As many in our online community already know, New Hope Fertility Center and one of its current patients were briefly featured on The Dr. Oz Show.

Friday’s show, which took on the subject of motherhood and age, focused much of the program debating the woman’s biological clock and the risks involved in conventional IVF care.

Indeed, self-awareness and self-education are integral parts of any woman beginning the journey to motherhood.  Through reading, talking to other women, and being open to her doctor (infertility doctor or primary care physician) about reproductive health, a woman can better judge when to start the pregnancy process.  By committing to follicular ultrasounds to test the number of eggs she has left to learning about options like fertility preservation (banking eggs for future use), women can significantly avoid the emotional and physiological stress that comes when she facing age-related fertility issues.

We also agree with both medical guests on the show, Dr. John Jain (a Reproductive Endocrinologist) and Jennifer Lahl (the President at the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network), who emphasized the importance of infertility specialists educating their patients on both the risks associated with older women getting pregnant and the risks associated with conventional IVF protocols, which oftentimes involve hyperstimulating a woman’s ovaries with fertility medication to assist her in producing multiple eggs for use in IVF treatment.

Educating would-be mothers on fertility preservation and emphasizing the fact that as they age it will become harder to get pregnant due to low ovarian reserve are among the most important things a fertility doctor, and any physician for that matter, can do for women wishing to conceive.  While these are important factors in the assisted reproduction debate, it is also important to inform women on other choices out there — holistic, minimally invasive IVF care and egg freezing (fertility preservation), both available here at New Hope Fertility Center.

Mini-IVF™ is our trademarked protocol which is customized to each individual’s body and circumstance, so no two cycles are the same. Because our Mini-IVF™ cycles are tailored, it also allows us to forgo some of the expensive (and, for some, intimidating) shots that were mentioned on the Dr. Oz show.  In addition, we try very hard to make sure that our fertility care is not a cost prohibitive part of anyone’s journey to motherhood and our cycles are also over a few thousand dollars less than the average conventional cycle cost statistic cited on the Dr. Oz show.

We also offer Natural Cycle IVF, which offers women the option to try IVF sans fertility medication.

If you viewed the Dr. Oz show on Friday and have any questions regarding the success of our IVF protocols and the cost of our IVF care, please feel free to reach out with any questions.

And…thanks for tuning in!

1) 39 y/o came to New Hope trying for her first baby.  She conceived from Mini-IVF™ and a fresh embryo transfer.  She was also able to bank a few more of the eggs retrieved during her cycle that reached the blastocyst stage, making her a viable candidate for a 2nd or 3rd child later on. Congratulations!

2) 41 y/o arrived at New Hope with premature ovarian failure and a very high FSH. After attempting to get pregnant using our holistic IVF approaches, she decided to move on to our Donor IVF Program, which only took a few weeks from the time of transfer until she found out she was pregnant. Congrats!

It should be noted that at NHFC, we do not discrimnate based on age or FSH level, and will try to get our patients pregnant using their own eggs with our unique and customized IVF protocols before moving patients to the donor program.  Our Donor Frozen Oocyte bank (the only one of its kind in the US), also decreases recipients’ wait time since our eggs are frozen and ready to fertilize on-site.  Many other places require the patient time her cycle with the donor she chooses, but this wait time is non-existent with our Donor Frozen Oocyte Bank.

3) 48 y/o came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.  She recently came back with a positive pregnancy test after a donor frozen embryo transfer.  Congrats!

4) 33 y/o came back to New Hope for her 2nd child.  After another Mini-IVF™ cycle and a fresh embryo transfer, she got pregnant again.  Congratulations!

5) 30 y/o arrived at New Hope with a history of primary infertility.  She completed Natural Cycle IVF along with Ultra Mini-IVF™ (no injections) and had a frozen embryo transfer.  She recently produced a positive pregnancy test.  Congrats!

6) 37 y/o came to New Hope with a history of primary infertility.  After unsuccessful tries at timed intercourse, she moved to our Natural Cycle IVF protocol.  She conceived after her fresh embryo transfer.  Congratulations!

7) 40 y/o arrived at New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.  After completing an IUI cycle she got pregnant.  Congrats!

8) 33 y/o came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.  She conceived through timed intercourse.  Congrats!

Today marks the official start date of the Year of the Dragon. As such, many Chinese and Chinese-American couples are racing towards the fertility clinics to increase their chances of having a baby before February of 2013 (source: The Wall Street Journal).

