Overview of Blastocyst Culturing System in Assisted Reproductive Technologies by Dr. Minh N. Ho
Tig Notaro and wife Stephanie welcome twin boys - shared the first up-close photo
While she always wanted to carry her own child, Elizabeth Banks is happy she used a surrogate
You are all set and good to move forward. Focus on the treatment program and let’s bring your baby to you.
Based on the findings you can choose the right treatment package and payment plan including insurance program authorization, paying fully, or selecting the installment contract.
You can bring your card along when visiting for consultation or take a nice and clean pic of the insurance card and send it over email, fax, or through your patient portal.
You will travel to our San Diego location (all expenses covered) for retrieval. Eggs are retrieved vaginally through a 15-minute minimally invasive procedure under sedation. You will return home between 24-48 hours after your retrieval
You will travel to our San Diego location (all expenses covered) for retrieval. Eggs are retrieved vaginally through a 15-minute minimally invasive procedure under sedation. You will return home between 24-48 hours after your retrieval.
Both you and the Intended Parents will have attorneys appointed to discuss agreements and create your contracts. If the Lucina Egg Bank selects you as a banking donor, you will create a contract directly with Physician’s Surrogacy which is the partner surrogacy agency of RSMC.
Once you are matched with either Lucina’s Egg Bank or an Intended Parent, we will conduct a comprehensive medical screening and psychological evaluation.
We will create a profile that highlights your most extraordinary qualities. We will present your profile toprospective Intended Parents and the Lucina egg banking committee.
Surrogate and Intended Parents are matched based on detailed criteria. A comprehensive legal contract is signed with clear legal guidelines for each party
You will travel to our San Diego location with all necessary expenses covered. One of our skilled physicians will retrieve the eggs vaginally through a minimally invasive procedure.
If you meet the pre-qualifications you will be asked to complete part 2 of the application, which will ask in-depth questions about your personality traits, family medical history, and more.
Create an account and complete the pre-qualification application to find out if you qualify. You will find out instantly whether you can be accepted. This application is not a commitment, it’s a simple way to find out if you’re eligible to become an egg donor.
Currently the infertility industry is segmented and each treatment or service is handled by a different provider. Our full-integrated model streamlines an otherwise complicated process. We exist to revolutionize the industry by providing a one-stop-service model to help our patients navigate through the infertility maze, minimizing financial, physical and emotional risks.
The surrogacy agency is fully transparent about the pricing of procedures and any additional costs that may occur before your treatment begins. Some clinics may lower prices before the contract signing but charge more at a later date. We make it our priority that our patients are aware of any potential additional pricing that may occur during the treatment.
Our clinic focuses on family building options regardless of your sexual orientation or the gender you identify yourself. We are actively taking additional steps to make members of the LGBT community feel welcome at our clinic. All of our patient-facing staff undergoes LGBT training for family-building clinicians to better support and make you feel welcome.
Our internationally respected team of experts are advancing IVF technologies to enter into a future generation of better outcomes for infertility. While you will have one physician guiding you, you will also benefit from the combined experience and insights of our physicians during weekly case review collaboration meetings. That way you will not only be able to rely on the expertise of one fertility expert, but multiple renowned specialists.
Our team specializes in challenging cases and accept patients who may have been deemed “hopeless” at other clinics. Due to our customized solutions, expertise and full-range of internal collaboration, we are able to maximize pregnancy success rates that surpass the industry average even in complicated cases.
Every situation is unique and every body needs different treatments. Our fertility experts use over 40 customized protocols to increase success rates for our patients whereas many facilities take a “protocol fits all” approach.
The personalized approach even extends to our IVF lab. Our full-time laboratory director and lab team nurture each egg and embryo to support the maximum success of each and every cycle.
Physician’s Surrogacy which is the partner surrogacy agency of RSMC is fully transparent about the pricing of procedures and any additional costs that may occur before your treatment begins. Some clinics may lower prices before the contract signing but charge more at a later date. We make it our priority that our patients are aware of any potential additional pricing that may occur during the treatment.
Our 3rd Generation IVF, also known as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), is beyond exceptional with our very own specialist leading the medical team. We screen for and identify specific genetic diseases, eliminating inheritance in future generations.
The state-of-the-art laboratory accounts for 30-40% of our success rates. Count on centralized control and strict oversight by an experienced, full-time lab director.
Physician’s Surrogacy, the partner surrogacy agency of RSMC, has a distinct
advantage over other clinics. You’ll have a higher chance of success with our extensive and specialized protocols. We provide customized care that considers many factors contributing to infertility and identifies the best next steps.
