One egg donor shares her story

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on June 29, 2012 at 8:19 am

One egg donor shares her storyA woman writes in her diary, “Today I was chosen for an egg donor cycle. There are a lot of thoughts going through my head right now. I’m excited, but a bit nervous. I can’t wait to have a child of my own. I would be so upset if I couldn’t get pregnant and would definitely consider egg donation.”

Caderina Carrizosa is a 22 year-old Biological Science major and one of the many thousands of young women choosing to be an egg donor. She shares excerpts from her journal to help other women who are considering becoming an egg donor.

“The thought of helping someone who is struggling with infertility gives me a feeling of joy, but on the other hand, I know I am going to have to inject myself with shots and that terrifies me. I just have to remind myself why I am doing this. I know I would be so thankful if someone went through this for me,” Caderina adds.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 1984, it’s estimated one in seven couples experience infertility and that 100,000 children have been born from donor eggs in the U.S.

Caderina was chosen because she met all genetic, physical and psychological screenings. While it is extremely rare, some donors drop out well into the process.

Donors must be committed to being an egg donor. They must be dependable and follow protocol. The egg donation process involves planning, expense for the recipient, effort, and emotional investment.

“If you think about what all is involved, the financial compensation is really not the incentive. I had to take time off work, get up early to go to appointments, give myself shots, and then plan for the day of retrieval, which I then had a day or two of recovery. I am normally very active. I work out everyday. I hike. I run trails. I had to change my lifestyle for a few weeks,” writes Caderina.

Egg Donor NY offers online and telephone consultation to couples struggling with infertility and can offer alternative approaches to achieving pregnancy.

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Donor eggs from younger women could be the key for those over 40

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on June 28, 2012 at 2:13 pm

Donor eggs from younger women could be beneficial for women over 40Older women should consider using donor eggs from younger woman, a new study shows.

Predictably, women under the age of 34 have the greatest chances of becoming pregnant through IVF.

However, according to research older women with low ovarian reserve can achieve pregnancy by using donor eggs from younger women.

The study looked at the chances of conception by taking into account age, the diagnosis that caused the patient to seek fertility treatment, whether additional preserved embryos, and the stage when the embryos were transferred.

Lead study author Barbara Luke, professor and epidemiologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing states that when women require fertility treatment, there isn’t a simple answer about their chances of conception, and a lot of factors needs to be considered.

After the third treatment cycle, women aged 31 and younger had a 63 to 75% chance of ending up with a baby, compared with women 41 or 42 who used their own egg and had a 19 to 28% chance. Those 43 or older had a 7 to 11% chance. When donor eggs from younger women were used, the rates were much higher, usually hovering between 60 and 80%, for all ages.

What this says is that using a younger egg improves the chances of conception.

The study was published in the June 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It tracked data on nearly 250,000 women and 471,000 in vitro fertilization cycles from 2004 to 2009 at 400 clinics, resulting in 141,000 babies.

The study shows that women over 40 should evaluate their odds and consider using a donor egg more quickly.

The research also took into consideration infertility diagnoses that could influence chances of success. Low ovarian reserve was associated with lower odds of a live birth. Fibroids, endometriosis or adhesions on the uterus were also associated with a lower success rate.

On the flip side, other factors like male infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome and tubal factor infertility, had less of an impact.

 

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Trial to determine benefits of frozen embryo transfer

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on June 21, 2012 at 9:07 am

Trial to determine benefits of frozen embryo transferA new in vitro fertilisation trial has been established to test the effectiveness of a frozen embryo transfer.

At present, women undergoing IVF have fresh embryos implanted after stimulating the ovaries to produce more eggs through the use of hormones.

Still, if the first cycle is unsuccessful, any collected embryos that are not immediately used are frozen and can be implanted at a later date, or after a successful pregnancy for patients trying to have another baby.

IVF clinic Genea claims its success rates for frozen embryos are now on par with fresh embryos.

The trial is investigating the advantages of transferring a frozen embryo into the uterus during a natural menstrual cycle rather than straight after the use of hormone drugs, when the lining of the uterus might not be as receptive.

