax right after the egg and sperm are placed, while other say it’s not scientifically proven that increases the success of in vitro fertilization. My tip for a successful IVF is to rent a few of your favorite or new DVDs, make popcorn, snuggle up with your sweetie, and take a day or two off! Give yourself something enjoyable to look forward to.

Plan something fun for after the pregnancy test. If my in vitro fertilization isn’t successful, I’m getting laser eye surgery. Having 20/20 or better vision isn’t as good as a baby, but at least it’s something to look forward to!

As the technology of freezing eggs improves, more options open up for women

2009-02-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

If you're not a woman of child-bearing age, you may never have heard of egg freezing.
But this form of in vitro fertilization has gained traction as its success rate has improved.

Pix left:A cryoloop, a critical tool in advancing pregnancy results from frozen eggs, is smaller than the point of a pen, right. Film is placed on the loop, which holds eggs for freezing

It was in 1978 when the first "test tube" baby was born in England. There, doctors fertilized an egg with sperm in a petri dish, then implanted the resulting embryo into the womb. Since then, hundreds of thousands of women have conceived using this method. In 2006, more than 54,000 IVF babies were born in the United States.

IVF using frozen eggs is newer. In the past decade, as many as 500 babies worldwide have been born from embroys that originated from a thawed-out egg. The first report of such a baby was in 1986. In 2007, the United States recorded its first baby born using both frozen egg and frozen sperm.
Egg freezing appeals to several groups of people, including young cancer patients facing life-saving but fertility-damaging treatments and women who want to extend the window of opportunity to have children because they don't yet have a life partner in the picture.

Couples undergoing fertility treatments also may be drawn to egg freezing. Perhaps they don't like the idea of having to destroy unused embryos or keeping them in limbo. Or -- erring on the side of caution -- they opt for the procedure to avoid the potential issue of custody: Unlike embryos created with a partner's sperm, frozen eggs, which belong to the woman, don't pose problems. (Who "owns" the embryos has landed more than a few soon-to-be-ex couples in court.)

Because oocyte cryopreservation (the medical term for egg freezing) is still considered experimental by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, many U.S. fertility clinics only offer the service to cancer patients.
But that may soon change.

In 2006, an experimental program at Toledo Hospital's Fertility Center of Northwest Ohio welcomed the arrival of its first baby born from a once-frozen egg.
"It was our fertility doctor's idea [to join the study]," said Stacey LaPointe of suburban Toledo, who was 31 when her eggs were retrieved and frozen. "I think we were a little leery, a little hesitant at first."
But after doctors explained the process to LaPointe and her husband, Ryan, the couple decided to go forward.
"We had tried other things unsuccessfully," she said. "It was one of those crapshoots. The odds were so low, we thought, 'Well, it's worth a try.' "
Doctors froze seven of LaPointe's eggs. The five that survived the thawing process were fertilized. Two embryos were implanted, and the other three were frozen.
On Aug. 21, 2006, Claire LaPointe was born.
"We were thrilled," LaPointe said.
On April 1, 2008, she gave birth to her second child, Katie -- conceived the old-fashioned way.

Cleveland Clinic's Beachwood Fertility Center has frozen the eggs of a dozen cancer patients over the past two years. Roughly half of the Clinic's cancer patients do some type of "fertility sparing" procedure, such as embryo or sperm freezing.

As part of a trial to demonstrate that the procedure can work, the Clinic's Partnership For Families program recently picked up most of the expenses -- egg donation, freezing, thawing and fertilization -- for two healthy women in their early 40s who used frozen eggs from a woman in her early 20s. The two women have progressed beyond their first trimesters.

Prior to these two pregnancies, talking to cancer patients about freezing their eggs wasn't a comfortable conversation. No one knew if the success at other clinics could be replicated at the Clinic, said Dr. James Goldfarb, director of the in vitro program at the Clinic's fertility center.
Now, he said, "It's so much nicer to say, 'We can freeze your eggs and have a reasonable chance of this working.' "

The Clinic will consider on a case-by-case basis whether it will offer egg freezing as an elective procedure to healthy women.
University Hospitals Case Medical Center hopes to develop an egg-freezing program in the next six months, said Dr. William Hurd, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology at UH's MacDonald Women's Hospital. And like the Clinic's program, the hope is to expand it to healthy women.

Increasing chances of success
The closer you are to 40, the less likely you are to be a good candidate to freeze your eggs. The cutoff age at Extend Fertility Inc. in Massachusetts is 40, while the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Jacksonville won't accept women over age 38. CHA Fertility Clinic in Los Angeles has a cutoff of 35, with few exceptions.

Beyond age, women need to be as healthy as possible.
So what's the optimal age to freeze one's eggs? About the same that a woman should thinking about having kids.
"Before 30 is ideal," said Hurd. "In her 20s is a good time to have the first child."

At the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine, 53 babies have resulted from frozen eggs in the past nine years. One of those babies is now 3, the child of a cancer patient whose frozen eggs were thawed, fertilized and then carried by a surrogate.

At last count, the University of Bologna in Italy has reported a 25 percent success rate using frozen eggs -- roughly one baby for every four pregnancy attempts -- resulting in around 150 babies.

A clinical study operated by Extend Fertility Inc. -- which works with five partner centers in Boston; Austin, Texas; New York; Beverly Hills, Calif.; and Seattle -- has resulted in 13 babies born from women who used frozen donor eggs, said spokeswoman Marla Libraty.
"The data is early, but it is encouraging," she said.
CHA Fertility Clinic in Los Angeles -- which touts itself as the country's first commercial egg bank -- has had 27 babies born. Five women are currently pregnant.

At the Florida Institute, between 40 percent and 50 percent of women who have had about 10 eggs frozen and then thawed have taken home a baby, said program director Dr. Kevin Winslow.

"In theory, eggs may be stored indefinitely. It is the freezing and thawing process that damages the eggs, not the duration that they are frozen," said Scott Brown, spokesman for California Cryobank.
Dr. Glenn Schattman, a specialist in reproductive surgery at Cornell University's Weill Medical College in New York, says many clinics don't know what their success rates will be because they haven't thawed any of the eggs that they've frozen.

"Most programs don't have their own data," he said.
Most of the women who come through the doors of CHA Fertility Clinic in Los Angeles end up not going through with the procedure, said clinic director Dr. Vicken Sepilian.
"The big misconception is that it's a sure thing and it can be done at any age, that fertility doctors can undo the clock," he said.
Prospective patients should do their research and homework before committing to freezing their eggs, Sepilian said.
Some of the most important questions to ask a clinic: How adept are you at freezing and thawing? What is your pregnancy success rate? How many babies have been born through the specific technology at your clinic?
"It's not this magical treatment that's going to work 100 percent of the time," he said. "It's a backup plan."

SOURCE: CLEVELAND.COM

A cheap, painless alternative to IVF?

2009-02-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

Breakthrough in fertility treatment as first British babies are born using new technique

A landmark in the development of fertility treatment was announced by doctors yesterday with the birth of the first babies to be conceived using a revolutionary technique that offers a safer, cheaper alternative to IVF.

The twin boy and girl, who were born on 18 October at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, were conceived using In Vitro Maturation (IVM), a method that dispenses with the use of costly fertility drugs, saving up to £1,500 on the normal price of treatment.

The technique is also safer for the one in three women among those seeking fertility treatment who have polycystic ovaries, a condition that puts them at high risk of dangerous side effects from fertility drugs.
Specialists said the development could make in vitro techniques available to more infertile couples by cutting the cost of treatment. Infertility is estimated to affect one in six couples in the UK but IVF costs around £5,000 a cycle and treatment is restricted on the NHS.

Tim Child, a consultant gynaecologist at the Oxford Fertility Clinic and senior fellow in reproductive medicine at Oxford University, who led the work, said: "I think it is a safer, cheaper alternative to IVF for all women. However, for many women the success rates are currently much lower. Research in the future will address this."

The Oxford Fertility Clinic is the only one in the UK licensed to use the technique: 20 cycles of treatment have been carried out and four other women are currently pregnant, giving a pregnancy rate of 25 per cent. This is expected to improve with further experience. In addition, without the need for drugs, repeating the procedure would be less taxing on the woman. For standard IVF, the Oxford clinic's pregnancy rate is 45 per cent.

The parents of the babies, who have asked to remain anonymous, were delighted, Mr Child said. At birth the boy, born first, weighed 6lb 11oz and the girl weighed 5lb 14oz. "The parents are ecstatic. They have got absolutely stunning twins. They went home on Tuesday to start their new life together. It is wonderful."

In standard IVF, the woman takes fertility drugs for five weeks to stimulate production of her eggs, which are then collected direct from her ovaries under the guidance of ultrasound, before being fertilised in the laboratory. The drugs cost between £600 and £1,500, with charges often higher in London.

The procedure is time consuming and uncomfortable and for the third of women with polycystic ovaries there is a one in 10 risk of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a dangerous side-effect that in rare cases can prove fatal.

IVM avoids the use of drugs and instead involves collecting eggs from the ovaries while they are still immature. The eggs are then grown in the laboratory for 24 to 48 hours before being fertilised and replaced in the womb.

Mr Child said: "The main advantage is improved safety for women. Women with polycystic ovaries have a one in 10 chance of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. IVM completely takes away that risk. IVF is also expensive. With IVM the cost is reduced, meaning it could become a more accessible form of fertility treatment."

The technique was pioneered by the University of McGill in Montreal, Canada, where Mr Child spent two years researching and developing it before joining the University of Oxford in 2004. It has also been used in Seoul, South Korea, and Scandinavia. To date about 400 babies have been born worldwide using IVM compared with around two million by IVF.

At present the Oxford Fertility Clinic is only offering the treatment to women with polycystic ovaries, but in the long term Mr Child said he hoped to offer the procedure to all women. "When we see patients we say these are the options and it is up to them to decide. We are not offering it to women with normal ovaries at present because we don't get enough eggs from them. It depends on the number of resting follicles and with normal ovaries you don't get so many.

"On average we get four eggs from a woman with normal ovaries compared with 16 from one with polycystic ovaries. The procedure involves a process of attrition – two-thirds mature and two-thirds of those fertilise – so you need a decent number to start with."

Research on developing the culture medium in which the eggs are matured in the laboratory could reduce the attrition rate so that fewer eggs are needed. The technique could then become suitable for women with normal ovaries, Mr Child said.

A second drawback of the procedure was that eggs grown in culture had a harder outer shell than those matured in the ovary and were more difficult for sperm to penetrate. The eggs had to be fertilised by ICSI – injecting a single sperm directly into the egg. "We hope to develop the culture medium so the egg doesn't mind being grown in the laboratory and we can use ordinary insemination [mixing eggs and sperm so fertilisation occurs naturally]. But in most IVF clinics, 50 per cent of patients are treated with ICSI anyway," he said.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said IVF was expensive for most couples and a minority got treatment on the NHS. But it was too soon to tell whether IVM would replace IVF.

"Anything that reduces the cost of IVF, provided it is safe, means treatment could be available to more people. But this is an emerging technology – it is very early days. The most important thing is that patients get proper information so that they can make a decision on what is best for themselves."

Source: independent.co.uk

New tool to test sperm and improve fertility success rates

2009-01-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

London (IANS): A novel method, developed by scientists for testing the health of a sperm before it is used in IVF, boosts chances of conception.

University of Edinburgh researchers have created a way of tagging individual sperm quality, so that only healthy ones are used in fertilising an egg as part of IVF treatment.

IVF or in-vitro fertilisation is the basic assisted reproduction technique, in which the man's sperm and the woman's egg are combined in a lab and after fertilisation, the resulting embryo is then transferred to the woman's uterus.

The sperm are captured in two highly focussed beams of laser light. Trapped in 'optical tweezers', an individual sperm's DNA properties are identified by the pattern of the vibrations they emit in a process known as Raman spectroscopy.
This process is being used for the first time to evaluate DNA damage in sperm.

Existing methods to test sperm DNA quality cut off cells in half and tag them with fluorescent dye, which ends up rendering the sperm useless. This new process leaves them unharmed. So if it is found to have good DNA quality, it can still be used in IVF treatment.

Elfick, the project head, said: "In natural conception, the fittest and healthiest sperm are positively selected by the arduous journey they make to the egg.
What our technology does is to replace natural selection with a DNA based 'quality score'. But this is not about designer babies. We can only tell if the sperm is strong and healthy not if it will produce a baby with blue eyes," he said.

The research is currently in a pre-clinical phase, and if successful could be available to patients in the next five to 10 years, said a release of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which had funded the project.

SOURCE: hindu.com

IVF twins joys for couple who spent £32,000

2009-01-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

AFTER nine years spending £32,000 on fertility treatment, Jayne Day and Stephen Jenkinson never thought they'd have their own baby.
But a final chance at IVF with savings originally earmarked for a house extension, led them to not one little bundle of joy, but two.

On Saturday, the proud parents of 15-week-old twins Harry and Archie were among dozens of other couples celebrating successful treatment at Newcastle's private hospital St Jude's.

The couple went for treatment at the hospital's other base, in Wolverhampton, after six failed IVF attempts at another hospital.
When the clinic opened in Newcastle 15 months ago, they moved their treatment there.
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Jayne, who has four children from a previous relationship, said it felt amazing to fall pregnant again.
The 35-year-old, from Stockfield Road, Meir, said: "I started treatment in January this year after trying for a baby for nine years.
"I'd got birth children, but Stephen hadn't so that didn't stop us wanting one together.
"I'd had a miscarriage and two ectopic pregnancies that meant I lost my fallopian tubes.
"I fell pregnant in February and couldn't believe it when I found out I was having twins."
Stephen, aged 42, said: "After everything we have been through, having twins is amazing."
Joining the couple, who are also foster parents, at the party was Jo Hope with her husband Rob, and their 22-month-old daughter.
Little Ellie was born after the couple spent three years trying for a baby and started treatment in April 2006.
Jo, aged 29, from Tarragon Drive, Meir Park, said: "We had given up hope before we came here.
"It was a stressful and upsetting time because everyone around us was having children and we weren't.
"When we came here all our prayers were answered.
"Now it is lovely to come back and see all the other couples and their babies."
Rob, also aged 29, added: "I don't cry very often, but I was over the moon when I found out the treatment had worked."

More than 120 babies have been delivered this year after successful treatment at the hospital in Sandy Lane.
Its medical director Jude Adghe said the party, also held as a Christmas celebration, aimed to help both new and former patients.
He said: "We thought a party would be a really good way to get all the patients together so that they can share their experiences.
"There are also patients who haven't been lucky enough to have kids yet who may want to ask questions and interact with couples who have been through the system."
Newcastle Mayor John Cooper was also invited to have a look around the hospital and greet guests.
He added: "It has been great to see the children and the hospital

SOURCE:THISISSTAFFORDSHIRE.CO.UK

Breakthrough IVF test to double baby chance for childless couples

2008-12-25T23:54:00.000-08:00

A fertility test that doubles the chances of pregnancy offers new hope to childless couples.
The test helps identify the healthiest embryos for use in IVF treatment and could cut the risk of twins or triplets.

