Since its founding in 2004, New Hope Fertility has always strived to bring safer and more effective IVF practices to the forefront of fertility care.

A leading advocate of Single Embryo Transfers (eSET), our protocols support a less is more philosophy.  When it comes to your fertility care, we believe in less danger and more safety for the mother and child.  This means transferring less embryos during your IVF treatment to ensure we can fulfill this peace of mind.  A recent study published in the March edition of Fertility and Sterility supports the safety and efficacy of eSET.

In the study, the health of two singletons from the same mother (eSET) and the health of IVF twins and their mother (double embryo transfer) were the primary focus.

The findings? The health conditions of the mother and child following eSET treatments were much more favorable than that of IVF twins:

The neonatal and maternal outcomes were dramatically better for women undergoing two IVF singleton pregnancies compared with one IVF twin pregnancy after double-embryo transfers.

Not only were IVF twins born “very” pre-term with significantly lower birth weights, but were reported as having more serious complications, including respiratory issues and jaundice (a yellow complexion associated with too much bilirubin in the blood that can lead to birth defects).  Mothers who elected for double-embryo transfers were more likely to experience pre-eclampsia and go into labor early, too.

We’re always thrilled to read more research that supports our most important protocols. To read more on our minimally invasive approach to IVF, visit us on the web or schedule a consultation.

Here’s to spreading safer and more effective practices!

Like most events in our lives, the process of in vitro fertilization is emotionally charged. Not only are you embarking on a life-changing journey, but choosing a path unfamiliar and different than those taken by your female counterparts. Tack on the financial burden of treatment and IVF is considerably more mentally challenging than you thought before.

That’s where New Hope Fertility comes in. Understanding the internal struggles presented during someone’s first, second, or third cycle, we’ve developed customizable IVF treatments that not only reduce the cost of treatment, but significantly reduce the mental and physical stress involved in the process.

Mini-IVF™ and frozen embryo transfers are just a couple examples of how New Hope helps our patients get pregnant through minimal stimulation (less medication) at a lower cost. Recent research suggests that frozen embryo transfers — freezing embryos from one cycle and transferring them in a subsequent cycle — decrease the chance of failed transfer or miscarriage since the embryo is being transferred into a less-stimulated uterine environment.  Less medication and taking less risks during an initial cycle (when an egg is retrieved and transferred in the same rotation) increase the health of a woman’s uterine environment and therefore increases the chance of success with her first batch of embryos (rather than placing fresh embryos into an overstimulated environment).

We recently had a couple women have success with Mini-IVF™ and frozen embryo transfers. Both 36-years-old, these two patients arrived at our center suffering from primary infertility. Each woman completed 2 Mini-IVF™ cycles in order to freeze embryos and after their (single) frozen embryo transfers, got pregnant. Congratulations to both Ms. 36s!

For more information our treatments, that can reduce the stress and cost of IVF treatment, please schedule a consultation.

photo credit: iStock.com

For those of you who have experienced the pain of loss in the form of miscarriage or failed IVF cycles, the idea of trying again or moving on to another cycle can be a grueling.

As if infertility itself were not enough to deal with, the build up of hope and subsequent loss of your IVF cycle is devastating. For many women, trying again is simply not an option — financially or emotionally. But for some, like Celine Dion, not trying again is unimaginable. When it comes to a dream like motherhood, it’s understandable that many women and couples just don’t give up.

Below, you’ll read our recent IVF success stories from women who failed multiple IVF cycles and finally succeeded. As we welcome 2013, we also welcome the inspiration stories like these bring to those of you struggling with the decision of whether to try again or not. At the end of the day, it is your world and entirely up to you!

Our first success story comes from Ms. 30, who arrived at New Hope dealing with infertility related to her endometriosis. Completing a few Mini-IVF™ cycles to freeze several embryos, she subsequently underwent a cystectomy to remove unwanted endometrial cyst from her right ovary. Ms. 30 had not 1 but 2 unsuccessful cycles before finally getting pregnant on her third — and it was a single embryo transfer!

