subject: ESET - Elective Single Embryo Transfer [print this page] ESET - Elective Single Embryo Transfer ESET - Elective Single Embryo Transfer
If every cloud has a silver lining, this story may have had one in the form of renewed public awareness of the association of multiple birth outcomes with assisted reproductive technology, or ART procedures.
Why are multiple births so strongly associated with ART? The answer is straightforward enough, but the solutions are not. Women requiring advanced fertility treatments such as fertility drug-augmented intrauterine insemination's, or in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer run the highest risk of a multiple gestation due to the presence of more than one embryo developing in the uterus, a consequence of IUI or IVF-ET procedures. With IUI, several eggs may be released from her ovaries to be available for fertilization in vivo; in the case of IVF-ET, more than one embryo may be transferred into her uterus at a time.
Doctors (and their fertility patients) play the odds when performing these procedures, which are that only a singleton pregnancy will develop. IUI and IVF-ET each have a 25% chance of twinning, and a 3% chance of triplet pregnancies developing per procedure - this is several times higher in likelihood than natural pregnancy. Limiting the amount of ovarian stimulation in IUI can lower the incidence of multiples, and limiting the number of embryos transferred does the same thing for IVF-ET - but what does this do to the chances of becoming pregnant by these procedures?
Reproductive centers have been focused on this issue for some time now, particularly as it applies to IVF-ET. What we have discovered is that many women have the same chance of delivering a baby from the transfer of a single, carefully selected embryo as they do with the transfer of two embryos, and the twinning rate is practically eliminated. We presented this data last year at the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society Annual Meeting, demonstrating that this so-called elective single embryo transfer procedure, or eSET, was safe to use not only for patients with a high chance of success such as ovum donor recipients, but with other patient categories as well. This was one of the first reports any group has presented with this much data on the subject, and with such definitive results.
Whether patients may be candidates for eSET can only be determined by evaluation of their fertility history and circumstances by one of our specialists. Single embryo transfer coupled with "flash freezing" can maximize a patient's chances of conception per egg retrieval procedure, thus making the entire process dramatically more economical as well as successful. We encourage all patients to bring up the possibility of eSET with their fertility specialist to see if it is appropriate therapy for them.
Southern California Reproductive Center was first established in 1988. In that time it has completed over 7 dozen research studies with results reported in peer-reviewed venues. It has 11 more research studies currently in process. SCRC does approximately 900 invitro fertilization cases each year. For the past three years SCRC has remained the best fertility clinic in the Los Angeles Metro area. SCRC has an affiliated surgery center as well as assisted reproduction laboratory on site. The infertility experts at SCRC also train other fertility specialists. For example, young physicians who pursue a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology rotate through the practice and are trained by the SCRC physicians, who are also affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and are on the faculty of UCLA Medical School.
