Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia Infertility’
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Sean and Carolyn Savage of Toledo, Ohio, introduced their twins Regan and Isabella to the world on NBC’s Today Show last week, bringing the Savages’ story of surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization full circle, with a happy ending — times two!
The Savages first made headlines in 2009 when, in a quest to expand their family of five to a family of six, Carolyn underwent IVF. But shortly after she became pregnant using the fertility treatment, they were shocked by the news that another couple’s embryo had been implanted — she was carrying someone else’s child. Carolyn decided to carry the baby, a healthy boy named Logan, to full term and return him to his biological parents. They wrote a book, “Inconceivable,” about their journey.
After Logan was born, Carolyn knew she couldn’t take her chances on another high-risk pregnancy (the couple has three older children) but still wanted to expand their family. So they turned to surrogacy to make their family dreams come true, and were blessed with twins, which their surrogate carried for them.
The Savages are an example of the miracle of modern medicine and what fertility treatments can do for a family. They are an inspiration and we wish them all the best with their five healthy children!
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Tags: biological parents, Carolyn Savage, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, embryo, Family Dreams, Fertility Treatment, Fertility Treatments, High Risk Pregnancy, Isabella, Logan, Miracle, Modern Medicine, Nbc, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, Reading, Regan, S Child, Savages, surrogacy, Surrogate, Today Show, Toledo Ohio, Vitro Fertilization, Wyomissing
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
How much do women know about common fertility issues? Perhaps not as much as you might think.
In a recent survey sponsored by biopharmaceutical firm EMD Serono Inc., with investigators from RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, more than 50 percent of the 1,000 women questioned failed to correctly answer at least seven out of 10 basic fertility questions.
The questions that stumped many of them had to do with infertility as it relates to age and how long it may take to get pregnant at ages 20, 30, and 40. That’s not surprising, given the boon of health and beauty products that purport to keep a woman looking and feeling young as she ages. The problem is, there’s no magic anti-aging tonic for a woman’s reproductive system, which does continue to decline with time, making it considerably harder for a woman to conceive at 40 than at 20.
Researchers found that women think they can easily conceive into their late 30s and early 40s because celebrities make it look so easy. What they don’t realize, however, is that celebrities often call on fertility treatments, including in-vitro fertilization, donor eggs and surrogacy, to increase their chances of having a baby later in life.
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Tags: 40s, Boon, Celebrities, Donor Eggs, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Fertility Decline, Fertility Issues, Fertility Treatment, Fertility Treatments, Having A Baby, Health And Beauty, Health And Beauty Products, Health Products, Infertility, Investigators, National Infertility Association, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, Reading, Reproductive System, Serono Inc, surrogacy, Tonic, Vitro Fertilization, Wyomissing
Posted in Fertility Info 101 | No Comments »
Friday, November 18th, 2011
The doctor who developed the Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy procedure, which eliminates endometriosis while keeping the cervix in place, is working on a variation of the diagnostic procedure that uses new light technology to better pinpoint areas of endometriosis and therefore remove it more efficiently and effectively.
Dr. Tom Lyons, medical director of the Center for Women’s Care & Reproductive Surgery in Atlanta, is working with Dr. Chuck Miller in Chicago and Dr. Herman Barreuto in Baltimore to study whether the use of different colors of light helps detect endometriosis better than the traditional white light of the laparoscope.
The FDA-approved diagnostic study is using Olympus’s Narrow Band Imaging (NBI).
“We will first look at the disease area with white light, marking areas that we see is diseased with laser dots, then with NBI to see if that expands our visualization of diseased areas,” Dr. Lyons said in a recent press release. “With inflammation from endo, an area will be more vascularized (more blood vessels) and possibly we can more easily detect disease. We will then biopsy the area.”
We’re excited to see what this study finds in terms of better diagnostic services for women with endometriosis.
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Tags: Chuck Miller, Colors Of Light, Diagnostic Procedure, Diagnostic Study, Diagnostic Tool, Different Colors, Diseased Areas, Dr Chuck, Dr Tom, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Endometriosis, endometriosis treatment, Fertility Treatment, Hysterectomy Procedure, Laparoscope, Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy, Light Technology, Narrow Band Imaging, Nbi, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, Reading, Reproductive Science Institute, Reproductive Surgery, Rsi, Tom Lyons, Wyomissing
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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center have been studying the long-term consequences of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and have found that repeated bouts of the disease can double a woman’s risk of infertility.
