FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
February 2, 2010 Karalyn Shimmyo
(646) 331-4940

LGBT Families and the Brooklyn Community Pride Center to Co-Sponsor Panel Discussion on LGBT Family Planning
Brooklyn, New York – Those looking for information on options for expanding their family and how to manage the transition need look no further – join The Brooklyn Center and LGBT Families for an informative discussion on the many options available to LGBT parents and prospective parents. We will discuss aspects of surrogacy, fertility, foster care and adoption as they relate to LGBT Families.

Please join us for a panel discussion with experts in the area of family planning for the LGBT community, and have your questions and concerns addressed by our panelists. Meet other LGBT families, network with providers, and get insider information. This event is free and open to the public. Please join us for a fun and interesting evening, and learn more about upcoming LGBT family-oriented events in Brooklyn!

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010 @ 7pm
Location: Brooklyn Borough Hall; 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201

Confirmed Panelists Include:

• LGBT Families; Ricky Cortez, Founder & President
• IVF NJ; Marcus W. Jurema, MD
• Center Kids – Men Having Babies; Ron Poole-Dayan
• Forever Families Through Adoption; Joy S. Goldstein
• Manhattan CryoBank ; Ana Guerrero
• You Gotta Believe ; Mary Keane

Directions to Brooklyn Borough Hall:
Subway Service: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, F, M, N, R
Bus Service: B25, B26, B37, B38, B41, B51, B52, B54, B61, B65, B67, B75

For further information, contact Ricky Cortez, LGBTfamilies.info@me.com or register at:
http://web.me.com/ecortez1/lgbtfamilies/Community/Entries/2010/1/16_Upcoming_EVENTS.html

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th St, (DeBenedictis Room # 410), New York, NY 10011

Registration is FREE contact gloria@reproductivepossibilities.com

Speakers: Melissa Brisman, JD – Surrogate Agency Owner
Dr. Susan Treiser, Reproductive Endocrinologist
Judith Kottick, LCSW
A same sex couple who are parents through egg donation and gestational surrogacy and an experienced surrogate will share their stories.

This informative seminar will cover the medical, surrogate and emotional processes involved when building your family through third party reproduction.

www.reproductivepossibilities.com
www.ivfnj.com

By Brianne Harrison

Infertility affects one in six couples trying to conceive in the US today, and trying to overcome that can be a stressful, exhausting process. A desire to make that process less stressful and more personal led Dr. Susan Treiser, one of the few female board certified Reproductive Endocrinologists in her field, to co-found IVF New Jersey with her colleague, Dr. Michael Darder, in 1990. A practice that started with one center in Somerset has grown to include offices in Freehold, Hamilton, and Annadale, and a fifth office will soon open in Short Hills. IVF New Jersey boasts a high success rate and offers personalized services that run the gamut from in-vitro fertilization to gestational carriers to acupuncture. Dr. Treiser sat down with New Jersey Life to discuss founding IVF New Jersey, and the many changes and advances in this field of medicine that she’s seen over the years.

What drew you to this field of medicine?

As part of my medical training, I had to do a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, and I really enjoyed being that much a part of women’s lives, starting from when they’re young, to when they have children, and then through menopause. So I decided to make that my specialty, and within that specialty is the subspecialty of reproductive endocrine. That was the area where all the really significant changes were happening in terms of helping patients get pregnant in vitro and all the subsequent procedures that have followed. So that was a really exciting area for me to be involved in. I was always interested in research and there was a lot of very significant research happening in the reproductive medicine subspecialty. So many changes have taken place that we’ve incorporated into the way we take care of patients over the years.

What are some of the most significant advances that have been made?

Over the last almost 20 years we’ve been in practice, the overall success rate has improved dramatically, and that’s because of a lot of the subtle changes that have taken place in the lab and certainly within our own program here at IVF New Jersey. Our own success rate has increased tremendously over the last two decades we’ve been in practice as well. A lot of advances have been made, like working with low-number sperm and PGD [preimplantation genetic diagnosis], which allows you to select specific genes to eliminate certain illnesses. We’ve been doing egg donation really since we started the practice in 1990, and that’s certainly given women who are at what we call an “advanced maternal age” the opportunity to have children even though they’ve run out of eggs. That’s just one of the services we offer women who are past a certain age or who have undergone medical procedures that have resulted in them no longer being able to produce eggs.

