CGH, or Comparative Genomic Hybridization, is a valuable tool we offer during IVF to ensure you’re getting the most from your treatment here at New Hope Fertility Center.

Although we’ve been offering PGD testing since 2004, we’ve partnered with PGD experts, Reprogenetics, in the last couple of years to provide you with the latest in embryo-testing technology.

Unlike the past — when PGD was used for gender selection and finding only specific chromosomal abnormalities — our latest CGH testing is the most comprehensive test you can use in an effort to detect significant genetic abnormalities.

If you or your partner have experience with genetic disorders in your family or simply need the security that comes from utilizing the best resources available, it is important to consider the use of CGH testing during your treatment. Not only does this state-of-the-art technology make IVF safer, as we’re reducing the risk of pregnancy loss, but also reduces the chance (and cost) of multiple cycles since we’re transferring only the healthiest embryos.

The availability of CGH testing also allows our center to highlight the benefits of our less is more philosophy, which focuses on single embryo transfers to reduce the chance of multiple pregnancies. Transferring multiple embryos and resulting multiple pregnancies/births are stressful on the uterine environment, significantly decreasing the chance of a healthy pregnancy and increasing the chance of premature births. With CGH, we virtually wipe out these concerns, since we’re selecting, freezing and transferring only the most mature and robust embryos that are undoubtedly free of chromosomal abnormalities.

We’d say “welcome to the future of IVF,” but it seems we’re already there!

For more information on our minimally invasive approach to IVF with CGH testing, please visit us on the web to schedule a consultation.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis testing is a valuable tool for anyone wishing to avoid passing along genetic disorders to their unborn child.  At New Hope, we’ve been offering PGD testing since 2004, and have recently partnered with PGD experts, Reprogenetics, to provide our patients with the latest in PGD testing technology.  In addition to using PGD testing for family balancing, our latest PGD aCGH testing is officially the most comprehensive test that families can utilize in their efforts to detect significant genetic abnormalities.

In the past, our PGD tests could only check for a specific types of chromosomes to help us identify the healthiest fertilized eggs for use in IVF treatment or subsequent embryo freezing.  With the help of Reprogenetics, however, aCGH PGD testing now allows our embryologists to test all the chromosomes in a given selection of embryos, greatly increasing our ability to detect genetic abnormalities across a wider spectrum.  Our new aCGH testing not only decreases the chance of transferring an embryo that carries chromosomal deviants, but greatly increases our patients’ chance of achieving a healthy pregnancy and bringing it to term since we’re selecting, implanting, and freezing only the healthiest embryos.

We have a few recent IVF success stories involving women who used our PGD testing during their treatment at New Hope.  Our first patient, a 40-year-old, used our new aCGH biopsy to ensure we used the healthiest embryos during her cycle. Upon completing an aCGH biopsy and subsequent embryo transfer, she announced she was pregnant.  We’re thrilled to be able to provide her peace of mind through our latest PGD testing process, and can’t wait to continue a healthy journey with her during her pregnancy.

Our other two patients utilized our PGD testing for family balancing purposes.  The first, a 37-year-old, came to New Hope after struggling with secondary infertility.  While her first transfer failed transfer following her Mini-IVF™ cycles, she got pregnant with her first daughter following a second frozen embryo transfer.  Congrats to Ms. 37 on her pregnancy, and to her first child, who now has a baby sister to look after!

Our final IVF success story using PGD involves a 22-year-old, also suffering from secondary infertility.  After a couple of our trademarked Mini-IVF™ cycles, she was able to get pregnant with a boy following her first frozen (single) embryo transfer.  Congratulations to Ms. 22 on the upcoming birth of her first son!

If you or your partner are known carriers of genetic disorders and wish to avoid passing them along to your child, schedule a consultation with us or visit Reprogenetics online to learn more about PGD using aCGH.

Mainstream media has recently become awash with reference to a study conducted in Australia that suggests babies born via IVF are more likely to have birth defects, specifically when one sperm is injected.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine this past weekend, analysts have speculated the study shows that IVF babies have a higher chance of having a defect when male infertility is a factor.  In these cases, only one sperm can be injected to fertilize the egg, and if it contains faulty genes, the child has no chance of escaping the onset of a defect upon birth.

The theories being developed from this story are, simply put, just theories.  As article in the Washington Post states, “the vast majority of babies are born healthy.”  Furthermore,  ”babies that resulted from simple IVF, had no greater risk of birth defects once factors such as the mom’s age and smoking were taken into account.”

