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FERTINATAL™ DHEA Fertility Supplement for Women Now Available for Purchase

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Posted by Marie on April 13, 2012 at 10:38 am

FertinatalApril 13, 2012 (New York, NY) – FERTINATAL™, the first and only dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) nutritional supplement designed to enhance female fertility, has entered the market today.

The launch took longer than expected, because Fertility Nutraceuticals, LLC – which developed the supplement – made unusual efforts to ensure that FERTINATAL™ DHEA for women would fulfill all of the required specifications which the product was designed for, with consistency across every tablet, according to Fertility Nutraceuticals. The required repeat rounds of quality-assurance testing at independent laboratories delayed the launch, initially scheduled for January.

“It was extremely frustrating, especially since we have seen increasing demand since we announced FERTINATAL last December,” notes Yu Kizawa, the company’s Director of Marketing and Sales. “Now, we are excited to be able to offer probably the most reliable micronized DHEA product on the market, and the only one specifically designed for women who have a difficult time conceiving.”

FERTINATAL™ was developed with strict adherence to the specifications of the Center for Human Reproduction (CHR, http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com), a research-driven fertility center in New York City that introduced DHEA supplementation for women with diminished ovarian reserve. Because of the high quality standard of FERTINATAL™, CHR, the only holder of female fertility-related U.S. patents for DHEA supplementation, endorses FERTINATAL™.

“Over-the-counter DHEA products can be very inconsistent in quality, even within the same brand,” explains Norbert Gleicher, MD, medical director of CHR. “Based on the unique quality control process of FERTINATAL™, we are confident that this new product will deliver the kind of consistency and quality we, up to this point, have been able to achieve only through pharmacy-compounded DHEA by prescription.  We, therefore, feel confident in endorsing FERTINATAL™.”

FERTINATAL™ is available for purchase at $69.50 per box (a one-month supply), online at http://www.fertinatal.com.

 

About Fertility Nutraceuticals, LLC
Fertiltiy Nutraceuticals, LLC, is a company specializing in nutritional supplements for women in reproductive years. The company is dedicated to developing highest-quality nutritional supplements for women with fertility problems, trying to achieve healthy pregnancies. FERTINATAL™ is the company’s first product, with additional products planned for rollout throughout 2012.

Posted in: fertility treatments, infertility, Older Women Pregnancy, Trying to Concieve
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Premature Ovarian Aging Expert Issues Fertility Tip Sheet for Women Interested in Pregnancy Over 40

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Posted by Marie on March 1, 2012 at 3:37 pm

March 1, 2012 (New York, NY) – Center for Human Reproduction (CHR), a leading New York fertility center specializing in pregnancy CHRin older women, has issued a fertility tip sheet for women trying to get pregnant after age 40. With a growing number of women interested in pregnancy over 40, timely evaluation and diagnosis of infertility are becoming ever more important.  However, they remain elusive for many patients.

“It’s important to recognize the urgency of aggressive fertility treatment when you are above age 40,” says Dr. Gleicher, Medical Director of CHR, which released the tip sheet. As women get older, their ovarian reserve (a measure of ovaries’ ability to produce good-quality eggs) declines. Because this process of ovarian aging speeds up significantly after age 40, timely diagnosis of infertility becomes crucial especially after age 40. Every fertility treatment loses efficacy rapidly with declining ovarian reserve.

As a “fertility center of last resort” for patients with diminished ovarian reserve, CHR sees a large number of women over 40 with premature ovarian aging.  Dr. Gleicher continues: “There isn’t a day when we don’t hear our patients say ‘doctor, I wish I’d known about your center years ago, when I was doing such and such…’ The earlier we can start treatment, the better, of course, our chances of helping our patients! This is why we are issuing this fertility tip sheet.”

CHR’s fertility tips for women trying to get pregnant after 40 include:

  • Recognize the urgency of aggressive fertility treatment when you are above age 40.
  • Insist on rapid diagnosis and a structured treatment plan.
  • Insist on specific treatment goals that meet your expectations.  For example, do not agree to treatment with clomiphene citrate and intrauterine insemination (IUI) if the expected pregnancy chance sounds ridiculously low.
  • Do not agree to endless testing to “wait for the right results” – time is not on your side, and results will only get worse!
  • It never hurts to get a second opinion.

