Touched by the Stork - Fertility Information
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Friday, July 02, 2010
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The ABCs of IVF
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Couples who are dealing with the frustration and disappointment of infertility may find new hope with recent advances in in vitro fertilization that can increase many couples’ chances of finally conceiving and starting the family they’ve hoped for. Combined with other assisted reproductive therapies (ART), such as assisted hatching and sperm retrieval and hatching, IVF can dramatically increase a couple’s chances of becoming pregnant, whether the underlying cause of infertility is due to male or female conditions, or both.
In vitro fertilization begins with the administration of ovulation-enhancing drugs, which encourage a woman to produce multiple eggs during a single ovulation cycle. During this cycle, the signs of ovulation are carefully monitored to ensure the eggs are perfectly prepared for the treatment. Once they are ready, the eggs are combined “in vitro “ – literally, “in glass” – in a special vessel in a highly controlled environment, and introduced to sperm from the potential baby’s father. The eggs are monitored for signs of fertilization, and once fertilization has occurred, the embryos can be placed into the uterus. A few weeks and a pregnancy test later, hopeful couples will know if IVF worked for them, like it has for many couples in the past few decades.
IVF and complementary ART techniques have undergone significant advances in recent years, and couples should seek guidance from an experienced specialist to learn about the exciting new options that can help them conceive and begin building on their own dreamed-of family.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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Why Choose Internet Marketing? It’s All in the Numbers!
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• Estimates say there were over 200 million websites on the internet in January 2010
• Nearly 74% of North Americans use the internet
The online community is a huge, growing audience. Having an online presence that represents your practice well is becoming a vital part of modern business practices. Don’t lose your patients to other internet-savvy facilities!
Even if you have a website, networking services like FertilityProRegistry.com are valuable to maximizing your online impact. Enabling prospective patients to find you amid the millions of websites out there is essential for your online marketing to be effective. Joining an online network of physicians on a top ranking website can do wonders for your practice. Consider these facts:
• In April 2009 alone, 14.8 billion online searches were performed in the United States
• A study showed that 81% of internet users used search engines to find new websites
FertilityProRegistry.com already ranks for many of the top terms in the infertility industry. When you join the network, your facility benefits from both procedure and location-specific keyword rankings.
Reach out to potential new clients by making your facility’s information easy for them to find. FertilityProRegistry.com provides an established, identifiable entity for your practice to associate with, and specializes in connecting doctors with patients nationwide.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
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Refund Programs for IVF & Donor Egg IVF
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There aren't many medical treatments that have such a clearly identifiable measure of outcome as in-vitro-fertilization: the result is that either a baby is born or is not. This clear cut "success or failure" quality can be intimidating for some couples, especially when they are trying to fit the cost of fertility treatments into their overall budget. Couples may worry that if they don't get pregnant right away, they may not be able to afford additional treatments. This pressure can even increase stress, which can negatively affect a woman's ability to conceive!
Many fertility clinics are now offering their patients outcome-based fee schedules. They offer pricing options with a significant, up to 100%, refund of the fee for the IVF cycle (medications not typically included) if the patient does not deliver a baby.
Specific offers and plans vary. Some centers that offer a "money back guarantee" plan allow only 3 attempts using fresh embryos. Other programs give the couple up to 4 cycles with fresh embryos, and frozen embryo and donor egg transfer cycles may also be included.
These outcome-based schedules are designed to increase a couple's opportunity to get the result they want--a baby--while managing the cost of IVF treatment.
This also allows patients to feel more comfortable with their finances, reducing stress and and helping them afford to pursue other options to build a family if IVF treatment isn't successful.
Talk to your fertility specialist about the payment options offered, and to learn more about how IVF can help you on the path to parenthood.
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Friday, September 04, 2009
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Pregnancy: Week By Week
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Once your fertility treatments or natural means are successful in helping you get pregnant, what is the first thing you will do? After your celebrations have subsided a bit, take some time to check out i-am-pregnant.com. This fantastic resource for parents and parents-to-be provides great information about conception, pregnancy, birth, and child raising. A multitude of interactive forums are available where you can discuss any aspect of the pregnancy process or baby care with other people who are going through the same things you are. Don't miss the chance to follow your baby's growth and progress on a week-by-week basis; check out the links below for information about your baby's development inside the womb.
Select your week of pregnancy:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
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Monday, August 24, 2009
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FDA Reviewing New Conception Device
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A new fertility aid called the "Instead Cup" is currently under review by the FDA. The device is used to keep sperm close to the cervix and to maximize the potential for pregnancy. After sex, the cup is inserted by the woman to aid the sperm in penetrating the cervical mucus. Sperm must travel into the cervix for pregnancy to occur. The cup holds semen in place to ensure maximum penetration possible.
