What's New -the Latest Advances in IVF | What's New at New Hope Fertility | What's Next -the Future of IVF
Video Interview
Video Interview with Fox News
New York Post Sunday article features Dr. Zhang
In this week’s Sunday New York Times, there was an article discussing the rate of twins born as a result of
IVF treatment. How does New Hope deal with this problem?
Has Your Doctor Cancelled Your Cycle Because of “Too Few Follicles”?
After suffering through weeks of lab-work and ultrasounds, and having incurred the cost of medication and the pain of daily daily injections, IVF patients often face a “cancelled cycle.” Nearly 1 in 4 IVF patients over the age of 39, and nearly 1 in 10 patients under the age of 39 has had a cancelled egg retrieval cycle. It is one of the most disappointing aspects of conventional IVF treatment.
Practitioners of Conventional IVF—protocols which value egg quantity over egg quality—are often unaccustomed to working with a small number of follicles. As a result, if a patient has produced three dominant follicles or fewer, she may be told that her cycle must be cancelled or converted to a low-success, non-IVF method, typically an intrauterine insemination (IUI).
At New Hope Fertility Center we understand that every cancelled cycle is a missed opportunity. We are pleased to provide an option for patients who have face cancelled cycles during Conventional IVF treatment: the Cancelled Cycle Rescue Program.
The Cancelled Cycle Rescue Program is designed to make the most of a patient’s every cycle. Patients who have had their cycles cancelled by their IVF centers for "too few follicles" are invited to make an "emergency" appointment with us at New Hope Fertility Center for consultation as soon as possible. We are available 7 days a week. If we find that a patient is an appropriate candidate with all IVF screen tests up to date, we will continue her cycle and perform her retrieval and eventual embryo transfer, should embryos be produced.
At New Hope Fertility Center, we understand that there is no such thing as "too few follicles.” As our "One Good Egg" policy suggests, it takes only one good egg to create one healthy baby—and we routinely perform retrievals with as few as one follicle. Since 2005, our physicians have performed over 2000 retrievals for many patients who have had only a single dominant follicle.
While single follicles have the chance of resulting in only single-embryo transfers, such transfers are not a liability but an advantage. Single-embryo transfers reduce the risk of multiple births and their complications, and it is our preferred protocol. The world's first successful IVF was produced from a single dominant follicle with a single embryo transfer.
WHAT'S NEW? THE LATEST ADVANCES IN IVF
Breaking News...
"Study links Preemies, long-term risks"
On March 25th 2008 Yahoo! News reported premature births have higher death rates and increases chance to be childless as adults. For more information click here.
Fertility Education
The Differences Between Vitrification and Conventional Cryopreservation
Embryo cryopreservation enhances the patient's opportunity for repeated attempts at conception in the cycles following egg retrieval. Cryopreservation can be achieved by either conventional slow cooling or by Vitrification. The rate of cooling and the concentration of the cryoprotectants are the two major factors determining the outcome of cryopreservation. Conventional cryopreservation techniques require costly equipments and more time than Vitrification, while resulting in a high incidence of damage to the embryo, caused by the formation of ice crystals during the cooling process. The overall success rate for a good recovery is low.
Vitrification is an advanced and very delicate cryopreservation technique. The cells and tissues are placed directly into the Vitrification solution after critical equilibration with cryoprotectants and then plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. The primary advantage of Vitrification is that there is no ice crystal formation, due to the increased speed of temperature conduction. This rapid conduction increases the cooling rates and drastically reduces chilling injuries. In addition, Vitrification uses less concentrated cryoprotectant materials and the exposure time is also much less. Above all, the survival chances of vitrified materials are higher than material preserved using conventional cryopreservation methods.
Our director Dr. John Zhang is a pioneering scientist with more than 15 years of experience in Vitrification procedures. His innovative research helped to bring this technique into the IVF field. In 1995 he was the principle author of the an article entitled "Extracorporeal Development and Ultra Rapid Freezing of Human Fetal Ova" published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics (12, 6, 361- 367, 1995).
Vitrification – Fast Freezing Method for Embryos & Eggs
Today, as enterprising singles & couples, we lead rich and fulfilling lives, pursue advanced degrees and rewarding careers, travel the world, satisfy our personal dreams and, in some cases, chose to start families later in life. The dilemma is to have a baby soon, or risk fertility treatment later with no guarantee of a family in the end.
