For Immediate Release

American Society for Reproductive Medicine Highlighted Research by Two Laurel Fertility Care Doctors

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (November 14, 2008)  This week at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) meeting, Laurel Fertility Care doctors, Marlane Angle, PhD presented new information on vitrification and Aimee Eyvazzadeh, MD, MPH presented new information on how an increase of thickness of the endometrial lining has higher likelihood of having a live birth.

 

Dr. Angle’s research looked at the comparison of survival and pregnancy rates after thawing and transferring embryos cryopreserved using slow cooling or vitrification (rapid freezing). Although slow cooling of embryos has been the standard for some time, newer studies suggest that vitrification may improve embryo survival and in pregnancy rates after embryo transfer.  Dr. Angle’s research documented that there was an improved pregnancy rate in thawed embryos that were vitrified for cryopreservation. 

Dr. Eyvazzadeh’s research sought to determine whether the thickness of the uterine lining, known as the endometrium, may be the difference between pregnancy success or failure in patients undergoing fertility treatments. Dr. Eyvazzadeh’s team wrote “The aims of this study were to examine the relationships between endometrial thickness and texture in women who became pregnant as a result of fertility treatments to see if the thickness of the endometrial lining could predict pregnancy outcome.”  The study investigators found that women with a thicker endometrial lining had a higher likelihood of having a live birth. Older women who conceived had a thicker endometrial lining compared to younger women. The difference in thickness seen between older versus younger women may suggest that, in addition to egg quality, endometrial thickness may play an important role in conception. In conclusion, these data suggest that endometrial thickness has predictive value for treatment outcome in patients undergoing fertility treatments.

 

Laurel Fertility Care is dedicated to offering expert care in a warm and compassionate environment, offering support for the emotional as well as physical challenges of infertility. 

 

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Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh joins our practice at our new San Ramon location

We are pleased to announce the recent addition of Aimee Eyvazzadeh, MD, MPH as a reproductive endocrinologist to the staff of Laurel Fertility Care. Dr. Eyvazzadeh is a graduate of UCLA School of Medicine. After completing her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, she completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at University of Michigan. She also completed a Masters in Public Health in Health Management and Policy at University of Michigan. Dr. Eyvazzadeh will be working out of our new San Ramon office. She is committed to integrity, quality of care and providing outstanding results.

New Method Helps IVF

New Method Helps IVF Laboratory Identify Best Eggs for Fertilization

SAN FRANCISCO (September 23, 2008). The OosightTM is a new tool for the IVF Laboratory. Laurel Fertility Care has become possibly the first, and only, in vitro fertilization (IVF) program in the San Francisco Bay Area to incorporate the OosightTM into their routine IVF laboratory. The OosightTM, also known as a polscope, is installed on a high resolution microscope and allows the observer to identify the presence of the meiotic spindle within an egg. The spindle is associated with the chromosomes in the nucleus of the egg.

“Using the OosightTM, we can determine where the nucleus of the egg is when we do Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI).” The ICSI procedure is used following the removal of eggs from the ovaries, where a single sperm is injected into a single egg.

“This enables us to make sure we aren’t disrupting the nucleus during injection of sperm into the egg,” said Marlane Angle, PhD, the laboratory director at Laurel Fertility Care in San Francisco.

Previously during ICSI, the presence of the nucleus could only be assumed to be located near the polar body, a small structure that is extruded from the surface of the egg as it matures. The polar body contains genetic material, the DNA, that the egg is getting rid of as it undergoes meiosis. In the normal, mature egg, the remaining DNA should lie within a short distance of the polar body. If this region is avoided during ICSI the embryologist can only hope to be able to avoid injecting the sperm directly into the nuclear region of the egg because the nucleus cannot be seen using normal light microscopy.

However several new studies have shown that the nucleus is not always where it should be. Therefore, during injection of sperm into an egg at the time of ICSI, the process may disrupt the interior of the egg enough to disrupt the nucleus. This can lead to problems with division of the embryo. The OosightTM uses polarized light that causes the spindle apparatus to show up as a bright spot within the egg. The embryologist is then able to avoid this region during ICSI, providing optimal conditions for fertilization.

An additional benefit of the OosightTM that Dr. Angle is currently investigating is whether the absence of a visible spindle within the egg may predict subsequent problems with fertilization, or even of division after fertilization. In turn this may allow the embryologist to gain more information that will help them select the best embryos for transfer back into the uterus of the patient, thereby improving pregnancy rates.

“This is pretty new technology. However the nice thing about the OosightTM is that its use is observational only. It is not invasive. Therefore, we can be confident that using the Oosight will not cause any damage or harm to the egg or the embryo, only benefit. We are very excited to be able to have this cutting-edge technology here at Laurel Fertility Care,” Dr. Angle said.

The OosightTM is manufactured by Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, Inc (CRi), a Boston-based biomedical imaging company.

Supreme Court Ruling

Parenting Opportunity for Unmarried Persons and GLBT at Laurel Fertility Care

On August 18th the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously, that based on a state law prohibiting businesses from discriminating against customers because of their sexual orientation, physicians who have religious objections to gays and lesbians must treat them as any other patient or find a colleague in the office who will. Read the rest of this article »

Pakistan Trip

Laurel Fertility Care Embryologist Trains Physicians in Pakistan on Vitrification

In October, 2007, Marlane Angle, PhD, the laboratory director for Laurel Fertility Care, attended a meeting in Antalya, Turkey. While there she met Mr. Saif Ur Rehman from Galaxy IVF in Karachi, Pakistan. He later contacted Dr. Angle and asked if she would be willing to come to Pakistan to help train embryologists in her area of specialty, vitrification, a relatively new method for freezing embryos and oocytes. In June, 2008, Dr. Smikle and Dr. Angle both traveled to Pakistan to work with physicians and embryologists in the region.

Read the rest of this article »

Mind Body Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Anne Ashendorf 415-673-9199.

SAN FRANCISCO (January 14, 2008) Human fertility research shows that by cultivating “mindfulness” and reducing stress women can significantly increase their chances of getting pregnant. Based on this research, here in the Bay Area, San Francisco’s Laurel Fertility Care is pioneering a popular Mind-Body Fertility Program to help women eliminate the stress and depression which inhibit fertilization and ovulation, ultimately preventing pregnancy.

“Infertility is stressful and can feel like a life crisis,” says Buffy Lundine, a stress reduction specialist who runs the Mind-Body Fertility Program at Laurel Fertility Care, “And we now know that stress and depression flood the body with hormones which adversely affect the reproductive system.” Read the rest of this article »

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Laurel Fertility Care features a nationally accredited state-of-the-art laboratory allowing us to provide some of the latest assisted reproductive techniques, including; IVF, ICSI, IUI, egg preservation, egg donation, and IVF surrogacy. We have four convenient locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley: In San Francisco, serving Berkley, Oakland, San Mateo, Palo Alto and San Jose. In San Ramon, serving Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Pleasanton. In Mill Valley, serving Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Napa, American Canyon and Marin County. In Modesto, serving Fresno, Tracy, Stockton, Livermore, Manteca and Sacramento.