Patient Testimonials

Archive for August, 2008

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Artificial Insemination (IUI)

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: When we see couples with an infertility situation and we do a workup on them, approximately 20% to 25% percent of couples, we will have no answer to why they’re not able to achieve a pregnancy. This is called Unexplained Infertility.
What we try to offer these couples is a simple treatment called intrauterine insemination. What we do is we use some fertility hormones. These are given in the form of oral pills as well as maybe two or three days of shots. The whole purpose of that treatment is to make the female ovulate more than one egg. We monitor the process to know when she’s ovulating. And when it’s time for her to ovulate we do what we call an intrauterine insemination where we put sperm inside her uterus.

And that actually works extremely well especially for younger couples or younger females, I should say, when the age of the female is under the age of 35. We try to do that treatment maybe two or three times before we move to more complicated treatments like in-vitro fertilization.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:02PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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In Vitro Fertilization Process

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: In-vitro fertilization is a wonderful procedure that we offer to couples who cannot achieve a pregnancy except by doing this procedure.

The procedure involves ovarian stimulation where we give the female fertility hormones. We teach her how to do that. These are given in a tiny needle under the skin. This is where our nurses are important in teaching the patient how to do that.

The patient will have to come to the office maybe five or six times during the course of two weeks where we do an ultrasound exam and do a blood test. It’s a very quick office visit. It may last around 10 to 15 minutes.

Whenever we think that the eggs are mature, then we do a procedure where we aspirate these eggs and we do that under anesthesia here in the office. After we aspirate these eggs then we fertilize them in the laboratory and then two or three days later, we transfer maybe two or three embryos, depending on the age of the woman.

If the woman is young, we try not to transfer more than two embryos. If she’s older than 35, then we try to transfer three embryos.
We want every couple to be blessed with having one live pregnancy is you want and sometimes when we transfer more than one embryo, maybe about 10% to 15% percent of the time we end up with having a multiple pregnancy.

Posted on August 4, 2008 3:01PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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Minimal Stimulation IVF

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: At the Muasher Center, we offer a procedure called Minimal Stimulation In-vitro Fertilization to try to cut down on some of the cost of the treatment.

What we do with this procedure is we don’t give as many fertility drugs to the patient so that the patient may not have maybe like 10 or 12 eggs but they will usually have like an average of maybe 3 or 4 eggs, which could be adequate for a lot of patients.

Then we use these eggs and fertilize them in the laboratory and then again we transfer around two or three embryos. This makes the procedure more affordable to couples who don’t have insurance coverage or cannot afford the cost of the treatment.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:58PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection)

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: Most couples with what we call a male factor infertility, that is, the husband has a low sperm count, would require having in-vitro fertilization with a procedure called ICSI. It stands for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection where we actually take a single sperm and inject it into the egg to make sure that the egg fertilizes.

If you don’t do that the couple will not have a chance of achieving a pregnancy. This procedure has been available since 1990 and is done very, very successfully on most couples with this problem.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:56PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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Egg Recipients

SUHEIL J. MUASHER, MD, FACOG: Most couples will be able to achieve a pregnancy either using very simple treatments like ovulation induction, or intrauterine insemination, or in-vitro fertilization.

If patients undergo multiple cycles of in-vitro fertilization, multiple usually means three or four and they have failed, or if the woman is over the age of 43, then I think these couples are better served by doing egg donation, which works very successfully.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:55PM in IVF & Other Services, Video Transcripts

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Egg Donor Program

SUE, RN, NURSING MANAGER: Here at the Muasher Center, we have a very unique opportunity for women to help couples create a family. We have couples that have been through multiple infertility treatments and still have not been able to achieve a pregnancy. You can help them by donating your eggs.

It is a very safe process, but a time-consuming process but is also very rewarding where you can know that you have helped a couple achieve their dream of creating a child and woman can carry that pregnancy and deliver a baby.

If this is something for you, and you’re interested, please contact us and we’ll walk you through the process.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:54PM in Video Transcripts

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Infertility Egg Donation Program

SUE, RN, NURSING MANAGER: When deciding to be an egg donor recipient, there are multiple things you must consider. We will guide you through that process. We have a donor pool here of young, healthy women that are 21 to 32 years of age, who’ve been thoroughly screened both psychologically and physically to make sure that they are healthy and capable of producing eggs for you.

Our program is completely anonymous. You will not know who is donating the eggs to you, nor will they know anything about you other than the fact that you’ve had a long history of infertility. These young women are here to help make your dreams come true

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:33PM in Egg Donor Program, Video Transcripts

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Egg Donor Screening Process

SUE, RN, NURSING MANAGER: In order to become an egg donor, you’re going to need to complete three applications which are on our Website: the Prescreening Application; an FDA questionnaire, which is going to include all of your medical and health history; and the third application is the Non-Identifying Information which will provide us with your complete medical history along with the medical history of the two generations on both your mother and father’s side.

Please be as thorough as possible and give us the most detailed information concerning the medical histories of your family members.
Once this application has been submitted and reviewed, you will then be contacted to begin the egg screening process.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:32PM in Egg Donor Program, Video Transcripts

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Infertility Egg Donation Candidates

SUE, RN, NURSING MANAGER: Once your application has been reviewed and you’ve been contacted to begin the screening process, you will then be asked to come in for a simple blood draw, which is going to look at your hormone levels and tell us your functioning capacity of your ovaries, so that we know that you’re able to provide eggs to our recipients.

This is done in the early part of a menstrual cycle. You will be asked not to have birth control the month before we take these hormone levels.

If these hormone levels are in an acceptable range, you will then be contacted again to return to our office for a full medical examination by our physician and also an interview again with our donor egg coordinator.

During this process, you will be interviewed and asked questions concerning your application medical history. You will also then receive a full medical examination which will include a vaginal ultrasound.

After this process, you will then again meet with the doctor who will explain, in detail, the donor process and will tell you the risks and the benefits of becoming an egg donor.

Once you’ve completed that process, you will then be sent off to do infectious disease blood testing. It’s a simple blood test and you will also be asked to leave a urine sample.

Once those test results come back you’ll be contacted to do the final step of the process, which is meeting with our psychologist. You will meet with a psychologist who will not psychoanalyze you but will discuss with you so you have a full understanding of what the egg donation process is and that you are feeling very comfortable in your decision to become an egg donor.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:28PM in Egg Donor Program, Video Transcripts

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Egg Donation Selection

SUE, RN, NURSING MANAGER: The first step in the process of egg donation for you is to be to pick out a donor. This is probably the longest part of the actual egg donation process. The actual treatment process will take approximately one to two months. The selection of the appropriate egg donor for you may take as short as a couple of weeks up until several months to find the appropriate donor for you.

You will be presented a variety of egg donors based upon your physical characteristics along with your ethnic background. Once you have decided which egg donor is best for you, the overall process will take probably one to two months to synchronize your cycles and the egg donor to go through the IVF process.

Hopefully, at the end of that time, you will have achieved a pregnancy.

Posted on August 4, 2008 2:19PM in Egg Donor Program, Video Transcripts

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