PID is a complication of sexually transmitted infections and is marked by the inflammation of the reproductive organs. It can cause chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PID affects more than 800,000 women in the U.S. each year, and one in 10 of those women develops infertility.
The new research conducted by those at Johns Hopkins explored whether long-term effects of PID had changed in recent years along with changes in PID-causing pathogens and new treatments. The research showed, however, that long-term effects of PID are still serious when it comes to a woman’s fertility. In the study, women with recurrent PID were nearly twice as likely to report infertility as women who never had another PID flare-up after initial PID treatment.
If you’ve had recurrent PID episodes, there might be damage to your reproductive organs that is getting in the way of you conceiving a child. Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your unique health situation and your fertility treatment options.
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Tags: Bouts, Centers For Disease Control, Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Chronic Pelvic Pain, conceiving a child, Disease Control And Prevention, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Ectopic Pregnancy, Fertility Treatment, Flare Ups, Health Situation, Infertility, Johns Hopkins, PA Infertility, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Pid, Philadelphia Infertility, Reading, Reproductive Organs, Reproductive Science Institute, Rsi, S Center, sexually transmitted infections, Study Women, Term Consequences, Those Women, Treatment Options, Unique Health, Wyomissing
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Monday, November 14th, 2011
If you’ve ever seen TLC’s “The Little Couple, you know stars Bill Klein and Jen Arnold have been working with a surrogate to help them have a baby. In the season finale this spring, the couple found out the surrogate was pregnant.
Well last week the couple received bad news — the surrogate has had a miscarriage. It is a devastating turn of events for the couple, as they were using a surrogate to increase their chances for a healthy baby. Because of Arnold’s health issues, carrying a pregnancy is a serious health risk; in fact it could even threaten her life. Also, the use of IVF technology can help them avoid passing on the genetic cause of their skeletal dysplasia, a disease that can be deadly for their baby. Using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, doctors are able to identify which embryos carry the genetic disease. Then, they can transfer healthy embryos to the surrogate’s uterus.
Time will tell if the couple opts to try again with their current fertility plan of using IVF technology and a surrogate. We certainly wish them well, and view them as an inspiration and an example of just what is possible with technological advancements in fertility treatments and surrogacy.
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Tags: Arnold, Bad News, Bill Klein, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Embryos, Fertility Treatment, Fertility Treatments, Genetic Cause, Genetic Diagnosis, Genetic Disease, Health Issues, Health Risk, Implantation, IVF technology, Miscarriage, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Reading PA Infer, Reproductive Science Institute of Suburban Philadelphia, Rsi, Season Finale, Serious Health, Setback, Skeletal Dysplasia, Surrogacy Journey, Surrogate, Technological Advancements, Tlc, Uterus, Wyomissing
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Friday, November 11th, 2011
If you’ve been trying to conceive for awhile, you know the anxiety of the two-week wait (known in online forums and message boards as the acronym TWW). It’s that period of time between ovulation and your expected period, when you’re waiting to see if your efforts to conceive worked or whether you’re going to have to try again next month.
This is a torturous time period for any woman wanting to get pregnant, and that stress is magnified when you’re undergoing fertility treatments. In those instances, there are often family members and friends who are keeping up with your efforts, and they’re waiting and hoping to hear about a successful pregnancy right along with you. Also there’s money on the line, not to mention the physical, mental and emotional effort you’ve put into treatment process and all the procedures that come with it.
Whether or not you’re undergoing fertility treatments, here are a few tips to help you handle the two-week wait.
- Stop obsessing about symptoms. The more you Google “pregnancy symptoms” the more you stress about not having any. Every woman’s body experiences pregnancy differently, and just because your breasts aren’t tender or you’re not nauseated in the morning doesn’t mean you’re not pregnant. You don’t have to “feel” pregnant to be pregnant, so don’t be consumed by phantom symptoms that don’t necessarily mean anything.