Over the last two years we’ve also been able to do gestational surrogacy using gestational carriers for those women who have medical issues whereby they cannot carry a pregnancy. So now, if, for instance, they’ve had a hysterectomy because of cancer, as long as they still have their ovaries, they can still have a child that is genetically theirs, it’s just carried by someone else. Having a hysterectomy doesn’t necessarily mean that your ovaries are removed as well. Some women have genetic abnormalities that affect their uterus; they can get a gestational carrier and still have a child that is genetically linked to them.

Over the course of the years, we’ve seen more and more of those types of procedures occurring. Attitudes have changed: When we first started doing egg donations, people were coming in very quietly, they didn’t want anybody to know about it, but the number of people using egg donation has increased tremendously over the last few years, most likely because there are so many older women who are getting married later and having children later. This is an opportunity for them to fulfill their dream of having a family despite the fact that they’re over the age of forty.

How did you found IVF New Jersey?

I had my training for reproductive endocrine at Columbia in New York, and there were few centers that really offered all of the services of a large academic center in a private setting. One of the difficulties that we saw when our patients came to a large university is that they had to go from one department to another to have everything done. We really wanted to provide a comfortable environment where they’d come in, everybody would know who they were, knew what needed to get done, and they didn’t have to go to a hospital environment. We wanted to create a center that provided everything that an academic center would provide—a laboratory and excellent statistics—but in a private setting that was much more comfortable for our patients. I think we really achieved that. We started off with just one office, which was in the Somerset area, and we’ve now expanded to Hamilton and Freehold and we’re about to open another office in the Short Hills Area. So now we’re able to provide these types of services throughout New Jersey—personalized service, and all the great advances that are available in this field.

What are some common myths about fertility treatment and IVF?

One of the first things is, if you don’t get pregnant after a certain amount of time, depending on your age, you should see a doctor. There’s a certain amount of time where, if you don’t have a problem, you should get pregnant if you’re really trying. So we say that if you’re 30 and younger, if you’re not pregnant within one year, then you should go see a physician or a specialist, or if you’re 35 and over, you should see a specialist after 6 months. A lot of people tell women, especially younger women who are, maybe, in their 20’s and have been trying for two years, “Oh, relax, go on vacation, it’ll happen, you have to give it more time.” That’s the first common myth. I think you should set your expectations on a realistic level and if you’re not pregnant within a year when you’re 30 or within 6 months if you’re over 35, you should go and see a fertility specialist.

Another common myth is that people think that in vitro is what gives you these high-order multiples, like quintuplets or sextuplets. Most fertility centers, like us, only implant two, sometimes three embryos. You only really see the high-order multiples in situations where patients take infertility medications and then just have intercourse or intrauterine insemination, and you don’t have any control over the number of eggs that become fertilized and therefore how many will actually implant. Certainly there are some centers that may implant an excess number of embryos, but that is rarely seen these days. For the most part, most centers practice good medicine and follow the established guidelines for how many embryos should be put in, which is based on the patient’s age.

What are some important things to consider before starting fertility treatment?

I think that once a patient’s decided they need to see a physician they need to see a specialist. A lot of times I’ll have patients say they went to see their gynecologists and the gynecologist said do this, or do that, and if it doesn’t work, the patient feels like they wasted a lot of valuable time. I think the first thing a patient should do is get a recommendation for a fertility specialist that they should go and see. When they’re looking at centers, there are a few things they should definitely consider. They should check to see if the center provides all the different types of fertility services, from the most basic to the expanded services like IVF, egg donation, or gestational carrier. They should also find out how involved the physicians are, are they making the return phone calls—we make all the return phone calls. We also do all of our own ultrasounds, so in every interaction the patients have with the doctors—which is rather frequent during the course of the cycle—we’re able to constantly talk to them about how they’re doing in their cycle, how everything is going. Those are very important things to consider. This is a very stressful process and you want to make sure that all the staff members are completely familiar with the different procedures so if you have any additional questions, they’ll be able to answer them in a professional manner.