 

About Center for Human Reproduction

Center for Human Reproduction, or CHR (http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com), is a leading fertility center in the United States with a worldwide reputation as a “fertility center of last resort,” specializing in treatment of infertility in women with diminished ovarian reserve, including younger women with premature ovarian aging (POA) and older women with physiological ovarian aging. Dr. Gleicher is available for additional comments.

Posted in: Older Women Pregnancy
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Getting Pregnant at 45: Early Treatment Key to Success

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on February 29, 2012 at 9:56 am

In the US there is a growing trend towards delayed family planning due to financial constraints, career pathways, or other personal factors. For this reason women getting pregnant at 45 for the first time is becoming more and more common and represents the fastest growing group seeking infertility treatment.

 

However, getting pregnant at 45 is not exactly as easy as sounds. Naturally a woman’s reproductive cycle begins to decline as she ages, with even sharper declines after the age of 35. By the time a woman reaches the age of 40 or 45, she more than likely has a diminished ovarian reserve available for reproduction.

 

For this reason fertility experts recommend that women over the age of 40 seek medical advice when trying to become pregnant and insist upon aggressive treatment should she not become pregnant right away.

 

“It’s not that every woman needs fertility treatment to get pregnant once she hits age 40,” explains Dr. Gleicher, Medical Director of the Center for Human Reproduction (CHR), a New York-based fertility center in a statement released today. However, he continues “because [the] process of ovarian aging speeds up significantly after age 40, timely diagnosis of infertility becomes crucial. Every fertility treatment loses efficacy rapidly with declining ovarian reserve.”

 

 

Treatment Options for Getting Pregnant at 45

The type of treatment recommended greatly varies on the woman’s ovarian reserve at the time of diagnosis. If a woman is determined to have a complete ovarian failure, then the use of a donor egg with an IVF cycle would be recommended. However, if a women is diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve – which means there are still some eggs available for reproductive use – then DHEA treatment may be recommended.

 

DHEA and Fertility for Older Women

DHEA and fertility are a relatively new discovery in the reproductive field of medicine. Researchers have found that women with diminished ovarian reserves who take a supervised course of DHEA supplements have improved chances of becoming pregnant due to improved egg quantities and egg qualities. There is also literature to suggest that DHEA reduces spontaneous pregnancy rates, the time it takes to get pregnant, miscarriage, and chromosomal abnormalities of the developing baby.

 

If you are considering getting pregnant at 45, it is important that you talk with your doctor right away about the treatment options available to you.

Posted in: Older Women Pregnancy

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New York Infertility Treatment Center Receives DHEA Patent in Reducing Embryo Abnormalities

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Posted by Marie on December 20, 2011 at 9:26 am

CHRDecember 20, 2011 (New York, NY) – New York’s Center for Human Reproduction (CHR) is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has approved a patent application for infertility treatment, serial number 8,067,400, titled “Androgen Treatments in Females.”

The claims of this allowed application – the second received based on CHR’s research of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in women with infertility – are directed to methods of decreasing aneuploidy rates (chromosomal abnormalities) in human embryos, decreasing time to pregnancy and increasing pregnancy rates by administering an androgen for at least two months.

In layman’s terms, this means that DHEA has been recognized (in this second patent issued to CHR) as an infertility treatment to increase pregnancy rates, reduce time to conception and reduce chromosomal abnormalities in embryos. DHEA is thus the first agent ever recognized to reduce chromosomal abnormalities in human embryos. Since approximately 85% of all human miscarriages are believed to be due to chromosomal abnormalities, DHEA can also be assumed to reduce miscarriage rates.

CHR investigators have already observed reductions in miscarriage risk after DHEA supplementation [Gleicher et al., Miscarriage rates after dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) supplementation in women with diminished ovarian reserve: a case control study. Reprod Biol Endocrinol 2009;7:108].

“This second patent awarded to CHR only confirms the increasing importance of DHEA supplementation in female infertility, which we had the opportunity to observe through our research for over seven years,” notes Norbert Gleicher, MD, CHR’s Founder and Medical Director as well as one of the inventors listed on the DHEA patents.  He further points out that “acceptance of the claim that DHEA reduces chromosomal abnormalities in embryos offers exciting new opportunities because this observation suggests that DHEA supplementation may benefit not just women with infertility.”