A trial involving couples
British experts are hoping to get permission from the fertility regulator here to offer it to women within the next few months.
Unlike most existing checks for a small number of abnormalities in embryos, the new CGH ( comparative genomic hybridisation) test examines the full complement of normal chromosomes.

The test is also more accurate because it can safely remove a greater number of cells from embryos for DNA testing before the healthiest ones are chosen. Findings from a trial at the Colorado Centre for Reproductive Medicine, near Denver, used results from women with hard-totreat infertility, where previous IVF attempts failed or ended in miscarriage.
They showed the chances of an embryo implanting in the womb were 62 per cent - more than double the 27 per cent rate expected.
Out of 23 women aged between 30 and 42 taking part in the trial, 18 conceived and their pregnancies passed the 12-week stage.
The predicted live birth rate is 78 per cent, which compares with an anticipated 62 per cent in this group.

Two have given birth and four more are expected to deliver their babies by the end of the year, according to data presented yesterday at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco.

Dagan Wells, of the Reprogenetics UK Clinic and the University of Oxford, whose team analyses DNA extracted from embryos at the Colorado clinic, said the findings were 'dramatic'.
He is hoping to offer the technique to couples for around £2,000, in addition to the cost of IVF treatment.

He predicted its use would reduce the occasions when multiple embryos have to be implanted.
'The pregnancy rates we've got so far are absolutely phenomenal. We're ready to begin a trial in the UK,' he said.

SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk

Indian woman gives birth aged 70: report

2008-12-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

An Indian woman has given birth to her first child at the age of 70 after receiving IVF treatment, newspapers reported her doctor as saying.
Rajo Devi, who married 50 years ago, gave birth to a baby girl on November 28 after in vitro fertilisation, said Anurag Bishnoi, a doctor at the Hisar fertility centre in Haryana state.

"Rajo Devi and [her husband] Bala Ram approached the centre for treatment and the embryo transfer was done on April 19," he told the Hindustan Times.
"Both the mother and child are in good health."

Dr Bishnoi claimed Ms Devi was the world's oldest mother.
Another 70-year-old Indian was reported to have given birth to twins via IVF in July this year, while a 66-year-old Spanish woman had twins in 2006.

Ms Devi's husband, aged 72, had also wed his wife's sister after 10 years of his first marriage did not result in children. His second wife also failed to become pregnant.

It was not clear whose egg and sperm were used in the successful treatment.
"IVF has revolutionised the way we look at infertility," said Dr Bishnoi.
"Infertility is no longer a social taboo or a divine curse. It can be treated scientifically."

'IVF without hormones' hailed

2008-11-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

Younger women undergoing fertility treatment may stand a better chance of getting pregnant with a new procedure that does not stimulate the ovaries with powerful hormone-containing drugs, doctors said yesterday.

Findings from the first fertility centre in Britain to use in-vitro maturation (IVM) as an alternative to IVF reveal that pregnancy rates are comparable between the two techniques but only for women under 35. In IVF, women are given hormones for about two or three weeks to stimulate their ovaries to produce mature eggs before they are surgically removed for in vitro fertilisation. In IVM, however, immature eggs are removed from the ovaries without the use of drugs and matured in the laboratory before being fertilised with sperm.

The new technique, which has only recently been introduced to Britain, is considered to be safer than conventional IVF because it does not increase the risk of potentially lethal hyperstimulation syndrome, where the ovaries respond adversely to the hormones used during IVF treatment.

Tim Child, of the Oxford Fertility Centre, said that 70 women in Britain had undergone IVM in the past year and for the 40 patients who were under 35 the pregnancy rate was 48 per cent – compared to a pregnancy rate of about 55 per cent for women undergoing conventional IVF.

The percentage of under 35-year-olds achieving a clinical pregnancy – where the heartbeat of the baby has been detected – was 33 per cent. Just 10 babies of mothers undergoing IVM and attending the Oxford centre have so far been born, so it is still too early to estimate an accurate live-birth rate, which is 31 per cent for IVF.

"What we've found looking back on the first year of using IVM is that it works particularly well for a group of women at the younger end of the scale that we have treated," said Dr Child.

"It's an improvement in that we've worked out which patients do best with IVM, so it's about offering it to the right couples," he said.
About 900 babies have been born worldwide by the IVM technique. The first IVM babies in Britain were born last year after the Oxford Fertility Centre was given a licence to use the procedure by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

The HFEA's experts found that there was no evidence to suggest that IVM was dangerous either to women or to their babies – although further safety studies are still in progress.

Dr Child said that when IVM was first used, pregnancy rates and live-birth rates were relatively low compared to conventional IVF but better laboratory procedures, as well as patient selection, had improved the success rate significantly. "I'm not sure we will ever get better than IVF but the aim is to achieve the same success rate. The advantages of IVM are so great – it is safer and easier. Women who have had both say that they prefer IVM because they do not need several weeks of drug treatment," Dr Child said.

Svend Lindenberg, of the Copenhagen Fertility Centre, who pioneered IVM, said it was best suited to younger women who have regular periods.
SOURCE: independent.co.uk

Breakthrough Technology Takes Egg Freezing from Myth to Dependable Reality

2008-11-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

The day of true reproductive freedom for women has arrived. A new scientific study confirms the efficacy of a revolutionary egg selection and freezing process that, at long last, offers women a viable and reliable fertility preservation option.

Developed and clinically tested by the scientists at ReproCure, a vanguard genetics products company, this process increases the live births derived from a cryopreserved egg almost seven-fold over the field's current standard. In simple terms, it means that for the first time, women in their prime childbearing years can freeze and bank their own eggs for future use, relatively confident that they will have a 26%-to-27% chance of a having a baby from each cryopreserved, genetically selected oocyte.

Significantly,these odds are better than those with conventional IVF at its best. The patent pending process called Egg Competency Testing (ECT), when coupled with ultra-rapid egg freezing technology known as vitrification (a protocol that minimizes egg damage), actually delivers on reproductive medicine's promise to liberate women from the tyranny of the biological clock. The stunning results of a rigorous multi-year ReproCure-funded study are published in the current issue of the prestigious journal Reproductive BioMedicine Online.

"Everything we've heard before about egg freezing needs to be put away," said Dr. Geoffrey Sher, Executive Medical Director of ReproCure and the Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine (SIRM(R)). Dr. Sher is a world-renowned trailblazer in the field of reproductive medicine for more than 25 years.

"I would heartily agree with medical governing agencies that in the past have strongly advised against the use of egg freezing and banking. Up until now, existing technology only offered a 1%-to-4% baby rate per frozen egg.... a false promise of success," noted Dr. Sher. "But ECT and vitrification, dual processes that allow us to select only chromosomally normal eggs for safe cryobanking are paradigm shifters.

They give women arealistic fertility preservation alternative they can count on." Normal Egg, Healthy Baby In essence, ECT, focuses on a relatively new DNA test called Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) to determine which eggs are chromosomally normal (euploid). It's well established that, barring othercompromising medical factors or male infertility, it is euploid eggs that are most likely to yield chromosomally sound embryos, which in turn are the ones most likely to develop into healthy babies. Indeed, ReproCure/SIRM investigators were able to illustrate that inthe vast majority of cases, the transfer of one or two chromosomally normal(competent) embryos to a receptive uterine environment produced a babyalmost 70% of the time. The ECT process involves handpicking chromosomally normal eggs forpreservation.

Researchers now know that most eggs, even in young healthy women, are chromosomally abnormal (aneuploid). Further complicating things is the fact that the incidence of aneupolidy is random. One month a woman opting for egg freezing may be stimulated to produce 12 eggs and none will be normal. The next month, the same woman might produce six that are normal. The key to a successful outcome is freezing only the euploid eggs.

In contrast to the scattershot approach of freezing every egg harvested - a minimum of 20 at most centers, ReproCure's technique requires that only four or five normal eggs be frozen and banked. The CGH Factor CGH is a delicate and complex test that screens the full complement of chromosomes in each egg. ReproCure/SIRM's dedicated team has an expertise and experience in egg/embryo CGH that is unmatched by any other center inthe world, giving it an unbeatable track record in identifying chromosomally normal eggs. Only these are selected for vitrification(ultra-rapid freezing) and banking.

Once frozen, these eggs are stored until the time the woman chooses to create her family. Until now, family building has been severely constrained by simple biology. If a woman wanted her own biogenetic children, she was under the gun to procreate before her eggs were too old and chromosomally abnormal to generate offspring.

That ratchets up the pressure on everything from education to economics and romance. Women who haven't found the right mate by 35 or who can't afford to leave the workplace, find themselves penalized by nature. For most, a genetically related child is not possible. If they want to experience pregnancy, the only option is egg donation. ECT and vitrification does an end-run around the biological clock. It affords a woman the luxury of time, precisely because she's stored her own eggs while in her reproductive prime. Those oocytes, when properly warmed, fertilized and transferred are as likely to yield offspring in five, 10 or even 20 years as they are today.

ECT liberates a woman to achieve emotional, psychological and financial maturity, secure in the knowledge that she can have children of her own.

About Dr. Geoffrey Sher
Dr. Geoffrey Sher, Executive Medical Director and co-founder of SIRM, is an internationally renowned expert in the field of Assisted ReproductiveTechnology (ART) and has been influential in the births of more than 16,000 babies throughout his career.
Over the last 26 years, Dr. Sher has helped fashion the entire field of ART. After training under "The Father of IVF" Dr. Patrick Steptoe, Dr. Sher established the first private IVF program in the United States in 1982. He later established a number of centers throughout California before foundingthe first SIRM office - in Las Vegas.

For more than two decades, Dr. Geoffrey Sher and his medical team have been on the leading edge of IVF research. Each significant breakthrough has been incorporated into SIRM treatment protocols - lending the benefit of those many years' of IVF experience to every SIRM office. Dr. Sher has more than 200 scientific papers and abstracts to his credit. He has authored one of the most widely read books on IVF, http://www.haveababy.com/why/artbook.aspIn Vitro Fertilization: The A.R.T.of Making Babies

About the Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine (SIRM(R))
SIRM is one of the largest networks of infertility medical practices in the country. Founded in 1998 by Drs. Geoffrey Sher and Ghanima Maassarani, the Sher Institute family of practices has since grown to include 13 offices across the United States.

Dr. Sher founded the first private InVitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic in the U.S. in 1982. The SIRM philosophy is centered on individualized patient care, backed by ongoing scientific and technological breakthroughs.
SIRM has offices in Los Angeles, Chino Hills, Sacramento and Pleasanton, CA; New York City,Westchester and Long Island, New York; Bedminster and Phillipsburg, New Jersey; Dallas, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Peoria, Illinois; and LasVegas, Nevada.

More information can be found on the SIRM website at http://www.haveababy.com.

About ReproCure, LLC
ReproCure, LLC, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a specialty genetics testing laboratory focused on benefiting: (1) women and couples who require assistance in becoming pregnant and (2) women seeking reproductive alternatives such as freezing their eggs for later use.

ReproCure is led by Medical Director Geoffrey Sher, MD and ScientificDirector Levent Keskintepe, PhD.

Source: prwire.com

Indian Clinics Woo Fertility Tourists

2008-10-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Indian clinics woo "fertility" tourists as medical travel booms:

"We are actively recruiting egg donors!" reads the advertisement on the website of one of India's top in-vitro fertilisation clinics.
"Our patients are happy to pay generously for your generosity! They pay you up to rupees 40,000 (800 dollars) every time you donate".
A lack of regulation surrounding fertility services in India and the lucrative returns on offer to those that provide them has turned India into a popular hub of "IVF tourism".

Childless couples from overseas are attracted by the relatively low-cost treatment, as well as "friendly rules" when it comes to egg donors and surrogate motherhood.

According to the private Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction (ISAR), there are some 400 IVF clinics in the country, providing an estimated 30,000 assisted reproductive treatments a year.
There are no precise estimates for what percentage are taken up by foreigners, but doctors say overseas demand is fuelling a boom.
"Nearly half of our patients come from overseas. Of them, nearly half are of Indian origin," said Aniruddha Malpani, whose IVF clinic in Mumbai is considered among the country's best.

A full IVF cycle at the Malpani clinic costs 4,500 dollars, including medicines. In the United States, the average cost is 12,400 dollars, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Malpani offers a top-end service, but the same treatment is available from other Indian clinics at less than half the price.
While cost is a big factor in drawing people from abroad, equally important is the lack of effective regulation.

"India has friendly rules. There are no restrictions on egg donation," said Manish Banker, vice president of the ISAR.
In Britain, the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has outlawed payments to surrogates and British IVF clinics allow doctors to implant only two embryos into the uterus in a treatment.
In India, five implants are allowed, substantially increasing the chances of pregnancy, and there is no shortage of egg donors.
"Attitudes towards egg donation are changing fast. Thirty years ago, Indians would balk at the idea of donating blood to a stranger, but now they don't," said Malpani.

A majority of Indian egg donors are housewives who are paid between 6,000 and 40,000 rupees (120-800 dollars), depending on their education level. Many of the women come from poor families.
Among the foreigners seeking fertility services in India, a good number are couples of Indian origin who come home to look for an Indian donor.
"Having a baby is an emotional issue," said Malpani, who runs the clinic with his wife Anjali.
"These people should be called reproductive exiles, not reproductive tourists. No one likes to travel for medical treatment," he said.
Critics, however, say the absence of regulation poses health dangers, as well as ethical issues about "rent-a-womb" exploitation.
"This business is like any other outsourcing industry. The only difference is the treatment offered here is very poor," said Puneet Bedi, a specialist in foetal medicine at New Delhi's Apollo hospital.
"Doctors here take short cuts, they implant more embryos than needed which multiplies risk to the mother."