- Ease up on the pregnancy tests. All those pregnancy tests that claim to be able to detect a pregnancy earlier and earlier do little more than disappoint and waste your money. It’s called a two-week wait for a reason, and every single line on a failed pregnancy test will do nothing more than shake your confidence.
- Tune in to TWW stress triggers — and then tune them out. If you get depressed and stressed every time you log onto your “trying to conceive” message board and read about another woman’s good news, maybe it’s time to take a little break from that outlet. If a friend who knows you’re undergoing the process asks every morning at the office if you “feel any different” and it makes your worry even more, tell her to stop asking, and that she’ll be among the first to hear the good news when it happens
We know it seems like a lifetime, but trust us: The clock does not slow down. Those 14 days will go by quickly in the grand scheme of things, and hopefully you’ll have good news waiting on the other side of the wait.
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Tags: Acronym, anxiety, Body Experiences, Breasts, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Emotional Effort, Family Members, Fertility Treatments, Google, Instances, Little Break, Obsessing, Online Forums, Ovulation, PA Infertility, Period Of Time, Philadelphia Infertility, Pregnancy Symptoms, Pregnancy Test, Pregnancy Tests, Reading, Single Line, successful pregnancy, Time Period, Trying To Conceive, Trying To Conceive Message Board, two-week wait, Wyomissing
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Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
With so many in the media and out in the world talking so openly about fertility treatments these days, some acronyms and catch phrases are becoming commonplace. In particular, many people recognize the acronym IVF and the procedure it stands for — in-vitro fertilization.
But IVF is not the only kind of with fertility treatments available — not by a long shot! There are other avenues for couples to take in their journey toward conceiving a child with medical assistance. One such procedure, called intrauterine insemination, helps scores of people who are having trouble conceiving. It is less expensive than IVF, though its success rate is lower. Here’s a little bit more about IUI:
- How does IUI work? In the IUI procedure, a catheter containing washed sperm is inserted through the cervix. The sperm is then pushed into the uterus in the hopes of fertilization with an ovum.
- When does IUI take place? IUI is typically scheduled within 6 hours (before or after) of a woman’s ovulation. (hCG injections may be used to ensure ovulation.) Timing is critical because sperm can only last 24-72 hours and are typically considered less viable after 24 hours.
- Does it hurt? Most women report very little discomfort during the procedure.
- Who is IUI most suited for? Since the IUI procedure manipulates the placement of sperm, IUI may be very effective in cases of male infertility. Also, since the IUI procedure accesses the uterus directly, it may be a good choice for women who suffer from cervical mucus problems.
- What is the success rate of IUI? Success rates vary quite a bit. Some studies report the success rate to be as little as 4-8%; others claim it is closer to 20%.
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Tags: Catch Phrases, Catheter, Cervical Mucus, Cervix, conceiving a child, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Fertility Treatment, Fertility Treatments, Hcg Injections, in vitro fertilization, Intrauterine Insemination, IUI, Iui Procedure, Iui Success Rates, IVF, Male Infertility, Medical Assistance, mucus problems, Ovulation, Ovulation Timing, ovum, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, Reading, sperm, Success Rate, Twitter, Uterus, Vitro Fertilization, Wyomissing
Posted in IUI | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 4th, 2011
The term “biological clock” is often used to describe a woman’s fertility. But what in the world does it really mean? Essentially, it’s important to understand that it refers, basically, to the diminishing amount of viable eggs that she has in her body.
When a female is born, she has about two million eggs. That number never increases, so what she has is what her body will one day use to potentially conceive a child. But when a woman begins to menstruate, her number of eggs has already dropped by about four-fifths to 400,000 total eggs.
As the months and years progress, she will lose about 12,000 eggs annually. At that rate, she will have no eggs within 33 years or so from the onset of menses, which is the point where menopause takes over.
Of course, other factors are involved in what happens to her eggs. Illnesses and medical conditions can affect the strength and health of the eggs over time, sometimes leaving them unavailable for fertilization. For instance, chemotherapy and radiation for cancer can create female fertility issues. (This is why some women free their eggs prior to undergoing such types of treatments.)
