Patient Testimonials

Archive for August, 2008

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Individualized Infertility Treatment

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: We believe and practice compassionate care to our patients. We think that infertility is a very stressful situation for the couple; it’s a very stressful situation for the family in general.

Many of the patients that we see have been treated elsewhere, and many of them have failed treatments, and have spent a lot of money. We try to treat them as individuals and we try to make them feel that from the moment they call us on the phone or they walk through the door. We try to help them by checking their insurance to see what they’re covered and what they’re not covered.

I sit with them and I try to individualize their treatment. We don’t have like fixed protocols where we just run patients through multiple testing and multiple treatments. The treatment is individualized to meet the patient’s own needs.

And our nursing staff are wonderful. They help the patients, they sit with them one-on-one and not as a group, and they go over the different diagnostic tests as well as the different treatments that they have to undergo.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:23PM in The Muasher Center, Video Transcripts

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History of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

HOWARD JONES, JR., MD: The breakthrough in Norfolk, which allowed us to have the first IVF baby in the United States, and indeed, in the New World was the use of gonadotropins, extra gonadotropins at exactly the right time in the menstrual cycle to recruit more than the single egg, which characterizes the normal menstrual cycle.

You have to understand that the gonadotropins, which are secreted by the little pituitary gland at the base of the brain, normally is secreted in an ebb and flow manner, which controls the normal cyclicity of the menstrual cycle. But by using extra gonadotropins, we were able to harvest extra eggs, which was the key to our success.

This success required us to enlarge our staff because the demand for this new service was very great. We were very pleased and happy to be able to have Dr. Suheil very early on. I had known Suheil when we were both in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins. This was where Suheil received his residency training.

The use of the gonadotropins caused certain changes in the menstrual cycle that we had to understand to make the system work. One of these had to do with the correlation of the maturation of the lining of the uterus with the development of the fertilized egg in-vitro. We wanted to be sure that the synchrony was just the same and we created a taskforce to look at this problem. Suheil was the leader of that taskforce, solved that problem, and enabled us to understand exactly, in the menstrual cycle, when to transfer the developing egg. Let me give you another example.

The use of the gonadotropins surprisingly turned out to result in a different response to the same doses from patient to patient. This sometimes required the expenditure of a cycle to know exactly which dose to use for a patient. We needed a test to use before we used the drug in order to know what the dosage would be. And Mr. Muasher led this taskforce for us and developed a test which is widely used throughout the world today to ascertain which dose of gonadotropin to give to the patient. In other words, Suheil is a problem-solver.

Patients with infertility have a problem and need a problem solver. And therefore it is lucky to be able to be under the care of somebody who approaches each patient as a special problem.

Now, in addition to having a problem solved, it is necessary and desirable to do this in a compassionate atmosphere. Suheil has surrounded himself with a group that provides this. At one time, he was the administrator of the program in Norfolk and an excellent administrator he was until he went on to bigger and greater things including the administration of the program near Washington.

I think it’s wonderful that you will have the opportunity to go to an experienced, compassionate program. And I wish you good luck in achieving a pregnancy to have a happy family, which is the goal of all married couples. Thank you.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:21PM in IVF Expert, Video Transcripts

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Suheil J. Muasher, M.D.

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: I’m Dr. Suheil Muasher. I am the Medical Director of the Muasher Center for Fertility and Live Birth. I have been working in this field for the last 25 years. I have done my fellowship at the Jones Institute where the first in vitro baby was born in the United Stated back in 1983 and I have been working in the field since that time.

I am very proud to say that currently I hold three academic appointments at three major medical schools, one of them is Johns Hopkins where I go two or three times a month and teach the residents and fellows. I also have a professor appointment at George Washington University and at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

I have written many, many articles and published textbooks as well as book chapters on the field of infertility and in vitro fertilization. I think this is one of our strengths in this clinic is that I bring a lot of experience to my patients. I actually have taught many of the physicians who are practicing infertility in the United States. But I don’t think that’s enough in my opinion.

I think coupled with that, I believe in compassionate care to our patients and I know most clinics now claim that. But I think we really practice that because I think infertility patients are patients who are very stressed out. They pay a lot of money sometimes for their services. It’s a very, very stressful situation for a family to be faced with an infertility problem.

We provide them with a lot of care from not only the doctor, which is myself, but from the time they walk through the door and they meet our front desk person, we try to help them with their insurance. Our nurses sit one-on-one with them, and teach them on all these steps, and all the tests that they need to undergo. And when it comes for treatment, we go over that with them too.

So if you want, we kind of hold their hands, and we really mean that because we realize that this is a very stressful situation for them and we try to help them as much as we can.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:20PM in Meet Our Team, Video Transcripts

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Fertility Infertility Patient Care

SUE, RN: Here at the Muasher Center, we have two Registered Nurses that are on staff: myself, who is the Nurse Manager/Donor Egg Coordinator and Colleen who is an Infertility Nurse/IVR Coordinator Patient Educator. We both come from a very experienced background in women’s health, both inpatient and outpatient care.

We pride ourselves in being able to assess our patients on a daily visit. We will hold your hand and walk you through the whole process, from the beginning to the end. We’re with you after a consultation through your morning visits all the way into the operating room and recovery room.

