A twin pregnancy is a high-risk pregnancy for both the mother and the babies. The babies often face serious health problems due to premature birth and/or growth restriction. The Frisco Institute for Reproductive Medicine offers incentives to patients who elect to have a procedure that dramatically reduces the possibility of a pregnancy with multiple births.
FRISCO, Texas, June 19, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Women trying to get pregnant with in vitro fertilization (IVF) can dramatically reduce the prospect of birthing twins by transferring only one embryo to their womb for pregnancy rather than the two embryos that has been common practice in IVF in the past. Aiming for a singleton birth (one baby) decreases health risks to both mother and baby.
The Frisco Institute for Reproductive Medicine (FIRM) is encouraging patients to choose transfer of one embryo with a special incentive program for "elective single embryo transfer ," or eSET.
"If a patient who meets our eSET criteria fails to get pregnant with a single embryo transfer, we will freeze the surplus embryos and perform an additional frozen embryo transfer at no charge," said Rinku Mehta, MD , FIRM's medical director. "We're doing this to encourage patients to use eSET, which we see as an investment in reducing the likelihood of health complications that twins face. We are committed not just to helping women get pregnant, but maximize the chances of having a safe pregnancy and healthy baby."
FIRM already has the lowest IVF multiple pregnancy (twins or more) rate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area—less than 1 percent when qualified women use eSET. More and more women are choosing eSET. This is a welcome and growing trend in the field of fertility because it accomplishes a fundamental goal of medicine: reducing damage to people's health.
Twins, triplets and other multiples have heightened risks for low birth weight and premature birth. This can result in increased infant mortality, the need for special care at birth, and such long-term issues as developmental delays, lung and gastrointestinal dysfunction and cerebral palsy.
The mother carrying twins has an increased risk of Cesarean section, which prolongs recovery and can result in hemorrhage during and after delivery. Worse, one or more babies may not survive to term.
Dr. Mehta said that eSET holds great promise in reducing problems associated with multiple pregnancies. While natural pregnancies result in multiple births about three percent of the time, 30 percent of IVF pregnancies, nationally, result in twins on average, with another four percent resulting in triplets or more. This is primarily due to the formerly accepted practice of transferring two or more embryos in IVF treatment to increase the chances of success.
But with new techniques practiced in advanced IVF laboratories like FIRM's, the pregnancy success rates for qualified candidates are now just about even for single transfers as with double embryo transfers.
That attitude has changed rapidly in the fertility field, where professionals now view a single healthy child as the primary goal of such assisted reproductive technologies as IVF. Fertility patients are a little slower to catch up, which is why FIRM is offering the eSET incentive, said Dr. Mehta.
PR Contact: Paul Kellogg (303) 382-2999