Our second success story is from Ms. 35. Ms. 35 came to New Hope struggling with secondary infertility — problems conceiving with a second child — and completed several cycles to freeze multiple embryos. After her first frozen embryo transfer she got pregnant, but miscarried after 12 weeks. Choosing to press ahead, she returned to complete another Mini–IVF™ cycle and transfer and got pregnant. She also had four fertilized eggs to freeze until a later date.

Congrats to our two recent graduates!

Suffering from secondary infertility (having trouble conceiving with a second child) or experiencing trouble conceiving after entering your 30s?  You’re not alone.  At New Hope Fertility, we meet many women who face this harsh reality, even if they had no trouble conceiving with their first child.

For many women, trouble getting pregnant in their 30s is due to diminished ovarian reserve, which can be caused by high FSH levels or reproductive disorders like PCOS.  High FSH levels are associated with a decrease in ovarian function and get higher as a woman ages, which can occur more abruptly with some women in their 30s compared to their fertile counterparts of the same age.  Health issues like PCOS can result in follicles being underdeveloped or, in worst case scenarios, completely absent because of the presence of cysts.  And finally tubal issues, often resulting from scar tissue related to childbirth or pelvic inflammatory disease, are very common for women in their 30s, which can also inhibit the ability to conceive and sometimes cause miscarriages.

Our doctors recently helped a few of patients in their 30s get pregnant with our minimal stimulation IVF protocols.

Our first patient was a 36-year-old who had trouble getting pregnant with her second child.  Because Ms. 36 was young and otherwise healthy, we chose to treat her with our Mini-IVF™ treatment, which uses less hormone drugs than conventional IVF protocols. After her single embryo transfer, which we utilize to mimic the body’s naturally occurring processes, we’re happy to announce that Ms. 36 got pregnant. Congratulations, Ms. 36!

Our second success story involved a 31-year-old who came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.   With the embryos she had frozen at another clinic, we tried two frozen embryo transfers, which unfortunately did not take.  On Ms. 31′s third frozen embryo transfer, however, she got pregnant. Congrats Ms. 31!

Our third IVF success story helped a 38-year-old with a history of miscarriage.  Like Ms. 36, she completed 1 Mini-IVF cycle. After freezing her embryos she had an unsuccessful frozen embryo transfer, but a month later she had another and got pregnant.  Congrats Ms. 38!

For more success stories like these, head over to our Success Stories section on our blog and or our website.  Congrats to Ms. 36, Ms. 31 & Ms. 38!

The beauty of customizing our IVF protocols is that we’ve been able to create innovative techniques to help women with complicated health histories get pregnant.  One such method, developed by our Senior Medical Associate Dr. Lyndon Chang, is our Luteal Phase Stimulation protocol. Because of his experience with women with previous IVF failures, Dr. Chang has been able to develop the LPS protocol to help women with complex health histories, reporting a recent pregnancy using this method just last week.

As we’ve explained in previous posts,  the Luteal Phase is Day 14 through 28 of the woman’s cycle and occurs directly after ovulation (when the egg is released and the body is ready for pregnancy or implantation). While typical IVF egg retrievals occur directly before ovulation, in some instances other eggs that began to develop can be retrieved during the luteal phase in order to increase a woman’s chances of having more than one viable egg during her IVF cycle.

Our recent IVF success story using the LPS protocol helped a 42-year-old get pregnant with Natural Cycle IVF.  Because of a complicated health history (the patient had a prior kidney transplant and was deemed an IVF non-responder after failing three cycles elsewhere), we opted for this less invasive treatment, which relies on close monitoring and no fertility medications.

Since the initial retrieval did not produce a good quality egg, Dr. Chang and Ms. 42 decided to try to retrieve an egg during her Luteal Phase, two weeks after her first retrieval.   After cryopreserving the Luteal Phase embryo using our vitrification technique and performing a frozen embryo transfer in her next cycle, she got pregnant — despite never being able to get pregnant before with conventional IVF care.

Congratulations to Dr. Chang and the New Hope team on the successful application of this unique IVF protocol!  We look forward to reporting more successes using the Luteal Phase Stimulation technique.