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Pioneering IVF Technique Produces Region's First Pregnancy

August 11, 2008

Reproductive Associates of Delaware (RAD) Team Uses Frozen Donated Eggs, Opening Doors for New Fertility Treatments

NEWARK, DE (RUSHPRNEWS)AUGUST 11, 2008 - A patient of Reproductive Associates of Delaware (RAD) is in the second trimester of a healthy pregnancy, following the region's first successful use of thawed, frozen donated eggs.

In May, frozen donor eggs were shipped to the Delaware-based infertility clinic. Soon after, the eggs were successfully thawed and fertilized. An ongoing pregnancy occurred following the first attempt at transferring the embryos to the patient's uterus.

Dr. Ronald F. Feinberg, IVF Medical Director at RAD, notes that the availability of frozen eggs has opened a new era in fertility care, with new options for women. "Frozen sperm banks have been available for over thirty years. Egg freezing and thawing has been much more technically challenging. Nevertheless, research has progressed and various options for egg freezing and banking have now arrived."

"Frozen eggs offer women options in deciding when they wish to conceive, whether with their own eggs or with donor eggs," notes Dr. Barbara A. McGuirk, Medical Director for Reproductive Surgery at RAD. "Some women have diseases such as cancer earlier in life, and must delay childbearing. In addition, cancer treatments can destroy eggs. Around the world, many women have chosen to bank their eggs and/or ovarian tissue for future use. Others have opted to use donor eggs."

Women's aging has particularly negative effects on their eggs. RAD clinicians care for hundreds of women each year who have this problem. "Many of our patients who use donor eggs are only in their thirties," notes Dr. Feinberg. "They are often upset because no one informed them previously that ovarian aging is a serious and common problem."

Dr. McGuirk explained, "Freezing eggs give women and couples the time and convenience of using their eggs when they are ready to get pregnant, liberated from the financial, personal, and ethical dilemma presented with frozen embryos."

Dr. McGuirk added, "Egg donation is a highly successful treatment option for women who may not be able to get pregnant with their own eggs, but are still able to carry a pregnancy. However, the process of selecting the right women's eggs often presents challenges."

Achieving a pregnancy with frozen donor eggs may circumvent issues of time, money, and emotion. A representative of the supplier of the frozen eggs used in the Delaware pregnancy, Cryo Egg International, notes, "Patients frustrated by years of tests and failures greatly value the speed and convenience of frozen eggs and will seek the procedure in greater percentages."

Worldwide, it is estimated that over 1,000 healthy babies have been born following the use of frozen eggs. So far, it is believed that the incidence of birth defects and genetic abnormalities in those babies is no greater than that seen in babies born within the general population.

For more information, please contact Sonya R. Feinberg or visit www.reproductiveassociates.org.

Reproductive Associates of Delaware is an infertility treatment practice with offices in Newark (on the campus of Christiana Care Hospital), Dover (in the new Eden Hill Medical Center) and North Wilmington (on Silverside Road).

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NEWS SOURCE: REPRODUCTIVE ASSOCIATE OF DELAWARE

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