Infertility treatment can be a long and stressful journey. We are providing these CHR fertility success stories to offer our patients hope during times of discouragement. These are real stories by CHR patients who have been in the same situations that you may be in today.

While our patients generally prefer to remain anonymous, the following patients have volunteered the essence of their CHR experience. The patient's success stories can offer a unique perspective on fertility care that is different from those of physicians, nurses or other healthcare providers. If you have a story you would like to share, please email Tom Weidner.

Highly recommended by me!

Dear Dr. Barad,
How do you thank the people who gave you a miracle? Words cannot express the thanks I feel for you helping us to achieve my dream of becoming a mother. Our baby, Madison Alexis, was born January 2, 2009. She is perfect and we owe it all to you. Thank you for always taking the time to answer my emails. Your calm but confident ways were very comforting & reassuring to me. I felt that I was receiving the best possible care with you as my doctor. You came highly recommended to me, and will be highly recommended by me. I appreciate your sensitivity to all of my needs it was a great experience to deal with doctors and staff who are kind, helpful, knowledgeable and professional. Additionally, it was nice to deal with people who knew who I was each time I came into the office. You are a very special group of people whom we’ll never forget.
With all of our thanks, and much love.
Kathy & Madison

Miracle at age 41

I have a history of PCOS, endometriosis and high FSH that goes back to my teens. Four top infertility clinics told me I'd never have a baby without using a donor egg. However it was important to my husband and me that we do all we could to conceive a child that was part of both of us. That’s when we discovered CHR and met Drs. Gleicher and Barad. They started me on DHEA, and initially I had two IVF sessions that failed because I was still unable to produce a viable egg. Then five months after starting DHEA, I was not feeling well and visited Dr. Barad who performed a sonogram to investigate. He discovered the cause of my "sickness" was that I was pregnant! Somehow I'd spontaneously conceived. He and the nurses were stunned, and my husband and I were overwhelmed with joy. Lucas was born the day before my 41st birthday. He is 10 months old now and I love being a Mom. The team at CHR was amazing! The doctors, nurses and assistants, were caring, encouraging, and supportive. They are truly special people and helped us bring a miracle into our lives.
Melissa and Richard, and new son, Lucas.

Thanks for not giving up on me!

I just want to say thank you to Dr.Gleicher. We had a consultation over the phone and you prescribed DHEA, which I took for 4 months. I did an IVF procedure and gave birth to a healthy 9lb. 8oz. boy on Feb. 2, 2009. When every single infertility specialist in Georgia had given up on me, you gave me hope and a cure. Thanks a lot!
Deborah

Very fortunate to be pregnant

Thank you for all your help. We feel very fortunate to be pregnant and owe it to your wonderful professionalism and expertise at CHR. We have always felt supported by you and you never gave up hope. We appreciate all that you have done for us.
Stephanie, Ross and Sophie

There is always hope

Before we came to Doctor Gleicher's CHR center in New York, we tried to do IVF cycles with different clinic's and doctors, everything unsuccessfully. When we came to Dr. Gleicher (recommended by one of our friends), we had not much of a hope left. I'm not very good in writing letters or essays, but all I can say now that on February 15, our son Robert Michael was born.

Doctors and staff of the clinic did everything they could to help us to get through the cycle, nurses were there when we need it (even to ask a stupid questions) day or night. We had called at 3 AM and Jody called us back in about 5 minutes. All I can say - with Dr. Gleicher there is always a hope, and he will do much more then humanly possible to get your dream to reality.

We will be more then happy to share our experience with everybody who would be interested in. Thank you very much, DOCTOR!!!!
Nelya Levin and David Grin dgrin864@hotmail.com

Update on our twins

Dr. Gleicher and CHR helped my husband and I conceive twins with PGD about 3 1/2 years ago (working with Dr. Mark Hughes) I just wanted to send a note and tell you how grateful we are for the work you and the rest of the clinic and lab are doing. Allison and Rachel are very happy, healthy, bright, beautiful two-year olds and we could not imagine our lives without them.

Earlier this year my husband was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. While his diagnosis is a very difficult thing for our family, I can not put into words how grateful I am that I do not have to worry about my daughters having this devastating disease. I also know that as my husband faces his own illness he does not have to suffer with the guilt of passing it onto his children. And what a blessing for them to not have to grow up in fear.

I sat in a support group meeting on Monday and listened to a woman say that she just started to notice symptoms in her nine-year old son. It made me think how very lucky I am and how grateful I am for your work.