A draft bill on assisted reproduction has been drawn up and is expected to be tabled in parliament soon, but women's health activists argue that it is aimed more at promoting a lucrative business than addressing health and ethical concerns.
"It was getting embarrassing for the government to keep saying there is no law in the country, so they had to come up with something," Bedi said.
On the back of a booming industry, medical companies have launched special deals that offer a range of health and travel services targeted at foreigners.
Right from arranging the medical visa -- which was introduced three years ago to boost medical outsourcing -- to providing recuperation holidays, companies like Mumbai-based Forerunners and Delhi's Life Smile take care of all requirements.
"Most people who come to us, especially for IVF, go in for a travel package too, since they have come all the way to India," said Kamal Parpyani, managing director of health tourism company Life Smile.
According to a 2004 study, India could earn as much as two billion dollars annually by 2012 through medical tourism, including from fertility services for overseas patients.
Doctors say Indians will benefit not just from the revenue, but also a reduction in the cost of expensive treatments as demand and competition grows.
"It's a market economy. The bad doctors will be weeded out and benefits will trickle down to people in smaller towns," Malpani said.
SOURCE: Agence France Presse

IVF doctor: Patients view him with awe but rivals are less impressed

2008-10-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

IVF doctor: Patients view him with awe but rivals are less impressed

He is Britain's most successful IVF doctor with a live birth rate twice the national average and a fortune founded on enabling women to have children, sometimes after years of fruitless treatment in other clinics.
But Mohammed Taranissi is also one of the most controversial, constantly pushing against the rules for fertility treatment and provoking the wrath of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). His rows with the regulator may have undermined his reputation but some, such as IVF pioneer Lord Winston, believe the publicity they have attracted has raised his profile.
Creating babies is as close as most doctors come to playing God and the Egypt-born specialist is viewed by his patients, many desperate, with something close to awe. He has regularly topped the league table of IVF clinics with a live birth rate of 60.7 per cent for women under 35 in 2007, 17 per cent ahead of his nearest rival.
What is his secret? Dr Taranissi says it is about being on duty 24 hours a day so each stage of the IVF process can be carried out at the right time. Rivals claim his results are achieved by cherry-picking the healthiest patients, a charge he rejects.
A more substantive criticism is that he transfers multiple embryos to improve the chances of at least one implanting in the womb. His two London clinics had the third and fourth-highest multiple birth rates at 33 and 32 per cent.
A twin or triplet birth increases risks for mother and babies as well as imposing a burden on the parents and the HFEA has set targets to reduce it. But Dr Taranissi argues this decision should be left to clinicians and their patients.
IVF treatment attracts some of the biggest personalities in medicine and brings huge rewards – Dr Taranissi's fortune was once estimated at £38m.
The HFEA has stumbled badly in its dealings with Dr Taranissi. Two years ago, it ordered a police raid on one of his clinics which he was suspected of operating without a licence – while at the same time contributing to a BBC Panorama investigation of the doctor screened on the day as the raids.
The incident drew charges of "trial by television" and led Dr Taranissi to launch a libel action against the BBC and a court action against the HFEA. The latter was settled last week with the withdrawal of all charges against him. His latest clash with the authorities before the GMC is being keenly watched.

SOURCE: independent.co.uk

Doctor in IVF furore is the best

2008-10-13T04:22:00.000-07:00

Doctor in IVF furore is the best, says watchdog
• Taranissi success at 61%, double national average • Technique results in 12,596 births in UK overall

Britain's most controversial fertility doctor has once again been ranked as its most successful by the government's IVF watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Mohammed Taranissi's Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London recorded the highest success rates among more than 100 clinics offering IVF in Britain, according to figures released by the regulator. Nearly two-thirds of Taranissi's patients who were under 35 had a live birth in 2006.
His success rate of 61% is almost double the national average of 31% for patients of the same age. Another clinic run by Taranissi, the Reproductive Genetics Institute, which has since closed, ranked second with a live birth rate of 50% for every cycle of treatment.
Overall, the figures show that there were 12,596 live IVF births in 2006, up 11.9% on the previous year, meaning that 16 babies out of every 1,000 born are IVF infants. They also show a substantial rise in couples seeking IVF across the country.
Nearly 35,000 women were treated in UK clinics in 2006, an increase of 6.8% on the year before. Success rates also rose across age groups, and markedly in women over 44, where live births rose from 0.8% to 4% for women using their own eggs. The use of donor sperm fell sharply, however, with 28% fewer treatments than in 2005. The fall, which the HFEA described as a "great concern", coincides with a change in the law that year which removed sperm donors' right to anonymity.
Lisa Jardine, chair of the HFEA, said: "In the year that we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the birth of the world's first IVF baby, these latest figures show just how far we've come. IVF is now commonplace, with the number of treatment cycles and births rising yet again." Last year, the average age of women having fertility treatment in Britain rose for the 10th consecutive year to 35.2 years old.
The HFEA has been in dispute with Taranissi for years. Last year his offices were raided by the HFEA on the evening of a BBC documentary about his clinics.
Taranissi is suing the broadcaster for libel. The BBC was yesterday ordered to pay an estimated £500,000 in legal costs to Taranissi. The BBC initially defended the documentary, IVF Undercover, which relied on undercover filming at Taranissi's clinic, saying it represented responsible journalism conveying matters in the public interest. However, it withdrew this defence last month. The BBC is continuing to defend its programme, citing the "hazards" of protecting confidential sources. It will seek to prove before the high court in January that the allegations are true.
Taranissi appeared before the General Medical Council this week to answer unrelated allegations from two patients who were treated at his clinic.
"We maintain a good service by being available seven days a week, because you have to be available to do things at the best time. We've also introduced a few new things which are not widely practised across the board, and some of them are still very controversial," said Taranissi.
London clinics completed the top five of the league table. The Lister Fertility Clinic and University College Hospital reported 44% live births in the under-35s, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital 42%.
The HFEA figures also reveal which clinics created the most twins. Taranissi's clinic ranked second for multiple births, with 32% being twins.

Source: guardian.co.uk

More Couples Turning to IVF

2008-09-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

Approximately one in every 80 babies born in the UK is a result of IVF treatment, research has revealed. With one in seven couples experiencing difficulty conceiving, IVF has become an important part of family life for thousands of people across the country.

Figures show that IVF treatment has a success rate of 29% in women below the age of 35, and that number drops as a woman's age increases. According to some women who experienced IVF, natal hypnotherapy helped relax them, making the process more positive and less unpleasant. One new mum said: "The CDs really helped me to focus on my treatment, to remain calm and positive, and to be confident. Once I did get pregnant, I was in complete shock for about four months!"

Another added: "The CDs were a huge help in relaxing me and making me feel more in control during the process. I became pregnant at the third attempt and have now given birth to a lovely little girl."A survey found that out of 68 women who used the therapy, 46% became pregnant - 17% higher than the national success rate.

Source: Bounty.com

'FIRST IVF BABY TURNS 30'

2008-08-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Happy 30th, Louise.

As I approach my 30th birthday, having delayed marriage and children, the social and biological clock of keeping time for childbearing ticks louder. However, thanks to another 30-year-old woman, it's possible for me to feel at ease. That woman is Louise Brown, the first child born via IVF. Last week marked not only her 30th birthday but thirty years of success in giving many women and men a second chance to have a biologically-related (at least, in part) child of their own. In fact, over 3 million babies worldwide have been born using IVF -- with over 52,000 infants born in the US, accounting for 1 percent of all births in the country.

In conversations with my close friends, it's been comforting to hear that we share the same concerns about starting a family later in life. We joke that after years of being on birth control--from condoms to pills to patches and rings and back to condoms again--diligently trying to avoid an unplanned pregnancy, we're fearful that we may, in fact, experience infertility.

Because of assisted reproduction and the tremendous successes gained in the past three decades, the clock is not ticking as loudly for me as it was for my mother. Instead, my generation has grown accustomed to this $3 billion industry--most of us know at least one friend, family member or colleague who has been through IVF. But this familiarity brings with it a whole new set of concerns. What are the ethical, moral, legal and financial impacts of this field? How do we grapple with these issues as a women's community, before others tell us what's best for our bodies and for our children? We've seen it before, and it will happen again.

It is incumbent upon the women's reproductive health community, particularly those who face these issues daily, to foster this debate. We might begin with the following concerns:

Number 1: Why is my generation of women and men more infertile than our parents? Currently, in the US, 1.2 million (or 2%) of women of reproductive age (defined by the CDC as age 10 to 49) have an infertility-related medical appointment each year; 10% receive infertility services at some point in their lives. As I've alluded, a big factor is age. To simplify things greatly, as more women gained equality in education and in the workplace, we also began to delay childbearing--for many reasons, including lack of maternity leave and inflexible work schedules.
But to highlight only age would be misleading. With so many individuals experiencing infertility (and in cases in which the underlying causes are never found), we cannot ignore the tremendous role that environmental contaminants are playing in this problem.
Exposure to ubiquitous dioxins, such as cigarette smoke, lead, mercury and some agricultural pesticides are direct threats to a couple's ability to conceive or have a healthy pregnancy. And, more troubling, new research suggests that a broader range of chemicals--including many that are associated with everyday products such as household cleansers, flame retardants, personal care and beauty aids, and even plastic water bottles--could have a complex and far-reaching impact on fertility.

Number 2: Are these procedures--the hormones, the retrieval of eggs, the implantation of one or multiple embryos--safe for women and their children? The answer, for the most part, is that we don't know. While IVF has generally been accepted as safe by the American public, there are in fact very little published data, let alone quality, standardized data, on the short and long term safety of these procedures on women and children's health. As we see an increase in women going through these procedures for either their own reproduction or to donate their eggs, how can we fully inform them of the potential risks and benefits?

Number 3: The growth of this industry and the growth in the numbers of assisted fertility clinics (now at 475 in total) have increased the demand for women's eggs. While most clinics offer women an average of $3,000 to $8,000, some "baby brokers" have offered as much as $50,000-80,000 for specific egg donors. (The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's (ASRM) guidelines allow for women to be compensated for their time and risk up to $5,000 or $10,000 in some cases, but this is neither mandated nor regulated by either state or federal law.) This issue poses its own ethical and moral dilemmas: should a woman be compensated for donating her eggs? Can payment create a coercive or exploitative situation? What are the race and class implications of who demands and who gets solicited for their eggs?

As with many momentous events in my life, as I approach my 30th birthday, I'm asking myself more questions than I know answers. I have found that asking questions--and listening to a broad range of voices who have their own personal and insightful answers--is the first step in the process in advocating for change. We must grapple with these issues and then propose solutions that follow our values and morals. So, in that vein, my parting question: what policies will empower all women to make their own decisions about having a child and yet protect her health? The answer to this will be the best 30th birthday present for me and Louise.

Jennifer Rogers

PARENTS TELL IVF TECHNIQUE SUCCESS

2008-08-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

Evie Bloomer is the first IVF baby to be born in the UK using a pioneering technique to freeze embryos.

And Evie's parents, Ian and Rebecca, said they wanted their story to inspire other childless couples trying for a baby not to give up hope.

The childhood sweethearts, from Cwmbran, South Wales, had been trying for a baby since they married in 2001. But tests revealed that Mrs Bloomer, 28, had endometriosis, a condition which was making it difficult for her to conceive.

Desperate for a baby, the couple attended the IVF clinic at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. After one failed attempt the hospital offered the Bloomers a new way of freezing their unused embryos - embryo vitrification - that gave them a better chance of survival when they were ready to try again. Mrs Bloomer fell pregnant almost immediately using one of these embryos and became the proud mother of a healthy baby girl on July 23.

She said: "I hope that if anybody going through treatment sees us and sees Evie it gives them one last little bit of hope to go for it."
Lyndon Miles, head of embryology and andrology for IVF Wales, explained how it works: "Vitrification involves rapidly cooling and storing cells at very low temperatures for future use.

"An IVF cycle produces a number of embryos. Those that aren't immediately transferred back to the patient and that are of good enough quality are cooled slowly to the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196C) and stored until needed.

"Conventional slow freezing creates ice crystals which can damage the embryo as it is thawed. Vitrification differs from traditional cooling and storing techniques in that it allows instantaneous 'glass-like' solidification of eggs and embryos without the formation of ice crystals. Since no ice crystals form, a much greater percentage of embryos survive thawing following vitrification. With conventional freezing methods, post-thaw survival rates vary from 50% to 80% whereas we have achieved 98% with vitrification."

Mr Miles said 17 out of the 39 women offered the treatment so far had fallen pregnant. Four of those are expecting twins.
He said the process would also be helpful to women diagnosed with cancer who want to freeze a number of eggs in case chemotherapy leaves them infertile. It may also be used to allow women to delay motherhood by "banking" eggs while they are at their fertile peak and using them later after fertility has declined.

SOURCE: The Press Association

INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE BLOG ON INFERTILITY

2008-07-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT THIS INTERESTING BLOG BY LOLLIPOP GOLDSTEIN; ABOUT INFERTILITY AND PREGNANCY LOSS, AN EXPLORATION OF ADOPTION AND DONOR GAMETES, A BITCH SESSION ABOUT DAILY LIFE AND BOOKS...ETC. AT:
http://www.stirrup-queens.blogspot.com

The birth that started a revolution

2008-07-27T13:36:00.001-07:00

Thirty years ago Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, was born, and the world of fertility changed forever.

Her mother, Lesley, 33, had blocked fallopian tubes, so Dr Patrick Steptoe and Bob Webster took an egg from one of her ovaries, under anaesthetic, and fertilised it with sperm from her husband, John, in a laboratory, before placing it in her uterus. Nine months later, on July 25, 1978, Louise was delivered by Caesarean section at Oldham and District General Hospital.

Since that day, a series of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) breakthroughs has enabled tens of thousands of couples to have the children they longed for. Other leaps have included treatments for male infertility, the use of donor eggs, surrogates and the genetic screening of embryos.

In Britain alone, 111,633 children have been born through fertility treatment; worldwide, the figure is estimated to be 3.5 million. The latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulatory body set up in 1991, show that 32,626 couples in Britain had IVF in 2005, leading to a total — including twins and triplets — of 11,262 children. About 25 per cent of IVF treatments are funded by the NHS; the rest are paid for privately, costing up to £8,000 (Dh58,525) a cycle.

Exceptions: But while IVF has answered the prayers of many couples, it is not a cure-all. The average success rate nationally for women under 35 is 29.6 per cent, while those aged between 40-42 have just a 10 per cent chance of conceiving using their own eggs. (There are exceptions: at the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London, for example, the take-home baby rate is 59.9 per cent for women under 35). And fertility treatments are also transforming the family, raising ethical questions about concepts such as “saviour siblings”, babies genetically matched and created to provide tissue — often umbilical cord stem cells — to treat disease in an older child.

Similarly, treatment for post-menopausal women, same-sex couples and the spectres of sex selection for social reasons (illegal in the UK) and “designer babies”, where embryos are chosen or discarded for reasons other than health and viability, have also led to disquiet. Meanwhile, Louise, has a child of her own. Cameron, aged 18 months, was conceived naturally — an everyday miracle perhaps, but no less a miracle for that.

The first IVF triplets were born in 1984. In recent years, the HFEA has raised concern over the relatively high incidence of multiple births conceived through IVF; the risk of death before birth or within the first week after birth is more than four times greater for twins, and almost seven times greater for triplets, than for single births. Currently, around one in four IVF pregnancies results in twins or triplets, and the HFEA is now calling for more single embryo transfers to reduce this figure to 10 per cent —although clinicians are reluctant to do so, as replacing just one embryo reduces the chance of pregnancy. Mindy Vernon, 44, and her banker husband James, 43, live in Sevenoaks, Kent. They have triplets William, Thomas and Katherine, aged seven. “James and I got married when I was 32 and we tried for a year and a half to have a baby, without any success. Medical tests revealed no major issues and when the doctors diagnosed unexplained infertility, we decided to go for IVF. We had three rounds of treatment at Shirley Oaks hospital, at a cost of £2,000 a cycle, which failed. By the fourth cycle we were really losing heart, so we had three embryos replaced instead of the two we'd done previously. “Around the time of the IVF transfer I had terrible backache, so I had acupuncture treatments for the pain. When I mentioned that I was having fertility treatment, the practitioner said she could treat that, too, by inserting the needles at other sites on my body. Multiple pregnancy risk “I know there's conflicting opinion about whether acupuncture increases the success of IVF.

