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Zouves Fertility Center provides comprehensive services, including conventional IVF, IVF with Egg Donation and IVF with Surrogacy. Zouves Fertility Center's state of the art Embryology Laboratory under the direction of Frank Barnes, PhD., is staffed with experienced embryologists offering PGD, ICSI, assisted hatching, and blastocyst transfer. This team, including and participating urologists, has performed over 500 TESE procedures together. Additionally, Zouves Fertility Center offers the latest testing such as SCSA, PGD and immunological therapy.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF)
In this procedure, eggs are removed from the woman's body, and are fertilized in a petri dish using partner's sperm or donor sperm. The embryos are subsequently transferred into the woman's uterus, where implantation should occur. Thanks to a host of medical breakthroughs, including those addressing male factor infertility and implantation. IVF has become a viable option for an increasing number of patients.

Egg Donation
Women who are unable to produce healthy eggs, but have a healthy uterus are candidates for egg donation with IVF. This procedure is the same as described above, except a donor's egg is used to create the embryo.

IVF Surrogacy
Embryos created from the eggs and sperm of both members of the infertile couple are transferred to the uterus of a third party, or surrogate. The surrogate provides a host womb for the offspring, and does not contribute genetic material.

Male Factor ICSI
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) provides help for men with severe sperm dysfunction. In this procedure, a single sperm is micromanipulated and captured in a glass needle and is injected directly into the egg.

Male Factor TESE
Testicular Sperm Extraction (TESE). Under local anesthesia, a small amount of testicular tissue is removed. Sperm are then isolated and a single sperm injected into each egg. Fertilization rates with testicular sperm are no different from ejaculated sperm.

Male factor ICSI and TESE have all but eliminated the need for vasectomy reversal and have significantly reduced the need for donor sperm.

SCSA
Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA) is a rapid highly technological flow cytometry-based measurement of DNA fragmentation. 5,000 individual spermatozoa are randomly selected by non-biased machine criteria, thereby providing the most statistically robust and objective assessment of sperm DNA quality.

Day 3 Transfer or Blastocyst Transfer
Depending on your circumstance a traditional day 3 transfer or else a more advanced day 5 embryo transfer may be appropriate. This additional time allows for identification of the healthier and more robust embryos, which have the highest potential for implantation. With blastocyst transfer, fewer embryos (generally only two or three) are transferred to the womb, therefore reducing the risk of multiple gestation.

Immunology
For some patients a reaction of the immunological system may impair the embryo's ability to attach to the uterine lining and flourish, causing recurrent failed IVF cycles or pregnancy loss. Appropriate testing may suggest therapy as simple as a baby aspirin or as complicated as immunization with patient's white blood cells (PLI), intravenous gammuglobin (IVIG) or a new class of anti-inflammatory medication called COX 2 inhibitors like Enbrel or Humira.

Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGD/PGS)
PGD is an intricate procedure which involves removing a single cell from a three-day old embryo and testing it for abnormalities. PGD/PGS permits the selection of embryos, which are less likely to have chromosomal abnormalities and also embryos that may be free of a known single gene disorder, thereby increasing the likelihood of a healthy baby and decreasing the chances of having to terminate a pregnancy found to be abnormal through chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis.

Assisted Hatching
To improve the chances of successful implantation some embryos are subjected to assisted hatching by zona drilling. The process involves using a weak acid solution or a lazer to make a small hole in the outer shell (zona pellucida) of each embryo that is to be transferred. Making this hole allows the embryo to escape its shell and then implant into the uterine lining. Assited Hatching is most often indicated for women who are: 38 years or older that has had adequate embryo production in the past but fail to become pregnant, women with a high FSH, or suffers from polycystic ovarian syndrome and women with thickened zona pellucida.

Cryopreservation
Embryos can be frozen at different times after fertilization, most typically day 3. Freezing is a highly sophisticated procedure which requires that most of the water contained in the embryo be removed. The embryo is then cooled very slowly, which allows the embryologist to have precise control over the freezing process. The entire process takes several hours. The embryos are then placed in a liquid nitrogen tank which is a safe and effective environment in which the embryos can remain.

Storage of Embryos
Extra embryos generated during your cycle at Zouves Fertility Center, may be stored for future use if they are of sufficient quality. As part of your IVF cycle, we will store these embryos for up to twelve months and if at that time you are not ready to use them for a frozen embryo transfer, we would recommend that you move them to a long term storage facility where they can be safely and economically stored until you may need them in the future.