According to Chinese culture, the Year of the Dragon is considered the luckiest of the Chinese lunar years, and is said to bring luck in love, business, and babies. It is also a belief that babies born this year will be blessed with good fortune, strength and intelligence, and will generally thrive in all aspects of life as they engage in marriage, career, and building a family.

Increases in fertility treatments have shown growth around the globe — with as much as 250% increases in business from Chinese couples wishing to conceive and deliver in the Year of the Dragon. Many couples have started their search for surrogates and Chinese donor eggs in hope that they will have a child born in the Year of the Dragon.

Whatever the motivation may be, we fully support the journey to motherhood and hope to serve as a sanctuary to those looking for hope and support as they try to have a family. We have a world-class egg donor program, high success rates with our holistic approach to IVF, and also have a surrogate program.

Click here to schedule a consultation!

1) First, we’d like to congratulate our patient who recently delivered a healthy baby girl!!! This patient was 42 y/o with a high FSH, a history of miscarriages, a ectopic pregnancy, and failed IVF cycles elsewhere. Using New Hope’s miscarriage protocol, she conceived from a blastocyst embryo transfer created from Clomid-only IVF. Congratulations to you and your new family!

2) 25 y/o arrived at New Hope with a history of secondary infertility. She completed 2 Mini-IVF™ cycles for subsequent PGD testing. She recently became pregnant after a frozen embryo transfer. Congrats!

3) 31 y/o came to New Hope with a history of primary infertility. She completed just 1 Mini-IVF™ cycle with a fresh embryo transfer that recently resulted in a positive pregnancy test. Congrats!

4) 38 y/o reached out to New Hope after struggling through a period of secondary infertility. She completed 1 Mini-IVF™ cycle with a frozen embryo transfer and recently got pregnant with twins. Congratulations!

5) 45 y/o came to NHFC with a high FSH. She completed our Natural Cycle IVF protocol and had a single embryo transfer. She recently became pregnant with twins (there is an increased chance of embryo splitting in IVF even after a single embryo transfer). Congrats!

6) 29 y/o arrived at New Hope dealing with male factor infertility. She recently had a positive pregnancy test after Mini-IVF™ and a single embryo transfer, and froze her other embryo to bank until ready for her second child. It should be noted that at New Hope, patients have the same chance of success with frozen embryo transfers as they do with fresh embryo transfers.

7) 39 y/o came to NHFC hoping for a chance at a second baby after coping with secondary infertility caused by tubal issues and a failed IVF attempts elsewhere. While we made the decision to cancel her fresh embryo transfer because of an unfavorable uterine environment, she ultimately conceived from Natural Cycle IVF and and a frozen blastocyst transfer. Congrats!

8) 42 y/o came to New Hope after being deemed a non-responder at other centers. She recently had a positive pregnancy test after a frozen embryo transfer created from Natural Cycle IVF. Congratulations!

BioNews recently released information on an interesting surrogacy study presented at the British Fertility Society’s annual meeting concerning the mental health of children of surrogate mothers.

In the study, conducted by the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, researchers gave interviews and questionnaires to 16 children between 12 and 22 years of age to assess their personal view of having a mother who acted as a surrogate.  While the effect of these relationships has come into question in the past — many wondering if a surrogate mother’s genetic child suffers in any way due to her “job” carrying another’s child — the study revealed most of the children had healthy attitudes about their mothers being surrogates, with 10 of the 16 children stating they actually have an ongoing relationship with the surrogate child.

Indeed, the stress caused by infertility oftentimes increases when potential parents are exploring surrogacy options.  Take 30 Rock co-star Elizabeth Banks, for instance, who not so long ago revealed the stress involved in the surrogacy process in an interview with People Magazine, describing the difficult nature of handing over the control of having your child to someone else.  (Banks had a gestational surrogate, which means her embryo was implanted into another woman’s womb.)

Despite its underlying stress factors, gestational surrogacy also serves as another “fertility-saving” option for women still hoping to have a child with their own genetic material after failed IVF cycles, miscarriages, and other fertility-related issues.  And now that we know surrogacy can create families as well as lasting relationships for surrogate siblings, it is only right to promote gestational surrogacy as another healthy alternative for potential parents!

Do you know any surrogate mothers and their children?

Click here for more information on New Hope Fertility Center’s Surrogacy Program.