It may just have been coincidence, of course, but in my case it really did seem to work. “When we were told we were expecting triplets, we were overjoyed that I was pregnant at all and we didn't immediately take in the significance of what it meant to be carrying three babies at once.

Only later did we learn how much riskier it was for both me and the babies; we were informed that they might not all survive and were given a choice of terminating one of them. But after talking through the pros and cons, we knew we wanted to keep all three. “I have always felt it is important to keep fit, but I was told not to exercise and to eat as much as I could, so I stuffed myself and put on five stone.

I wasn't anxious during the pregnancy, because I had faith in my body and faith in the medical staff who were looking after me. I had a really easy pregnancy, too; I wasn't badly affected by morning sickness. “I gave up work at 22 weeks, and at 26 weeks my consultant advised me to go to hospital and stay there, so I could have complete rest and be monitored twice daily in case any problems arose. I knew I was having two boys and a girl, which the hospital had named A, B and C, and I spent my time listening to classical music and visualising them as individual little people.

“My mother was cooking for me at home every day and bringing food into the hospital, so I sat around getting fatter and feeling very special and quite serene. The babies were finally born by C-section at 34 weeks — a team of 21 doctors and nurses was involved in the delivery.

None of them had any medical problems at birth, or subsequently. “They were allowed home after three weeks, by which time they had put on weight — and then the work really started: I breast-fed them as best I could for two months, but I didn't have much milk so they also got through 24 bottles a day. “James and I were lucky to have lots of support from my mother, in particular, who stayed with us for a whole year, and in the first few months James's mum crossed half the country every weekend to help out. “My mother and I did the weekday shifts and James and his mother took over at weekends so we could rest. Those early days, months and years were utterly exhausting and looking back, I can't believe we managed, but somehow we did. Having triplets is a joy, but it's also emotionally and financially draining.

Not convinced “I feel ambivalent about the guidelines that only two or even just one embryo should be replaced. There's no doubt that replacing three embryos maximises a woman's chances of getting pregnant, but it's not without its medical risks and bringing up three babies is not for the fainthearted. Still, we were fantastically lucky with our three; we love them dearly and wouldn't swap them for the world.”

The first commercial surrogacy took place in Britain in 1985 when Kim Cotton, a mother of two, was paid £6,500 to carry a child conceived using her egg and the infertile woman's husband's sperm. It is now illegal for a surrogate to charge fees, but reasonable expenses may be paid to cover clothing, travel, food, time off work, etc, amounting to anything from £7,000 to £15,000.

Two types of surrogacy: There are two types of surrogacy. Straight surrogacy uses the egg of the surrogate and the sperm of the intended father and is usually carried out via artificial insemination at home. Host (or gestational) surrogacy requires IVF, as embryos are created using eggs and sperm from the intended mother and father and transferred into the surrogate mother. Fiona O'Driscoll, 38, who works for the charity Save the Children, is married to Andrew, 39, a business consultant. A surrogate mother is carrying their baby, due in October. “I have a condition called Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser Syndrome (MRKH), which means I was born without a womb — although I do have ovaries — so I knew that if I wanted a family I would need to use a surrogate mother or adopt. We looked at adoption, but it's almost impossible to get a baby, and we really wanted to create one that is genetically ours. “We got in touch with the non-profit organisation Surrogacy UK in order to make contact with a surrogate and find out more about the process. The ethos is one of friendship before surrogacy and, at the social events, we got to know another couple, Kate and Dennis, really well over a period of months. They already have two children and offered to help us. “To be honest, my first instinct was: ‘Why on earth would someone offer to carry another woman's baby?' It was hard to believe anyone would do something so momentous purely out of the goodness of their own heart. But Kate is such a selfless person and she's certainly not in it for the money; all we do is make sure she's not out of pocket by covering expenses like multivitamins and maternity wear, taxis and childcare. “We were treated at the London Fertility Clinic in Harley Street; I took drugs to stimulate my egg production. These were fertilised by Andrew's sperm, and the resulting seven embryos were frozen. Two survived the thawing process and were transferred into Kate, who had taken drugs to prepare her body. Two nail-biting weeks later, Kate, Andrew and I were all together in a coffee shop in central London when the call came through that she was pregnant and we all burst into tears. “Kate is now 28 weeks pregnant. Andrew and I — and Dennis — will all be at the birth; it's very exciting. We're so proud of what they are doing. You read horror stories about surrogacy costing a fortune or the surrogate trying to keep the baby, but the truth is, it's about a good friend giving you the most extraordinary gift imaginable.”
Names have been changed
SOURCE: Daily Telegraph

HOW DO COUPLES COPE WHEN IVF FAILS?

2008-07-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Broke, babyless and in need of help. John Naish examines the taboo question of how couples cope when it all goes wrong:

Across Britain next Friday, thousands of couples will brace themselves for a welter of “miracle-baby” stories as the world marks the 30th birthday of Louise Brown, the first test-tube child. In the shadow of assisted conception's many successes are the 75 per cent of women patients for whom the gruelling medical process never works. The vast majority are neither monitored nor offered counselling but, it seems, are expected to slink away, marked “failed.”

Caroline Gallup is among the 25,000 women each year whose fertility treatment proves fruitless, often after spending all their available funds and putting their relationships under perilous strain. Rather than quietly grieving, Gallup is campaigning for the NHS and high-earning private clinics to give support after assisted conception has failed and to fund studies into what happens to these people's lives.

Very little research has been done, but in 2000 a small study of 76 women by the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast found that five years after their unsuccessful treatment they suffered “significant psychological dysfunction”, particularly stress and depression. The research, published in the journal Human Fertility, concluded: “There is a strong need to prepare women better for treatment failure and to ensure that counselling is available when further treatment is no longer appropriate.” This echoes the findings of a Hull University study three years earlier. Both recommendations have fallen on deaf ears.

The government watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, says that it sees issues about follow-up monitoring and counselling as outside its remit, because it regulates only the process of infertility treatment itself.

Hence Gallup's campaigning. “I see the routine provision of post-treatment counselling as a moral duty,” says the 44-year-old Londoner. “When you are treated, you have to believe that a baby will grow. When it doesn't, the crash is awful, but you're buoyed as long as you can go through another cycle. I think it's only morally right for clinics to carry on with ‘after-sales service' when that hope has disappeared.”

COUPLES HAVE THE UTMOST OPTIMISM
“The clinics do tell you at their open days that there is a 76 per cent failure rate across the board, but couples aren't in a position to take that in,” says Gallup. “The only way you can enter into something so grim is with the utmost optimism.” Indeed, a study in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist journal found that although clear information on success rates is given to couples, “the majority believe that they will be the minority who achieve pregnancy”.

Gallup and her husband decided to stop trying after they had paid £8,000 for private treatment. “It was partly down to money - we'd run out - and partly the fact that it was wrecking our relationship. My husband said he didn't want to go through it any more. It was turning me into a total obsessive,” she says, adding: “Blame can play a really big part in relationships after treatment failure. It's one of the big reasons why counselling is needed.”

Four years after the treatment ended, she says: “My husband and I are still dealing with it. I have had to reinvent myself. I didn't know what my identity was after we had finished. That's a huge psychological thing.” Now she has taken a less demanding job in her career in events management to spend time lobbying interest groups and politicians. She is also trying to develop a career as a writer, having published a book on her fertility treatment experiences, 'Making Babies the Hard Way.'

Emerging from fertility treatment babyless, broke and in need of professional support to get back on the rails is a common experience, according to the British Infertility Counselling Association. “A lot of people come out of the process highly stressed and they think they can go for free counselling, but there is no such thing,” says a spokeswoman. “Funding is a big problem for most people. They may well not be able to pay for private counselling because they have spent all their money on treatment.”

One of the few organisations to provide social support is More To Life, which helps involuntarily childless people to develop networks and swap advice. Membership costs £20 annually and has grown rapidly in the two years since it was established, says Susan Seenan, one of the organisers. “Social life can be difficult for infertile couples, especially women,” she says. “Wherever you go - barbecues, parties, christenings - everyone has children.
“It's difficult to talk about infertility and childlessness. It's seen as a stigma. But with more people leaving it until later in life to try for children, there is bound to be more infertility, more treatment, and more disappointed couples.”

It is not only infertile women who face bereavement and loss of purpose. David Downage regularly attends More To Life social events. He and his wife went through treatment in the NHS and privately, but ultimately decided that their hopes were beyond slim. “It was a traumatic decision, but the danger is that you go on trying too long and damage your relationship,” he says. “So we decided to move on.”

The Downages joined More To Life to extend their social network beyond old friends with their new families. “We had to find it by searching the web,” he says. “It's strange that clinics can't point you to organisations like this after the treatment has failed,” says David, 47, a property developer. “For a man, discovering that you're going to be childless raises questions about what you are doing with your life. Once you can pay the bills, what is there after that? My wife and I came to view it as an opportunity to do other things. She is keen to get involved in charity work with children. We plan to retire early and, hopefully, be able to put some of our money into building children's schools. Certainly we will be able to do that as a legacy.”

Finding renewed purpose is one of the best survival strategies, says Jacky Boivin, a researcher at Cardiff University's School of Psychology. She has followed more than 100 women undertaking IVF over seven years, and is running a five-year study of 818 couples in Denmark.

“There is not much research into what happens to people in the long term after unsuccessful treatment, but our data indicates that about 40 per cent of couples are highly distressed at having to stop. After they have made the decision, around 5 to 10 per cent remain stuck in that state. People who come to the end of the IVF treatment and feel they could have had more are often seized with resentment.

“You have to reinvent a life that is not about having a family,” she stresses. “You have to look for the positive while acknowledging the negative. People have to regain a sense of control over their lives, after having it taken over by regimens that tell them exactly when they should be having sex. And they need to look at the experience as an opportunity to renew life interests. Sadly, the lack of post-treatment counselling means people don't have support in this.”
AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS
There is one surprise. Boivin says: “Oddly, the divorce rate is much lower among couples whose fertility treatment failed than for the general population: 10 per cent versus 50 per cent. We don't know why. There is life after infertility treatment. Not always an easy one, but most people will go on to find contentment, though the experience will always carry a sting.”
SOURCE: THE TIMES ONLINE

Science thinks big for better IVF

2008-07-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

A new IVF technique involves selecting sperm with a shape and size that indicate good genetic quality. The best are injected into eggs to fertilise them. Results show improved pregnancy rates
Infertile men can more than double their chances of fatherhood with a new IVF technique, according to the most comprehensive study of the procedure yet conducted.

The results of a major trial of the approach, which builds upon the technique of injecting sperm directly into an egg, suggest dramatic benefits for the one in 12 couples affected by male factor infertility. A far more powerful microscope is used to identify the sperm most likely to succeed.

The results, from a team in Italy, are encouraging for men with an especially poor fertility prognosis and who have tried and failed to have children by IVF at least twice in the past. Their prospect of becoming fathers using the therapy was double that with standard methods, the study found.

The method, which was first developed in 2004 by a team led by Benjamin Bartoov, of BarIlan University in Israel, is called intra-cytoplasmic morphologically-selected sperm injection (IMSI). It involves examining sperm under a high-magnification microscope, about five times more powerful than standard laboratory equipment, to select those with a shape and size that indicates good genetic quality. The best-looking sperm are then injected into eggs.

British scientists hailed the results as the strongest demonstration yet of the new therapy’s benefits. “I don’t think a lot of people in the UK have woken up to this yet, but they are going to have to,” said Allan Pacey, Lecturer in Andrology at the University of Sheffield. “This is strong evidence from a well-designed study. If it can be repeated in two or three studies, people would seriously have to think about changing their approach.”

The treatment builds on the success of intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a therapy for male infertility that has enabled thousands to become fathers since it was developed in the early Nineties. ICSI involves fertilising an egg in a laboratory by injecting it with a single sperm. As the sperm does not have to swim up to the egg and penetrate it, the method can help men whose sperm would otherwise be too weak. Even when men produce no sperm, doctors can sometimes recover them surgically from the testes.

ICSI is now used in about 40 per cent of the 41,000 IVF cycles performed annually in the UK, and accounts for about 4,500 children born each year. This suggests that upwards of 10,000 men a year could be appropriate patients for the new technique.

The Italian team, led by Monica Antinori, of the Raprui clinic in Rome, has conducted the largest randomised controlled trial to compare outcomes for IMSI and ICSI. It involved 446 couples in which the man was infertile and the woman was not known to have any problems.

The results, which are published in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online, show that the IMSI method can deliver considerable improvements in pregnancy rate. The overall pregnancy rate for the IMSI group was 39.2 per cent, compared with 26.5 per cent for the ICSI patients.

Among men with the worst prognosis, who had had at least two failed attempts at ICSI before, the improvement was better still. The pregnancy rate for IMSI was 29.8 per cent, compared with 12.9 per cent for standard ICSI. The miscarriage rate also fell considerably.

Dr Antinori said the findings demonstrate that the technique has potential, particularly for men with a history of IVF failure. “By treating this kind of patient with this technique, we offer them an opportunity to solve their fertility problems. As you can see from the results, the group that has had two or more IVF failures can get more than twice the opportunity to have a pregnancy with this new technique.”

She cautioned, however, that IMSI is about twice as expensive as ICSI, which typically costs between £3,000 and £5,000 per cycle in Britain. It also requires special training for embryologists, and the purchase of expensive high-magnification microscopes.

IMSI is not yet offered in the UK, though it is performed by clinics in Italy, Israel, Switzerland and Spain.
Dr Pacey said: “People have been seduced into thinking that, as long as you’ve got a sperm that’s half decent, it’s got as good a chance as any. But it looks like we can do better than that.”

Source: The Times July 7 2008

COFFEE CUTS CHANCE OF HAVING BABY

2008-07-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Drinking too much coffee or tea can cut the chances of a woman getting pregnant by a quarter if she already has fertility problems. The effect is the same as drinking excessive alcohol, according to researchers in the Netherlands. They looked at 8,669 women who had undergone IVF treatment and found the likelihood of pregnancy was significantly reduced for those who smoked, drank too much coffee and alcohol, and were overweight. Fertility expert Prof Bill Ledger, of the University of Sheffield, said: ‘A lot of women can have 20 cups of coffee a day and get pregnant while falling off a log, but if you’re already sub fertile it could push you over the edge.’

Source: Metro newspaper Tue, July 8, 2008

New Treatment may increase IVF Success Rate

2008-06-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

To increase the chances of conception to a 100 percent, among couples undergoing fertility treatment, University of Adelaide researchers have come up with a new formula.

To increase the chances of conception to a 100 percent, among couples undergoing fertility treatment, University of Adelaide researchers have come up with a new formula.

They claim that their technique can improve embryo implantation rates significantly, and reduce pregnancy complications in assisted reproductive technology (ART). The researchers say that they have applied it in a study on mice, which provided proof-of-concept that the treatment doubles pregnancy rates. Associate Professor Claire Roberts, who led the study, has revealed that he has received 294,750 dollars in from the Federal Government for showing that the treatment is safe, and that it improves pregnancy outcome and postnatal health in offspring.

