November 07, 2011 (New York, NY) —As an alternative to its standard Egg Donation Program, the EcoDEP discount donor egg program offers patients an opportunity to receive donor eggs at a much lower total cycle cost of $14,950. The cost of a standard egg donation cycle is approximately double this cost.

“Because CHR, likely, offers the largest and most diverse pool of carefully selected egg donors in the world, and because of the program’s excellent pregnancy rates, CHR’s standard Egg Donation Program has served a worldwide clientele successfully for years,” explains Norbert Gleicher, MD, Medical Director of CHR. He adds: “The large number and diversity of available egg donors allow CHR, uniquely, to match donors closely to patients, and with practically no waiting period.” However, CHR recognizes fertility patients’ current economic realities. Dr. Gleicher continues: “Traditional egg donation is expensive. Looking for a less costly alternative, we created a radically different low cost donor egg program. EcoDEP, the new frozen donor egg program, utilizes frozen-thawed donor eggs instead of fresh donor eggs, and instead of giving one recipient all of the eggs from a donor, the program splits one donor’s eggs amongst up to three recipients.”

In the EcoDEP donor egg program, donor eggs are frozen after retrieval in batches of at least five. Once a recipient chooses a donor with frozen eggs as her “match,” a batch of five frozen eggs is thawed, fertilized with partner sperm, and resulting embryos are transferred to the recipient’s uterus.

Although a number of recent studies from around the world reported comparable pregnancy rates from fresh and frozen donor eggs, the use of frozen eggs is still widely, including at CHR, considered “experimental.” As such, patients will be required to sign an informed consent, acknowledging the experimental nature of EcoDEP. Like all in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes at CHR, EcoDEP outcomes will be closely monitored, serially reported to CDC and SART, but also immediately published to the public on CHR’s website, as soon as statistically valid numbers become available.

“Choosing between standard egg donation and the new lower-cost EcoDEP requires careful consideration of advantages and disadvantages,” says David H. Barad, MD, CHR’s Director of Clinical ART. “If costs were not an issue, traditional egg donation would be the first choice of most patients, since it offers broader donor selection and higher cumulative pregnancy chances.” Dr. Barad continues: “But, only too often, second best choices have to be made in life, because first choices are unaffordable. EcoDEP will give many women their first access to egg donation. This may also be the first chance at pregnancy for these patients – and ultimately, this is what CHR stands for.”

About Center for Human Reproduction

Center for Human Reproduction, or CHR, is a leading fertility center in the United States with a worldwide reputation as a “fertility center of last resort.”  Under the leadership of Drs. Norbert Gleicher and David H. Barad, CHR is now offering the EcoDEP program for finding an affordable egg donor.  For more information, visit http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com.

In the United States pregnancy in older women is becoming progressively more common. For a number of years, US national birth data has demonstrated that women above age 40 now represent the most rapidly growing age group having children.

Different societal developments contribute to this development. More women are in the work force, there are fewer and later marriages, higher divorce rates and, of course, medical progress has allowed older women conceive into their 50s either with their own eggs or via egg donation.

Norbert Gleicher, MD and Medical Director of New York City’s Center for Human Reproduction (CHR) – a leading clinical and research center in infertility – has recently brought attention to the rising number of older women becoming mothers. In a blog published by CHR he notes that a number of media reports recently presented the pros and cons of pregnancy in older women. All reports, however, missed the most important conclusion to this seemingly sudden societal development (which in reality has been growing quietly for over a decade): the developed world is in the midst of a reproductive social revolution in which we will increasingly see older, and often single, women becoming mothers.

So far, the medical profession, academia and government have failed to address potential societal consequences of an increase in older mothers. The public and medical establishments are similarly skeptical and to a degree hostile to what some have derisively called “grandmothers having children.” Yet, Dr. Gleicher notes, “The trend [of pregnancy in older women] is irreversible, and can only be expected to accelerate.”

Dr. Gleicher further points out that at CHR the median patient age, which a decade ago was around 35 years, passed 40 in 2011. Egg donation, mostly utilized by older women who no longer have use of their own eggs, is CHR’s most rapidly growing in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. Trends also can be seen nationally based on Center for Disease Control and Prevention data. Between 2004 and 2008 percentages of IVF cycles as a proportion of all IVF more than doubled above the age of 42. By 2008, egg donation cycles already represented 12.3% of all IVF cycles in the US.

“Medicine is not ready to manage pregnancy in older women safely and society is not ready to help them cope with older motherhood,” warns Dr. Gleicher. “Affected medical specialties have to develop the necessary expertise, whether they agree with patients’ decisions to be pregnant at advanced ages or not.” Feeling strongly about the subject, he concludes, “As we do not withhold care from smokers with lung cancer or from overly obese diabetics, it would be unethical to withhold care from older women desirous of motherhood.”

About CHR
Center for Human Reproduction (http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com) is a leading infertility center in New York City treating patients worldwide.  CHR is well-recognized for its major clinical research program, which has contributed a number of essential breakthroughs to the IVF process. Dr. Gleicher is available for further comments.