We pride ourselves in having that extra personal touch where we will know you. If you call us, you can give us a first name, and we will know who you are and what type of treatment you are doing without having to pull your chart. And you won’t have to go through telling a nursing staff what’s going on and what your questions are.

We will make sure that your experience and your journey here through the Muasher Center is very comfortable and a friendly, positive experience.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:19PM in Video Transcripts

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Fertility Infertility Patient Education

COLLEEN, RN, BSN: I am one of the nurses here at the Muasher Center. My main role is to help coordinate care for the patients who are undergoing in-vitro fertilization or intrauterine insemination treatments. Educating them on the process, what to expect, ordering their medications, communicating with the insurance companies to insure that their medications get delivered to them promptly. That they know everything they need to know about the medications, how to mix them, how to administer them.

I think one of the hardest things for patients going through this process is fear of the unknown. And I’m here to help them through that process, and kind of guide them, and educate them, and help them along the way.

We also have a nursing line that they can call whenever we’re open during business hours. And they can leave a message and we usually back to them within an hour or two, which I think is also very important because when they have a question, they want it answered right away.

We’re here for them for that, to educate them, and answer any questions, and help them through the process.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:18PM in Video Transcripts

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Accredited IVF Laboratory

JACOB MAYER, PHD, HCLD, DIRECTOR: What we have here is an IVF Lab. We’re also probably better known as a test tube baby lab. And really what test tube baby labs are designed for is to replace the function of the Fallopian tube. It was really for patients who had problems with their Fallopian tubes at the beginning. So all of the things that happen early in the development, from ovulation until the time of implantation take place in that Fallopian tube and we try to replicate them here in the lab.

So fertilization, collection of the eggs, fertilization and then eventually transfer back to the uterus. Loading them in a catheter and putting it back in the uterus all take place in here. But we can do a few more things beyond that.

We can freeze, like we have behind me now, the ability to freeze embryos and store them for a while until it’s better for the patient to have a transfer or if she has more embryos than she needs to transfer at one time.

We also have the ability to do some microinjection for male factor patients who have difficulty fertilizing eggs, we can actually physically go in and mechanically inject the sperm in the egg. So, separating a lot of this function from the woman’s body has given us some greater flexibility in developing new techniques.

One of the nice things about this lab is it’s a full service lab. We offer all the activities that are available currently in the state of the art technology.

And we’re also completely accredited. We have an independent body that comes in and through a rigorous series of activities, we are able to be granted accreditation through the College of American Pathology.

So although no lab can actually guarantee a patient’s success, we can always guarantee you our very best effort here.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:15PM in Our Facilities, Video Transcripts

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Infertility Screening

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: Whenever we’re faced with an infertility situation, we try to do some tests on the female to know what the problem can be.

For example, we check to know whether the female is ovulating or not. And this could be as simple as instructing her to take her temperature every morning to know whether she’s ovulating or not.

We sometimes do some blood tests especially on the third day of the period to check her reproductive hormones. Another common test that we do is we do an X-ray. It’s a long word called a hysterosalpingogram where we inject dye and test to see whether the Fallopian tubes are open or not. And I actually do this procedure myself but we do it at their radiology department.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:09PM in Video Transcripts, What To Expect

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Male Factor Infertility Treatments

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: One of the first tests that we usually order is a sperm analysis on the male and the reason we do that is that sperm problems are fairly common. We discover a problem maybe 50% percent of the time. And also a sperm analysis is a relatively inexpensive test to do and it’s the only test for the husband to do. So we start with that and if we find a problem, then we try to do work up the male to know what the problem can be.

Very rarely we can give the husband some medications to try to improve the sperm count but most of the time when we have male factor infertility, we offer the couple in-vitro fertilization and that actually works very well in the majority of situations.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:06PM in Video Transcripts, What To Expect

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IVF Success Rates

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: Success rates from in-vitro fertilization can vary quite a bit. It’s dependent on many factors. One of the most important factors is the age of the female. The younger the female is, the more the success rate. And the older she is, the less is the success rate.

And success rates can really vary from as high as maybe 60% to 70% percent to as low as maybe 5% to 10% percent. It also depends on whether the patients have undergone any previous treatments before or not.

If a clinic, for example does in-vitro fertilization on older patients as the primary treatment, they’re probably going to have more success as a clinic that tries simpler treatments first and then only does in-vitro fertilization on the people who fail that treatment.

We want to warn couples on not comparing success rates between different clinics because many factors enter into the equation and people will not be able to distinguish between these different factors.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:04PM in Video Transcripts, What To Expect

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Fertility Hormone Medications

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: Approximately 15% to 20% percent of females who can’t get pregnant don’t ovulate for a variety of different conditions. One of the simpler treatments that we can offer them is fertility hormones that will try to make them to ovulate in order to achieve a pregnancy. We can achieve that in up to maybe 90% percent of females, make them ovulate on their own, and they can get pregnant on their own without any further help from us.

Some patients would require more sophisticated treatments like intrauterine insemination or in-vitro fertilization. And one of my areas of expertise that I have acquired over the last 25 years is in developing stimulation protocols or fertility hormone protocols, if you want, for a different variety of patients.

One of the areas that I’m really interested in, in patients who are what we call “poor responders,” who don’t produce many eggs for the purpose of insemination or in-vitro fertilization. I try to devise new protocols for them in order to improve their outcome.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:03PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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