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By JENNIFER KANNE
This article appeared in The Saddleback Valley News on Nov. 29, 2002
When Kelly and Zubair Harbert married in 1989, they outlined a plan for the next few decades. The central part of the plan — the part that would be most important and also most heart-wrenching — was to wait a few years and then start a family. The Laguna Hills couple, both engineers, assumed planning and timing would be the only hurdles to having a child when they were ready.
“It came time when we were going to decide to have children and we thought everything would work,” Kelly said.
After trying to conceive a child for two years, they met with fertility specialist Dr. Lawrence Werlin, founder of Coastal Fertility Medical Center in Aliso Viejo and Irvine and known to patients and colleagues as “the Werl.”
Kelly and Zubair teamed up with Werlin to figure out why their dream of having children was being thrown off track. They went through procedures like artificial insemination but still Kelly did not become pregnant.
“We sat in his office a couple of times and cried,” Zubair said.
Kelly said that although she was only 37, she was worried that nothing would work.
“It’s a very emotional thing and then they give you these horrible treatment options,” she said.
Werlin recommended In-vitro fertilization as the next step. In-vitro would put sperm and egg cells together in a lab and then implant the embryos produced by the combination into Kelly’s uterus.
In-vitro, though, is a gamble. There is no screening process to pluck the healthiest embryos from the group and it can fail for dozens of reasons at every step of the process. Werlin told Kelly and Zubair about a new procedure that he said would increase their chances of success.
Embryos can have too many or not enough chromosomes, resulting in genetic diseases like Downs Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis. Four groups of patients — women 38 years and older, women with a history of miscarriage, women who have used In-vitro fertilization and had it fail more than once and men with low sperm counts — are all at elevated risk for producing embryos without the standard 46 chromosomes.
A new tool called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) allows doctors to examine the genetic material in embryos and select only the healthiest to implant. The procedure looks at embryos in the early stages of development, when they are only six or eight cells, and takes a close look at the nine chromosomes most commonly affected by genetic defects.
Werlin is the first doctor in Orange County to use PGD and he maintains that the new test can increase the chances of pregnancy for couples at-risk for failed pregnancies.
Kelly and Zubair participated in a study conducted by Werlin to find out if PGD could help couples have success with In-vitro fertilization. He said of the 21 couples that participated in the study, 70 percent of all the embryos were abnormal and 30 percent of the couples had no healthy embryos to implant. The dismal results, Werlin said, steered some of the couples toward options like using donor eggs or even adoption.
“Although it’s devastating to the patient to find this out, it helps them emotionally,” Werlin said. “It helps them close a chapter in a book that is very distressful.”
Werlin was approved to begin a new PGD study in January with 40 more couples.
Kelly and Zubair though, finally got lucky. After enduring painful shots that Kelly had to take nightly with a 2 ½ inch needle and forking over $3,500 for the PGD testing that their insurance would not cover, the Harberts can now talk about their experience over the gurgles of their squirming son.
Of the Harberts’ nine embryos that Werlin examined, only three were viable. All nine looked healthy under a microscope but PGD narrowed the field and allowed Werlin to implant only the three healthy embryos. Kelly and Zubair said the 50 blood tests and several hundred shots they endured were worth the chance that it could work. Kelly said she would have been thrilled if all three embryos implanted.
“I wanted triplets,” Kelly said.
She gave birth to their son Joshua on July 31 and Kelly said having one child has kept them busy.
“It’s amazing how much work it is,” she said.
But the work has been worth it and the Harberts are looking to keep expanding their family. They plan to go back to Werlin in February to start the process again.
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Coastal Fertility Medical Center offers one of the most affordable fertility treatments and is completely transparent regarding the costs of procedures and any other expenses that you may have to pay before commencing your treatment. This differentiates us from some fertility clinics that reduce prices before the signing of the contract but charge you extra later on. We make sure our patients are well aware of any possible extra pricing that may occur over the course of their treatment.
Following the Preimplantation Genetic Screening process, which helps ensure there are normal chromosome numbers and detects possible genetic disorders, the most healthy embryo(s) are selected to be implanted into your or your chosen surrogate’s womb. 2 weeks after the transfer of the embryo, your physician will conduct a final blood test to determine the level of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in your body. Increased hCG levels usually indicate a positive pregnancy test.