What are some things patients should do to prepare for treatment?

I think a lot of time, ahead of time, patients start to become aware of their own bodies. Women try to keep track of when they’re ovulating, whether they’re ovulating around the right time of month and trying to have intercourse around that time. We certainly want them to be healthy—no smoking, drinking, drugs—and that they’re taking prenatal vitamins. Ideally, you want to make sure that your weight is good. You don’t want to be heavy, because many studies have shown that it does become more difficult to conceive as your weight increases, and also the miscarriage rate increases. Also, if you’re very thin, that’s not good either, if you’re not getting your period, that’s certainly not good, so to prepare yourself, you need to be more conscious of your weight, more conscious of your body, and making sure you’re taking good care of yourself: taking vitamins, being careful with your diet, trying to limit the amount of caffeine, definitely not doing any recreational drugs, just really being healthy.

What are some important questions for a patient to ask her fertility specialist?

You definitely want to ask what sort of services the specialist provides. You also want to find out what their statistics are—that is, the statistics for that particular treatment center. People often think that the overall statistics are universal, They’re not. The IVF statistics are specific to each center, so you need to make sure you’re going to a center that has a good laboratory and good IVF. Those statistics are available to every patient by going to the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/ART/). You can find all the statistics for IVF centers across the United States.

Like I said earlier, you want to know how involved the physicians are. Are they the ones doing the phone calls? How flexible are the hours? Those are very important things to consider because it is such a stressful process and one that usually requires months and months of trying, so you want to make sure you’re in a comfortable situation and getting the information you need every time you come into the office.

I noticed IVF New Jersey offers acupuncture services. Does this actually help with the process?

Most women find it very relaxing. Because it’s such a stressful procedure, we feel that anything that could relax you, whether it’s yoga or acupuncture, is certainly helpful. With regard to acupuncture, there are no definitive studies that say that it helps increase the success rate of fertility treatments. There are some studies that say that it does and some that have shown it doesn’t, but it certainly doesn’t harm anybody, and it’s never been shown to decrease the success rate, so if there’s even a chance that it’ll increase the pregnancy rate, and people find it relaxing, that’s something that we would promote. Some people feel that, if they’re having an embryo transfer, having acupuncture just prior to the transfer causes relaxation and might help the uterus and improve the odds of implantation. There are no definitive studies that have shown that that is true, but our feeling is we want to try and promote anything that might be helpful for the mind or the body. Anything that helps patients get pregnant is something we would want to promote as long as it doesn’t harm them in any way.

Is using a surrogate becoming a more common practice?

We’ve had an increase in the number of people using surrogates, but we only do it when there’s a true medical reason for using a surrogate. For women who just don’t want their bodies to get out of shape–I’m sure there are places that would offer them a surrogate, but at IVF NJ you must have a medical reason, such as a severe medical condition whereby you cannot sustain a pregnancy, such as kidney problems or severe diabetes, or, of course, someone who has had a hysterectomy. We’ve also had patients who went through a previous pregnancy and had a lot of complications and were told that they should not carry a pregnancy again. Those are the situations in which we would consider surrogacy. I would say that the number of people who are looking for that has gone up because it’s now more accessible. We work with a number of different agencies who help find the gestational carriers and work on getting the legal contract together, and then we just provide the medical service portion of it.

You mentioned earlier that there’s been a rise in people seeking fertility treatments. Is that because there’s less stigmatism about it?

I think people are more accepting of all the different ways that we can now make a family and ultimately still feel that it’s your family. I always say to people, when your dreams don’t come true, you need to change the dream. It doesn’t matter how you get there, when you walk out of the hospital with a baby, that is your child, no matter how it was conceived and born, whether through egg donation, a gestational carrier, sperm donation, or IVF. That is your child. In the past, fertility treatments were more frowned upon, but now it’s hard to pick up a magazine without finding an article related to either IVF or egg donation or gestational carriers. It has become much more commonplace. It’s not something you have to talk about quietly so nobody overhears. I think people feel more comfortable with it, they really understand what’s really involved in the process, and they know that having a child through IVF is not unnatural, which is how I think a lot of people thought of this before.

Are there any new treatments on the horizon or treatments that are really starting to gain ground now?

