Frozen Embryo Twins

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Traci’s children Connor and Cassie are two years apart, yet their origins began at the same time in the HRC Fertility laboratory. Like many IVF babies, they are frozen embryo twins.

Traci and her husband began trying to get pregnant about a year after their 2011 wedding. When nothing happened, Traci sought the advice of her gynecologist. He found that her progesterone levels were too low to sustain a pregnancy. After several months of taking Clomid without getting pregnant, her doctor referred her to Dr. David Tourgeman at HRC.

Dr. Tourgeman initially suggested three rounds of IUI. When those didn’t work, the couple decided to undergo IVF, which resulted in the production of four embryos. Dr. Tourgeman transferred the two most viable embryos, one of which became Connor.

“After Connor’s first birthday, we decided to transfer the other two embryos, even though the prognosis for their development was not too optimistic,” recalls Traci. “There was only a 30 percent chance of pregnancy, but luckily one developed into our new baby daughter Cassie.”

Traci is very appreciative of the support she received from HRC, adding “The staff can make or break a patient’s experience because we’re all visiting the clinics so often. Most nurses at HRC are experienced in the fertility field, plus they had children of their own. They really understood how important this journey was to me.  Dr. Tourgeman and the whole staff excelled at explaining what we needed to know about my cycle to make it a success. Even though it was emotionally challenging, I knew we were in good hands at HRC.”

Traci is enjoying her new role as the busy mother of two young, active and healthy children. She is also thankful for the many wonderful resources that were available to her and her husband. Going forward, she hopes to be part of the conversation to help people talk more openly about infertility.

Embryo Adoption = Success for Dr. Potter Patient

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When Laura returned to Dr. Daniel Potter to help her get pregnant a second time, she had every reason to be confident. After all, Dr. Potter was responsible for her successful pregnancy with her first child.

Unfortunately, after three unsuccessful treatments, blood tests revealed that Lara’s FSH levels–which control the production of healthy and mature eggs–were so low that her eggs were no longer viable.

Lara remembers that Dr. Potter sat her down in the office to break the news. “He offered me tea, and was very nice. He’s always nice, no matter what. He went over the tests in non-medical terms, and I asked him a thousand questions. That’s one of the great things about Dr. Potter; he will tell you what’s going on in plain language that anyone can understand.”

Lara and her husband eventually decided to pursue embryo adoption and, with IVF, Lara became pregnant and gave her son a little sister!

According to Lara, it wasn’t just Dr. Potter who made her experience so great, but the entire staff that made her feel important and cared for as a patient. She also liked how informative and reassuring the team was during ultrasounds.

“Everyone at HRC is kind, friendly and available to patients. Whenever I called, someone either got back to me in a timely manner or would leave me a message in the morning, apologizing for not getting back to me right away.

“When it came to procedures, everything was explained step by step and all of my questions were answered.”

Laura knows firsthand the difficulties of infertility and the importance of being comfortable with your doctor and staff. She and her husband found that comfort with HRC and Dr. Potter.

More than 20 Aussie Couples a Month Come to the U.S. for Gender Selection

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More than 20 Australian couples a month visit Dr. Daniel Potter to select their baby’s gender, with most couples wanting a girl after multiple sons.

The number of Australians traveling to the U.S. has doubled since 2011, prompting Potter to advocate gender selection in Australia, calling it a “reproductive freedom issue.”

Last summer, Potter, who runs his practice in HRC’s Newport Beach and Fullerton offices, traveled to Australia to speak about the issue of gender selection as that country’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) considers changing the guidelines that outlaw the practice in Australia. The NHMRC is currently asking for advice on whether it should lift the ban on gender selection.

According to Potter, “the technology is safe, it is there, so why not allow people to use it?”

Why I Would Recommend HRC Fertility to a Friend

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Rosemary and Andre were referred to HRC Fertility’s fertility specialists by her OB when they were having difficulty conceiving on their own.

The couple attended one Dr. Bradford Kolb’s free informational meetings, and decided to proceed with treatment and Dr. Kolb. Rosemary and Andre ended up doing three rounds of IVF, and are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, Elise.

When asked what she liked best about treatment, Rosemary had this to say:

“From start to finish, everyone from the front desk, to the surgery center, to Dr. Kolb, to my nurse coordinators–and especially Debbie, with whom I had the most contact–were supportive. Everybody there was so kind and so encouraging.”

One of the things Rosemary liked best was Dr. Kolb’s positive attitude, especially when her first cycle ended in miscarriage and her second didn’t result in any viable eggs.

