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Overlake Reproductive Health in Washington State Joins Our Growing Network of Egg Freezing Centers

eggfreezing — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:09:34 +0000

Egg Freezing, also known as oocyte cryopreservation, is now a reality in the specialty of reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It has found new applications in women wishing to preserve their fertility for medical indications or personal reasons.

Innovative research at West Coast Fertility Centers began to unravel some of the mysteries associated with egg freezing. Since the year 2000, our scientific team has made numerous innovative modifications to special biochemical solutions used to protect the eggs before they can be frozen.

As our experience with egg freezing expanded, we noted a more efficient diffusion of the protective freezing fluids into the egg cell. This led to preservation of the egg's vital structures like the chromosomes, the meiotic spindle and the mitochondria. Our frozen egg thaw survival rate rose to 91% compared to 10% with early studies in the 1980's. A research protocol for egg freezing with informed consent was approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Frozen Egg Bank, Inc. is a network of 8 IVF centers located in the U.S. working together to offer egg freezing and thawing services to their patient population using the innovative technique developed by Dr. David Diaz and his team of scientists. To learn more about fertility preservation with egg freezing please visit www.EggFreezing.com

As of April 2011, there have been 62 successful frozen egg births with 8 on-going pregnancies from our Centers.

We are pleased to announce that Overlake Reproductive Health is our Frozen Egg Bank affiliate in Washington state. Overlake Reproductive Health has 3 locations to serve you in Washington.

Bellevue Address:

Overlake Reproductive Health
1135 116th Ave NE, Suite 640
Bellevue, WA 98004

Kirkland Address:

Evergreen Professional Center
12303 NE 130th Lane, Suite 400
Kirkland, WA 98034

Issaquah Address:

Issaquah Medical Center
450 NW Gilman Boulevard, Suite 204
Issaquah, WA 98027

Meet the Egg Freezing Team at West Coast Fertility Centers in Orange County, CA

Tennessee Affiliate

eggfreezing — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:21:35 +0000

EGG FREEZING BREAKTHROUGH

EXPANDS OPTIONS AT IVF CENTERS

Embryologist Susan Walker (at left), from The Fertility Center of Chattanooga, shown with FROZEN EGG BANK staff, Andrologist Christine Stevens (middle) and Senior Embryologist Cris Rodriguez-Karl.(right)

We are pleased to announce The Fertility Center of Chattanooga our Frozen Egg Bank affiliate in Tennessee was featured in the local media as a forward thinking IVF center that offers egg freezing as an option to their patients. This article highlights the significance of having an egg freezing program as a way to expand the role of a modern fertility center. Susan Walker, Senior Embryologist at Chattanooga came to train with our team of scientists. During her visit, Susan learned the art of using the Landa Freezing Technology which has yielded very promising results in the preservation and thawing of human eggs. After completing her training, Susan received her certificate of training then returned to her center to introduce the science of egg freezing to her staff. Since then the Tennessee facility has successfully frozen their patient’s eggs for use in the future.

According to Chattanooga Medical Director, Dr. Barry Donesky, “The Fertility Center is working in conjunction with the Frozen Egg Bank, founded in 2005 in Orange County, California. These pioneers are known for one of the nation's most successful cryopreservation programs, and their patented procedure for egg freezing has led to a 55 percent pregnancy success rate with frozen egg transfers and nearly 30 live births over the past four years. More than 90 percent of frozen eggs have survived the thawing process with 80-plus percent developing into embryos ready for transfer at the Frozen Egg Bank. Women age 37 or younger have been most receptive to frozen egg transfers. Additional information is available at www.eggfreezing.com.” Since then 52 healthy babies have been born from frozen eggs using the Landa freezing Technology. An additional 10 pregnancies are ongoing.

The Frozen Egg Bank is a network of 7 IVF centers located in the U.S. working together to offer egg freezing and thawing services to their patient population. To learn more about fertility preservation with egg freezing please visit our web site.

Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

eggfreezing — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:12:54 +0000

Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

Being told you have cancer can be one of the scariest diagnoses a patient will ever receive. Young patients that haven’t had the opportunity to start a family, may fear losing their ability to one day have children. Although chemotherapy and radiation can be life saving, they may also cause difficulties becoming pregnant when a patient wishes to start their family. We recently had the opportunity to work with a young woman diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma who would like to share her journey with you today.

Twenty-three year old Brie was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma three weeks before her first visit to West Coast Fertility Center. She wished to learn more about our egg freezing process and was interested in preserving her eggs prior to starting chemotherapy. Dr. Diaz shared our egg freezing thaw/survival rates and 52 healthy live births, two very important factors to investigate when you are considering freezing your eggs.

Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

Since Brie was due to start her chemotherapy later in the month, she decided to proceed with her stimulation protocol immediately. During her frequent visits to our facility, she was truly a delightful patient and our staff developed a great deal of respect for this courageous young patient. She persevered through 14 days of injectable fertility medication with remarkable good humor and close attention to detail. Ultrasounds and blood tests were performed to assess her follicle development. During this period there was ongoing communication to and from her oncologist to coordinate and assure her cancer treatment was not compromised. On the day of her egg harvest, 13 eggs were retrieved and of these eggs 11 were mature enough to freeze. Although Brie has a long road ahead of her, she was able to start chemotherapy knowing her ability to one day have children may have been preserved.

We are pleased to offer our egg freezing services to patients who have unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer. West Coast Fertility Center helps by reducing some of the costs while working closely with Fertile Hope (affiliated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation), a non-profit organization that offers emotional support to cancer patients. Our industry partner, EMD Serono provides free medications to our patients. This helps make egg freezing more affordable to these patients whose medical treatments may pose a risk of infertility. To learn more about egg freezing please contact the West Coast Fertility Center patient care coordinator.

Moral Debate

eggfreezing — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:49:58 +0000

In vitro fertilization a moral debate for parents

Many couples who have already had success with in vitro fertilization and who do not want to have another baby face a moral debate: Do they donate their extra embryos to research, to another couple or simply discard them? The moral debate regarding frozen embryos continues, read this article and the response from Dr. Diaz. We are also interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject.

Press Release

eggfreezing — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:00:03 +0000

Press Release: "Frozen Egg Bank Network Expands Coast to Coast to Help Prospective Parents Start a Family"

Orange County, CA (PRWEB) November 12, 2009

Frozen Egg Bank, Inc. (FEB) has launched a new era in reproductive medicine as a group of charter member IVF centers in six states – California, Nevada, Utah, New York, New Jersey and Tennesee – join the national provider of human egg freezing and thawing services. The network is designed to provide fertility preservation by freezing the healthy eggs of young women for medical or elective reasons.

Share Your Story

eggfreezing — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:35:44 +0000

Share Your Story with Our Readers

The Frozen Egg Bank is interested in hearing about the changed lives of our former patients. With the upcoming birth of our highly anticipated 50th frozen egg baby we would like to reach out to all our patients who we’ve had the pleasure of helping. We invite you to share your story and possibly inspire someone that may be in a similar situation that you have overcome. We look forward to hearing from you!

Fertility Preservation Talk

eggfreezing — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:17:01 +0000

Dr. Diaz Gives Talk on Fertility Preservation

"Fertility Preservation for Cancer Patients" was the topic of a presentation given by David Diaz M.D. to the OB/GYN Department at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, CA. The talk was intended to raise awareness among OB/GYN specialists about the options available to young patients facing the difficult decision of preserving their fertility before starting chemotherapy or radiation treatments. One such option is egg freezing, also known as cryopreservation, to store the eggs of young patient who may lose their fertility potential after anti-cancer therapy. The eggs can be frozen indefinitely until the survivor is ready to start her family.

Frozen Egg Bank, Inc., founded by Dr. Diaz, works closely with the patient’s personal physician and with the oncology specialist to recommend the options available to each patient. The team approach maximizes success for cancer treatment while giving hope of preserving a young patients fertility potential. This is especially important to young, unmarried patients who may not have a partner or a sperm donor needed to create embryos.

FEB is Now New York Licensed

eggfreezing — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:31:41 +0000

Frozen Egg Bank Now Licensed in New York State

The Frozen Egg Bank Network is celebrating our one year anniversary and is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a certificate for tissue bank operation in the State of New York. This makes it possible for New York ART Centers to become a member of our growing network of egg freezing centers. We are pleased to report that our pregnancy rate is 53.4% per embryo transfer.

Established in 2005, Frozen Egg Bank’s freezing technique has resulted in the birth of 47 healthy babies in just 4 years. Our patients have achieved pregnancy by using their own frozen oocytes or by purchasing frozen donor oocytes from our ethnically diverse donor frozen egg pool. We are looking for high quality ART Centers to join us in offering egg freezing services to their patients locally in their community.

Here is how it works: FEB will train the embryologist at your clinic in the use of our Landa Freezing Technology using a programmed freeze/rapid thaw method, which closely mimics your ART Centers current frozen embryo program. A one day personalized hands-on teaching experience is provided by Antoine La, ELD, in our California facility. Simulated oocyte freezing and thawing plus ICSI training are included during the one day tutorial. A certificate of completion is issued and a sample of the freezing solution is included for practice in the home laboratory. When you are ready to freeze your oocytes, FEB will forward the freezing or thawing solutions to your facility. The frozen oocytes are stored in your clinic or can be shipped for long term storage at one of our affiliated facilities.

