Pacific In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Institute, one of our esteemed partner clinics, is responsible for making our latest grant cycle, Fall For Babies possible! We are grateful for their support and their desire to give back to the future parent community. To show our appreciation we want to highlight their clinic and share their thoughts on trending infertility questions. Keep reading to learn more.
About Pacific IVF Institute
Pacific IVF Institute is Hawaii’s first IVF clinic with some of the most experienced IVF doctors in Hawaii (and the nation). Two board-certified physicians lead Pacific IVF with decades of experience in IVF, reproductive endocrinology, fertility, and OB/GYN. Their professional team works diligently to ensure the highest level of individualized care for their patients.
Pacific IVF specializes in IVF, fertility preservation, LGBTQ+ care, EmbryoScope, and more.
Pacific IVF On Common Infertility Questions
We recently sat down with Dr. Celia Dominguez, M.D. from Pacific IVF Institute, to discuss some common questions we hear from our infertility community.
1. We know that infertility is caused by a variety of factors, but how long should patients wait before consulting a fertility doctor?
A fertility doctor consultation should be sought out at different times depending on the concerns that exist in a couple. If there has been unprotected intercourse for over one year and no pregnancy has occurred, this would bring up concerns. If, before trying to conceive, a couple knows there is a significant problem with either fallopian tubes of sperm, this would usually require help as soon as fertility is desired.
Female age also plays an important role. Most experts recommend not waiting over six months to achieve pregnancy to no avail if the female age is over 35. Bottom line, if there are concerns, it cannot hurt to get an opinion.
2. It seems like many times, successful IVF treatment leads to multiples. Will IVF increase the chances of having twins or triplets?
The goal is to birth one healthy baby. There are specific guidelines on how many embryos should be transferred at a given time into a uterus with the desired outcome being a singleton birth. Certainly, the more embryos that get transferred into the uterus, especially if the embryos come from a reproductively female (under the age of 32), then multiples are common.
Most centers follow the American society of reproductive medicine recommendations that limit embryo number by taking into account the age of the female’s egg, the quality and stage of the embryo development, and prior success of failure with in vitro fertilization.
3. Your clinic specializes in fertility preservation. Are you seeing more single women turning to IVF (with donor sperm)? If so, do you see this trend continuing?
We see third-party reproduction, either donor sperm donor egg or surrogacy, trending as options for many people/couples desiring family building.
These options give hope to many that might otherwise not have the “conventional” family structure. Given the aging female “clock,” along with egg freezing, the use of donor sperm for single females is an excellent option.
4. Are infertility rates increasing? If so, what do you believe are the causes?
At the top of the list of why infertility is on the uptick is that there has been a tendency to delay childbearing through these last few decades, both in men and women.
Female aging has a role in the increased difficulty in achieving a natural pregnancy. Also, there has been a significant drop in sperm counts in men, possibly secondary to environmental factors, toxins, and other contributing circumstances present in our advanced, more complex society than in the 1980s when I started my career as a young ob-gyn.
Sadly many US couples struggle to conceive, and though there are medical treatments, they are costly and come with no guarantee of a successful pregnancy.
At The Gift of Parenthood organization, we look forward to a future of more affordable and successful fertility treatment options for those struggling. In the meantime, we aim to help couples and individuals struggling with infertility achieve their dreams of becoming parents through fertility assistance grants ranging from $1,000 to $16,000, available four times a year. We are honored to partner with Pacific IVF Institute to make parenthood possible for those struggling.