For fertilization to take place, the collected egg and sperm are combined in a petri dish and cultured in an embryo incubator. This dish is closely watched to check whether any of the eggs have been fertilized. Once the egg is fertilized, it is referred to as an embryo or a blastocyst on the 5th day of development. Our in-house embryologist carefully nurtures every embryo to the right time, even if it means working outside the standard business operating hours. For instance: If an oocyte is not mature, our laboratory will wait for it to mature and then ICSI it at the right time.
The egg retrieval is a slightly invasive medical procedure that takes about 20 to 30 minutes. You will be given an anesthetic to make you sleep for the duration of the procedure. Using ultrasound technology, your doctor will harvest your eggs transvaginally with a small, hollow needle connected to an ultrasound probe. Once your eggs are collected, your partner’s semen or donor sperm you have pre-selected is used for fertilization. The sperm are washed and prepared, and the top-quality sperm extracted is used to fertilize the eggs.
Your doctor will create a customized medication schedule that contains information about the fertility medications and hormone injections you have to take. Medication and injections are taken to encourage your ovaries to mature a large number of eggs for fertilization. Since women don’t respond to fertility drugs and hormones the same way, personalized protocols are crucial to the IVF cycle success. At Coastal Fertility, we will monitor you closely, letting you understand the changes occurring in your body and keeping track of how your egg follicles are growing.
On-site consultations typicallyinclude a standard fertility evaluation, consisting of a physical examination, complementary follicular ultrasound, and testing to enable your doctor to know your present fertility status and draw up a treatment plan.
This consultation includes a detailed medical evaluation with a doctor. You and your physician will review your health records and have enough time to talk about your goals and get answers to your questions. We recommend that you jot down all your questions before the visit to allow you to make the best use of the time spent with your doctor.
Your Reproductive Endocrinologist will take all factors into consideration and create a comprehensive plan of care, otherwise known as the treatment plan. This plan will include treatment recommendations from the physician and enable your financial coordinator to make a precise quotation once you meet.
Our globally respected team of specialists are helping improve IVF technologies to enter into a generation of better outcomes for infertility. Although you’ll have a doctor guiding you, you are also going to benefit from the experience and insights of other doctors during case review collaboration meetings, which take place every week. So, you won’t just rely on the expertise of a specialist but benefit from the knowledge of many reputed fertility experts.
The infertility industry is currently segmented, with each service or treatment being handled by a different provider. Our all-inclusive model simplifies an otherwise complex and difficult process. We are here to revolutionize the infertility industry by offering a one-stop-service model to assist our patients through infertility challenges while reducing physical, emotional, and financial risks.
Our fertility clinic focuses on helping you build your family regardless of your sexual orientation or the gender you choose to identify with. We are even taking further steps to make LGTB people feel more welcome at our fertility clinic. Each of our patient-facing staff goes through LGTB training to let family-building clinicians provide necessary support and make you feel highly welcome.
We know that every situation is different and that everyone requires different treatments. Unlike facilities that take “a one-size-fits-all” approach for all cases, our fertility specialists use more than 40 customized protocols to raise the chances of success. The customized approach even extends to our fertility laboratory. Our on-site lab director and his highly-experienced team nurture every embryo and egg to increase the odds of success of each cycle.
Our team specializes in difficult cases and help patients who may have been considered “hopeless” at other fertility clinics. Thanks to our personalized solutions, expertise, and internal collaboration, weare able to maximize pregnancy success rates that are well above the industry average, even in difficult infertility cases.
Upon your arrival, you will check in with a Patient Care Coordinator. We will obtain your insurance information for benefits verification, a copy of your identification and take a picture for your electronic medical chart
Coastal Fertility is the leading provider of fertility solutions located in Orange County. Join us to get free updates on fertility news, treatments, infertility solutions and more.
Coastal Fertility is the leading provider of fertility solutions located in Orange County. Join us to get free updates on fertility news, treatments, infertility solutions and more.