Choosing an IVF Program – PATIENT BEWARE!

Don’t be misled by statements reporting we have the largest IVF, donor egg IVF or gestational surrogate IVF program.  The truth is that what is often being represented is far from what you’re probably interested in.  Ask specific pointed questions, i.e. how many IVF pregnancies have come from your current lab, not another lab or program that you may have participated in the past.  Ask what the take-home pregnancy rate is, be careful to also ask how many total IVF cycles have been performed to get an idea of the programs experience.  Ask for official CDC pregnancy results in writing (http://www.cdc.gov/art/).  Ask who the lab director is, is the director a doctoral level embryologist?  Has the director obtained the certification of highly complex lab director?  Has the director been involved in any original reproductive medicine research?  At the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine we have had over 4,000 babies born from our IVF program over the last twenty years.  Our pregnancy rates have consistently been in the top ten percentile nationwide. We have accounted for 87% of all IVF pregnancies, 83% of all donor egg IVF pregnancies and 99% of all pregnancies from cryo eggs over the last ten years in the North Florida/South Georgia area.  Our embryology team consists of three doctoral and one master’s level embryologists, headed by Dr. Yang.  Dr. Yang has over twenty years of embryology experience; he holds the certification of highly complex lab director.  Dr. Yang is world renowned for his original research regarding intracytoplasmic sperm injection/IVF, as well as his work on egg freezing.