There are also systems in place to prevent parents using IVF from encountering birth defect issues.  PGD and PGS testing, for instance, exist to give parents an option to test their embryos for genetic disorders and diseases before implantation.  With this type of testing becoming available at fertility clinics across the globe, patients using IVF can greatly decrease their chances of producing a child with a birth defect, even more than those giving birth naturally, who likely do not know of or have PGD and PGS testing available to them before becoming pregnant.

Read more on PGD at New Hope Fertility Center.

We’re excited to announce that the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology has recently posted its  2010 IVF Success Rate National Summary online.

The IVF success report compiles information submitted from all of its member clinics in the United States to create a comprehensive look at the number of healthy live births created through assisted reproductive technology techniques.  The ART techniques considered for the report include IVF (both fresh and frozen embryo transfers), ICSI, Gestational Carrier using patient’s eggs, and donor egg IVF cases.  According to the SART report, 146,693 treatment cycles led to the birth of 58,727 babies in 2010.

Details in the latest SART IVF success rate summary represent the positive trends and changes being made within the self-regulated fertility industry.  As with New Hope Fertility Center, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and SART support the practice of single embryo transfers to decrease high-risk multiple births, which is directly reflected in the most recent summary.

We’re excited to see the trend towards safer and more affordable IVF care continue to grow as more SART member clinics practice single embryo transfers, one of our main practices here at New Hope Fertility.

ASRM, SART, and its member clinics continue to make the fertility care sector safer by creating guidelines aimed towards ensuring IVF practices are safe across the board.  That being said, it can only go uphill from here!

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently released a study revealing a new non-invasive DNA test that can determine the sex of a fetus as early as 7 weeks.

This new study is an exciting addition in the realm of genetic diagnosis.  If utilized in the fertility care world,  this cell-free test can assist parents in determining the health of their embryos early on in the fertility treatment process, eliminating the risk of passing on genetic diseases to their child.

At New Hope Fertility Center, we offer a Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis test to those patients undergoing fertility care treatment that are known carriers of genetic abnormalities.  Similar to the DNA blood test, PGD tests give parents and doctors the chance to avoid passing on genetic diseases and gender specific disorders before implanting the embryos during IVF treatment.  As more evidence is found to support the accuracy of the new DNA blood test, pairing the tests with more extensive PGD testing will only make the process of abnormal gene detection more accurate.

The test, which analyzes fetal DNA found in the mother’s blood, provides new insight into gender specific diseases, which can now be discovered early on versus later in a woman’s pregnancy term.  The cell-free test also affords doctors and patients with an alternative to more invasive gender tests, like amniocentesis, which tests a woman’s amniotic fluid and carries a small risk of miscarriage.

You can read more about PGD testing here, and the full report by New York Times here.

A study presented at this year’s annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology introduced a new method of egg  testing for women undergoing preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) as part of their fertility care treatment.

Typically, fertility care experts have to biopsy the polar body or remove a cell from the egg or embryo to test for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down’s Syndrome during IVF treatments.  These procedures are invasive and risk damaging the cell, leaving it unfit fit for implantation (source: ESHRE).  Dr. Fragouli of the University of Oxford has discovered a method of chromosomal testing that decreases this risk, as well as the cost associated with PGS, by examining the cells that float around the egg or embryo.

According to Fragouli and her team, the ‘egg and the cumulus cells [cells that exist in a cloud outside the egg] are in constant communication and depend upon each other for continued viability.”  By analyzing the changes in cumulus cells that result from chromosomal abnormalities within the egg, they argue, such testing can assist fertility care doctors in their treatment of patients, as the information from cumulus cell may help reveal chromosomal abnormalities to doctors and patients without having to biopsy polar bodies.  This will further assist doctors in implanting the healthiest eggs possible during IVF procedures.  In addition, cumulus cells are usually stripped from eggs during IVF treatments, making them easily obtainable for chromosomal testing.

Dr. Fragouli and her team were able to make connections between the presence of chromosomal abnormalities in the cumulus cells found in polar bodies that produced the same genetic flaws.  The team is still working to establish if cumulus cell analysis can provide even deeper insight into the agents of chromosomal abnormalities (even deeper than that of PGS), and hope the findings can provide useful information concerning the healthiest eggs to utilize in IVF procedures in order to increase the rate of healthy pregnancies and live births.