It’s been a big week for those of us in the fertility community — the American Society for Reproductive Medicine kicked off its 68th annual meeting in San Diego this year, with some big announcements coming our way. On Monday, the ASRM’s Practice Committee released a report on the viability of egg freezing for young women, moving the practice out of experimental status and further into the mainstream of fertility preservation practices.

In their study “Mature Oocyte Cryopreservation,” the ASRM revealed egg freezing technology as having “pregnancy rates and health outcomes comparable to those of IVF with fresh eggs” and that the practice should no longer be marketed as experimental.

Egg freezing, frozen embryo transfers, and vitrification are among the fertility preservation and treatment options we offer here at New Hope, and we’re happy to have the backing of the ASRM. At one time, egg freezing was only offered to cancer patients wishing to preserve their fertility pre-chemotherapy treatments, which often compromise fertility.  At New Hope, we’ve safely and effectively practiced egg freezing with vitrification for any patient wanting to wait for the right time or save embryos from their first cycle for several years now. Through the use of our flash-freezing method, vitrification, our team has welcomed high success rates, exemplifying their position as leaders in fertility preservation through the use of only the best and latest egg freezing techniques.

Want more? Check out ASRM online. For a closer look into our success with egg freezing, vitrification, and frozen embryo transfers, check out our past IVF success stories.

As seen in this morning’s Wall Street Journal article titled “New Strategy May Help Success of In Vitro Fertilization,” recent studies within the fertility care field are linking frozen embryo transfers with an increase in healthy pregnancies following IVF treatment.

The “3 separate randomized and controlled studies involving 633 women with an average age of 35″ fairly represent the group of couples we’ve helped get pregnant with frozen embryo transfers: New Hope’s latest SART statistics show 44% of our patients age 35 and under achieved a healthy pregnancy following frozen embryo transfers, and 64% of our patients got pregnant using frozen donor embryos.

Frozen embryo transfers (FET) have indeed produced high rates of success at our clinic, and we continue to encourage the practice when counseling our patients.  Not only do FETs increase chances of healthy pregnancy and live births, but the process with which we freeze them also contributes to the health of embryos.  Vitrification, a flash-freezing method we’ve utilized since our center opened in 2004, has a 98% thaw survival rate here at New Hope, giving our patients peace of mind with every frozen embryo transferred.

The practice of frozen embryo transfers also encourages the practice of single embryo transfers. Because frozen embryos increase the chance of pregnancy, FETs subsequently decrease the need to transfer more than 1 embryo at a time.  Single embryo transfers, along with our minimal stimulation protocols like Mini-IVF™ and Natural Cycle IVF, significantly decrease risks associated with multiple births.  At the hands of our experienced team of fertility specialists, we’ve been able to prove time and again that with these methods combined, IVF can be safe and more cost-effective for patients wishing to get pregnant without overstimulation.

Read more of our success stories involving frozen embryo transfers here.

At New Hope Fertility Center, our success rates with frozen embryo transfers are high compared with competing centers thanks to our individualized frozen embryo transfer protocols and the use of vitrification for freezing embryos — which yields a 98% survival rate, compared to a 60% embryo survival rate under traditional freezing methods.

We are happy to announce 3 recent IVF success stories that all involved women conceiving after frozen embryo transfers.  Ms. 31 arrived at our doors struggling with a history of primary infertility, and while she unfortunately did not get pregnant after her first transfer, she recently announced she returned a positive pregnancy test following her Ultra Mini-IVF™ treatment (no injections) and frozen embryo transfer.

Ms. 32, who was dealing with issues trying to have her second child (secondary infertility), also had an unsuccessful first try with a fresh embryo transfer created from a Mini-IVF™ cycle.  After waiting one month, however, our fertility doctors transferred 2 frozen embryos into Ms. 32 and she got pregnant…with triplets!

Our final IVF success story for today comes from Ms. 28.  Suffering from primary infertility, she elected our Mini-IVF™ treatment and after her frozen embryo transfer, she got pregnant.

Once again, congratulations to these 3 women, who all got pregnant through minimal stimulation IVF and frozen embryo transfers.  Your persistence is a great example for women who are dreaming to build their family just like you!

Have you been trying to conceive for over a year and still have trouble getting pregnant?  You’re not alone. Nearly 7.3 million women and couple struggle with infertility in the United States alone, and this includes those trying to get pregnant for their first, second, or even third time.