“When my husband wasn’t able to be at the appointment, he was very supportive and encouraging, so I had a lot of trust and faith in him,” she said. “Both Dr. Kolb and Debbie were hopeful about the next time  so I had to believe in that.”

Dr. Kolb had a great analogy about a bowl of eggs that helped Rosemary stay positive about her treatment. He described a woman in her 20s having a bowl of eggs with which to get pregnant. Because Rosemary had only one ovary and one fallopian tube, her bowl of eggs was smaller, but not empty.

Dr. Kolb kept reminding Rosemary that it was just a matter of finding a good egg–which they did on her third cycle. Though she and her husband were elated, she began bleeding heavily at 8-1/2 weeks and was worried about a miscarriage.

The morning of her appointment, Dr. Kolb was taking longer than anticipated in the surgery center. The front desk staff recognized Rosemary’s anxiety and did what they could to help her stay informed during her wait.

The good news was she wasn’t miscarrying and was instead suffering a subchorionic hematoma, a common cause of bleeding in early pregnancy.

“The whole staff was so excited for me,” said Rosemary, who added that she would definitely recommend HRC to other couples who need infertility treatment. “It was just a really…. I don’t know…. I’m not going to go as far as saying it was a family, but it was definitely a sense of community, of everyone rooting for all the patients there.

“I really did appreciate and enjoy every step of the way. Everyone was so kind and so understanding, so sympathetic and empathetic. It really was a great experience.”

One Daughter, Another on the Way

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For four years, Carrie and Steve tried to conceive both naturally and with Clomid. Realizing they needed a fertility specialist, they followed a friend’s advice and decided to work with HRC and Dr. Jane Frederick.

Though previous infertility testing for both Carrie and Steve had come back normal, Dr. Frederick decided to take a second look. She discovered that Steve’s male infertility diagnosis was the problem.

“Dr. Frederick suggested both IUI and IVF, but said that IVF was probably the only way to get pregnant based on the issues we had to overcome,” explained Carrie.

The couple decided to do IVF.  Carrie’s harvested eggs resulted in seven embryos, six of which were viable for transfer. They did a fresh embryo transfer with their first cycle, but did not become pregnant.

Six months later, with four embryos left, the couple did a second round of IVF with two of the frozen embryos. Carrie became pregnant on Easter weekend and the couple now has an 18-month-old daughter Kenzie born right before Christmas last year.

But Carrie and Steve wanted more children,  so they decided to do a third round of IVF.

“We didn’t look at the calendar, but it just so happened that I was on bed rest after the last transfer and it was again over Easter weekend–and we became pregnant,” she said.

The couple is now 16 weeks pregnant again with their second little girl, and her due date is two days after Kenzie’s birthday.

“With Dr. Frederick’s help, we never lost hope,” said Carrie.

If You Don’t Like Your Clinic, Find One You Do

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L and A (couple wishes to remain anonymous) didn’t start their fertility journey with HRC. In fact, they didn’t even know HRC or Dr. Robert Boostanfar existed when they started trying to conceive.

“We started this journey with another clinic that was more like a mill,” L recalled. “It seemed like there were extra tests that weren’t really necessary. Also, they didn’t really share information with us. We’re pretty well educated, so it’s not like we didn’t understand the medical terminology. But it was like pulling teeth to get information out of them. It seemed like all they wanted to do was take our money.”

One of the couple’s biggest frustrations was the communication between the clinic and the couple regarding their case. She described how the first clinic wouldn’t even tell them why they should do a specific test.

“It was like, ‘you need to do this, this and this’ with no reasons given. After doing our own research, we discovered those tests weren’t even necessary. It was just another way of getting money,  an even bigger financial burden.”

The couple knew it was time to find another clinic, and discovered HRC. Once they became patients at HRC, they felt they were much better informed, even when the news wasn’t good.

On their first cycle, they chose to quit halfway through because Laura’s ovaries weren’t preparing enough eggs for the cycle.

After a couple of months, they started a second IVF cycle. Seven eggs were successfully retrieved and they ended up with three viable embryos. L and A needed to decided on how many to transfer. They learned that there were pros and cons to either transferring too few or too many embryos.

The important thing was that they knew all of their options. Part of the reason L and A felt comfortable making their decision is that they felt HRC was very informative, giving them both the best and worst case scenarios. Also, Dr Boostanfar was great at mapping out all the possibilities so they could make the best decision possible.