Egg freezing is becoming much more common. We have an increasing number of women right now who are not married or aren’t ready to get married and have children but who are going ahead and freezing their eggs kind of as an insurance policy so if they don’t meet the man of their dreams or if they do and then they have difficulty getting pregnant because they’re at a later age, they can go back and use these eggs that were harvested when they were much younger. This way, they don’t feel so pressed to have a child right away when they’re not ready. We’ve certainly seen an increase in the number of people who are looking for those services. In the past we only did that for patients who were about to go through chemotherapy and they were trying to freeze their eggs because there was a good chance they would be in menopause after their therapy.

Is this a relatively new process?

It is very new. The success rate for freezing eggs and then being able to use them has been very low in the past, but that technology has improved tremendously over the last five years. As with any other fertility treatment, you really need to do your homework if you’re considering this. You have to make sure you go somewhere where they’ve done it a lot, not a few here and there, to ensure you’re in good hands.

IVF New Jersey is a world renowned fertility clinic. We have helped patients from all over the world make their dream of parenthood a reality. As a leading IVF center we are dedicated to providing outstanding and individualized care to our international patients.

IVF New Jersey’s services include:

1. In Vitro Fertilization

2. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

3. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)

4. Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI)

5. Egg Donation

6. Sperm Donation

7. Gestational Carrier

8. Egg Freezing

9. Embryo donation

10. On-site hysterosalpingogram (HSG)

Details: We are located in central New Jersey with locations close to both New York City and Philadelphia. Our main office in Somerset, New Jersey, is a state-of-the-art facility with its own full-scale operating suite. It is within an hour from Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. Our staff can assist in helping you select an appropriate hotel to meet your needs while undergoing treatment with us.

Sightseeing Opportunities: Our central New Jersey location makes it possible to travel to New York or Philadelphia with ease. Locally, the college town of New Brunswick, home to Rutgers University, offers great restaurants, theatre opportunities and night-life. You can also discover New Jersey’s amazing beaches, arts and culture, shopping and outdoor activities. Visit www.state.nj.us/travel/ for more information.

Required Stay: With the assistance of your local physician we can often limit your trip to under 2 weeks for most treatment cycles.

Contact: The physicians and staff at IVF New Jersey are fluent in English, Spanish and French.

Make an appointment now

Email a question now

Call 1-800-IVFNJ-44

Lodging: Hotels Convenient to IVF New Jersey:

Brunswick Hilton & Towers
(At Exit 9, N.J. Turnpike)
3 Tower Center Blvd.
East Brunswick, New Jersey 08816
(732) 828-2000
Fax: (732) 828-6958

Holiday Inn Somerset
195 Davidson Ave.
Somerset, New Jersey 088873
(732) 356-1700

Hyatt Regency
2 Albany St.
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
Toll Free Reservations (800) 233-1234
(732) 873-1234
Fax: (732) 873-6666

Summerfield Suites Hotel
260 Davidson Ave.
Somerset, New Jersey 08873
Toll Free Reservations: (800) 833-4353
(732) 356-8000
Fax: (732) 356-3782

The Heldrich Hotel
10 Livingston Ave.
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
Toll Free Reservations: (866) 609-4700
(732) 729-4670
Fax: (732) 729-4672

Canadian Patients

IVF New Jersey has partnerships with two clinics in Canada to provide Egg Donation and Gestational Carrier Services to Canadian Patients.

Montreal Clinic:

Hananel Holzer M.D
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Program Director, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship
McGill University Health Center..
Faculty of Medicine
McGill University
687 Pine avenue West, Room F6.58
Montreal (Quebec) Canada H3A 1A1.
Tel: (514) 843 1650 Fax: (514) 843 1496
E-mail: hananel.holzer@muhc.mcgill.ca

Toronto Clinic:

First Steps Fertility

36 York Mills Road, Suite 100,

Toronto, ON M2P 2E9

Tel: 416-221-7545

Fax: 416-221-9020

Contact: Shira Benson RN, Clinic Manager, at 416 221-7545 ext. 31.

Come Visit the “Land of Little Miracles”

IVF, Egg Donation and Gestational Carrier Treatment at IVF New Jersey

What is IVF New Jersey?