At New Hope Fertility, we treat a diverse group of women of all ages, ethnic, and health backgrounds. One thing these women have in common?  Trouble getting pregnant.  While women oftentimes are suffering from unexplained infertility, that is, they do not know the root cause of their inability to conceive, others suffer from a multitude of fertility-related issues, from PCOS to male factor infertility. One thing is certain — infertility does not discriminate.

We have recently been able to help a number of women who had trouble getting pregnant with their first child, with their ages ranging from 26 to 39 years of age.  Ms. 26 arrived at New Hope with primary infertility, and after a few unsuccessful cycles, finally got pregnant with twins after her Mini-IVF™ treatment. Our next patient, Ms. 32, also suffering with issues trying to conceive for her first time, was able to conceive after just 1 Mini-IVF™ cycle and a single embryo transfer (one of the safest IVF practices that we promote at our clinic).

Ms. 30, although dealing with primary infertility and an unsuccessful initial frozen embryo transfer, pulled through to get pregnant after her second frozen embryo transfer. Our final IVF success story for today comes from Ms. 39, who also got pregnant through Mini-IVF™ after freezing her embryos and having a frozen embryo transfer (which is highly successful at our clinic thanks to our vitrification freezing method, with a 98% thaw survival rate).

Congratulations to all of our recent IVF pregnancies, who all prove that you can still get pregnant after dealing with primary infertility.  Hooray!

As a recent New York Times article points out, fertility preservation (freezing ones eggs for future use) is still considered experimental by the The American Society for Reproductive Medicine; however, many women (and their parents) are now turning to this revolutionary technology to lessen the stress involved with the infamous biological clock.

While it is true that egg freezing is still considered experimental, the advances in egg freezing techniques have produced amazing results in the field of fertility preservation.  Once reserved for oncofertility to help cancer patients preserve their fertility before undergoing chemotherapy treatment, everyone from career women to young adults are freezing their eggs in hopes to one day use them when they’re ready for a family.  And, as the NY Times feature shows, many parents of these women are helping foot the bill to ensure a grandchild in the near future.

Regardless of who is paying, it is important to understand your options when it comes to fertility preservation.  As the NY Times article notes, freezing your eggs does not guarantee they will be viable for future use. Vitrification, on the other hand, can lessen the additional concerns in something happening to eggs during the freezing and thawing process.  This flash-freezing method yields a 98% survival rate compared to traditional, “slow-freezing” cryopreservation techniques, and New Hope Fertility Center continues to employ vitrification and frozen embryo transfers with continued success; since 2004, we’ve welcomed nearly 150 healthy babies born from frozen embryos.

Read more on our egg banking and freezing options over at New Hope Fertility Center and preserve your fertility today!

Our resident infertility psychologist, Dr. Allison Rosen, took some time recently to give our readers and patients a more detailed look into SART’s 2010 IVF Success Rates and what they mean for you and your fertility journey with New Hope.  Many thanks to Dr. Rosen for this in-depth report!

The 2010 Society of Assisted Reproduction Statics are in, demonstrating that New Hope Fertility Center is, hands down, the best reproductive program in the Tri-state area, or possibly the country, for family building using donor eggs.  Not only is New Hope’s program the most convenient, but the safest, least expensive, and most successful Donor Egg Program compared to other fertility clinic donor programs.

Due to innovative procedures, the donor program is able to “freeze eggs” from donors, thereby eliminating the costly need to synchronize the donor and recipient cycles. Thus, the eggs can be retrieved at the convenience of the donor without needing to match to the recipient’s cycle; resulting embryos can be transferred to the recipient with less need for medication and absolutely no need to link with the donor’s cycle.

According to the 2010 SART statistics, NHFC had a live birth rate using thawed donor embryos of 64.2%. This percentage is much higher than any other Tri-state program using frozen eggs and embryos.  Due to the high quality of the embryos, New Hope is able to transfer fewer embryos thereby reducing the number of pregnancies with twins. Although some people would like twins, thinking along the lines of “it’s two for one,” twin pregnancies are more dangerous for both mother and child.  They often result in bed rest and increased premature births.

New Hope Fertility Center allows individuals to pick their donors from its large egg bank.  When you like a donor, the eggs are there, and you don’t have to wade through countless donor profiles until you find a donor who is “available”.  You then select the donor using adult pictures, extensive medical information and personality attributes. YOU select the donor, not your reproductive program. All donors are carefully screened medically and psychologically.

If you want high quality donors you can select to resemble you; if you want the highest success rate in the Tri-state area; if you want the safest and least expensive program, New Hope Fertility can meet all these needs — hands down.