The transfer of a fresh rather than a frozen embryo has been the traditional model for IVF and is promoted by some clinics as the  ultimate standard.

But the best and quickest way to achieve a healthy baby may be from transferring a single frozen and thawed embryo.

The research involves 200 patients, and comes after an Australian study published last month found that birth defects were significantly decreased among IVF babies conceived from a frozen rather than a fresh embryo.

Embryo donation in NYC offers online and telephone consultations about frozen embryo transfer and other fertility treatments in and outside of the U.S.

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New Natural Polycystic Ovary Syndrome treatment now available in U.S.

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on May 22, 2012 at 8:05 am

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome treatmentA natural supplement previously only available in Europe, has been released in the United States to help millions of women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome treatment (PCOS).

Approximately 10% of women between the ages of 14 and 40 have PCOS, a devastating combination of hormone imbalances that can lead to severe medical and reproductive difficulties including hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, breast cancer, uterine cancer, irregular menstrual cycles, acne, increased facial and body hair growth, difficulty conceiving, an increased risk of miscarriages, and pregnancy complications such as hypertension and gestational diabetes.

Scott Roseff, MD, FACOG, of the South Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine (SFIRM), is a renowned fertility specialist and expert in the diagnosis and treatment of PCOS. Dr. Roseff investigated Pregnitude (Everett Labs, NJ), an all-natural supplement designed to address the deficiencies found in the ovaries of women plagued by PCOS, and found that it improved insulin resistance with the same effectiveness as prescription-only metformin but without metformin’s high incidence of side effects.

Women with fertility challenges ovulated on over-the-counter Pregnitude as frequently as patients taking prescription Clomid but were free of the adverse reactions and risks commonly known with Clomid.

Many patients undergoing IVF treatment were found to have better quality eggs and embryos after taking Pregnitude.

Pregnitude can benefit women and aid Polycystic Ovary Syndrome treatment as well as those suffering from various types of infertility. Pregnitude combines myo-inositol and folic acid and became available in U.S. pharmacies this month without a prescription.

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How far would you go to have a baby?

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on May 16, 2012 at 7:14 am

Premature Ovarian FailureIf you were diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, how far would you go to have a baby? Would you place advertisements for prospective birth moms around your neighbourhood?

Nicky and Erik Nelson of Moorhead, United States, are using methods that range from word-of-mouth among relatives and friends, to social networking, in their comprehensive search for a baby.

In addition to posting fliers in places like grocery stores and Moorhead Center Mall, they have added a window slick to their car, launched an adoption Facebook page and included adoption-minded business cards with their social worker’s contact information in their Christmas cards.

Every little bit can help. The trend toward networking and outreach has really taken off in the last three years.

Nicky has a genetic condition called premature ovarian failure, which required getting a hysterectomy in 2005.

After exhausting traditional methods of adoption, and finding no results, the Nelsons began considering outreach last year. At 35 and 36 respectively, Nicky and Erick felt they only had so much time before they were too old to adopt a newborn.

On Nicky’s birthday she left her first business card in a mall restroom in St. Cloud, Minn. It wasn’t easy, but she did it.

For safety, the Nelsons’ set up a special Google voice number and email specifically for adoption-related queries, and they posted Haugen’s contact information in case potential birth parents don’t want to contact them directly.

For many couples this method of finding prospective birth mothers has become more common, as they have become disillusioned with the regulating authorities that delay and set barriers to a more speedy process.

The Nelsons have yet to receive a telephone call from their latest efforts, but they are hopeful that soon they will be proud parents.

Egg donor NYC offers free consultation for couples who are having difficulty achieving pregnancy, and provide alternatives that they may not yet have considered.

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Celebrities turn to IVF treatment to achieve pregnancy

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on May 8, 2012 at 9:23 am
Celebrities turn to IVF

Marcia Cross used IVF to get pregnant back in 2007

IVF treatment is all the rage in Hollywood. Celebrities like Marcia Cross, Sarah Jessica Parker and Celine Dion have become moms as a result of using IVF.

IVF is a process where egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the body. It’s the preferred method to treat infertility when all other methods of assisted reproduction have failed.

Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross, 50, skipped her honeymoon to begin IVF treatment immediately after getting married to her stockbroker husband in 2006.

She used donor eggs to increase her chances due to her age and later gave birth to twin girls, Eden and Savannah in 2007. At one point near the end of her pregnancy she was placed on bed rest and had to miss several episodes of Desperate Housewives. Crucial scenes requiring her presence were actually filmed at her house in California.

In 2009, Sarah Jessica Parker, 47, used a surrogate to have twin girls Marion and Tabitha with actor husband Matthew Broderick.

The Sex And The City star had been married for 12 years when her daughters were born.

Canadian pop star Celine Dion went through IVF in 2000 to have her son Rene Charles and used it again in 2010 to have her twin sons, Nelson and Eddy.

The 44-year-old confessed that she had a miscarriage and had six rounds of IVF before her successful pregnancy.

Apart from IVF, adoption has also been a hot trend in Tinsel Town.

X-Men star Hugh Jackman’s wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 56, suffered two miscarriages before they adopted son Oscar in 2000 and daughter Ava in 2005.

Actress Katherine Heigl, adopted her three-year-old Korean daughter Naleigh with husband, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley in January.

Celebrities have helped spread awareness and understanding about IVF treatment, helping countless women the world over become pregnant. IVF NY offers free online consultation for couples hoping to start or add to their existing family.

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A pregnant woman who bought U.S. donor egg talks

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on April 26, 2012 at 7:59 am

Donor EggInfertile Canadian women are forced to make a complex decision about purchasing a human egg from the U.S. due to confusion over the cross-border trade, says an Ottawa woman pregnant with a donor egg.

Claudia is 37 weeks pregnant and eagerly awaiting parenthood. She told CBC News that she has premature ovarian aging, and that it is impossible for her to conceive naturally.

Canadian lawmakers have weighed the pros and cons touching on an explosive list of legal, social and ethical issues that include the exploitation of surrogates and the sale of sperm and eggs before the “advent of cryopreservation”.

Officially, it is illegal to sell eggs and sperm in Canada, but rules are rarely enforced. Many believe that Canada is in a shameful place regarding this matter. They perceive that women, couples, children and the Canadian population overall are worse off without a clear context for using reproductive technologies over exploitation fears.

The unregulated landscape of the industry is a problem, and it is important that the federal government catches up with improvements in technology.

By not allowing payments for egg donations in Canada, the availability of eggs is limited.

For her part, Claudia thinks it would be better to pay a Canadian for an egg rather than face the extra burden of going to the U.S.

Tremendous strides are being made so that more people can have the family that they dream of and the Canadian government needs to keep up with those changes.

Egg donor NYC sees a good number of Canadians at their practice and the principal reason is the restrictive law about egg donation in Canada.

 

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Giuliana and Bill Rancic to welcome baby via surrogacy this summer

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on April 23, 2012 at 10:05 am

Giuliana and Bill Rancic to welcome baby via surrogacy this summerGiuliana Rancic is no stranger to hard times, as she has struggled with infertility treatments, and earlier this year, a bout with early stage breast cancer.

It may have all seemed worth it as Giuliana and her husband, Bill, have announced that they are expecting a baby via a gestational surrogate this summer. The news comes on the very first day of National Infertility Awareness Week.

The Rancics have garnerd a lot of media attention over the years as they openly and publicly discussed their fertility issues. The E! News anchor and the first Apprentice winner, who have also documented their struggle in their reality TV show Giuliana & Bill, were married in 2007 and began trying to conceive in 2010.

Giuliana was criticized publicly for being too thin to achieve pregnancy, and underwent in vitro fertilization and also suffered a miscarriage.

Last fall, the couple were ready to begin fertility treatments again, when Giuliana’s doctor ordered a mammogram. They found early stage breast cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery and radiation.

The couple announced on the Today show that their baby is due in late summer via a gestational surrogate. They chose surrogacy because of the risks associated with Giuliana’s cancer and the fertility drugs used during IVF.

Through gestational surrogacy, the surrogate gives birth to a baby conceived with an egg and sperm of a couple or a donor egg or sperm. This means that the child is the Rancic’s genetic child.