Please share this note with anyone at the clinic you think appropriate.
Kelly

Celebrating our first family Christmas

Dear Dr. Gleicher, Dr. Barad and staff,
My husband and I came to you for a consultation. After one unsuccessful attempt, you advised me to go for surgery. After the surgery, we started another IVF cycle. On August 28th, I became pregnant with my beautiful little boy who was born on May 13 . He is now 7 1/2 months old and we just celebrated our first Christmas together as a family.We are so happy that we are considering to add to our family, with your help, of course.

Thank you for being professional, caring and wonderful people. From our family to you all, have a happy and healthy New Year.
L. M

The miracle of life

In August, I began my first cycle of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Dr. Gleicher and I were very optimistic that I would become pregnant. I had done my homework and learned that most women who were able to become pregnant did so within the first year of treatment. I was disappointed that the first transfer did not result in a positive pregnancy and decided to start a second treatment immediately after. This transfer was unsuccessful as well. By this point, my optimism had faded. I decided that being pregnant and having a baby was not in my hands, but in God’s. Worrying was not going to get me anywhere.

Although the second transfer had not resulted in a positive pregnancy, Dr. Gleicher still remained optimistic. His optimism is what kept me going. I realized I had the best fertility specialist in Chicago, as he had been featured in Chicago magazine and had appeared on the evening news.

A couple of months after the second transfer, I decided to try again. By this time, it was April. In comparison to the first retrieval, most of the embryos did not survive and only one was transferred. Since the other transfers were two embryos and they had not survived, I was sure this one would not. To my surprise, but certainly not Dr. Gleicher’s, Miracle survived and is now 10 months old.

I am proud to tell people about my experience trying to conceive and about how I had one of the best doctors in the field as my physician.

Valerie Britts,
Miracle’s Mother

Adopting a new future

CHR patient, J.G., came to CHR-NY. She was diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Failure, which means she went into menopause at an unusually early age. We recommended egg donation, but the couple, unfortuneately, could not afford the costs.

Therefore, we suggested the option of "Embryo Adoption" , which means that the woman receives frozen embryos, donated by another couple. This is much less costly than egg donation because neither the donating couple nor CHR charges for the embryos. They accepted our recommendation and we matched them with a donor couple. A few weeks thereafter, we transferred embryos.

In January, a healthy baby girl was delivered. Congratulations!!!.

The latest addition to the family

S.W. and her husband approached CHR. They were the proud parents of two girls, both conceived through prior infertility treatment at another infertility center. After their second child was born, they had decided that their family was complete. Shortly before coming to CHR, they became aware, through the media, that there was a reliable technique available to choose gender.

In a first consultation at CHR, we explained to them that we, indeed, offered gender selection to some couples, in selected cases, utilizing Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). This technique allows us to determine the sex of each embryo created through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Once we know the gender of an embryo, we simply put only embryos of the desired gender into the uterus. Any subsequent pregnancy will then, of course, be of the desired sex.

CHR performs gender selection, however, only in accordance with ethics guidelines published by The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). These guidelines suggest that gender selection by PGD should not be performed, if it requires that IVF and PGD be done exclusively for that purpose. In other words, if there is another clinical reason to perform IVF, the procedure can be added, especially if performed for family balancing purposes.

In this case, all the conditions were met: The couple had two girls, now wanted a boy, and the female required IVF in order to conceive. The availability of a reliable method of gender selection changed this couple’s mind about the possibility of another pregnancy. Now that they could be fairly certain that a third pregnancy would, indeed, yield a boy, they decided to try and enlarge their family one more time.

We are very pleased to report that they succeeded. In February, a healthy boy was delivered.

A donor's gift

Ann, a 43 year old with primary infertility, came to CHR after seeking infertility treatment in another state. Initially, Ann began an IVF cycle. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in two IVF attempts using her own eggs. Ann then decided to go through IVF with donor eggs. Her first attempt was unsuccessful, as was a first frozen embryo transfer (FET). Her second FET was successful, but ended in an early miscarriage. Ann then underwent a second donor IVF cycle at CHR, and we are happy to report that she did become pregnant.

Ann, lmiller@mail.com

Success times two

Eva, 35 years old, had been diagnosed with premature ovarian failure (POF) after undergoing five hormone cycles and three IVF cycles. After a third unsuccessful IVF using her own eggs, Eva turned to IVF with donor eggs. Two such attempts were also unsuccessful. Disappointed and frustrated, Lee and Eva looked toward adoption. At that point, the only thing that mattered to them was having a child to love. On a whim, Eva inquired about CHR's Embryo Adoption Program, a program that would allow Eva to experience pregnancy and childbirth. Lee and Eva decided to try the program, and with it they achieved success. Today, Lee and Eva are the proud parents of twins. The couple is now considering coming back to CHR to adopt more embryos and give their twins a sibling (or two?).

Lee and Eva, empchef@hotmail.com