"Assuming our success, the concept will be taken to the next stage in human trials with the help of the University's commercial partner for this technology, MediCult," Roberts says. The researcher says considers the funding to be a major breakthrough for those couples who are either infertile or suffer from recurrent miscarriages. "Assisted reproductive technologies provide some hope for these couples, but they have a relatively poor success rate with only 15-40 per cent of embryo transfers resulting in ongoing pregnancies, depending on maternal age," Roberts says. "Fertility in women declines significantly with age, and so too does the success of ART. Since women are delaying childbearing, ART is increasingly required to make couples' desire to have children a reality.

Currently, two-three per cent of the 250,000 annual births in Australia are a result of ART and this number is expected to rise," Roberts adds.

NATURAL IVF

2008-05-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

For an ivf cycle, a woman’s body is practically bombarded by powerful drugs; first to shut down her ovaries (down regulation), and then other drugs to stimulate them to produce more eggs(FSH), and yet another drug to trigger ovulation (HCG). Women react to these drugs in different ways and one (costs aside), may understandably be wary of subjecting the body to them. The effects of long term use of these drugs (necessary when one has to repeat treatment cycles) can be worrisome and is still being studied.

NATURAL CYCLE IVF is definitely worth considering. In effect, you get the best of both worlds. For this procedure, it is the single egg produced in a woman’s normal cycle that is inseminated. Also known as no or low stimulation IVF, it is an invitro fertilisation procedure which uses no artificial fertility drugs, or very low dose ones.

Why Would I Want To Have IVF Without Fertility Drugs?
For some couples, the choice is financial. It is done at a fraction of the cost of standard IVF, so it may be their only chance at treatment. Some people prefer to try this method before moving on to traditional IVF.

For others, the choice may be medical. They may be contraindicated to fertility drugs (for instance, with a previous history of ovarian cancer or depression) or they may have reacted badly to a course of fertility drugs before. Women who have suffered with ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome may be offered this type of treatment as the syndrome is very serious and can be life-threatening so it may not be safe for them to continue with standard IVF.

Some couples just don't like drugs and prefer a more natural approach to infertility.

A point to note is that because of the improvement in the embryo culture technology, we are now at a point where even one egg gives a reasonable chance of success – about 15% per cycle. Therefore, in women who do not wish to use fertility medications, cannot afford fertility medications, or who do not produce many eggs even when they use fertility medications – Natural Cycle IVF is a logical and often successful alternative. Given that the success is 15% per attempt, it has been the experience of many centers that with several cycles of Natural IVF, one can achieve the same success rate of one cycle of stimulated IVF (45%).

Indeed, a study published in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction*, has found that for the majority of women the chances of pregnancy are just as good if doctors rely on the woman’s natural menstrual cycle.
The researchers’ view is that, in 60% to 70% of cases, a series of treatment cycles without using ovarian stimulation would be safer, less stressful and mean fewer multiple births. It also costs only a fifth of the price of current practice and would bring IVF within the reach of more childless couples worldwide and enable countries that state-fund IVF to help more women.

Dr Geeta Nargund and colleagues reached their conclusion following a study of 181 treatments in 52 women at the Assisted Conception Unit at King’s College Hospital, London. All the women had treatment based around their natural menstrual cycles.
They were found to have the same chance of having a baby after an average of three to four cycles of treatment as women undergoing conventional drug-stimulated treatment – about a third (32% as against 34%).
The first test-tube baby – born in 1978 in England – was the result of normal menstrual cycle IVF treatment, but the practice was pretty well abandoned with the onset of extensive use of hormonal drugs to stimulate the ovaries into producing more eggs per cycle. This new study is the first to establish that basing treatment on a woman’s natural cycle can achieve comparable results with those of drug-stimulated cycles.

Dr Nargund, who now directs the fertility centre at St. George’s Hospital, London, said: "We’ve demonstrated that it is an effective and potentially cost-effective option for certain groups. With a trend now to reducing the number of embryos transferred, our study must open the debate as to whether a series of natural cycle treatments should become a mainstream conception technique for female infertility."

MORE ADVANTAGES OF NATURAL CYCLE IVF
Natural cycle IVF has several advantages over stimulated cycle IVF:
*Natural cycle IVF utilizes the body's normal ovulation process
*There are no expensive hormones to buy and fewer injections with natural cycle IVF.
*Natural cycle IVF may be repeated month after month, if necessary.
The cumulative pregnancy rate from three months of natural cycle IVF is over 50%
*At Olympia Women's Health, the cost of three cycles of natural cycle IVF is less than the cost of one stimulated cycle.

DISADVANTAGES
*usually, there is only one follicle... one chance for an egg.
*one may not be able to retrieve the egg
*the egg may fail to fertilize
*the fertilized egg may not develop into an embryo

How is Natural IVF done? – Timing is Everything
There are 2 ways to determine follicle maturity.
*Ultrasound determines follicular diameter.
*The Estradiol and/or the start of the LH (luteinizing hormone) surge.
Ultrasound studies are done daily several days before ovulation is expected and when the follicle size reaches 16-18mm and/or the LH begins to rise, the retrieval is planned shortly afterwards. Interestingly, indomethacin (50mg 3 times daily with food) has been used by some clinicians once the follicle reaches maturity to help prevent collapse of the sac before the time of aspiration. In summary, Natural Cycle IVF is a useful and logical technique for selective patients.

The cost for Natural Cycle IVF is around $1800.

This includes the following:
cycle monitoring
office visits
all ultrasounds
all lab work (Estradiol, LH, Progesterone and your first pregnancy test)
the retrieval
anesthesia fee
cryopreservation fee

WOMEN SUITED FOR NATURAL IVF CYCLES
The women most suited are those with reasonably regular menstrual cycles who ovulate normally but who have problems with their fallopian tubes, or those couples where the reason for the infertility is inexplicable. It would not be suitable for women who don’t ovulate or who have very erratic menstrual cycles and probably also not for couples undergoing ICSI (the injection of a single sperm into the egg), although research into its feasibility for ICSI is to be carried out.

IVF IN THE UNITED STATES (II)

2008-02-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

According to a 2006 survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center at John Hopkins University, there are 415 ivf clinics in the United States.

Faced with such a daunting number, anyone considering ivf treatment in the US can certainly do with careful guidance because the choice of clinic plays a large, if not most important part in determining the final outcome of fertility treatment. In fact it is the belief of Rhonda Levy, that had she been well informed (at the time of her own ivf treatment) as to the choices she had, she would have achieved conception in the very first cycle of her ivf treatment. She has this to say:

"Although I was finally the mother I so desperately longed to be, I could not erase the horror of our long struggle from my thoughts. What troubled me most was the naiveté of my early assumption that I could place my faith in my physicians to guide me through the maze. I now understood that I had been handicapped because I did not know what I did not know: that there was an enormous disparity between the best and worst of the more than 400 fertility clinics in the United States, and that the vast majority offered low or only average odds for success with assisted reproduction. Unless a couple had the good fortune to find themselves in treatment at a superior clinic, they would be more likely to spend more time, more money, and to suffer significantly greater heartache than necessary. Reproductive medicine had become one of the most lucrative industries in medical history and its landscape was littered with dangerous landmines."
PLEASE CLICK BELOW TO READ HER FULL STORY:

http://www.rhondalevy.com/mystory.htm

IVF IN THE UNITED STATES

2008-02-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

SOURCE: ANSWERS.GOOGLE.COM
United States

The Costs According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine: the average cost of an IVF cycle in the U.S. is $ 12,400. “This price will vary depending on where you live, the amount of medications you're required to take, the number of IVF cycles you undergo, and the amount your insurance company will pay toward the procedure. You should thoroughly investigate your insurance company's coverage of IVF and ask for a written statement of your benefits. Although some states have enacted laws requiring insurance companies to cover at least some of the costs of infertility treatment, many states haven't.” “Also be aware that some carriers will pay for infertility drugs and monitoring, but not for the cost of IVF or other artificial reproductive technology. RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association publishes a booklet called the "Infertility Insurance Advisor," which provides tips on reviewing your insurance benefits contract.”RESOLVE's website is at www.resolve.org. Success Rates “Success rates for IVF vary depending on a number of factors,including the reason for infertility, where you're having the procedure done, and your age. The CDC compile national statistics forall assisted reproductive technology procedures performed in the U.S.The statistics group together all procedures that constitute assisted reproduction technology (ART), including IVF, GIFT and ZIFT, although IVF is by far the most common.” The most recent report from 2000 found: “Successful pregnancy was achieved in 30.7% of all cycles. About 69% of the cycles carried out did not produce a pregnancy. Less than 1% of all cycles resulted in an ectopic pregnancy. About 11% of these pregnancies involved multiple fetuses. About 83% of pregnancies resulted in a live birth. About 17% of pregnancies resulted in miscarriage, induced abortion, or a stillbirth.”

IVF IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (II) DR.TARANISSI'S ARGC

2008-02-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

THE medical establishment doesn’t much like Mohammed Taranissi. He’s not too keen on them, either.
Depending on which side of the debate you’re on, he is seen as either a maverick or a miracle worker.
But the founder of London’s Assisted Reproduction And Gynaecology Centre is happy to be judged by his record.
He says 10,000 of his patients have had babies after having treatment at his clinic.

RAIDS ON HIS CLINICS

E PETITIONS FOR HIM SOURCE: IPETITIONS.COM

Tricia Mullen:
I found Mr T and his team to be highly professional, never was i pushed into taking unwanted treatments. Regarding IVIG I was informed this was a theory based treatment and that currently there was no research to back up this treatment, i consented to the treatment. I believe Mr T's stats speak for themselves. I do not believe Mr T cherry pick patients whilst having my treatment i met other ladies (patients) who had previously had many failed cycles at other clinics and Mr T did not turn them away as if they were a bad bet they received all there treatment at the upper wimpole clinic like me. I thank Mr T and his team for my lovely 8 week old daughter.

Anonymous:
I am due to start treatment at the ARGC next week. I made this decision after weeks and weeks of my own investigations.

KIRSTEN LANG:
I have written a rather large complaint to BBC tonight saying exactly what I think of their " witch hunt " and their unbalanced reports. To say I am disgusted is an understatement and it's not good for my blood pressure as I'm 7 months pregnant thanks to Mr. T and his team. 5 years of trying unsuccessfully and 1st time with ARGC... We're all with you.

Anonymous:
I have only ever heard positive things about Mr T. He has brought joy to many in helping to create their special miracles. Long may he keep up the good work.

Simon Bone:
Well, Robert Winston has sunk to a new low ... disgusting (& very bad acting). Thank you Mr T for my son.

ann turner:
I was very happy with my treatment at argc Thanks to mr Taranissi I have a wonderful son

robina bashir:
I am appalled and disgusted at this biased programme,the majority of us have had experiences at other clinics who happily took our money with no result. i am sitting here with my 1 week old baby tonight thank you Mr T.

CARMELA SIDERAS:
THIS IS A DISGRACE MR T SHOULD BE GIVEN HELP NOT HOUNDED. PURE WITCH HUNT. ARE THEY GOING TO INVESTIGATE THE OTHER CLINICS WHO OFFER THE SAME TREATMENTS?

R Phillips:
I only wish my consultant was as forward thinking and dedicated as Mr Taranissi appears to be.

Anonymous:
I am apalled by the biased editing of tonight's Panarama programme. Having had 4 failed cycles at a previous clinic where the treatment is 'one size fits all' the treatment offered by ARGC is tremendous with twice daily tests & different drugs to adapt to your particular circumstances. I know that anyone who has had treatment at anywhere other than ARGC & then gone to ARGC will fully endorse my views. This programme simply portrays the deep jealousy of other fertility experts who cannot come even close the the ARGC stats & stop at no lengths to cause scandal & attempt to ruin Mr Taranasi's reputation. Anybody who has any comprehension of the pain & suffering of not only infertility, but being at the hands of a poor, second rate provincial clinic, will simply dismiss this programme as utter nonsence & will continue to seek the treatment of a dedicated team who provide patients with a real chance of allowing their dream of becoming mothers to become true. If the programme really seeks to uncover the scandalous state of IVF treatment in the UK, the perhaps their time would be better spent carrying out a serious investigation of regional IVF centres, that at best deliver a 22% success rate, whilst relieving their patients of £4,000 per cycle. I would politely suggest that if there is any inappropriate treatment it is carried out in these clinics. It is also worth noting that at least 1 member of your 'impartial' panel has a vested interest in 1 such clinic

Sarah Murrin:
I chose the ARGC because the HFEA advertised the high success rates, not the clinic itself! I was given a registration pack, which clearly asks for a referral from your GP (you can't just walk in off the street as Panorama suggest). I am starting treatment at the end of the month as I have gone through monitoring and I am happy with the clinic. They offered me the immune blood test which I decided not to have, but they didn't force the issue.

Katie Conway:
Mr. T fufilled my dream of becoming a mother. Never at anytime did I find Mr. T or any staff at the ARGC unprofessional or unsupportive.

Anonymous:
Those that fling accusations at Mr Taranissi should remember that it wasn't so long ago that IVF was also unproven - where would we be today if they had listened to the sceptics? Once again, this country does its' damndest to quash innovation, for the sake of a few shocking headlines. We have had two failed ICSI cycles at one of the top five UK clinics where everything appeared to run smoothly, but still they failed. With dual infertility including PCOS and anti-sperm antibodies, surely it's not inconceivable to consider a potential immunological issue? Don't criticise unless you can explain results of over 55% - ARGC has been the top clinic in the UK since 1995 - he must be doing something right! As for using ARGC - we will still do so - I am far more likely to belive the testimonials of thos couples who have finally been successful at ARGC after numerous unsuccessful treatments elsewhere. Why no investigation into the clinics who offer hope, take our money but don't get the results?

Marie:
Thank you Mr T for Matthew (age 2 - first IVF) and another due in May. You never misled me or suggested anything other than "normal" ICSI (my husband has absence of the vas deferens) and have treated my husband and I with respect over the years. We are forever grateful to you.

Nikki Leimer:
Without Mr Taranissi I wouldn't be sitting here looking at my little girl playing happily with her toys. He gave us a chance that no other doctor in this country could or would do - he helped us professionally, emotionally and financially with our treatment - he is a truly wonderful man.

Cheryl Popham:
The biased, unjust, totally one sided programme only confounded my respect and trust for Mr Taranissi and his team.

