No, You’re Not Imagining It - Fertility Centers Are Busy. And IVF Success Rates Have Never Been Higher.
No, You’re Not Imagining It - Fertility Centers Are Busy. And IVF Success Rates Have Never Been Higher.
If you’re wondering why morning monitoring for an IVF or IUI cycle seems busier than usual these days, it’s not because of scheduling, staffing, or a fluke. It’s because more and more hopeful parents are seeking fertility care - and finding success, too.
While U.S. births fell by 4% last year - thanks to a variety of factors, including a continuation in the drop of babies born to teens, fertility centers like New York Reproductive Wellness (NYRW) here in Syosset, Long Island are experiencing the opposite; they’ve been busy with patients desiring to conceive. In fact, new patient visits to fertility clinics nationally are up at least 15%, based on data from the field over the last six-months.
At New York Reproductive Wellness, Dr. Gregory Zapantisand his staff have seen this trend firsthand and helped more and more achieve their dreams of parenthood. So, what’s behind this trend?
No doubt patients who were in lock-down and hesitant about seeking care this time last year, are now out getting a first or second opinion about fertility care. But another perhaps less obvious reason for the resent rise of fertility treatment is the increase in success and safety over the last 10-years or more. Since the birth of the first IVF baby in 1978, the field of reproductive medicine has advanced faster than almost any other field of medicine, making massive scientific leaps and bounds that have completely changed outcomes for patients.
Now, couples with severe male factor infertility can use Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) to conceive; LGBTQ+ plus couples can start or grow their families using co-IVF, where both partners take part in pregnancies; women with Diminished Ovarian Reserve, (DOR), who experience early menopause through no fault of their own, can have biological children; and women who cannot use their own eggs to conceive can carry their babies using donor eggs.
IVF is safer and more effective than ever. Take twin pregnancies and births, for example, which used to be a hallmark of IVF. Now, thanks to blastocyst stage biopsy and Pre-implantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy (PGT-A), a test that can identify normal embryos for implantation, twins are a thing of the past – and so is the risk to mother and baby that used to accompany them. As a result, premature IVF babies are also a rarity; in fact, IVF babies are now regularly born to term and weigh as much as non-IVF births.
Couple that science and success with increasing workplace insurance coverage for fertility treatment and the de-stigmatization of infertility, and you get what we are experiencing now – clinics full of hopeful parents more confident than ever, that their parenthood dreams are firmly within reach. Because they are.
To book your fertility consult with Dr. Gregory Zapantis, click here.
