TESTIMONIALS | Dr. Sweet, Fertility, IVF

Dear Dr. Sweet:

We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks for all that you and your staff have done for us.

Before visiting you we had been trying to get pregnant for over 3 years to no avail. We did see another fertility specialist in the area for some time only to go undiagnosed and take part in unsuccessful treatments. It was so discouraging, every visit felt like a meeting with a used car salesman, and most time spent on how much we needed to pay with little regard for explanations of procedures. I left every visit in tears with a sinking feeling of hopelessness. We became increasingly uncomfortable and decided that there was no way we would consider IVF treatments while we had no idea what the issues were. This experience was quite devastating and we began to think that children were just not in our future. So we just stopped going ...

Some time passed and after speaking to Dr. Stubbs about our ordeal we decided to try one more time and visit SRMS. This was the best decision we ever made. Both of us agreed from the very first visit even if it did not work we were in good hands. The education, support and compassion of you and your staff were phenomenal. We had never experienced this from the other office. You gave us hope again. And even though we knew there were no guarantees, we felt that it was worth taking the chance because this time we were in good hands. We actually now had a diagnosis and a reason for our infertility. We felt confident in trying IVF now, we both new that we had to try.

I'll never forget the moments that we shared in your office. From the day the embryos were implanted, which happened to be on my husband's birthday, to the day we got the phone call letting us know that the pregnancy test was positive. This was the greatest surprise ever. As the day before I went for the blood test, I took an at home pregnancy test and it was negative, so I was quite disappointed and thought, we have enough embryos, we can try again. But there was no need because the blood test was positive. The crying was now a feeling of hope and joy. Then when we came in for the ultrasound and there were two babies, we were and still are overjoyed. You have helped us make our dreams come true!

Morgan and Riley were born on August 6, 2008, and words can never express how grateful we are to you and your staff for making this possible. Thank you!

Warmly,
Michelle & Joseph D'Amico

Dr. Sweet’s Comments:
I recall this couple quite well. This was an excellent example of how a good Embryology/Andrology laboratory can make a tremendous difference. With all of our “first time” semen analyses, we screen for sperm antibodies. In about 3% of the specimens, a positive result will be found indicating that there are antibodies attacking the sperm. When men have high titers of antibodies, sperm movement is often reduced and the sperm cannot penetrate the outer covering of the oocyte. Few procedures will work except for direct sperm injection into the oocyte.

The IVF cycle went great. Michelle did great with 20 mature oocytes available. With direct IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), 14 fertilized. We tried to decide on one or two embryos and decided on two and both implanted.

It was great to find an answer for this couple. I was also an easy decision for me since the sperm antibody titers were high and IVF/ICSI was probably the only way to go if they wanted to have a child together. It meant that we shouldn’t waste any time, effort, money or emotions on procedures that were destined to fail. Few labs screen for antibodies anymore (costly and time consuming) but I have always felt it makes a huge difference for a small group of patients.

By the way, if they come back for any of the frozen embryos, I think we should consider transferring only one!