It only takes one particle of dust to ruin a process as exacting as in vitro fertilization.
That’s why Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn and Infertility Group, P.C. has joined forces with University Medical Center at Princeton to open the new Princeton IVF laboratory in Lawrence, on the same site as Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn’s Lawrence office.
The first IVF lab in Mercer County utilizes the most up-to-date reproductive expertise and technological developments to provide the best environment for egg fertilization in today’s medical arena, said Dr. Seth Derman, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist and managing partner of Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn.
Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn and the Princeton hospital began their joint venture four years ago, but the lab just opened in July. The four-room lab includes a room for egg retrieval and embryo transfer, a recovery room, an embryology laboratory where sperm and eggs are processed and cultured, and a room for embryo preservation.
They consulted with an environmental chemist to perfect the lab, which takes air from the outside and filters it multiple times before circulating it in the climate-controlled atmosphere of the lab. Eliminating chemicals is important for IVF because they can compromise an embryo before it has a chance to be implanted and carried to term. Cleaner air can as much as double the success rate for IVF, he said.
Another reason to be so exacting with the IVF lab specifications is to reduce the need to implant multiple embryos, Derman said. About a quarter of his patients have multiple births, mostly twins.
Derman and partner Dr. Robin Hilsenrath, M.D., usually connect with patients one of three ways. Some are patients who have been unable to get pregnant and who are in the care of one of Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn’s six ob/gyn physicians. Derman and Hilsenrath also see patients from other ob/gyn practices, who remain in the care of their physicians throughout the process, while still other patients refer themselves to Derman or Hilsenrath.
Derman has been with the practice since 1996, when he established the infertility practice. Though he’s been been working with patients on IVF since the beginning, before the opening of the lab he would monitor patients while sending them to other laboratories.
If fertility drugs and artificial inseminations have failed, IVF may be the next step in the process. Physical limitations such as damaged fallopian tubes or low sperm counts make some patients candidates for skipping right to IVF, Derman said.
Derman said while people who wanted to become pregnant might once have been reluctant to seek fertility treatments, today, patients are more comfortable with the idea.
“Sometimes, people will find out that half the people they work with will have been in this situation,” he said. “Nowadays, because insurance usually covers it and people are more likely to discuss it, they’re more likely to see a reproductive endocrinologist.”
At Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn, ob/gyn physicians deliver babies, provide prenatal and postnatal care, postnatal care and well-woman care. They also care for patients with gynecological disorders and provide surgical services.
Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn also has four midwives, who offer a different model of care from ob/gyn physicians. They view childbirth as a natural experience, more than a medical experience. The midwives provide well-woman care as well.
Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn and Infertility Group, P.C. has two offices. The Lawrence office is at 2 Princess Road, Suite C, and the East Windsor office is at 300B Princeton-Hightstown Road, Suite 202 in East Windsor. Doctors operate at both Princeton Hospital and Capital Health System, but all deliveries take place in Princeton. Phone: (609) 896-0777. On the Web: delvalobgyn.com and princetonivf.com.
Dr. Robin Hilsenrath and Dr. Seth Derman are reproductive endocrinologists with Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn and Infertility Group, P.C., in Lawrence. (Photo courtesy of Delaware Valley Ob/Gyn.),