Picking up on this thought, David H. Barad, MD – CHR’s Director of Clinical IVF and a second inventor listed on the patents – notes that “chromosomal abnormalities in embryos increase as women age. Therefore miscarriage rates rise in parallel. DHEA supplementation may, therefore, also be useful in older women with normal fertility who are trying to conceive on their own.” He adds that “the prenatal multivitamins of the future may also contain a little bit of DHEA.”

 

About CHR
Center for Human Reproduction (http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com) is a leading infertility center in New York City with worldwide clientele, well-recognized for its major clinical research program.  The program has contributed a number of essential breakthroughs to the IVF process. Dr. Gleicher is available for further comments.

Posted in: Older Women Pregnancy, Trying to Concieve
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Pregnancy in Older Women Increasingly Common; US Unprepared for Consequences

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Posted by Marie on October 19, 2011 at 6:57 am

In the United States pregnancy in older women is becoming progressively more common. For a number of years, US national birth data has demonstrated that women above age 40 Pregnancy in Older Womennow represent the most rapidly growing age group having children.

Different societal developments contribute to this development. More women are in the work force, there are fewer and later marriages, higher divorce rates and, of course, medical progress has allowed older women conceive into their 50s either with their own eggs or via egg donation.

Norbert Gleicher, MD and Medical Director of New York City’s Center for Human Reproduction (CHR) – a leading clinical and research center in infertility – has recently brought attention to the rising number of older women becoming mothers. In a blog published by CHR he notes that a number of media reports recently presented the pros and cons of pregnancy in older women. All reports, however, missed the most important conclusion to this seemingly sudden societal development (which in reality has been growing quietly for over a decade): the developed world is in the midst of a reproductive social revolution in which we will increasingly see older, and often single, women becoming mothers.

So far, the medical profession, academia and government have failed to address potential societal consequences of an increase in older mothers. The public and medical establishments are similarly skeptical and to a degree hostile to what some have derisively called “grandmothers having children.” Yet, Dr. Gleicher notes, “The trend [of pregnancy in older women] is irreversible, and can only be expected to accelerate.”

Dr. Gleicher further points out that at CHR the median patient age, which a decade ago was around 35 years, passed 40 in 2011. Egg donation, mostly utilized by older women who no longer have use of their own eggs, is CHR’s most rapidly growing in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. Trends also can be seen nationally based on Center for Disease Control and Prevention data. Between 2004 and 2008 percentages of IVF cycles as a proportion of all IVF more than doubled above the age of 42. By 2008, egg donation cycles already represented 12.3% of all IVF cycles in the US.

“Medicine is not ready to manage pregnancy in older women safely and society is not ready to help them cope with older motherhood,” warns Dr. Gleicher. “Affected medical specialties have to develop the necessary expertise, whether they agree with patients’ decisions to be pregnant at advanced ages or not.” Feeling strongly about the subject, he concludes, “As we do not withhold care from smokers with lung cancer or from overly obese diabetics, it would be unethical to withhold care from older women desirous of motherhood.”

About CHR
Center for Human Reproduction (http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com) is a leading infertility center in New York City treating patients worldwide.  CHR is well-recognized for its major clinical research program, which has contributed a number of essential breakthroughs to the IVF process. Dr. Gleicher is available for further comments.

Posted in: Getting Pregnant, Older Women Pregnancy
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Doctors Respond to Maternal Age Slam in New York Magazine

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Posted by RobynNazarRN on October 13, 2011 at 3:19 pm

In case you missed it, the New York Magazine recently ran a front-page story by Lisa Miller addressing older women pregnancy. The grab-your-attention cover photograph of a very pregnant nude grey-haired women was accompanied by the question “Is She Just Too Old for This?”

Infertility experts from the Center for Human Reproduction, who specialize in pregnancy in older women, responded by publishing a lengthy commentary on their own website titled Older Women Pregnancy: “What Does it Mean ‘To Be Too Old?”

Dr. Norbert Gleicher and his colleagues address the issues raised in the NYM article along with how evolutionary and societal influences have contributed to the rise in older women pregnancy.

If you or someone you know is considering pregnancy at an older age, I highly recommend reading the doctors’ commentary.

Posted in: Older Women Pregnancy
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