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 Doctor Chenette to Receive Family Building Award from American Fertility Association
Dr. Philip E. Chenette, a Medical Director at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco, will be honored, along with five others, with the Family Building Award at the American Fertility Association’s glamorous Kokopelli Ball in New York City on November 5, 2007. Brenda Strong of the cast of Desperate Housewives will present the award.
Click here for full press release.
Dr. Schriock on “The View from the Bay”
On Wednesday, September 27, 2006, PFC’s Dr. Eldon Schriock will be a guest on the ABC-Channel 7 talk show, “The View from the Bay” to share his expertise on infertility. The television show airs from 3-4 pm (Pacific Time).
PFC Receives 5-Star Rating in “Babies by the Bay”
PFC received a 5-Star rating (the highest) and an informational listing in the 2005 parenting publication, “Babies by the Bay, 2nd edition.” This book provides valuable information on San Francisco-Bay Area doctors, child care, schools, and more! PFC is featured in the infertility chapter—which provides general info on infertility, infertility organizations, and infertility clinics and doctors.
PFC Patient Named 2005 Winner of National Essay Contest for Story of Miracle Birth of Daughter
Pacific Fertility Center patient Lauren Wohl-Sanchez of Oakland, received a $5,000 runner-up prize for her entry in Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ My Little Miracle Essay Contest. Her essay, Waiting for the Pink Line, describes her joy at finally becoming pregnant with her daughter Hannah, now four years old, after coping with infertility.
The contest celebrated the births of children made possible through Ferring’s fertility treatments: REPRONEX® (menotropins for injection, USP) and/or BRAVELLE® (urofollitropin for injection, purified). Ferring awarded $25,000 to 12 winners from around the country, to be deposited in education funds for their children, for a total of $50,000 in education funds awarded in two years.
“We are delighted to be celebrating this occasion, and the fulfillment of a dream for the Sanchezes and so many couples like them, who are able to become parents with the help of today’s improved infertility treatments,” said PFC’s Isabelle Ryan, MD.
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Pictured from left to right: Dr. Isabelle Ryan, Pacific Fertility Center;
Lauren Wohl-Sanchez, holding Hannah; Jeff Sanchez |
PFC at the Professional Business Women of California Conference
Pacific Fertility Center was an exhibitor at the Professional Business Women of California (PBWC) on May 3rd, 2005 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Women at the conference had a chance to enter to win a “Day At the Spa” Basket loaded with goodies!
The lucky winner of Pacific Fertility Center’s “Day at the Spa” basket is Shelly Vu of San Francisco.
Congratulations!
Pacific Fertility Center’s IVF Lab Continues to Receive Exceptional Accreditation Findings!
PFC strives to continually provide excellent care to our patients.
Pacific Fertility Center requests an onsite laboratory inspection by the College of American Pathologists-American Society for Reproductive Medicine (CAP-ASRM) who is the main accreditation body for IVF labs. This must occur every two years.
In January 2005, Pacific Fertility Center’s IVF laboratory received the exceptional finding of "No Deficiencies" for the third time in a row. We must pass this inspection in order to retain our membership with SART and to be able to publish our statistics, however it is unusual that no citations are made at the time of the inspection! The credit should go to PFC's laboratory director Joseph Conaghan, Ph.D. and his team of embryologists. Their careful attention to detail is responsible for this perfect finding.
Dr. Conaghan is a Board-Certified High-complexity Clinical Laboratory Director in the disciplines of Embryology and Andrology with 15 years experience. He is best known for his studies on embryo culture and maintains a strong interest in improving methods for growing embryos in the laboratory.
Pacific Fertility Center Physicians Are Repeatedly Listed in Numerous National Surveys as the "Most Trusted", "Best", or "Top" Infertility Physicians.
Best Doctor Listing 2005
Dr. Carolyn Givens, Dr. Carl Herbert and Dr. Eldon Schriock, all fertility specialists of Pacific Fertility Center, continue to be listed in the Best Doctors in the Bay Area published in the San Francisco Magazine, most recent listing: January 2005 issue.
The list was complied through a survey of the nation's leading physicians who were asked to nominate and evaluate the doctors they trusted most in a variety of specialties. The national list includes approximately 30,000 physicians. Our physicians are listed under the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Top Doctors Listing 2005
Dr. Philip Chenette and Dr. Carl Herbert continue to be listed in Guide to Top Doctors, published by Consumers' Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer information and service resource. This list was complied through a survey of 260,000 physicians. The Top Doctors database contains the names of over 20,000 doctors who were mentioned most often.
Consumer Research Council 2004-2005
Dr. Carolyn Givens, Dr. Philip Chenette, Dr. Isabelle Ryan and Dr. Eldon Schriock are listed among the nations Top OB/GYNs.