Karen Randall:
I didn't recognise the description of Mr T or ARGC in Panorama's programme. It seems to me that the other IVF 'professionals' were themselves lacking in integrity. Had Prof Winston forgotten that he featured the ARGC doing successful IViG in his recent documentary 'A Child against the Odds'? The ARGC is the best. That is the problem - it causes jealousy and suspicion. Mr T gave me a 1% chance of getting pregnant but left it to my husband and I to decide if 1% was worth it for us. He treated us as intelligent adults able to make that decision. Just as he treated the 26 year old as an adult in the programme last night. If she had been trying for 12 months and preferred to go for treatment then that's HER choice. We don't all want to wait 2 years to see if it happens naturally, and it is disingenuous of the professionals to suggest that GPs don't refer to ACU Departments after a year because I know they do! And when you get there what happens? They talk about chlomid, IUI, HSGs, laparoscopies, hysteroscopies and IVF. Just as ARGC did. Good for ARGC for allowing us patients the right to make our own decisions. I thank god we didn't have endless counselling and ethics committee hoops to jump through - infertility is bad enough without the paternalism that goes with it so often. Not least from the likes of Prof Winston et al. The ARGC didn't help me have a baby - I did that via surogacy in the end - but they did help me explore all avenues that I wanted to and they helped me move on and away from IVF at the right time for me. THANK YOU for that! I hope they keep on doing what they do best - helping people have babies in the most successful way available. Yes, that costs money. Yes it's worth it.

Anonymous:
Dr Taranissi and his team have been nothing short of dedicated and professional. They have performed miracles and brought lots of joys to many families who have been trying for a baby. My husband and I were successful in our first attempt at IVF and we were never once coerced at any point and were given lots of time to make our decision.

ALLISON RYDER:
The treatment I recieved by Mr Taranissi and the whole team at the ARGC was exceptional compared to my previous experiences when I have felt exploited both emotionally and finacially (my own personal opinion). I was never given any additional treatments or investigations that were not necessary and the Clinic did everything possible to reduce costs (allowing me to buy drugs daily to avoid waste). The programme was biased no comparisions have been made with other IVF clinics. I will not hestitate to have a further cycle under his care and will continue to recommend the ARGC.

Ruth Heaffey:
I am sitting here with my 7 week old daughter next to me, thanks to Mr Taranissi. I took steroids and had ivig and maybe I wouldnt have her if I hadnt have made the decision to go through with those things. I am glad I did. No one made me, it was my choice, Mr Taranissi offered me a way to have my dream - her name is Grace Rose - and I will always be in support of him. He may be the richest doctor in england, but is he off on holiday all the time spending that money - no - everyday he is at work 24/7 - 365 days a year - that says it all about his commitment. Ruth Heaffey

victoria perratt:
The panorama programme and the BBC should be ashamed at the quality of its investigative journalism.

Lucy McCabe:
I had 4 treatments at another clinic that did not work. 2 years later (and older) Mr T got me pregnant 1st time. It is other fertility clinics, with Docs that barely spend 2 days a week in their clinic, that are ripping patients of by putting them through the same production line time after time. Shame on the HFEA for raiding the clinic on the day of the Panorama program - do they not think that IVF couples go through enough pain. What have the HFEA done for me? How about asking other clinics why their success rates are so appallingly low, how come they have so many instances of OHSS etc etc Finally I hope that the image of the other so called experts on last nights program - gigglying like bulllying school children round a table at Mr T efforts - will come to haunt them

Anna Franklin:
As an IVF patient although not at ARGC I was incensed by the one-sided reporting of the Panorama. It made the assumption that we are all vunerable, ill informed idiots who need protecting, whereas the majority are intellingent, educated individuals capable of making their own decision. The proof of Mr Taranassi's hard work and dedication is the thousands of babies born to women who had almost lost hope of ever being a mother. Unless you have experienced the pain of infertility first hand, please do not try to decide for me what is best.

Louise Holden:
I am disgusted by the biased programme aired by panorama last night that offended the very delicacy of my nature. I am seething that a show normally held with high regard would tarnish not only itself by twisting it lies and using a panel of jealous ridden so called experts to destroy the man who has completed so many peoples lives. I honestly feel that because of his high results a pack of bitter not as successfull jackals are trying to drag him down.

Joanna Murphy:
I am upset and angry at the way in which both the HFEA and the BBC have bullied Mr. Taranissi. I feel it is a case of him being a victim of his own success, which is as a result of hard work and dedication and nothing else. He is a tall poppy who stands out and people are jealous of his success. As a patient of his I am so sad that he may not be able to continue to help couples achieve their dreams as he did with me.

arlene anderson:
there are two other clinics ranked top by hfea,why aren they investigated as they offer the same controversial treatment. this is a travesty. ask the patients what they tink if Mr T is tobe sut down.

Simi Treanor:
This clinic really tailor makes each individual treatment for each patient. They are a hard work and dedicated team. Why are they being portrayed as result fixing money grabbing people. It is simply not true.

Charlotte Nicholl:
ARGC is still most definitely on my list of options for future treatment. Get some additional help to sort your administration and the licencing problems out, so you can concentrate on doing what you do best - making dreams come true.

Anonymous:
Mr T and his ARGC team are amazingly dedicated, and the work they do to help couples like us is second to none. This was a total stitch-up and the BBC should be ashamed of itself.

Anonymous:
Mr T has our support 100%. We can't believe that the media are doing this and trying to close such a great and successful clinic down that has made so many couples dreams come true.

Anonymous:
I am deeply upset about the way Mr T has been treated and potrayed by the BBC. This is a man who has made the dreams of many women come true - women who have been to a number of fertility clinincs in Endland and have failed. This reeks of irresponsible journalism (I am surprised at the BBC producing something like this) and professional jealousy. Could it also be that he is a succesful non-english doctor?!

Anonymous:
Even though I have had 3 failed ICSI cycles at ARGC, I cannot praise Mr T highly enough for his dedication and hard work. There are things at the clinic that could do with changing, but the panorama program was totally biased and focussed on the perceived negatives. What about all the hard work and good the clinic does ? What about an investigation into the HFEA and what value they really add ? What other countries have such a strict regulatory body that ties the hands of the expert and the paying patient and charges them for the privilege ? Its no wonder the UK's success rates are amongst the lowest. Another example of bureaucrats and ignorance getting in the way of science and people's happiness.

Catherine Steele:
Without this clinic hundreds of women would never have achieved their dream of having a child. Thank you to Mr T and all your team for our beautiful daughter conceived during our first attempt at IVF. The BBC and the HFEA should be ashamed of themselves for their handling of this matter.

Ersilia Franklin:
I think its disgusting how the BBC have percieved Mr Taranissi. He is a wonderful man and is totally dedicated to his patients. He works 365 days a year from 7am till late what other doctor would be as dedicated as him.

Louise Archer:
This sort of biased, sensationalist and unfair programming is outrageous. It is certainly not in the public interest of ARGC patients and staff. To see such a sensitive and complex issue as IVF handled in this brutal, simplistic and unfair way is frankly irresponsible and cruel. After the BBC and HfEA have got their 30 minutes of sensational airtime, it will be the patients and staff who are left with the pain of struggling on in even more difficult circumstances. As if it wasn't tough enough for us already.

Hanne Berit Boffey:
Having used another clinic earlier, it was an enormous positive change to be treated by the ARGC. The investigation and monitoring prior to and follow-up during treatment to optimise outcome of the cycle is brilliant, and I believe their success is as much due to this as anything else.

Anonymous:
Feel Panorama programme grossly unfair and biased - think there are a few hidden agendas between certain individuals. Personally owe the birth of my beautiful 3 year old son to Mr Taranissi. Will defend him and his procedures to the hilt.

Anonymous:
I am 100% behind Mr T, and fully support his team of very dedicated workers. Please stay strong and keep going you are doing a wonderful job !

IVF IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

2008-02-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4572377.stm
Fertility success gulf revealed

Fertility treatment success rates vary widely from clinic to clinic, according to the first comprehensive guide to be published on services in the UK.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's publication on 85 clinics shows the average success rate for IVF for women under 35 to be just 27.6%.

But some centres achieve more than twice this rate.
HFEA chairwoman Suzi Leather said the guide aimed to help couples struggling to conceive to make informed choices.

She said many felt "left in the dark" about the treatment choices available to them at what could be a "difficult and emotional" time.

She said: "With one in seven people having some difficulty conceiving - almost 3.5m people across the UK - there is clearly a need for straightforward, independent information about infertility, its causes and the treatment options.

"Our guide is designed to cut through the jargon and complex science behind hi-tech fertility treatments to explain the causes of infertility, the possible treatments available and then give detailed information to let people make informed choices about the options available for them."

GPs lack information
Ms Leather said two out of five GPs had told the HFEA that they did not have enough information about fertility services.

"With treatment costing many thousands of pounds, it is right that the people paying for the treatment - the individual or the NHS - should get a proper sense of what they are paying for," she said.

The guide breaks down individual results according to the age of the women treated, showing success rates to be higher for younger women.
And Ms Leather pointed out that clinics specialising in treating younger women would be more likely to achieve high levels of success.

But she added that this alone could not account for the wide differences in success levels between clinics.

She told BBC News it was most likely that some clinics were simply "better" at delivering treatment, with more highly skilled embryologists.

Among the more successful clinics is London's Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, which has a 59% success rate among women under 35 undergoing IVF using fresh eggs.

The guide reveals the most common age for women receiving IVF treatment to be 35.

It also indicates that 8,800 babies (1.5% of all births) are now born every year by IVF, 3,650 every year are born by intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and many more thorough other assisted reproductive technology (ART).

The guide is available as an online, interactive version which allows patients to enter their details and receive tailored information about services and treatments in their area.

Infertility Network UK, a support group, said many people were still unable to access NHS treatment despite guidelines published last year which called for patients to be offered at least one full IVF cycle on the NHS.

Thus it was important that comprehensive information was available to help patients make the right choice for them.

Professor Alison Murdoch, of the British Fertility Society, said: "More and more couples are now coming to fertility clinics and many clinics take on couples who have really quite difficult fertility problems, which may be reflected in individual clinics' performance indicators.

"Infertility is a common medical condition, and the important challenge for the NHS now is to expand the level of fertility treatment available to those unable to have children through natural conception." Shadow Health
Secretary Andrew Lansley accused the government of ignoring guidelines to redress the restricted availability of fertility services.

HOW THE CLINICS FARED
IVF cycles resulting in live births
Clinic
NHS/Private
Live birth rates (%)

Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, London
Both (NHS/Private)
58.5%

Woking Nuffield Hospital
Private
48.1 %

Centre for Assisted Reproduction, Gateshead
Both (NHS/Private)
43.4 %

Essex Fertility Centre, Buckhurst Hill
Private
39.5 %

UCH, London
Private
38.5%

Cromwell IVF and Fertility Centre, Swansea
Private
36.4%

Leicester Fertility Centre
Both (NHS/Private)
17.5 %

Cromwell IVF and Fertility Centre, London
Private
17.0 %

Brentwood Fertility Centre, Essex
Private
14.9%

Esperance Private Hospital, Eastbourne
Both (NHS/Private)
14.0%

St Mary's Hospital, Manchester
NHS
13.2 %

Willow Suite, Thames Valley Nuffield Hospital, Slough
Private
10.3 %

Source: HFEA (2005)

IVF IN ASIA: INDIA

2008-02-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

The cost of medical care in India is very low when compared to that in many western countries. India has a vast reservoir of skilled doctors. Many of them have proved their mettle in the US and UK and returned to India to work in hospitals here. The caliber of other doctors practicing in India is high.

IVF IN AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICA (II)

2008-02-15T13:56:00.001-08:00

PREGNANCYMD.ORG INFERTILITY SPECIALISTS

*Cape Fertility Clinic
Newlands Surgical Clinic
Suite 204
Main Road
Claremont, 7700
Tel: +27 21 674 2081 or 674 2088
Fax: +27 21 671 2709

e-mail: wisheyl@iafrica.com
Dr K Wiswedel
Dr S Heylen
*Centre for assisted Reproduction and Embryology
Westville Hospital
Suite 2 & 8
Spine Road
Westville
Durban
Tel: +27 31 265 1066
Fax: +21 31 265 1067

e-mail: anrika@iafrica.com
Dr Anil Ramdeo
Chelmsford Medical Centre
St Augustines Hospital
107 Chelmsford Road
Berea 4001
Durban
Tel: +27 31 202 7563
Fax: +27 31 201 7720

e-mail: jhansen@ispace.co.za
Dr J N Hansen
Femina Clinic
1st Floor
460 Belvedere Road
Arcadia
Pretoria
Tel: +27 12 323 6993
Fax: +27 12 323 6993

e-mail: pentz@gedi.co.za
Dr J Pentz
Groote Schuur Hospital Fertility Unit
Maternity Wing
Anzio Road
Observatory, 7925
Cape Town
Tel: +27 21 404 6027
Fax: +27 21 448 6921
Dr S Dyer
Gynomed Clinic
Wilgeheuwel Hospital
Suite 11, Amplifier Road
Radiokop, Roodepoort
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 794 1941 or 794 2408
Fax: +21 11 794 2987

e-mail: lindeque@gynomed.co.za
Dr H Lindeque
Dr K Groenewald
Dr Labaschagne
Dr Potgeiter
Medfem Clinic
1st Floor
Cnr. Peter Place & Nursery Road
Bryanston 2021
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 463 2244
Fax: +27 11 463 1875

e-mail: medfem@medfem.co.za
Dr J van Schouwenberg
Dr J van Rensberg
Dr A Rodreguiz
Nordica Fertility Centre
PRETORIA EAST HOSPITAL
Room 12
Garsfontein Drive
Morletta Park
Tel: +27 12 998 8854/5
Fax: +27 12 998 8856

e-mail: fertinor@mweb.co.za
Dr M Trouw
Nordica Fertility Centre
LENMED
Suites C14-16, Lenmed Clinic
Marlin Ave
Ext 9 Lenasia
Tel: +27 11 852 1454
Fax: +27 11 852 1455
Dr M I Cassim
Nordica Fertility Centre
BRENTHURST CLINIC
West Wing, Upper Level
4 Parklane Parktown
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 484 5119 or 484 5168
Fax: + 27 11 484 5180

e-mail: info@nordicafertilityclinics.co.za
Dr M I Cassim
Pan Lab Fertility Clinic
Panarama Medi Clinic
Room 118
Rothchild Boulevard
Parow, 7500
Cape Town
Tel: +27 21 930 4433
Fax: +27 21 930 8348

e-mail: rvs@mweb.co.za
Dr T De Villiers
Dr V Hulme
Park Lane Infertility Centre
11 Park Lane cnr Junction Ave
2nd Floor
Park Town
Johannesburg
Dr Alan Adno
Tel: +27 11 642 4961/2/3
Fax: +27 11 642 4908
Dr Herman Netshidvhan
Tel: +27 11 480 4143
Fax: +27 11 480 4316
Port Elizabeth Fertility Clinic
The Stables
St Georges Hospital
Port Elizabeth
Tel: +27 41 374 1134
Fax: +27 41 373 8541

e-mail: pdal@iafrica.com
Dr P Dalmeyer
Pretoria Academic Fertility Unit
Maternity Ward
Private Bag X169
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: +27 12 354 6209
Fax: + 27 12 354 6093

e-mail: chuyser@medic.up.ac.za
Dr Liz Radloff
TYGERBERG REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY UNIT
3rd Floor
Tygerberg Hospital
Durbanville
Cape Towm
Tel: +27 21 938 4446
Fax: +27 21 933 3084

e-mail: tfk@gerga.sun.ac.za
Prof. T Kruger
Dr J P van der Merwe
UNIVERSITY OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE, DPT OF OBSTETRICS &
GYNAECOLOGY, IVF
PO Box 11484
Universitas
9521 Bloemfontein
Tel: + 27 51 405 3444
Fax: +27 51 444 0299
Prof P Wessels
Dr J Nortje
VITALAB
Linksfield Park Clinic 12th Avenue Linksfield West Orangegrove
Johannesburg Tel: + 27 11 640 5049
Fax: +27 11 640 4092

e-mail: info@vitalab.co.za
Dr M Jacobson
Dr L Gobetz
Dr W Kuchenbecker
WILGERS CLINIC
Room 10, Medi Centre
Lynwood Road
Willows
Pretoria
Tel: +27 12 807 0232
Fax: +27 12 807 29 37
Dr C Niemandt

IVF IN AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICA

2008-02-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Frustrated with the high cost of medical care and by insurance companies that don't cover elective procedures such as IVF, medically savvy consumers are driving a new trend known as medical tourism. The total price of an overseas treatment—with airfare, accommodations, and even a few days of vacation tacked on (IVF SAFARI) is often far less than the procedure by itself would cost in Britain and the United States.