Everything you need is in-house, which makes your journey easier. We provide consistent communication and care while guiding you through the process.
Our expansive surrogacy program features a stringent screening and selection process. This ensures our surrogates are healthy and highly qualified to carry a pregnancy to term.
When it comes to your journey, our goal is to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. Our proprietary insurance plans cover third party-related medical expenses as well as unexpected situations.
A surrogate is a partner throughout your journey. Our surrogacy program has a strict screening and selection process so you can trust your surrogate is healthy and highly qualified to carry a pregnancy to term.
The path to parenthood is a physical and emotional journey. Count on qualified physicians and reproductive specialists to guide you through each step for a successful pregnancy.
You’ll have a higher chance of finding a perfect match with our egg donation program, which features diverse women of various backgrounds.
Feel confident knowing our doctors and embryologists have more than 150 years combined experience, resulting in high surrogate and egg donor pregnancy rates (80% and 87% respectively).
If IVF or IUI is not an option, RSMC helps you find a surrogate through our in-house, OB-managed surrogacy program. Through our program, all Surrogates have been pre-screened with our proprietary process, offering you peace of mind and confidence by ensuring their medical and emotional readiness to help you achieve your dream. Our program is less than 50% below the national average for pre-term delivery rates, maximizing the safety for both the Surrogate and your baby. An experienced physician will closely monitor the pregnancy along with your case manager. Detailed reports are sent directly to you on a weekly basis. Your Surrogate has a dedicated case manager and psychologist to support her throughout the journey.
Egg donation allows individuals and couples to experience parenthood by using another woman’s eggs. Utilizing donor eggs is a great option for women who have undergone treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation. After these treatments, women are unable to naturally reproduce using their own eggs. The process involves utilizing eggs from another woman and fertilizing them with sperm to create an embryo. The embryo is then implanted in the intended mother or surrogate’suterus via IVF.
Today, the power is in your hands to delay parenthood to pursue your career, educational or personal goals. Most women don’t realize there is a dramatic decline in egg quality during your 30s and fertility preservation puts you in control of your timeline. The process is similar to IVF, but instead of the embryos being created and transferred, they are cryopreserved and stored. Once you have discussed everything with your partner and standard fertility testing has been completed, your physician determines which option is best for you. We have made fertility preservation even more accessible by offering one of the most egg freezing programs.
This option makes it possible for both you and you partner to have a biological connection to your child. It is the exact same process as IVF. However, the eggs are retrieved from one partner and the resulting embryos are transferred into the carrying mother’s uterus. Since you are going through the process together, fertility medications are used to sync your cycles. The woman who is providing the eggs goes through an ovarian stimulation cycle and the egg retrieval procedure.
IVF is another popular option for many situations, especially if you are using donor eggs. In the process of IVF, you/your partner/Egg Donor undergo ovarian stimulation to develop mature eggs which are then removed from the ovaries and fertilized in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are transferred into either your uterus, your partner’s uterus, or a Gestational Carrier if needed. Moreover, our IVF pricing is one of the most comprehensive ones in California and neighboring states.
Also referred to as artificial insemination, in which washed and prepared sperm is placed near the egg inside the uterus during an ovulation cycle. Fertility drugs are used to help track ovulation and increase your chances of success. In this case, your or your partner’s eggs and donor sperm will be used for embryo creation.
You’ll find your perfect match through our extensive donor database. Whether you are looking for a donor with high IQ, specific aesthetics, gifts or talents, our matching program assures you select the characteristics most important to you.
Your journey to parenthood will be shorter and more predictable because of our Egg Bank. Quality donor eggs are frozen through vitrification and stored in our on-site laboratory. Electing to use bank to eggs puts you in control of your timeline, since they are available for immediate use. Additionally, selecting donors from our bank eliminates waiting time and unforeseen setbacks. You will maximize success rates due to a guaranteed yield of high quality, mature eggs.
Your journey to parenthood will be shorter and more predictable because of our Egg Bank. Quality donor eggs are frozen through vitrification and stored in our on-site laboratory. Electing to use banked eggs puts you in control of your timeline since they are available for immediate use. Additionally, selecting donors from our bank eliminates waiting time and unforeseen setbacks. You will maximize success rates due to a guaranteed yield of high-quality, mature eggs.
Our egg bank makes your journey to fatherhood shorter and less risky. It puts you in complete control of your timeline since banked eggs are available for immediate use. Selecting from our egg bank also eliminates waiting time and unforeseen setbacks. When you use our egg bank, you are guaranteed high-quality eggs, which maximizes success rates. Get Egg Bank Access.