The websites for these publications:
http://www.sanfran.com
http://www.bestdoctors.com
http://www.checkbook.org
http://www.consumersresearchcncl.org
Pacific Fertility Center’s Involvement with “Making a Baby” An MSNBC Special
“Making a Baby” An MSNBC Special aired for the first time on August 1st, 2004. Several portions were filmed at Pacific Fertility Center staring PFC patients and staff and their journey through treatment and resolution. There were patients whose story unfortunately was edited out to fit the infertility documentary into a one-hour show. IVF Lab Mix-ups in the news: July 2002
The recent report of a British couple giving birth to black twins emphasizes the need for a careful and methodical process to prevent this occurrence in the IVF laboratory. We would like to reassure all our patients that Pacific Fertility Center laboratory staff has always been committed to a rigorous procedure which eliminates the chance of a mix-up.
Click here to read about our meticulous security procedures.
PFC Research Study Announcements
Multi-Site Investigational Study
December 2003
Pacific Fertility Center is once again pleased to announce its participation in a multi-site investigational study in conjunction with Serono, Inc.
Principal Investigator Isabelle Ryan, MD will be directing the protocol evaluating medications used in In vitro fertilization cycles.
For more information contact the Clinical Research Coordinator at 415-834-3000.
Follistim® Pen Study Enrollment
August 20, 2002
Enrollment for the is now completed. Please check this site periodically for announcements of future studies.
Evaluation of a New Injection Device February 2002
In keeping with Pacific Fertility Center's dedication to providing patients access to the most recent developments in Assisted Reproductive Technologies, we are pleased to announce our current research study.
The following investigation is being sponsored by Organon, Inc. to evaluate a new injection device for the administration of a new formulation of Follistim® to women requiring ovarian stimulation as part of an in vitro fertilization treatment cycle:
An open-label, non-controlled multi-center study to evaluate subject comprehension, ease of use, safety and efficacy of the Follistim Pen® for the self-administration of Follistim-AQ® during Controlled Ovarian Hyperstimulation (COH) in subjects scheduled for IVF or ICSI.
The study will take place at Pacific Fertility Center under the direction of Carolyn Givens, MD.
You may contact the Research Coordinator, Beth Schriock at 415-834-3000 for more information.
Italian Researchers Improve Technique for Freezing Eggs
By Joe Conaghan, Lab Director SFFC, March 22, 2001
Scientists around the world have been trying to develop a method to freeze eggs for over 15 years. You will have read about these efforts in the newspapers because the occasional success brought great hope and excitement. However, after a considerable effort, less than 30 babies have resulted from the thousands of eggs frozen.
Although it has been possible to routinely freeze sperm and embryos, a technique that reliably works with eggs has been elusive. Eggs are ovulated in a very delicate state as they await the arrival of a fertilizing sperm. This leaves them very susceptible to injury and too unstable to withstand even cooling to room temperature. Even when eggs could come through a freezing procedure without physical damage, considerable genetic damage was found after the eggs had been fertilized.
To freeze any cell, we must first remove all the internal water, since water expands as it turns to ice and would burst the cell. To prevent the cell from shriveling, the water is replaced with antifreeze. The cell is bathed in increasing concentrations of antifreeze until it becomes saturated. Towards the end of this process, another step is added to ensure as much water as possible has been extracted from the cell. Just before going in the freezer, the cell is bathed in antifreeze, to which sucrose1 has been added. The sucrose molecule is too large to enter the cell and it functions to draw the last of the water from the cell. Once dehydration is complete, the cell can be frozen with a high possibility of survival.
There are unique challenges in trying to freeze eggs. Not only are they incredibly delicate, but also they are the body's largest cell and therefore contain a lot of water. Obtaining eggs for freezing studies has also been difficult.
Last month, scientists from the University of Bologna in Italy announced new refinements in the techniques used to freeze eggs. This particular group of scientists has a long history of working with egg freezing and is recognized as the world leaders in this field. More than half of the babies born to date from frozen eggs were created in their laboratory.
The new developments are the result of studies on some 3000 human eggs. The key to their success is increasing the sucrose concentration that the eggs are exposed to before freezing, and increasing the exposure time. Eggs that were exposed to sucrose for up to 15 minutes before freezing, survived at a rate of 70%. This compares to 55% survival after a more traditional 5-minute exposure. Eggs that were exposed to a sucrose concentration of 3 times normal, survived at a rate of 82%, compared to 34% in the normal concentration. In clinical trials on the eggs that survived freezing, 58% fertilized and 74% of these went on to make good quality embryos.
These numbers suggest that if a woman was to freeze 10 eggs, she might expect to have 2 or 3 good quality embryos after thawing and fertilization. This is a considerable improvement over previous studies that reported 1 birth for approximately every 100 eggs frozen.
Routine freezing of eggs is rapidly becoming an exciting possibility.
1Sucrose is the sugar you add to your coffee!
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