SOUTH AFRICA'S IVF CLINICS:

*Vitalab Fertility Clinic
Dr. Volschenk, Dr. Jacobsen, Dr. Gobetz
59 Rivonia Rd, Monrningside,
JohannesburgTelephone: +27 (011) 640-5049
Website: www.vitalab.com

*Bio Art Fertility Centre
Dr. M. Cassim, Dr Dasoo
Telephone: +27 (011) 484-5168
Website: www.bioartfertility.co.za

*Brenthurst Clinic West
4 Park Lane, Parktown, Johannesburg.

*Medfem Clinic
Dr. A. Rodriques, Dr. J van Schouwenburg, Dr. J van Rensburg
1 Nursery St,
Peter Place, Bryanston, Johannesburg
Telephone: +27 (011) 463-2244
Website: www.medfem.com

*Gynomed Clinic
Dr. Giesteira, Dr. Labuschagne, Dr. Lindeque, Dr. Potgieter, Dr. Schulz Wilgeheuwel Hospital,
Suite 11, Amplifier Rd, Radiokop, RoodepoortTelephone: +27 (011) 796-1100
Website:www.gynomed.co.za

*Sandton Fertility Clinic
Dr. Mohammed, Dr. Faesen
173 Rivonia Rd, Rochester Place, D Block, Ground Floor, Johannesburg
Telephone:+27 (011) 883-1776
Website: www.sandtonfertility.co.za

*Pretoria East Fertility Clinic
Dr Joubert, Dr Trouw
Pretoria East Hospital,
Room 19, 1st Floor
Medical Centre , Garsfontein Rd,
Pretoria East
Telephone:+27 (012) 883-8854

*Genesis Reproductive Centre
Dr. Pentz, Dr. de Bruin
Kloof Hospital,
Room 111 Jochemus Street,
Erasmus Kloof, Pretoria
Telephone:+27 (012) 367-4363

INDEPENDENT SPECIALISTS
Dr. Van Der Wat Parklane Clinic
11 Park Lane Cnr,
Junction Ave 2nd Floor,
Park Town,
Johannesburg
Telephone: +27 (011) 484-3700

Dr. G. Dempers
Femina Clinic
460 Belvedere Rd,
Arcadia,
Pretoria
Telephone: +27 (012) 323-4011

Dr. Niemandt
Wilgers Clinic
Room 10, Medi Centre,
Lynwood Rd, Willows,
Pretoria
Telephone: +27 (012) 807-0232

KWA-ZULU NATAL
CLINICS
*C.A.R.E. (Centre for assisted reproduction and endocrinology)
Dr. Ramdeo
21 Jan Hofmeyer Street,
Westville, Durban
Telephone: +27 (031) 267-7920,
Website: www.careclinic.co.za

*Nordica Fertility Clinic
Dr. Barnard, Dr Naidoo
607 Kingsway,
Athlone Park, Durban
Telephone: +27 (031) 904-2592

*LIFE Centre
Dr. La Grange, Dr. Thompson, Dr. Morris
74 Rockdale ,
Westville, Durban
Telephone: +27 (031) 267-5870
Website: www.lifecentre.co.za

INDEPENDENT SPECIALISTS
Dr. Hansen, Mr. Ernest Gabriel
082 411 7325
St Augustines Hospital
107 Chelmsford Rd,
Berea, Durban
Telephone: +27 (031) 202-7563

Cape Town, already rated as one of the top holiday venues in the world, is becoming a preferred destination for bargain babies - where infertile couples can have treatment and go home pregnant at a fraction of the price it would cost elsewhere.

Local fertility clinics say they provide quality service equivalent to anything offered abroad, but at far more affordable rates.

Klaus Wiswedel of the Cape Fertility Clinic in Newlands said "Lots of overseas couples come here because our clinics have the same professionalism and quality of service as in the US and the UK."He said the Cape Fertility Clinic did around 20 procedures a month and that the city's clinics were substantially cheaper than those in Britain and the US.
Cape Town clinics that offer egg donation procedures are Tygerberg Fertility Clinic and the Cape Fertility Clinic in Newlands which is also home to the country's biggest sperm bank.
o This article was originally published on page 1 of Saturday Argus on August 20, 2005
THE CAPE
CLINICS
*Cape Fertility Clinic
Dr. K Wiswedel, Dr. S Heylen
Library Square, 2nd Floor,
Wilderness Rd, Clairemont
Telephone: +27 (021) 674-2088
e-mail: wisheyl@iafrica.com
Website: www.capefertility-clinic.co.za

*Grootte Schuur Fertility Unit
Dr. Dyer, Dr Matebse (consulting), Dr. Matjila (consulting)Groote Schuur Hospital, Andrology Department, Maternity Centre F Floor, Anzio Rd, Observatory
Telephone: +27 (021) 404-6027

*Pan Lab Fertility Clinic
Dr. De Villiers, Dr. HumeTelephone: +27 (021) 930-4433

*Panorama Medi Clinic Room 118, Rothchild Boulevard, Parow
*Tygerberg Infertility ClinicDr. Kruger, Dr. Van Der Merwe, Dr. Siebert

Telephone: +27 (021) 531-6999
*Drs Avitas Inc. Vincent Palloti Hospital, Park Street, Pinelands
*Fertility & Wellness Centre Port ElizabethDr. Dalmeyer, Dr. Kriel, Dr. Botha St Georges Hospital, Medical Suites, Ground Floor, The Stables, Port Elizabeth
Telephone: +27 (041) 374-8942

IVF IN AFRICA: NIGERIA

2008-02-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

There are about a dozen ivf clinics in Nigeria, mostly located in Lagos, the nation's commercial centre. Nigerians no longer have to travel abroad for ivf treatment and they save on airfare and accomodation whilst receiving more cost effective first class treatment. In fact, a number of Nigerians resident overseas have taken advantage of its lower cost in the country by going to Nigeria for some treatment cycles and returning to their overseas bases afterwards.

A LIST OF IVF CLINICS IN NIGERIA

* Bridge Clinic
Plot 1397A Tiamiyu Savage Street,
Victoria Island, Lagos.
Tel: 01-2623268 ; 2610686
Email: bridge@om.metrong.com ; info@thebridgeclinic.com
Website: www.thebridgeclinic.com
Medical Director: Dr. Richardson A. Ajayi

Port Harcourt Center
41A Evo Road,
G.R.A Phase II
Port Harcourt.
Tel: (084) 465 003 – 5

* Hope Valley Fertility Clinic
261, Etim Inyang Crescent,
Victoria Island, Lagos.
Tel: 01-4618989 ; 08033069466
Email: thehopevalleyclinic@hyperia.com
Website: www.thehopevalleyclinic.com
Medical Director: Dr. Olugbenga Ogunkoya

Portharcourt Center
17B Ahaimakara Road,
Transamadi Industrial Layout Road,
Portharcourt.
Tel: 084: 578956 ; 08037048134 ; 08033069466

* Medical Art Center
Lofom House
21 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way
P.O.Box 5747,
Ikeja,
Lagos
Tel: 01-4971970
Email: mart@infoweb.abs.net
Website: www.medicalartcenter.com
Medical Director: Professor Oladapo Ashiru

* M & M Hospital
The Fertility and IVF Center
10 Ngozi Avenue / 127 Faulks Road,
Aba, Abia State.
Tel: +234-82-227-798 ; 08033240452
Email: drprosper@mmfertilityhospital.com
Website: www.mmfertilityhospital.com
Medical Director: Dr. Prosper Ikechukwu Igboeli

*National Hospital Abuja
Plot 132, Central Business District,
(Phase II)
Garki, Abuja
Email: info@nationalhospitalabuja.net
Website: www.nationalhospitalabuja.net
Chief Medical Director: Dr. Olusegun Ajuwon
Tel: 08033495146

* Nisa Premier Hospital
Plot 618, Alex Ekwueme Way,
Jabi, Wuse, Abuja
Telephone: 08035967303
Website: www.nordica.org/nisa-hospital
Medical Director: Dr.Ibrahim Wada

* Nordica Fertility Centre
106/108 Norman Williams Street,
South West Ikoyi,
Lagos.
Email: info@nordicalagos.com ; yomiajayi@nordicalagos.com
Website: www.nordicalagos.com
Medical Director: Dr. Abayomi Ajayi

* Omni Advanced Fertility Center
18 Boyle Street,
Onikan, Lagos.
Telephone: 01-2630304 ; 01-2646304
Email: info@ivflagos.org
Website: www.ivflagos.org
Medical Director: Professor Osato Giwa-Osagie

* Roding Medical Centre
29B Olabode George Street,
Off Ajose Adeogun Street,
Victoria Island,
Lagos.
Telephone: 01- 2626169 ; 26226170
Medical Director: Dr. Adewunmi Adeyemi Bero

* St. Ives Specialist Hospital : IVF & Fertility Unit
4, Mojidi Street,
Off Toyin Street,
Ikeja, Lagos.
Telephone: 01-8974878
Email: info@stivesng.com
Website: www.stivesng.com
Medical Director: Dr. Tunde Okewale

SEX BOOSTS IVF CHANCES

2007-12-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

SEX BOOSTS IVF CHANCES

Couples who have sex at or around the time an IVF embryo is implanted have more chance of becoming pregnant, say researchers.
However, a UK expert says that the tiny risk of the womb expelling the new embryo after sex would lead him not to recommend it immediately after IVF.

The study, reported in New Scientist magazine, was carried out at Adelaide University, where scientists checked the progress of more than 1,000 embryo transfers.

Half the women involved were asked to have sex in the days around the transfer, half told to avoid it. CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE AT: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1058408.stm

IMMUNE SYSTEM AND IVF FAILURE

2007-12-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

IMMUNE TREATMENT ‘CUTS IVF FAILURES’

Suppressing the immune systems of women who suffer recurrent miscarriage may be able to allow many more to give birth.

The technique may also help those who suffer repeated IVF failures, or who cannot get pregnant, without an obvious reason why.

A leading US expert is presenting the results of his first, small scale study into a therapy at a UK conference on Monday, and these suggest it could be a highly successful approach - even among older patients.

Many thousands of women have unexplained infertility, suffer recurrent miscarriages, or cannot succeed with IVF, despite their young age and apparently good health.

Professor Alan Beer from Chicago Medical School, says that, in some cases, the problem may be an immune system which turns on the newly-implanted embryo and destroys it.
Although the father's genetic material is present in the embryo and on the surface of the placenta, the mother's body does not reject it.

However, in some cases, there is strong evidence that this process goes wrong.

Test and treat
He believes he has developed both a test for those women who are at risk - and a potential treatment to counter the problem.

Professor Beer concentrated on women who have suffered recurrent IVF failures, in which implanted fertilised embryos do not produce a successful pregnancy.
He found that seven out of ten women with three IVF failures had higher than normal levels of a chemical called tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha).

This is a product of a type of immune system cell called a natural killer cell, and is responsible for damage to tissues in "autoimmune" diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.

Professor Beer's theory is that the immune system is also attacking the embryo in women with recurrent miscarriage, saying that the body was treating the embryo "like a cancer".

Existing drugs
There are existing medications used to reduce levels of TNF alpha in the body - but these are currently only licensed to treat established auto-immune disorders.

In trials involving 100 patient who had all suffered repeated IVF failures, he found that 78% of those under 35 years old managed to become pregnant.
Even a significant proportion of those aged 40 and above managed to get pregnant this way.
The treatment has so far produced 80 live births.

Professor Beer said: "It's like when you find the correct area code and you connect the telephone call - these healthily infertile women proved to me that their bodies were made to have babies.
"The breakthrough was to find what component of the immune system was doing the killing - and then reduce that component to normal levels."

'Astonishing'
Dr Simon Thornton, from Nottingham's Care in the Park clinic, said: "A third of our patients have an unexplained infertility.

"Professor Beer suggests that an abnormally active immune system is blocking pregnancy or acting to stop it from developing.
He has shown astonishing success rates in patients who would have otherwise had very very low success rates.
"At present, we use IVF as a treatment for many patients who have unexplained infertility - but this may be a much more straightforward treatment to allow them to have a perfectly successful pregnancy."

Dr Mohammed Taranissi, from the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, told the BBC that the results, although small-scale, were "impressive".
He said: "It's something we have suspected for a long time.
"Now we have to see whether we can apply a drug which has been developed for another problem for infertility problems."

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

IVF FOR OLDER WOMEN SOARS

2007-12-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

More than 20 babies a year are being born to women aged over 50 through IVF treatment, according to the latest official figures.

A total of 24 women out of 96 aged over 50 who were treated at British fertility clinics in 2002 succesfully gave birth.
Between 1992 and 2002 the number of births to women aged 45 to 49 has increased from 15 to 106, and the number of those over 50 has increased by 24 times. Over the decade the total number of births through IVF has trebled: from 2,360 to 7,740.
The figures were released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority amid controversy over Patricia Rashbrook, 63, who announced last week that she was seven months pregnant. Dr Rashbrook conceived the baby boy using a donor egg obtained in Russia and sperm from her husband John, 61. The NHS refuses to treat women over the age of 39 but there is no legal limit for the 85 private clinics. TO READ FULL ARTICLE, CLICK BELOW: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2170649,00.html

DEALING WITH IVF FAILURE

2007-12-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

DEALING WITH IVF FAILURE
Couples who undergo IVF treatment usually have very high expectations. There is a subconscious reluctance to admit that they might very well be among the unsuccessfully treated patients although it is still clear that failure is more likely than success.

IVF is an expensive and stressful experience which increases our expectations of the process. Expectations of success are considerably higher than the success rates quoted at their initial consultation.