You can also use the eggs of someone you know, such as a close friend or family member. You’ll already know your donor’s personality, and potentially their health and family background. They will also have the unique opportunity to be a part of your child’s life, which can be incredibly rewarding. A known donor will still be required to go through the same screening and retrieval process as an anonymous donor
If you decide to go with an anonymous donor, surrogacy agency has an extensive donor database to choose from. Our donors are thoroughly screened to ensure that they have high-quality and viable eggs. Our extensive database consists of a wide variety of donors worldwide, allowing you to select the Egg Donor that best suits your wants and needs.
While seeing your reproductive endocrinologist, you discuss your efforts and failed attempts. Your doctor may draw blood, test and evaluate hormone levels, as well as collect a sperm sample from your partner. There are several tests and evaluations your doctor will use to determine infertility. (Infertility Diagnosis and Testing) Once lab results are back, your doctor will discuss the treatment options and next steps. While the road leading to this point may not have been easy, you are not alone.
Our medical team at the surrogacy agency will help you have the family of your dreams. We specialize in challenging cases and are dedicated to helping you achieve your family goals.
It’s been months, maybe a year, since you’ve started trying. Tracking your ovulation and planning accordingly has not been successful. You and your partner start to google reasons why you’re not able to conceive with the hope of finding a new method. You try the recommended methods, but the result is the same. Uneasiness sets in and you both decide it’s time to see a fertility specialist.
It’s been a couple of months and your period continues to be consistent and on time. You may start to wonder if your timing is off. During this phase, you may try to be more clever and start utilizing ovulation trackers to understand your fertility window.
Now that you know when you are ovulating, you plan accordingly, hoping for a positive result. Unfortunately, no signs of pregnancy occur. You start to become concerned and compare your situation to those of your friends and family who were able to conceive in the same amount of time.
After you and your partner have decided it’s time to start a family, you both stop using birth control and let nature take its course. At this time, you may not be tracking your fertility window and may be having sex whenever the mood is right.
Following the preimplantation genetic screening process, which makes sure there are normal numbers of chromosomes and diagnoses possible genetic disorders, the most viable, healthiest embryos are selected for freezing. Thanks to the development of vitrification also known as flash freezing, you have a better chance of having a successful pregnancy using frozen embryos. Vitrification enables over 90% of frozen embryos to survive the thawing process and prevents them from declining in quality. Your embryos are gently handled and securely stored in our on-site lab. Unlike other fertility laboratories, the surrogacy agency has a lab director that works full time, which shows our commitment to quality since more than 40 % of IVF success depends on the laboratory.
For fertilization to take place, the harvested egg and best-quality sperm are “mixed” and left in a Petri dish containing a culture media and then placed in an incubator. This dish is closely watched to check if fertilization has occurred. Once the eggs are fertilized, they are referred to as an embryo or a blastocyst on the 5th day of development. Our in-house embryologist will then nurture the embryos until they are ready to be implanted or frozen, even if that means working outside the standard operating time. For instance, if an oocyte is not yet mature, we will wait for it to achieve maturation and then ICSI it at the right time.
The egg retrieval is a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure, that lasts approximately 20-30 minutes. You will be put to sleep by anesthesia for the procedure. Using ultrasound technology, your physician will retrieve the eggs with a fine, hollow needle attached to an ultrasound scan probe. Once the eggs are retrieved, the partner’s fresh or frozen sample of semen or donated sperm you have selected beforehand is washed.
The day after hatching, the embryo is transferred to the uterus where it will hopefully implant and result in a successful pregnancy.
The embryo is held with a specialized holding pipette. A very delicate, hollow needle is used to expel the acidic solution against the outer “shell” (zona pellucida) of the embryo. The acidic solution creates a small hole in the shell.
The collected sperm are examined and evaluated for their health, strength, and motility. The patient may choose to utilize the sperm to fertilize his partner’s or a donor’s egg or may also choose to preserve the sperm for later use.
The collected sperm samples are separated into multiple containers. Skilled lab technicians will use cryoprotectant, a substance used to protect the sperm from freezing damage. The frozen vials of sperm are stored in the lab until the patient is ready to use them
The male patient will provide a semen sample through masturbation. If the patient does not produce sperm in the ejaculation, a sperm sample may be taken from his testes involving MESA, a surgical retrieval.
When the embryos are ready for PGS and PGD testing, six to eight cells are extracted from the embryo (usually after day 5 or 6). This is called a blastocyst biopsy. During the biopsy, our laboratory technician uses a narrow biopsy pipette to remove cells from the outer layer of cells (trophectoderm). The embryologist will then freeze the embryo and wait for the test results.
