New Hope Fertility Center’s Founder and Medical Director Dr. John Zhang recently returned from China’s Guangdong province after successfully completing the country’s first ovarian tissue transplant.

Along with Dr. Sherman Silber, the two New Hope doctors donated their expertise to conduct the procedure, which was performed at the Reproductive Medicine Research Center (RMRC) of the 6th Affiliated Hospital at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China.  Dr. Zhang introduced Dr. Liang of RMRC to the procedure, who had also read Silber’s publications focused on his experience with ovarian tissue transplants.

The identical twin sisters, who are 31 years of age, each underwent the minimally invasive surgery for less than 6 hours, transferring part of the healthy ovarian tissue from the donor sister to Fang (pseudonym), who suffered from premature ovarian failure (doctors speculate this was due to her exposure to chemicals at work as a young adult).

Fang’s sister was able to act as donor without either of the twins having to take anti-rejection medications since they have identical loci (the specific location of a DNA sequence a chromosome).  The two sisters left the operating room with a scar just 1 to 2 inches long, and the donor sister has since fully recovered.  Her ovarian function was not affected by the surgery since the procedure required only a small portion of her ovarian tissue.

According to Chinese reports, Fang’s ovarian failure caused her to exhibit the physiological and physical traits of a 60 year old menopausal woman.  Along with struggling with the issues that arise with infertility, Fang had to deal with looking old enough to be her twin’s mother, while also experiencing the symptoms that come with menopause — dryness, sensitivity, and depression, among other things.

Thanks to the expert hands of Dr. John Zhang and Dr. Sherman Silber; however, Fang’s premature aging is now a thing of the past.  Within a week, Fang will be able to return to a normal and healthy sex life, and within just 3 months, Fang’s ovarian function will return as regular menstruation sets in, making it possible for her to conceive naturally for the first time in 7 years.

Fang and her doctors in China decided to go forward with the ovarian transplant due to a shortage of egg donors.  Ovarian transplants yield similar pregnancy rates to those who use donor eggs to conceive, and are favorable in cases where there is a desire to restore ovarian function so the patient can conceive naturally (versus oocyte donation, which still requires fertility treatment and does not restore ovarian function).

Congratulations to the father of New Hope on this enormous achievement!

A slew of articles recently released by major publications like the Washington Post, MSNBC, Businessweek, and HealthDay News highlight the CDC’s recent report revealing the rise in twin births in the US.

According to the report, there has been a 76% increase in the birth of twins since 1980.  Experts contribute the upward trend to women waiting to have children, as the chance of having multiples increases after 30, with much of the rise being attributed to fertility treatments.

As these articles point out, and we here at New Hope have argued time and time again, the rise in multiple births is not among the healthier “trends” to which fertility care specialists should be contributing.  Rather, multiple births suggest fertility care specialists and their patients are opting for multiple embryo transfers as they undergo fertility treatments, which only put the mother and child in more danger if they are to become pregnant with multiples.  Multiple pregnancies often coincide with an array of difficulties that put both mother and child at risk; and it should be noted that “more than half of [all] twins are born with low birthweight” (source: HealthDay News).

The upward twin trend should inspire more fertility doctors to advise their patients about the dangers of multiple births that can result from multiple embryo transfers and encourage single embryo transfers (SET).  Some may argue that patients prefer the “faster” track of conventional IVF, which commonly involves hyperstimulation to increase the woman’s chances of producing viable eggs; however, when it comes down to the long-term health of the mother and child, single embryo transfers and minimal stimulation protocols such as Mini-IVF™ offer a much safer alternative to conventional IVF protocols.  We believe if more patients were educated on the health and cost effectiveness of single embryo transfers and minimal stimulation options, the twin trend could be controlled, resulting in healthier pregnancies and therefore healthier children.

You can read more on our single embryo transfer protocols here.

A NY Daily News article this month highlighted the story of Michal Lura Friedman, a mother who passed away just four hours after giving birth to twins.

Friedman, a 44-year-old singer-songwriter, is now survived by her husband, Jay Snyder, and newborn twins, Reverie and Jackson.  Friedman was undergoing a C-Section since one of the twins was a breech baby, and died from complications after her surgery.

This story is an important depiction of the risks associated with multiple births that continue to exist even as medical technology advances.  Indeed, even as clinical improvements are made, the pressure multiple pregnancies put on the mother and children remain intact.  These risks, who can affect anyone, are especially dangerous when the mother is giving birth to high order multiples.  These risks include:

• premature birth and/or low birth weights
• preeclampsia
• gestational diabetes
• twin-twin transfusion syndrome
• long lasting birth defects

Today, the birth of multiples is largely associated with fertility treatments, which, due to hyperstimulation/conventional IVF and multiple embryo transfer protocols, increase the chance of a woman becoming pregnant with more than one baby (see the Octomom story).  At New Hope Fertility Center, we continuously stress the importance of Single Embryo Transfers when we treat patients.  Transferring one embryo instead of multiple embryos during IVF treatment significantly decreases the risk of the patient getting pregnant with multiples, and therefore increases the chance of achieving a healthy pregnancy, with less stress on mother and child.

The trend towards single embryo transfers within the fertility care field continues to be adopted by many other clinics, with leading fertility authorities also calling to make SET an industry standard.  We’re hopeful that SET will soon be the norm among fertility specialists as this field of medicine continues to advance.

Here’s a snapshot of New Hope Fertility Center’s most recent IVF pregnancies!

1) 35 y/o came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.  She froze two embryos from one Mini-IVF™ cycle and became pregnant after a day-5 frozen embryo transfer.  Congratulations!

2) 34 y/o arrived at New Hope with a history of secondary infertility.  She completed two Mini-IVF™ cycles and froze her embryos.  She then had a frozen single embryo transfer and came back with a positive pregnancy test.  Congrats!

3) 45 y/o came to NHFC with a history of multiple miscarriages.  She had a donor frozen embryo transfer and recently returned with a positive pregnancy test with twins.  Congratulations!

4) 40 y/o came to New Hope with a history of secondary infertility. She completed Ultra Mini and Mini-IVF™ cycles to freeze her embryos.  She then completed a Natural IVF cycle and resumed with a frozen and fresh embryo transfer, coming back with a positive pregnancy.  Congrats!