IVF NJ is a state-of-the-art, full service, private fertility center located in central New Jersey, one hour by car or train from both New York City and Philadelphia. Founded in 1990, IVF NJ is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading programs for in-vitro fertilization, egg donation and gestational carrier. IVF NJ has helped patients from all over the world make their dream of parenthood a reality. We are dedicated to providing outstanding and individualized care to our international patients.

Our IVF Services Include:

1. In Vitro Fertilization

2. Egg Donation

3. Gestational Carrier

4. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

5. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)

6. Egg and Embryo Cryopreservation

7. Embryo donation

Why IVF New Jersey?

IVF NJ has consistently had delivery rates for IVF, egg donation and gestational carriers that are among the highest anywhere. Drs. Susan Treiser and Michael Darder, co-founders of IVF NJ, produced the first egg donor baby in New Jersey in 1992. Since then, the doctors and their staff have performed over 2,000 egg donation and/or gestational carrier procedures. They in turn are supported by a staff of nurse coordinators that patients describe s the most compassionate they’ve ever experienced This combination of high success rates and experience provided in a warm, caring environment makes it an easy decision to choose IVF NJ for treatment with IVF, egg donation or gestational carrier.

How Is My Treatment Done If I Live So Far Away?

As an IVF patient, we can limit your visit to less than two weeks which includes monitoring the latter portion of egg stimulation, the egg retrieval and embryo transfer. The remainder of your treatment can be monitored with the help of a local physician and/or laboratory.

As an egg recipient, two visits to IVF NJ are required. During your initial visit you will have an in-depth discussion about the type of person you would like to be your donor. Our donors are a select group of highly screened young women age 20 – 30, who live in the greater New York metropolitan region, and our program is anonymous. Because this area is a “melting pot” of people from around the world, we are able to match our recipients with just about every ethnicity possible. It takes approximately two months to find a suitable match. You will be provided with a detailed description of your donor including their biography and medical history, extended family medical history and a childhood photo. If you’re not comfortable with the initial match we will be happy to continue the matching process until you are completely satisfied that you have found the perfect donor for you.

As an egg recipient, your treatment will involve the use of natural hormones which can be administered at home. Monitoring of treatment can be done by having blood tests performed at your local laboratory. These results are faxed to us, and then we call or email you with treatment instructions.

Your second visit to IVF NJ occurs at the time of the donor’s egg retrieval. A fresh sperm specimen is provided that day and the embryo transfer takes place three to five days later. You are then free to return home and continue monitoring your treatment locally.

What If I Need A Gestational Carrier?

Your initial visit will include both a consultation at IVF NJ and one with a reproductive attorney who is responsible for finding a suitable gestational carrier and guiding you through the legal aspects of using a carrier. We are associated with the leading reproductive attorney in the U.S., Melissa Brisman, www.reproductivelawyer.com, whose office is also located in New Jersey. Once the carrier is selected and completes our rigorous screening process, she begins hormone treatment similar to those of an egg recipient. At the time of the egg retrieval (your own or donor eggs) a fresh sperm specimen is provided. The embryo transfer takes place three to five days later.

How Convenient Is Traveling To IVF NJ?

Our fertility center is located within one hour of three major international airports: John F. Kennedy, Newark and Philadelphia. Most major hotel chains are located just 10 minutes from our facility. Our staff can assist in helping you select appropriate accommodations to meet your needs while undergoing treatment with us.

Sightseeing Opportunities: Our central New Jersey location makes it possible to travel to New York or Philadelphia with ease. Locally, the college town of New Brunswick, home to Rutgers University, offers excellent restaurants, theater opportunities and night-life. You can also discover New Jersey’s beautiful beaches, arts and culture, shopping and outdoor activities. Visit www.state.nj.us/travel/ for more information.

How Do I Get Started?

A good place to start is our web site, www.ivfnj.com, which has a wealth of information regarding our IVF programs. From there you may contact us via email, info@ivfnj.com, or call us at 1-866-447-6411. We have physicians and staff who are fluent in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Polish. For additional language assistance we use Language Line interpreter service.

We look forward to meeting you and helping your little miracle come true!