The other novel option is for you to browse our on-line frozen donor egg catalogue to select the donor of your choice. Your selected donor’s frozen eggs will be shipped directly to your facility where they can be thawed, fertilized and create embryos the same as in an FET cycle. This greatly reduces the synchronization problems we experience in fresh donor cycles and reduces the cost of a fresh donor cycle.

We are very excited to offer this unique opportunity and are looking to expand our services into New York State. We are happy to answer your questions or assist you in any way.

Twins times three

eggfreezing — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:15:33 +0000

47 Births: Three Sets of Frozen Egg Twins

The Frozen Egg Bank, associated with West Coast Fertility Centers, is proud to announce the birth of our 47th baby. The most recent additions are from the births of three sets of healthy twins delivered over the past month. One set of boys; one set of girls and a boy/girl set of twins were born to three sets of happy parents. All three parents came to the Frozen Egg Bank with high hopes of fulfilling their dreams of starting a family. Unable to use their own eggs, the couples began to look into using donor eggs.

There are many benefits to choosing frozen donor eggs versus using a fresh donor cycle. It can be very difficult to coordinate the donor's and the recipient's cycles due to donor non-compliance with FDA regulations; donor medications errors; problems with donor's travel arrangements; donor demands for excessive payment or unexpected cancellation of the cycle by the donor. The entire cost of this process is relayed to the recipient of the donated eggs. This innovation in egg freezing technology, dramatically improves the efficiency of the egg donation process thus minimizing the cost for the intended parents.

With the convenience of using a Frozen Egg Bank, the couples were able to use our online database to select an egg donor that met their criteria. You have the ability to search for a donor based on hair and eye color, race/ethnic background as well as view the detailed profile of each donor. The Frozen Egg Bank database offers a wide selection of donors and you can rest assured we have one just for you. Our frozen eggs are harvested at anyone of our affiliated centers based in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York. By using this website, our newest parents selected an egg donor and are now on the greatest journey of their lives.

The moms are doing beautifully and are so thankful for their little sets of miracles. Congratulations to the new Moms and Dads, we wish you the best of luck!

Frozen Egg/Blastocyst Culture

eggfreezing — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:00:50 +0000

Another Happy Frozen Egg Mom-to-be Tours The Embryology Lab

After their first OB-Ultrasound; Stephanie, her husband, and her parents proudly hold pictures of the newest member of their family.

Stephanie, her husband, and her parents are seen here touring the egg freezing laboratory with Dr. Diaz and Embryologist Antoine La. Antoine is showing the family where her frozen eggs were kept for 6 months.

The Frozen Egg Bank would like to celebrate our newest frozen egg pregnancy. Stephanie and her husband came to us in 2008 with high hopes of finally starting their family. In planning Stephanie’s IVF treatment, she expressed concern regarding surplus embryos from her cycle. Traditionally, extra embryos created from a fresh IVF cycle are frozen and kept for future frozen embryo transfers. This is one of the main reasons couples find egg freezing to be very beneficial. For personal and ethical reasons she requested to freeze her extra oocytes instead of freezing any embryos from her IVF cycle. From Stephanie’s fresh cycle, 28 eggs were retrieved and 15 of her eggs were mature enough to utilize in her IVF treatment. Stephanie and her husband decided to inseminate 3 of her eggs, and freeze the remaining 12 eggs to use in the future. Out of the 3 eggs that were inseminated with her husband’s sperm, 2 fertilized and were used in her embryo transfer.

Two weeks after her fresh embryo transfer, they received news that they weren’t pregnant but were determined to try again. Three months later Stephanie and her husband were prepared to proceed with another cycle, this time with her frozen eggs. They decided to thaw half of their frozen eggs, inseminate them and transfer the healthiest looking embryos. Unfortunately, they received the same news and although they were heartbroken they knew they had one more chance. Another three months passed when they were ready to proceed and decided to thaw her remaining 6 oocytes to try one last time. Her eggs were thawed, inseminated and all 6 fertilized. This time they decided to culture their embryos for 5 days instead of the normal 3 days to allow the embryo to further develop. A 5 day embryo culture is referred to as a blastocyst culture which allows for the selection of the best quality embryos. After waiting eagerly for two weeks, Stephanie and her husband were overjoyed to find out they were finally pregnant. This marks our 62nd pregnancy from the Frozen Egg Bank, Inc. Congratulations to Stephanie and her family, we are excited that your dreams are finally coming true.