A few IVF success stories to congratulate:

1) 32 y/o came to New Hope Fertility with secondary infertility. She conceived from a frozen blastocyst transfer from a Clomid-only Mini-IVF™ cycle. She is pregnant with twins after a single embryo transfer! Congratulations!

2) 40 y/o is pregnant with her first child, conceived from frozen blastocyst transfer from a Natural IVF LPS (Luteal Phase Stimulation) cycle. (LPS is a cutting-edge assisted reproductive technology technique unique to New Hope Fertility Center, that you can read more on here.) Congrats!

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

4) 42 y/o came to New Hope with a history of primary infertility. She completed one donor frozen embryo transfer cycle and recently came back with a positive pregnancy test. Congratulations!

5) Patient came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility. After completing one Mini-IVF™ cycle with a frozen embryo transfer she recently came back with a positive pregnancy test. Congrats!

The latest research by reproductive endocrinologists at Yale University have found evidence linking blood type and the ovarian reserve of older women.

In their study published in Oxford’s Journal of Human Reproduction at the end of June, endocrinologist Lubna Pal and her colleagues examined the FSH levels of nearly 600 women with an average age of 35 who were exploring assisted reproduction options.  The experts were able to find that women with type O blood were “twice as likely as those with blood types A and AB to have FSH levels high enough to indicate they had diminished ovarian reserve” (source: MSNBC).

High FSH levels tend to increase as a woman’s age increases and indicate a woman’s ovaries no longer have a lot of eggs, further diminishing their chance of becoming pregnant naturally or via IVF procedures.  Pal and her associates hope their study can be used as a preventive measure for women wishing to eventually become pregnant, with a simple blood test becoming a routine procedure for younger women in order to foresee potential fertility issues down the road.  Further investigation is required to determine why women with type O blood may be more susceptible to fertility issues early on; however, the findings produce an interesting viewpoint concerning the biological clock issue, suggesting that even if women want to wait, they should still consider taking steps towards predicting their fertility later on.  In doing so, women can then take the steps necessary to preserve their fertility.

At New Hope Fertility Center, we offer the fertility preservation methods that are valuable to those who want to wait but also want to ensure their chances of getting pregnant later on.  We encourage this study and others like it that are looking for the various ways to assist women, young and old, in their journeys to motherhood.

Some quick news to congratulate two New Hope patients:

1) 30 y/o came to us suffering from premature ovarian failure and became pregnant through timed intercourse this month.  Congratulations!

2) 42 y/o is pregnant with her first baby through Mini-IVF™.  Previously, she was only treated with IUIs due to a high FSH level which only led to complications, but was successful with New Hope’s special IVF protocol.  Congratulations!

3) 42 y/o is is pregnant with her second baby through Mini-IVF™ treatment.  Despite having a history of miscarriages, the patient was able to conceive through New Hope’s Mini-IVF™ protocols.  Congrats!

We are happy to mention 4 recent patient successes:

1) JW, a 38-year-old patient, conceived from fresh d2 embryo developed from Natural IVF cycle that took 7 months of monitoring. The patient came to us in June 2009 and had a baseline FSH of 24. During the course of monitoring her baseline FSH reached as high as 166 which is the highest FSH to that has been documented leading to a pregnancy.

2) ZS, 40-years-old, is pregnant with her first baby, conceived from a frozen blastocyst transfer. Before coming to New Hope in 2008, she was a patient at RMA for embryo/egg preservation but her IVF cycle was canceled 3 times because of inadequate follicle production. She had two transfers at New Hope, and this was her second. Because her baseline FSH was as high as 63, a combination of Natural IVF and clomid-only Mini-IVF^TM was used to collect 1 egg/cycle. ZS began transferring last year, during which time her baseline FSH increased to 87.

3) KJ, 40-years-old, conceived her first baby from d2 fresh transfer using a customized Mini-IVF^TM protocol.

4) DM is a 35-year-old patient who is having her second New Hope baby. She conceived from a natural cycle frozen blastocyst transfer. The embryo used was developed from a Mini-IVF^TM retrieval back in April of 2009.