Out of the Box Fertility Treatments

At the Center for Fertility and Gynecology in Los Angeles we stay on top of new developments in the field of fertility.   Through careful review of peer reviewed literature and physiology based theories, we are proud to not only offer our patients exceptional standard fertility treatments like IVF, ICSI and PGD, but also some treatments that may be considered “out of the box” like endometrial scratching, intralipids and mini-IVF.

At our practice each patient is approached as an individual.  We recognize that no single treatment will work for everyone.  Further, some patient’s situations are more complicated than others necessitating more unique treatments.  Some of the unique treatments we consider include:

Endometrial Scratching or Pipel biopsy: Endometrial scratching involves introducing a thin plastic suction catheter into the uterus, and gently “scraping” off some of the tissue. The idea is that under the tissue was removed, new tissue regenerates.  The new tissue is believed to more favorable for embryo implantation.  Several prospective studies support this notion, as well as our personal experience.

Intralipid infusion: Intralipid is a solution of soybean oil, egg phospholipid and sugar.  Originally approved by the FDA in 1972 Intralipid was designed as a means to supply calories to people who cannot eat for medical reasons.  Due to its extensive use as a calorie source, Intralipid is widely available and inexpensive.  More importantly, extensive medical experience has demonstrated it to be safe.  More recently, Intralipid has been used in fertility patients with recurrent pregnancy loss or multiple unexplained IVF failures.  While there are limited data available in this regard, our personal experience has been very positive.   

Mini IVF: Mini IVF usually refers to in vitro fertilization performed with limited stimulation of the ovaries.  During a natural menstrual cycle, the body selects 1 egg to develop in the ovaries.  That egg grows during the first 2 weeks of the cycle and is released (ovulated) usually around day 14th of the cycle.

Traditionally, IVF cycles use medicine to induce the ovary to produce many eggs.  This multi-follicular stimulation is beneficial because many eggs can lead to several embryos ultimately providing multiple chances to become pregnant or hopefully multiple pregnancies. 

Some patient’s prefer to minimize the use of medications and others cannot produce multiple eggs despite the medications.  For these patient’s, performing IVF with little or no medication can be an excellent option.

If you have questions about unique fertility treatments feel free to contact us we’d be happy to chat with you.