Fortunately, today single women can preserve their fertility through a technique called egg freezing, & couples have the option to delay childbearing by freezing their embryos. In addition, couples undergoing IVF may freeze their surplus embryos to be used in future IVF cycles rather than repeat additional egg retrievals.
Embryo, Sperm, Ovarian Tissue & Egg Freezing is not new. It was first done in Singapore & the first live birth using a frozen egg was reported in the early 1980's using a method called slow-dunk or slow freezing, which is still commonly used today. The main problem with slow freezing is the formation of ice crystals around the egg or embryo, which can puncture the egg or embryo during the thawing process. This lowers the percent of embryos that survive after thawing, the survival thaw rate, to 50%, according to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. And, the implantation of slow-frozen embryos results in a low pregnancy rate of 13.5% according to Unita di Medicina Della Riproduzione, Fondazione HERA, and a major IVF research center in Italy.
Women choosing egg freezing, embryo freezing, or ovarian tissue freezing by Vitrification, the fast-freezing counterpart to the slow-dunk method, will benefit from a 95%+ survival thaw-rate, and up to a 41.9% pregnancy rate, practically the same rates produced by using fresh eggs or embryos. With Vitrification, freezing occurs so quickly that the formation of ice crystals is prevented.
Vitrification was originally developed in 1987 in Washington, DC and it was perfected by our international partner, Kato Ladies Clinic in Japan. When it first became available in the US (October 2004) New Hope Fertility Center dedicated our labs to Vitrification. We were the first East Coast fertility center to provide Vitrification to all women, and today we are recognized in the US and globally as a leading expert in the Vitrification technique.
Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing - cutting edge method for Egg Freezing
Every baby girl is born with approximately 2 million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she reaches puberty, she'll have about 300,000 left. Of these eggs, roughly 1,000 degenerate each month, and only about 300 will mature and be released during her reproductive years.
Because a woman's body does not produce additional eggs, like men reproduce sperm, she may chose Egg Freezing or Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing to extend her fertility beyond her natural fertile years. As an alternative to Egg Freezing, she may choose Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing, which is a simple outpatient procedure that also preserves her eggs.
Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing involves removing the ovary, carefully microsurgically dissecting the tissue, freezing it, and subsequently transplanting it back to the woman when she's ready for a child. All of a woman's eggs can be found in the thin 1mm outer layer of the ovary, while the inside of the ovary is simply a pulp of blood vessels with no specific organization or function other than to feed the eggs and follicles that are located on the periphery. This structure makes it possible for an entire ovary to be removed and the periphery dissected off micro surgically. The ovarian tissue is then put through a computer controlled, gradual freezing process. It is preserved for future transplantation back to the woman when she is ready for a child.
The advantage of Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing versus Egg Freezing is that all remaining eggs the woman's ovary contains can be extracted and frozen in one procedure without IVF hormone treatment. Egg freezing, on the other hand, entails minimal IVF medication & the extraction the eggs that have matured during a particular cycle or cycles, with each cycle likely producing only 1-6 quality eggs for harvest and freezing.
The first attempts at Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing were made in the 1950's; in the 1990's it became widely used for cancer patients. It is a fairly new strategy for fertility preservation in non-cancer patients, although the technique is the same. Our Medical Director & Founder, Dr John Zhang, first started research on ovarian tissue freezing in 1995, and he and his partner, Dr. Sherman Silber, are recognized globally as leading experts in the Ovarian Tissue Transfer & Freezing technique. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Silber perform this outpatient procedure at New Hope Fertility Center.
The Embryo Bank
The world is a different place today than that in which our mothers and grandmothers lived. Women today have opportunities for professional enrichment that often translate into couples choosing to start a family later in life. Embryo Banking allows these couples the chance to freeze embryos and delay starting their families until the time is right.
An embryo bank is also useful to many couples ready to start a family and undergoing the IVF process, during which they may naturally produce an embryo surplus. By freezing these surplus embryos for later implantation, should they choose to have another child, they can undergo future IVF treatments while circumventing further egg retrievals.
And last, for singles & couples with little time left on their fertility clock, Embryo Banking is an ideal strategy and gives the best insurance for starting a family later, especially if they want more than one child. Remember, a 9-month pregnancy at 39, for example, takes an entire year off your fertility clock. Banking embryos before a pregnancy at 39 years of age may give you a better likelihood of having additional children later, since fertility begins a rapid decline at 35 & declines more rapidly at 40 years of age. Banking embryos is simply a smart strategy for any woman or couple over 35.
Of course, at New Hope Fertility Center, Vitrification is our chosen freezing method for Embryo Banking.