When Robyn decided to become a surrogate, she looked into options that included going through an agency or doing it privately. She compared the earnings for a surrogate and the agencies, and researched how much intended parents were going to have to pay an agency. She gathered the same data going the private route. Robyn discovered that intended parents can pay as much as $100K, which includes all treatment and medications. Surrogates, meanwhile, only make a certain amount. By going privately, surrogates and intended parents negotiate the contract and agree on the surrogate’s payment. Typically, this amount is less than...
Ring in the Chinese New Year With This Excellent TCM Fertility Treatment
The Chinese New Year in 2016 is Monday, Feb. 8. In celebration of this momentous holiday, let’s take a look at an excellent traditional Chinese medicine fertility treatment that might just help you get pregnant: acupuncture. If you are unfamiliar with acupuncture, it’s a treatment that uses thin needles that are inserted at different points in the body to facilitate the flow of Qi or the flow of energy in the body. The treatment is used for many conditions, including fertility. Proponents say that the process regulates the way the body functions. In the case of fertility, it is said...
New Year’s Fertility Resolutions You Can Keep
The new year approaches and with it the chance to make a fresh start. For couples trying to become pregnant through fertility treatment, it’s an excellent opportunity to make a New Year’s resolution that will help them get pregnant. A couple of years ago, Forbes reported that only 8 percent of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions. The problem? Many people make resolutions that are too complicated, out of their control or that they don’t believe they can keep. Those 8 percent that were successful did not make these mistakes. They kept it simple and tangible and believed they can...
The Different Options for Same-Sex Couples
Love comes in many forms, and not all of them are traditional. There are more options than ever before for same-sex couples to conceive biological children together. While conception takes a different course in these cases, assisted reproductive technology treatments open the door for all the forms of love to start a family together. For gay women, once you have determined your sperm donor, which can be either from someone you know or someone from a sperm bank, you can pursue a couple of different options, including: Intrauterine insemination (IUI): Also known as artificial insemination, this option requires the birth...
Want to Conceive a Boy? Want to Conceive a Girl? Here’s How.
Many couples want to conceive a boy. Many other couples want to conceive a girl. They all have their reasons for wanting gender selection as an option for their family — some that most would understand and some that most people would condemn. But whatever the reason behind it, there is a way to conceive the gender you want using technology. It’s called gender selection, and here’s what you should know about it. During in vitro fertilization, your fertility specialist can assess the developing embryos to detect the presence of certain genetic diseases. This test is called the pre-implantation diagnosis,...
Dr. Jane Frederick Featured on iHeart Radio
Dr. Jane Frederick was recently featured on iHeart Radio’s Fearless Fabulous You, hosted by Melanie Young, discussing the latest options for women of childbearing age who have been diagnosed with cancer. Originally broadcast live on W4WN Radio – The Women 4 Women Network, you can tune in by clicking the link below. Listen to the Interview
The Right Attitude Can Help Relieve IVF Stress and Anxiety
Submit by Claire Perez Castillo Claire and Rod had one chance to get pregnant with in-vitro fertilization. One. Rod had a vasectomy before he met Claire, and rather than reversing it and hoping for a successful natural conception, the couple decided their best chance was with assisted reproductive technology and IVF. Claire credits Dr. David Tourgeman’s easy demeanor and down-to-earth bedside manner with her comfort and low anxiety level. “Rather than grilling us about what we’d tried previously, he just said, “hey, this is a process that works.” Claire admits that their journey wasn’t quite as stressful as other couples...
What to Do When Your Infertility Is Unexplained
There are many tests that your fertility specialist will perform to see what is causing your infertility and to find a fertility treatment option that will help you become pregnant. However, the tests don’t always reveal a clear answer, resulting in the dreaded diagnosis, unexplained infertility. This diagnosis can feel daunting, but it is important to understand that there are many options ahead of you to see success in your journey to parenthood. Unexplained infertility does have a reason, but it simply has not been discovered yet. First of all, one in five couples will experience unexplained infertility after complete...
The Benefits of Assisted Hatching
Experiencing a failure during in vitro fertilization (IVF), or even facing predictions that your IVF cycle has a high risk of failure, is disheartening. IVF is not cheap, financially or emotionally. Many couples hang a lot of hope on the success of these cycles. Depending on your fertility situation, one procedure your fertility specialist might suggest to help achieve conception is assisted hatching. Many times when IVF fails, it is because the embryo did not implant in the uterus successfully. The reason it does not implant correctly is because of the hatching process. As an embryo is developing, it is...
Dr. Daniel Potter Sees More Than 20 Australian Couples a Month for Gender Selection
More than 20 Australian couples a month visit Dr. Daniel Potter to select their baby’s gender, with most couples wanting a girl after multiple sons. The number of Australians traveling to the U.S. has doubled since 2011, prompting Dr. Potter to advocate gender selection in Australia, calling it a “reproductive freedom issue.” Last summer, Dr. Potter traveled to Australia to speak about the issue of gender selection as that country’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) considers changing the guidelines that outlaw the practice in Australia. The NHMRC is currently asking for advice on whether it should lift...