Genetic testing is usually completed within one day of the embryo biopsy, which allows for a timely embryo transfer. During this step, chromosomes are inspected for genetic abnormalities.
After the egg has been fertilized, embryos are transferred into a fluid that allows them to develop for several days. On day three, the healthy embryos should have developed into eight cells.
The dish is placed in an incubator to allow for fertilization. After fertilization has taken place, the embryo is then transferred into the uterus or frozen for future implantation.
A sperm sample is taken from the man’s semen or is extracted from his testes if he has trouble ejaculating with sperm. Motile sperm are selected, prepared, and washed for insemination. Additionally, the woman’s eggs are surgically extracted from her ovaries. Mature eggs are chosen for injection.
Once ovulation occurs, the washed and selected sperm will be inserted using a thin catheter (tube) through your cervix and into the uterus. If ovulation doesn’t occur, you may be administered an HCG shot. Once the shot is administered, the insemination process will continue within 24 to 40 hours.
IUI typically takes place during a natural ovulation cycle without the use of fertility drugs. The procedure is done between day 12 and 16 of a woman’s menstrual cycle. In certain situations, fertility drugs may be used to help stimulate your ovaries and develop multiple mature eggs for fertilization. If needed, fertility drugs are typically administered at the beginning of a menstrual cycle.
Once a donor is matched, the intended mother/Surrogate and the donor will undergo medical screening and start the cycle synchronization. You have to partner with a fertility clinic to complete this step. The surrogacy agency itself is a full-service fertility center and has a reputable record of above national average success rate.
Both the intended mother/surrogate and the donor will undergo various medical and psychological screening. Once all the screenings are passed, the donor and recipient will start taking medications to synchronize their menstrual cycles.
The resulting embryos are transferred into the recipient’s womb. A blood test is done after two weeks to determine if the transfer was a success and pregnancy is achieved. The extra embryos can be frozen to be used later.
After the Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) process, which ensures there are normal chromosome numbers and detects potential genetic disorders, the healthiest embryos are chosen to be inserted into your (or a chosen surrogate’s) uterus. Two weeks after the embryo transfer, your physician will take a final blood test to measure the level of your hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) hormone. Elevated hCG levels typically suggest a positive pregnancy test.
For fertilization to occur, the retrieved egg and highest-quality sperm are combined and left in a dish to culture in an incubator. The dish is closely monitored to see if any of the eggs have been fertilized. Once fertilized, the egg becomes an embryo, also called a blastocyst on the fifth day of development. Our full-time on-site embryologists nurture each embryo at the appropriate time even if it falls outside of standard business operating hours. For example: If an oocyte is immature, our lab will wait for maturation and then perform ICSI of the oocyte at the appropriate time.
egg retrieval is a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure, that lasts approximately 20-30 minutes. You will be put to sleep by anesthesia for the procedure. Using ultrasound technology, your physician will retrieve your eggs with a fine, hollow needle attached to an ultrasound scan probe. Once the eggs are retrieved, your partner’s fresh or frozen sample of semen or donated sperm you have selected beforehand is utilized for fertilization. The sperm are washed, and the best-quality sperm extracted will be used to fertilize the eggs.
Your physician will create a personalized medication schedule that details the necessary fertility drugs and hormone injections you will need. Medication and injections are administered to stimulate your ovaries to develop a greater number of mature eggs for fertilization. Each woman responds to fertility drugs and hormones differently, so customized protocols are essential to success. We will monitor you carefully, helping you understand the changes in your body, and keep track of how your follicles are developing.
Once your physician creates your plan of care, you will meet with a financial coordinator. The coordinator will review with you a summary of the health benefits obtained from your insurance provider. The coordinator will provide you with a detailed quotation based on the treatment plan outlined by your physician and will also discuss any financial questions you may have. If you have obtained other quotes, we recommend you bring them to the appointment, and your financial coordinator can review them with you to compare the proposed services and costs.
Your Reproductive Endocrinologist will consider all factors and develop a comprehensive plan of care, also known as your treatment plan. The plan includes the recommendations for treatment from the physician and allows your financial coordinator to create an accurate quotation once you meet.
All initial onsite consultations will include a fertility evaluation, which consists of a physical examination, follicular ultrasound and testing, allowing the physician to evaluate your current fertility status and create a comprehensive treatment plan. If you elect for an initial virtual consultation, your fertility specialist will schedule your fertility evaluation at a subsequent visit.
The consultation includes a comprehensive evaluation with your physician. Together, you will review your goals and medical records, allowing ample time to discuss your goals and questions. We encourage you to write down your questions before your visit to enable you to maximize the time spent with your physician.
Upon your arrival, you will check in with a Patient Care Coordinator.
