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The Southeastern Center for Fertility and Reproductive Surgery offers this site as an information resource for couples coping with the difficulties of infertility. Just as our center provides the most advanced treatment for our patients, this site provides the most recent and accurate medical information concerning infertility and reproductive surgery. Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, the center specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of male and female infertility problems. Under the direction of Jeffrey A. Keenan M.D., F.A.C.O.G., our patients receive the highest quality medical care available in the region. Dr. Keenan is one of the most experienced and respected specialists in infertility and reproductive medicine and surgery. We provide updates on this site to ensure you are receiving Summer / Fall Update 2010As we endure record-breaking temperatures in Knoxville, we are comforted by the positive feedback and many pregnancies in our patients. Although we traditionally see a slight decline in visits during the summer months, this is not the case in 2010. We realize that some of you have had trouble getting appointments in a timely manner due to our full schedule. We apologize for this and are in the process of opening up more time slots for office visits. We are also investigating the possibility of a physician extender, such as a nurse practitioner, to help ease the load. Thank you for your patience! I want to again stress that we understand the difficulties being faced by some of our patients during this extended economic downturn. We want everyone to obtain the care they need, regardless of their ability to pay. In cases where insurance is lacking or inadequate, we can usually provide discounts or make other arrangements so that you do not have to take a break from treatment. Please contact our business manager, Gary Gaylor, if we can help you. |
What Others Are Saying...
Literature Review
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Egg freezing in newly diagnosed cancer patients. A recent article in Fertility and Sterility featured an “outside the box” way to stimulate patients and perform egg retrieval. Typically, newly diagnosed cancer patients want to begin treatment asap, to minimize the chance of cancer spread. Unfortunately, most ovarian stimulation protocols require waiting for down-regulation with GnRH agonists or waiting until the next menses to begin the stimulation drugs. The authors of this German study decided to begin the stimulation no matter when the patients presented, even though they often had just ovulated or had relatively high hormone levels. The found that the stimulations went well, requiring just slightly more medication and time, and perhaps resulted in a couple of less eggs. However, the avoidance of delay for these patients was well worth these changes. We plan to begin such a protocol the Southeastern Fertility Center in the near future. Natural Cycle IVF: A group from Italy recently published their experience of 500 consecutive natural IVF cycles. In “naturaly cycle” IVF, medications are not used to stimulate the ovaries, therefore usually only one egg develops. As a consequence, it is often not possible to perform a successful retrieval, or to obtain an embryo for transfer. Still, patients younger than 35 showed a pregnancy rate of about 30% per transfer, patients 36-40 had a 20% pregnancy rate per transfer, and those older than 40 just 10%. Therefore, the authors felt that this approach was justified in younger women who were poor responders. While we don’t typically use a natural cycle approach at the SEFC , we do allow poor responders to complete their cycles if we can obtain at least a few well-developed follicles, and we have seen similar success rates even in this difficult group. |