The couple told Today that the embryo that resulted in the pregnancy was banked prior to the breast cancer diagnosis. The couple have been credited for their positive and optimistic outlook in the face of adversity and it is no surprise to anyone that they have made it this far and will soon welcome their first child.

Congratulations to them both for much deserved good news.

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Egg donors remain fertile after procedure

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on April 17, 2012 at 9:17 am

Egg donor remain fertile after procedureA Belgium study has found that egg donors chances of becoming pregnant in the years after the procedure are not diminished.

Some experts have questioned whether hormonally stimulating the ovaries — which makes them produce extra eggs — and removing those eggs from a healthy, young woman could later increase her chance of infertility, while others maintain that there are no serious long-term risks.

“Egg donation has been offered to patients in Belgium since the 1980s. We were not surprised by the good reproductive outcomes in ex-egg donors,” Dr. Dominic Stoop, medical director at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Brussels, Belgium and lead author of the study, wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

The researchers gave a telephone questionnaire to 194 women who had donated eggs at the Belgian center between 1999 and 2010. The surveys were conducted an average of four to five years after those procedures.

At the time of donation, women averaged 30 years old.

Sixty past egg donors reported trying to get pregnant since the procedure. Of those, 57 women conceived without help. The other three women required fertility treatment, though two of them sought treatment because of male infertility.

16% of donors had changes in their menstrual cycle after donation, but none reported that these changes resulted in fertility problems.

“Menstrual pattern could be disrupted temporarily by hormonal changes due to ovarian stimulation, much like how menstrual changes also appear after stopping an oral contraceptive,” said Stoop, whose study is published in Fertility and Sterility.

“In the short term, egg donation appears to have no effect on fertility,” said Dr. Orhan Bukulmez, an infertility specialist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who wasn’t involved in the new research. But longer-term studies of egg donors are still needed.

Although some researchers argue that the extra hormones women are given before the procedure and possible trauma to the ovaries during it could lead to early menopause in egg donors, studies haven’t found reasons to be concerned so far.

Bukulmez cautioned that the results of the current study cannot be generalized to include women seeking to freeze their own eggs.

Egg donors are a very select group of patients that are chosen for their healthy ovaries, according to Bukulmez. “They may not be representative of the fertile female population as a whole,” he said.

Egg donor NYC is committed to ensuring that couples experiencing fertility problems receive the best and most diverse egg donor pool in the country.

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3 tests can help determine if you have low ovarian reserve

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Posted by Franco Cignelli on April 10, 2012 at 11:16 am

Low Ovarian ReserveIn women over 35, low ovarian reserve is common. A decrease in the ovarian reserve means there are fewer eggs to grow and mature, and therefore fertility may decrease.

Women are born with a certain number of eggs. Unlike men, who continue to make sperm throughout most of their lives, women are unable to make more eggs than what they are born with.

Smokers, women with a family history of premature menopause, and women with autoimmune diseases may all be at risk of premature menopause.

There are three tests currently available to measure the ovarian reserve.

1. An ultrasound, done at the beginning of a menstrual cycle that counts the preantral follicles in the ovary. A number greater than five is a good prognostic for reserve.

2. A blood test for the level of FSH, or follicle-stimulating hormone, when estrogen level is at the lowest, usually on day 2 or 3 of a cycle. Lower estrogen means a higher FSH level is needed to stimulate the follicles and enable the egg inside each follicle to grow and mature. A low ovarian reserve also means more FSH is needed to stimulate egg maturation. A high FSH level, over 15, is a poor prognostic sign for ovarian reserve, indicating a low reserve.

3. Test the level of AMH, or antimullerian hormone, a hormone produced by the ovarian follicles. This blood test can be done on any day of a menstrual cycle. A low AMH level is a poor prognostic sign indicating low ovarian reserve.

Unfortunately, science cannot make more eggs, or predict what will happen to women as they age. Experts insist that women in their 20s should be encouraged to have at least one test of ovarian reserve if they are considering having a family in the future.

A diminished ovarian reserve is not the end of the world, and in the case of infertility, there are affordable fertility treatments, like low cost IVF, to help women achieve pregnancy.

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