With the Jones quintuplets currently claiming the NICU at Southwestern Medical Center as their temporary home, now could not be a more appropriate time to highlight the benefits of minimal stimulation IVF.

Conceived through injectable IUIs, the Jones quintuplets, who range from 1 pounds 12 ounces to 2 pounds 11 ounces, are a prime example of injectable IUIs leading to high risk multiple births.  According to our resident fertility specialist Dr. Lyndon Chang, “many, if not most, higher level gestations (triplets, quads, quints) are not from IVF, but from injectable IUIs, which are unnecessary and dangerous.”

That being said, the time has come for those in the assisted reproduction community to start adopting and utilizing more minimally invasive fertility treatments. Mini-IVF™ harnesses the power of nature by relying more on the body’s naturally occurring processes and less on copious amounts of injectable fertility medications. In addition, the treatment lessens the risks (ie. OHSS) that come with producing an overabundance of eggs, which often happens with conventional treatments.

At New Hope, we’ve had a couple of recent IVF success stories using our trademarked Mini-IVF™ treatment.  Our first such case involved a 29-year old struggling with primary infertility.  After just 1 Mini-IVF™ cycle and a single embryo transfer, she got pregnant.  Her particular treatment demonstrates both cost-effectiveness (1 cycle, no injectables) and safety (we transferred just one embryo, as would happen in nature).

Our second IVF success story is similar to our first and involved a  31-year-old also suffering from primary infertility.  She also completed just 1 Mini-IVF™ cycle and chose to freeze her embryos.  After transferring just one of those embryos, she also achieved a successful pregnancy.

Both women are great examples of how safe and cost-effective fertility treatments like Mini-IVF™ (also known as Low Dose IVF, IVF Lite, and Green IVF) work.  Not only do they save future parents money during treatment, but also cut down on neonatal healthcare costs since they greatly reduce the chance of getting pregnant with multiples, which are risky for both mother and child.

As we pray for the Jones’ quints as they get stronger in the NICU, the assisted reproduction community cannot wait any longer in letting those undergoing fertility treatments know there are safer and more cost-effective options out there.

Make sure to ask your fertility specialist about low dose and single embryo protocols.

Amidst ongoing efforts in China to bypass the “one-child only” law, private fertility clinics have started to push “multiple-baby pills” under the guise of general infertility treatment campaigns.

As China’s one-child policy remains unchanged, it is not yet clear whether or not fertility care will reach popularity levels like those in the United States and elsewhere; however, it is becoming more common for clinics in the country to announce how fertility drugs can increase the chance of multiple births.

While it is understandable for women and couples to desire more than one child, especially if they want to add to their current family or provide a sibling, the current fertility campaigns taking place are in danger of neglecting to provide important information about the potential side effects of fertility drugs and multiple births (ie. overmedication, polycystic ovarian syndrome, low birth weights).  Current trends among fertility care specialists is the US consistently suggest a shift towards more physiologically sound and natural treatments.  Minimally evasive protocols, such as those at New Hope Fertility Center, avoid the overuse of fertility drugs that can lead to high risk multiple births that put stress on both mother and child.

According to the recent report in the Wall Street Journal, family planning laws were enacted in 1980 as a way to control the population that grew under Chairman Mao.  Today, however, concerns are growing around the fact that the now shrinking (and aging) population may significantly affect the country’s economic and social growth.  Officials in Guangdong, China’s most populated province, recently requested China’s central government to waive the one-child rule under certain circumstances, including if the parents in question grew up as only children.  The same province is home to leading private hospital’s in China who are participating in the advertisement of multiple-baby pills, like Guangzhou Women’s Hospital, which currently is running an ad that states the pill “helps women address infertility” and adds “you may get twins” (source: WSJ).

While concrete statistics are not yet available regarding multiple births and the fertility campaigns, there is no question that accessibility and awareness surrounding the availability of fertility care treatments in the country is rising.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on the development of fertility care in China and news regarding the country’s one-child policy.

According to a recent New York Times report, Israel maintains its status as the capital of in vitro fertilization due to a unique treatment policy, which provides free and unlimited IVF procedures for women up to 45.

In the United States, IVF numbers tend to remain low, presumably due to the high costs associated with the procedure.  Israel, on the other hand, has prioritized IVF treatment as one of their main public health expenditures in order to promote and support the institution of family, and as current critics would argue, “counterbalance the the high fertility rates of families in Palestinian territories” (source: Huffington Post). Israel’s policy has also inspired an ethical debate for those who believe the government’s policy places pressure on women to have children as the accessibility of IVF treatment is promoted, with others who believe the approach turns the process of child-bearing into a commodity.  These ethical questions are prominent within the field of fertility care around the globe, with other such discussions arising from UK’s upcoming IVF lottery.

Whether or not Israel’s IVF policy is a religious and political issue remains to be seen; however, the idea that IVF coverage exists undoubtedly sparks the interest of those individuals who would otherwise seek IVF treatment if coverage and cost were not such an issue.

At New Hope Fertility Center, we strive to make IVF more accessible with our low medication protocols, which lower overall treatment costs and decrease discomfort.  You can read more about our Natural cycle and Mini-IVF™ treatments here.

As advances in the area of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments continue to be developed, cost and overmedication are two major concerns for both patient and doctor.  When considering the best fertility protocols, recent trends favor treatments that encourage lower medication regimens, such as those offered through Mini-IVF,™ which offers a gentle alternative to conventional IVF.

Bruce Rose highlights the benefits of Mini-IVF™ in his recent article “Mini-IVF or IVF-lyte?” In his analysis, Rose examines the process of Mini-IVF,™ which is based around the understanding that a woman’s body produces the “best quality eggs before the cycle even starts.”  Under Mini-IVF™ protocols, medications that aid in the development of these particular eggs are administered in low doses, greatly decreasing the risk of hyperstimulation and high risk pregnancies that are often the result of conventional IVF treatments.

In addition to reducing risk, Mini-IVF™ protocols reduce the cost of fertility care since the amount of drugs administered during treatment is lower than that of conventional IVF treatment.

We’re always proud to hear that our innovative Mini-IVF™ techniques are being recognized by others.  Rose delivers a clear and concise analysis of the health and financial benefits of our trademarked Mini-IVF™ treatment, which you can find more information on here.

Last month we mentioned the possibility of Nadya Suleman’s fertility doctor getting his license revoked due to negligence.  As of Wednesday, the Medical Board of California has gone through with the revocation (source: NYTimes).

Better known as the “octomom,” Suleman became pregnant with eight children through the fertility treatment of Dr. Michael Kamrava, who admits to implanting the then 33-year-old with 12 embryos.  As reported previously, Suleman’s case is not an isolated incident – two other patients have suffered complications from Kamrava’s IVF treatments.

Already the mother of six children as a result of IVF treatments through Kamrava, Suleman’s case is a prime example of the importance of standards in dealing with women’s reproductive health.  Conventional IVF treatments, coupled with high doses of medication and multiple embryo transfers, has consistently proven to be a high risk treatment that leads to multiple child pregnancies that carry risk for both mother and child.  Suleman is only the second mother in the US to give birth to octoplets alive, with many other instances leading to low birth rates and other complications.

At NHFC, we take pride in treating each patients individual needs with an emphasis on taking the most natural and minimally evasive routes in the quest to get our potential mother’s pregnant.  For more information on our natural and Mini-IVF protocols, click here.

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.”