“We were very happy with HRC the entire time,” said L. “We knew all the possibilities and we ended up with the best case scenario–beautiful twins.”

The Emotional Journey of Infertility Treatment

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Michelle and Trevor, like most couples undergoing fertility treatment, had both an emotional and physical journey.

The couple went to their OBGYN after trying for a year on their won. Michelle suffered from PCOS, a hormonal imbalance and common condition for women in their childbearing years. The doctor started them on Clomid to try to stimulate regular ovulation and facilitate conception. Michelle described how she felt throughout her treatment.

“I had a meltdown each time the Clomid didn’t work, and every day it seemed like another one of my friends was pregnant–on Facebook, in public, everywhere. And then I would hate those people for no good reason.”

It’s not uncommon for patients undergoing fertility treatment to feel frustrated by their lack of control. “I felt like a failure,” she recalled. “I blamed myself and cried a lot.”

Still, Michelle never wanted to quit, in part because she doesn’t think she tried long enough to get pregnant to reach that level of discouragement.

“When I found out I had PCOS, I knew getting pregnant was going to be a challenge for me,” she said. “I decided to approach treatment knowing it was going to be an uphill battle instead of being surprised by it.”

After their doctor suggested infertility treatment, Michelle and Trevor moved to HRC and Dr. Alison Peck with the goal of intrauterine insemination (IUI). After getting pregnant and quickly miscarrying, Michelle received the biggest surprise of all: getting pregnant before their second IUI.

Their baby Jackson was born in March 2015–proof that there’s a great view at the top of the hill.

Our Twins: We Were Excited and Scared

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When Stephen and Jun decided they were ready to start their family, they were both excited and anxious.

While anxiety is common for couples undergoing ART treatment, same-sex couples face the additional anxiety of coordinating both an egg donor and gestational surrogate.

They took their time assembling the right team to build their family, knowing they wanted twins–a boy and a girl. Using an agency, they found a mixed race egg donor who matched the mix between Stephen and Jun, who was born in the Philippines.

They also wanted a surrogate who was willing to carry twins, had children of her own, and had no concerns about carrying babies for a same-sex couple. The surrogate they found was both a twin and in a same-sex relationship.

“She had all right qualifications, and we felt immediately comfortable when we met her,” Stephen said.

The agency also referred them to several clinics, and the couple ultimately chose HRC and Dr. Frederick for a few reasons: Dr. Frederick had helped other same-sex couples conceive and she’d invested in the Bonding Room at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center for couples whose children are born via surrogate at the hospital.

Because Stephen and Jun knew they wanted both a boy and a girl, they opted for gender selection, which determines the sex of the embryos before transferring them to the surrogate. They were fortunate enough to have several embryos and one of each gender, so they chose to transfer one of each.

Dr. Frederick told them there was an 80 percent chance that one embryo would take, and a 50 percent chance that the second embryo would implant. When both were successfully implanted, the couple and Dr. Frederick were thrilled.

When at first you succeed, you must try again is this couple’s motto. The couple has already gotten a thumbs up from the donor and surrogate about a second round. In the next few years, their family of four might be a family of six–a though that excites Stephen and Jun…and probably scares them, too!

 

Finding the Right Fertility Clinic

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L. and A. didn’t start their fertility journey at HRC. In fact, initially they didn’t know that HRC even existed.

“We started with a clinic that seemed more like a baby mill,” L. explained. “It seemed like there were many unnecessary tests, and no one shared much of information with us. We’re pretty well-educated, so it wasn’t like we didn’t understand the medical terminology. But it was like pulling teeth to get information out of anyone. It seemed like all the clinic wanted was our money.”

The couple knew it was time to find another clinic, and their search led them to HRC and Dr. Robert Boostanfar. Once they became patients, they felt much more informed–even when the news wasn’t good. For example, they chose to quite halfway through their first cycle because L’s ovaries weren’t preparing enough eggs.

“It was disappointing because we saw signs of multiple follicles stimulated,” recalled L. “But then we started the drug regimen and I had fewer eggs. It was disappointing, even heartbreaking.”

But they didn’t give up, and two months later started a second IVF cycle that produced seven eggs and three viable embryos. Deciding how many embryos to transfer was difficult given the pros and cons to transferring too many or too few embryos. The important thing was that Dr. Boostanfar carefully mapped out the possibilities–including the best and worst case scenarios–which allowed them to make an informed decision.

“We were very happy with HRC and Dr. Boostanfar, and we ended up with the best case scenario–our beautiful twins.”