Getting back to the “biological clock”, though, it’s critical for all women to realize that there’s no set time period. The aforementioned figures are only generalizations and statistics. That’s why it’s important not to make assumptions without medical assistance to back up theories.
At The Reproductive Science Institute (RSI) of Suburban Philadelphia, we’re here to answer any questions related to female fertility or other similar concerns. Give us a call today and set up an appointment to learn more about your personal situation.
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Tags: 33 Years, Biological Clock, Chemotherapy, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Female Fertility, Fertility Issues, Fertility Treatment, Fertilization, Four Fifths, Generalizations, Illnesses, Medical Assistance, Medical Conditions, Menopause, Menses, PA Infertility, Personal Situation, Philadelphia Infertility, Reproductive Science Institute, Rsi, Suburban Philadelphia, Two Million, Viable Eggs, Wyomissing
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Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
If you’re interested in learning more about infertility, it’s important to first have a good amount of knowledge about the topic area.
Below, we’ve put together eight basic facts on fertility to help you get started. If you want to learn more, contact the Reproductive Science Institute (RSI) today to set up a consultation. And please understand that your case is unique to your situation. That’s why it’s so important to get advice from a reputable, experienced fertility specialist who can help you make decisions as to your reproductive concerns.
8 Basic Fertility Facts:
- Two-thirds of couples or individuals treated for infertility go on to have healthy pregnancies and children.
- One-third of women over 35 will experience some kind of fertility issue.
- In 2010, over 7 million American men and women sought help for their infertility issues.
- Ovarian cysts are the most common cause of infertility in females in the United States.
- Infertility statistics for 2011 have risen from those for 2010. This may be because of many factors, including couples marrying later in life and/or the willingness to seek out fertility treatments as opposed to adopting or simply not having children.
- 11.8 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 44 have impaired fecundity.
- 7.4 percent of married women can be clinically classified as infertile.
- In America, there are almost 2 million reported pregnancy losses each year. (This is compared with over 4 million live births.)
Sources: National Women’s Health Information Center, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Tags: American Men, Centers For Disease Control, Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, Disease Control And Prevention, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, Fecundity, Fertility Issue, fertility specialist, Fertility Treatment, Fertility Treatments, Having Children, Health Information Center, Infertility, Infertility Issues, Live Births, Married Women, National Women, Ovarian Cysts, PA Infertility, Philadelphia Infertility, Pregnancy Losses, Reproductive Concerns, Reproductive Science Institute, Wyomissing
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Monday, October 31st, 2011
As we’ve noted here before, up to a third of all cases of infertility between couples can be attributed to male infertility factors. But how much do you really know about this condition?
To help you understand male infertility a little better, we’ve amassed a series of statistics and facts:
• In the United States, around 6 percent of men aged teen to midlife have fertility difficulties. Outside of the United States, especially in developing countries, that figure can be significantly higher.
• Up to 71 percent of males who are diagnosed as infertile have infections, many of which are caused by untreated sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like chlamydia.
• Up to 90 percent of male infertility causes can be traced back to low sperm count. (Again, that low sperm count can be the result of many different issues, including an undiagnosed STD.)
• One in 25 males has a low sperm count. (This may or may not lead to male infertility, as the determining factor is whether or not the sperm are healthy and viable.)
• Blood tests and semen analysis are the most popular ways to determine the cause of male infertility.
• Some sources suggest that male infertility may be more prevalent than female infertility, although this hypothesis is heavily debated in the fertility specialist community.
If you’re interested in learning more about male infertility and you’re in the Philadelphia or Wyomissing, PA areas, please contact the Reproductive Science Institute today for an appointment. We’d be happy to discuss and evaluate your unique situation.
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Tags: Appointment, Blood Tests, Chlamydia, Couples, Developing Countries, Diseases, Dr. Hearns, Dr. Munabi, female infertility, fertility specialist, Fertility Treatment, Hypothesis, Infertility, Infertility Causes, Low Sperm Count, Male Infertility, Pa Areas, PA Infertility, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Infertility, Reproductive Science Institute, Rsi, Statistics, United States, Wyomissing, Wyomissing Pa
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