The endpoint of IVF treatment, which is the transfer of two or sometimes three embryos into the uterus, is not the same as a pregnancy. There is a waiting period of about two weeks after the embryo transfer before it can be determined whether the woman has achieved pregnancy. This further increases the frustration of the process.

A success rate of 25-30% means that the failure rate is 75-85%. No one likes to think about failure when embarking on a new venture. There are very few medical programmes where emotions are so highly charged and where the failure rate consistently exceeds the success rate.
Treatment can fail at any stage: ovarian stimulation, egg collection, fertilization, cleavage and implantation. All that IVF demands of the person – financial, emotional, fear coupled with courage and determination potentates failure.

Any woman who decides to make the financial outlay for IVF and subject herself to the inconvenience of injecting herself everyday for up to three or four weeks expects to get pregnant from the process and the disappointment of failure becomes much more acute.

Two of the most traumatic points of failure are failure in fertilization and the return of the menses, which results from a failure in implantation. There is a feeling of isolation, confusion and helplessness and you ask, “what went wrong?”

Sometimes, one never really knows why it has failed despite the ‘good’ prognosis (relatively young age, normal uterus, high quality embryos transferred) but it is helpful to discuss with the doctor and embryologist who saw the embryos and can give an assessment. The unexplained situation is always the most difficult to bear. Failure is often easier to bear when we can pinpoint a reason for that failure.

A review of the treatment cycle by looking at the ways in which a couple responded to the drug stimulation: number of eggs collected, semen issues, fertilization and the grading of the embryos, etc., may give some clues as to how to adjust a repeat treatment.

After experiencing a failure, there is often considerable merit in delaying the decision to undergo a repeat cycle treatment.

If you have had more than one failed IVF, consider changing clinics, especially if your doctor doesn’t have a change in protocol planned.
Remember that all cycles are not alike. Using the exact same protocol on another attempt even at the same clinic can lead to different results. (Rachel Browne)
References:
‘The Bridge Clinic’s ‘Fertility Update’ September 2005 Vol No 3
‘Birthright,’ August 2005

HOW MANY TIMES CAN I DO IVF?
It is difficult to determine how many treatment cycles any particular couple will require to conceive a pregnancy. Some couples achieve a pregnancy after one cycle, some after two, some after three but most couples without major problems will conceive within four to five cycles. Three major factors are the low pregnancy rate, cost and the emotional stress associated with the treatment. It is very important for couples to receive the appropriate level of counseling and information before so as to manage their expectations before embarking on IVF treatment.

IVF SUCCESS TIPS AND HINTS

2007-12-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

The IVF process is expensive and stressful and tips and hints that can improve the chances of its working are shared here. Rachel Browne has a comprehensive, useful list:

The main IVF hint is to pamper yourself! An IVF cycle is a very stressful thing and anything that helps you through it without harming a potential baby is okay!Decide ahead of time where and how you want to get news each day for how much medication to take, etc. This is especially important on the big days of finding out about fertilization and pregnancy test. Those days can be tough if things don't go well! You might want your partner or a good friend around!

Rest is very important, even before transfer. All those developing eggs are taking up a lot of space and energy.

Try to get to know the people who are treating you so you aren't just another patient.
It may help to make a friend or two who is at the clinic for IVF, too.

Bring a book, magazine, or hand-held game with you to appointments. You might be there for awhile.

Make sure they do a mock transfer prior to the actual embryo transfer. This is not fun, but it is necessary that they know the depth of your uterus so they know where to put the embryos.
Do whatever it is you need to do to make this manageable for you. (Naps, backrubs, favorite foods, etc. Be very good to yourself during this time.)

Small amounts of alcohol will probably not adversely affect you or your eggs, but caffeine has been shown to affect fertility, even in small amounts, so try to avoid it.

Buy a good, up-to-date fertility book and try to find out as much as you can about the IVF process beforehand. There are always new advances, so try to keep up with the changes in techniques.

Always ask your RE a lot of questions about your progress, what the numbers mean, etc. That is what they are there for! Also, you should be able to get copies of anything in your file (like your follicle growth and E2 test results and fertilization report). The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely they are to openly share information and take time to explain.

It can be very comforting to find someone, either in cyberspace or in person, that is in a similar situation (factor, cycle) that you can share stories and progress with.

Try to keep a very flexible schedule the week before the pregnancy test. Some people start their periods early and are stuck somewhere where they cannot just be alone and grieve.

Start taking a prenatal vitamin prior to your cycle. At the minimum, you should take 400mcg of folic acid daily for three months before conception to reduce neural tube defects such as spina bifida. The FDA suggests 800 mcg during pregnancy, so it is best to look for a prenatal with that amount.

Some clinics believe that a diet that is high in protein and low in salt and potassium can help you avoid hyperstimulation. Gatorade is a poor choice of fluid to drink to prevent/control hyperstimulation because it contains large quantities of salt. Water or Pedialyte is best, in quantities recommended by your RE. At a certain stage of OHSS, too much fluid can be detrimental.

Remember that some people get very uncomfortable and even have a lot of pain as the ovaries are stimulated. This may get worse as the follicles ripen. Loose clothing may help.Don’t worry about your weight unless you are tracking it for hyperstimulation purposes. Unless you hyperstimulate, most of the weight gained during an IVF cycle usually disappears once your period starts and if you are lucky enough to get pregnant your weight won’t matter anyway!

If you are not taking birth control pills the cycle previous to your IVF, be sure to use birth control (no matter how ridiculous it may seem). Usually, you will start Lupron before you would know if you conceived or not and Lupron is very dangerous to a developing baby.
The extra fluid your developing follicles are taking up and being NPO before retrieval can sometimes cause constipation. Increasing your consumption of fiber and fluids as you approach egg retrieval may help alleviate this.
Don't talk to your partner too much about his role. This may cause him extra anxiety during an already stressful time and the extra stress can aggravate the performance anxiety that men suffer on the day of retrieval.
If this is your first IVF, be conservative about the number of blastocysts or embryos you transfer, especially if they are of very good quality. You may find that fertilization was your big hurdle and now that is complete you are on your way!

If you have had more than one failed IVF, consider changing clinics, especially if your doctor doesn’t have a change in protocol planned.

Remember that all cycles are not alike. Using the exact same protocol on another attempt even at the same clinic can lead to different results.

Some clinics use medications to prevent embryo rejection (low dose corticosteroids, etc.) which may help your chances of success. Check with your clinic to see if they think it would make a difference for you.

Always repeat the directions for medication to the nurse and get your E2 level. If something seems wrong or unclear, ask for clarification.Prior to the stimulation part of your cycle, make sure you and your partner discuss how many embryos or blastocysts you plan to transfer. (While remembering that your plan may have to change because of circumstances of the IVF!) If you think you will have extra embryos beyond what you want to transfer to avoid high order multiple risk, decide whether you will freeze them or discard them. Decide whether you would consider selective reduction. These are not things to discuss under pressure right before transfer!

SUPPORT & ENCOURAGEMENT FROM OTHERS UNDERGOING IVF TREATMENT

2007-12-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

The IVF journey can be a lonely one. Especially in a situation where you cannot really tell other people that you are even receiving treatment. Many do not even understand the process and so you cannot confide in them. However you are not alone. There are forums and support groups online where you can share your fears and worries and get advice from others who have undergone IVF treatment. No matter how experienced or knowledgeable your doctors and nurses are, nothing beats the personal experience of ladies who have undergone the same treatment!

Please find below links to some IVF forums

http://www.ivfconnections.com/stories.htm

http://forums.fertilitycommunity.com/vitro-fertilization-ivf/262322-first-ivf-suggestions.html

http://www.sharedjourney.com/success_stories.html

THE ABC OF IVF: A MORE DETAILED LOOK

2007-12-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

THE ABC OF IVF
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEST TUBE TREATMENT

WHEN TRYING FOR A BABY, HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT BEFORE I WORRY ABOUT NOT GETTING PREGNANT?

It is very difficult to be specific. One in five women falls pregnant within a month of starting to try.
After six months of having sex without contraception, seven out of ten women have conceived.
After a year, approximately 85 per cent of women will be pregnant and after two years the figure is 95 per cent.

FREE IVF TREATMENT

2007-12-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

FREE IVF TREATMENT
The cost of a cycle of IVF treatment ranges between N500, 000 – 900,000.00, an amount out of the reach of many couples and unfortunately there is no government funding in Nigeria at the moment. However it is possible to benefit from free IVF treatment if you fall within certain criteria.

Free treatment is available to a woman who VOLUNTARILY shares some of her collected eggs with another infertile couple. The eggs will be shared only if the number of eggs you produce are sufficient so you do not lose out. However you are usually required to bear just the cost of the initial test/assessment that will indicate if you are suitable for the treatment.

GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS AND CRITERIA FOR FREE TREATMENT:

* You should be aged between 19 and 34.
* Weigh less than 85kg.
* Have regular menstrual cycles.
* Have 2 ovaries.
* Have had a maximum of 2 previous failed IVF attempts and not less than 6 collected eggs in each of these cycles.
* Have an FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) level of less than 9.0 when measured between day 2 and 6 of your natural menstrual cycle.
* Have an LH (Luteinizing Hormone) level of less than 10 when taken at the same time as above.
* Do not have significant fibroids or polycystic ovaries (PCO).

IVF CLINICS IN NIGERIA

2007-12-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

You do not need to travel abroad for standard IVF treatment as it is now available in Nigeria at a fraction of what it would cost you abroad. You save on air fare and hotel bills and the success rates are comparable with that of clinics abroad. Plus, you are likely to get more suitable egg donors here at home, if you happen to need them.

The clinics below are listed alphabetically. There is as yet no independent official rating to verify any claims of success rates.

*PLEASE CLICK IN THE BRACKETS TO VISIT THEM*

1. BRIDGE CLINIC
Plot 1397A Tiamiyu Savage Street,
Victoria Island, Lagos.
Tel: 01-2623268 ; 2610686
Email: info@thebridgeclinic.com
Website:( www.thebridgeclinic.com )
Medical Director: Dr. Richardson A. Ajayi

PortHarcourt Center
Bridge Clinic
41A Evo Road, G.R.A. Phase II, Port Harcourt
Tel: (084) 465 003 - 5

2. HOPE VALLEY FERTILITY CLINIC
261, Etim Inyang Crescent,
Victoria Island, Lagos.
Tel: 01-4618989 ; 08033069466
Email: thehopevalleyclinic@hyperia.com
Website:( http://www.thehopevalleyclinic.com/)

Medical Director: Dr. Ogunkoya

Portharcourt Center
17B Ahaimakara Road,
Transamadi Industrial Layout Road,
Portharcourt.
Tel: 084: 578956 ; 08037048134 ; 08033069466

3. MEDICAL ART CENTER
Lofom House
21 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way
P.O.Box 5747,
Ikeja,
Lagos
Tel: 01-4971970
Email: mart@infoweb.abs.net
Website:( http://www.medicalartcenter.com )
Medical Director: Professor Oladapo Ashiru

4. NATIONAL HOSPITAL ABUJA
Plot 132, Central Business District,
(Phase II)
Garki, Abuja
Email: info@nationalhospitalabuja.net
Website:( www.nationalhospitalabuja.net )
Chief Medical Director: Dr. Olusegun Ajuwon
Tel: 08033495146

5. NISA PREMIER HOSPITAL
Plot 618, Alex Ekwueme Way,
Jabi, Wuse, Abuja
Telephone: 08035967303
Website:( http://www.nordica.org/nisa-hospital )
Medical Director: Dr. Ibrahim Wada

6. NORDICA FERTILITY CENTER
Road 2, Plot A3 & 4, Victoria Garden City,
Ajah, Lekki, Lagos.
Email: info@nordicalagos.com ; yomiajayi@nordicalagos.com
Medical Director: Dr. Abayomi Ajayi

7. OMNI ADVANCED FERTILITY CENTER
18 Boyle Street,
Onikan, Lagos.
Telephone: 01-2630304 ; 01-2646304
Email: info@ivflagos.org
Website:( www.ivflagos.org )
Medical Director: Professor Osato Giwa-Osagie.

8. RODING MEDICAL CENTER
29B Olabode George Street,
Off Ajose Adeogun Street,
Victoria Island,
Lagos.
Telephone: 01- 2626169 ; 26226170
Medical Director: Dr. Adewunmi Adeyemi Bero

9. ST. IVES SPECIALIST HOSPITAL : IVF & FERTILITY UNIT
4, Mojidi Street,
Off Toyin Street,
Ikeja, Lagos.
Telephone: 01-8974878
Email: info@stivesng.com
Website:( www.stivesng.com )
Medical Director: Dr. Tunde Okewale

Related links: http://www.mybabytestimony.blogspot.com

http://www.babyfertile.blogspot.com

http://www.naturalfertilityaids.blogspot.com

WHAT IS IN VITRO FERTILISATION - IVF?

2007-12-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

IVF means in vitro fertilisation which means fertilisation 'in glass' or outside the body.

IVF is necessary where other methods of treatment of infertility have failed. Whatever the cause of the problem, it is usually because the the sperm and the eggs are not uniting to form an embryo. if there is a sperm problem and the treatment of the cause of the sperm problem has failed, then a couple may require assisted conception. If there is an egg problem and ovulation cannot be induced, the woman may require assisted conception. If she has a tube problem which cannot be treated by simple methods, she will need assisted conception.

THE PROCESS OF IVF: AN IVF CYCLE

STEP 1: OVARIAN STIMULATION AND MONITORING
In a normal cycle, a single egg is produced in the ovary every month. To maximize the chances of successful fertilisation with each IVF attempt, the woman is given drugs (menogon, puregon, pergonal, humegon, metrodin, etc) to produce a lot of eggs. The growth and development of the eggs is closely monitored by repeated ultrasound and or blood tests. Based on information obtained from these tests, it is determined when ovulation will take place. Release of eggs from the ovary is then achieved by administering an injection called HCG. The woman will then be ready for egg collection. The eggs are are collected using ultrasound to guide a needle into the ovaries.

STEP 2: EGG COLLECTION
This takes place 32 to 36 hours after the HCG injection. Egg collection is usually performed via a transvaginal route under local anaesthesia. Direct vision through ultrasound helps imaging helps to identify and retrieve eggs more accurately.

STEP 3: INCUBATION AND FERTILISATION
A few hours before egg collection, the man is asked to produce a semen sample which will be processed in the laboratory in order to enhance the chances of fertilisation. The sperm and eggs are then incubated in a specially designed laboratory incubator which functions at standard body temperature. Within 48 hours, fertilisation is expected to take place and cell division can then be seen.

When there is an associated sperm problem and there is a risk that the sperms may not be able to fertilise the eggs by themselves, the sperms are picked up and with special equipment called a micromanipulator, the sperm is injected into the egg. This is called Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI).

STEP FOUR: EMBRYO TRANSFER
Embryo Transfer is the procedure by which the fertilised eggs are returned to the womb. The embryos are placed in a special catheter and are transferred into the uterus. After the procedure, the woman is given a progesterone hormone - series of injections or vaginal suppositories which she inserts daily for two weeks. A pregnancy test is conducted two weeks after embryo transfer.