It’s not every day that things come up in pop culture that are directly related to our practice here at New Hope, but the latest hulabaloo with Bill and Giuliana has been quite relevant. As a quick recap, E! News host Giuliana Ranci has recently been talking a lot about the hardships of hew own IVF treatment as she has been trying to get pregnant, bringing what for many women is a private matter into the most public light that someone can. You can read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1331109/Giuliana-Rancic-opens-having-63-IVF-shots-month-bid-pregnant.html#ixzz18rGYj9ky

One of her biggest complaints and hardships was the number of injections that she had to have. The article quotes her as mentioning that, “Sometimes I [had] to get [injections] 21 days in a row, three times a day.”

Not to be too obvious about tooting our own horn, but these are exactly the kinds of things that patients at New Hope can avoid by choosing to go with a Mini-IVF or Natural IVF plan of treatment. These treatments are not only less invasive, but are cheaper and, in the case of Giuliana and Bill could have possibly saved the couple a lot of stress and heartache.

We were happy today to see this blog post which came as a complete surprise via google alerts: http://reddressdiary.blogspot.com/. The article talks about the relationship between breast cancer and the overuse of fertility drugs. Although there hasn’t been a direct cause and effect relationship drawn between the drugs (i.e. too many IVF drugs leads to breast cancer) and there are undoubtedly other factors that would need to be considered, the post talks about growing concern in the medical community with both fertility specialists and oncologists regarding the relationship between conventional IVF and breast cancer later in life.

The author, Colette Bouchez, writes, “Indeed, a growing number of doctors now worry that when you combine the intense estrogen overload associated with some fertility drugs, with the high estrogen levels that occur during pregnancy – all an age when a woman should naturally experience a decrease in these hormones – another breast cancer red flag appears.”

Bouchez goes on to talk about a new kind of IVF, dubbed “Green IVF” which could be the solution to these concerns. The article quotes Dr. Zhang, saying that his Mini-IVF treatment is “ideal for women who choose to live a drug-free and chemical-free lifestyle, or for those women who, because of age or fertility problems, are less likely to produce multiple eggs, even if heavy IVF drugs are administered.”

With a strong finish, we are asked, “But does it work?” and the article concludes that, “a number of studies show that it does! In research published recently in the journal Fertility and Sterility, doctors from Rome, Italy found that in women who previously did not respond well to IVF medications, were able to have a healthy “green fertility” implantation at a rate three times that of women who took traditional fertility medications… The bottom line: Whether you have a family history of breast cancer, or simply want to avoid the use of fertility medications and encourage a faster, healthier pregnancy naturally, then the Green Fertility movement may be your answer.”

We were recently asked a good question about our use of Femara instead of Clomid in some women. The question referenced an article from Novartis that mentioned that there might be risk of birth defects when Femara was used for infertility situations and that it is supposed to be given to postmenopausal women only – what were our thoughts on that?

We think it is a great question and are glad that there is a rising awareness about the various medications that can be used for infertility and their potential side effects. The side effects mentioned in the Novartis article are correct, however, Femara can only be harmful to the fetus when it is taken for an extended period of time, usually cited at 2-6 weeks. Femara causes estradiol levels to be lowered, and prolonged low levels are thought to harm a fetus.

However, when New Hope prescribes the use of Femara for infertility, patients will only be put on the medicine for a few days near the beginning of the menstrual cycle, nowhere near the amount of time needed for it to potentially have negative effects. Temporarily decreasing the amount of estrogen in the body sends a message to the brain to increase the production of hormones that stimulate the ovaries. This often causes ovulation in women who do not normally ovulate or who do not ovulate regularly. Because Femara is only used for short periods of time for this specific purpose, we avoid any side effects that would occur after longer periods. Typically, Femara is excreted from the body in about 2 days, so there are no long term effects from a short bout of Femara.

Flyer for an infertility workshop we will be holding in Russia.