These cups are already being sold by distributors nationwide. Each cup is less than a dollar a piece, and can only be used once. This form of conception aid may be useful for women in the early stages of attempting pregnancy. If these natural and aided forms of fertility do not succeed, a fertility doctor may be able to help diagnose fertility issues and provide the correct treatment options.
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Friday, August 21, 2009
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What To Do With Leftover Embryos?
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When a couple decides to use fertility treatments, such as IVF, they are often left with a multitude of extra embryos. These embryos are normally frozen for future cycles of the treatment. The moral, ethical, and legal dilemma many couples face comes after they have conceived and no longer need the embryos. Many couples pay to store their embryos for years and have face difficulty in making a decision on what to do with them.
Frozen embryos, in theory, are all capable of creating life. Although not all embryos will survive the thaw process or be viable for implantation, the belief is that each embryo is a potential future baby. The idea of disposing of these embryos is a hard decision parents may have to make.
"When you're pouring your money, your heart, and your soul into creating an embryo and creating a life, the last thing you want to think about is how you're going to dispose of it," says one woman to MSNBC.
The other option for these couples is embryo donation. The embryos are then donated to other couples for use in their own fertility treatments. If a couple decides to donate, they must legally sign away rights to the child which contains their DNA. Each clinic has a different set of legal proceedings, and some may allow for the identity of the donors to be known. Other clinics allow parents to choose certain requirements of potential users including race, religion, or location. All of these topics need to discussed prior to donation.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
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Illegal Sperm
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Two business owners in London were recently charged with illegally selling and sending frozen sperm samples to women. These "sperm brokers" used an online database where women could choose which sperm donor they would like a sample from. Samples were then shipped to the woman through a courier.
Sperm donation and the use of donated sperm is not illegal. What is illegal is the unregulated selling of sperm on the internet. These sperm brokers were not part of an accredited business and were violating the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act.
Sperm banks are regulated by the FDA in the United States. Women wanting to use donated sperm should go to a qualified center in order to ensure the quality and safety of the sperm sample. Samples are tested for a full panel of diseases and a full medical screening is conducted on the donor. Online sperm brokers most likely will not follow these guidelines and therefore may provide tainted samples.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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A Dozen Lies
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We recently wrote about a woman in Tunisia who claimed to be pregnant with duodecaplets. Today, the UK's Daily Telegraph exposed the woman as making a false claim and she is not pregnant at all! Due to the large amount of media covering the twelve-fetus pregnancy claim, investigators looked further into the pregnancy.
Investigators proposed that the woman had "psychological problems and is unlikely even to be pregnant. She's claiming to be nine months pregnant with six boys and six girls, but there's absolutely nothing about her appearance which indicates this."
She is refusing a medical exam and has even gone into hiding. The pregnancy, although physically possible, carries a large risk on any woman. Multiple births can be a very risky pregnancy both for the mother and the children. The reason that this woman lied is still under investigation, but it has been hypothesized that she was under tremendous stress from failed fertility treatments and may have fabricated the whole story for attention.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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And Her Fertility Goes On!
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Celine Dion, popular singer across the world, has recently announced that she is pregnant. The 41 year old singer recently visited a Manhattan based fertility clinic to help aid in her effort for another child. Celine has one son already who is 8 years old.
As women increase in age, the chance of a natural conception greatly decreases. The use of fertility treatments can increase the chance of conception and decrease the risk of birth defects. Celine underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) for her first son, and froze additional embryos after the procedure. The press release did not mention if this pregnancy is the result of an IVF procedure with frozen embryos, or from more recent fertility procedures.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
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A Dozen Babies
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A woman in Tunisia has recently been reported to be pregnant with a total of twelve babies: six boys and six girls. This was not a natural conception in any way. The woman was using ovulation induction treatment to increase the number of eggs produced. If the pregnancy is carried out successfully, the duodecuplets will take the world record for a multiple live birth.
However, a multiple birth such as this can be very dangerous. There is a high risk of complications during the pregnancy for the mother and the fetuses. The likelihood that all twelve babies will survive to full term is slim.
"When you get to a pregnancy with that many multiples, often some of them spontaneously die. Anything more than five babies becomes a very high-risk pregnancy" reported the health editor of FOX News.
The parents are ecstatic about the news and are looking forward to the pregnancy. The mother will not be able to deliver the babies naturally and will be under constant supervision through the entirety of the pregnancy.
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