Why You Should Pick Overlake Reproductive Health For Your Fertility Care

We have been around longer than most other fertility clinics in this region. Dr. Johnson joined Seattle Fertility and Gynecology in 1991, then the largest fertility clinic in the Pacific Northwest. A further consolidation with another Seattle-based fertility clinic in 1995 created the largest specialty fertility and gynecology clinic in the area. The pitfalls of a “bigger is better” mentality soon became all too obvious and in 1997 Dr. Johnson moved to the Eastside, with the goal to create a personalized, boutique-style fertility center, emphasizing individualized care with an informed and consistent care team. No more differing opinions and different messages from different doctors on different days!

Small has enabled us to rapidly embrace new technology and ideas, enhancing our patient’s peace of mind as well as ultimate success.

A Note from our Medical Director

Why Small is Good

Since this is all about why “small is good,” I’ll try to be spare with the words as well. It’s not like all we’ve ever known is small. I was originally part of the largest fertility clinic in Seattle in the early 90’s. Jo Gray, our lead ARNP previously worked at one of the largest OB/GYN groups in King Co.

The point is this: we know “big”, and we are glad to be different. Here, you will know the entire staff in short order. We will know you well too, which allows us to better tailor and customize everything about your treatment. We can also initiate and adopt emerging trends quickly – vital in this ever-changing rapidly progressing field. Our, first in the nation, adoption of electronic security tagging of all specimens is a good example.

How do you know we are good? Well, first look through our entire website- our background, training, patient testimonials, patient reviews, and pregnancy rates all speak for themselves. Our world-class rates are real, meaning that we aren’t pushing IVF to patients that don’t need it; some clinics are aggressive about pushing better prognosis patients sooner to IVF to improve their pregnancy rates. Finally, we put our money where our mouth is. If we weren’t good, we couldn’t offer a Peace of Mind 100% IVF Refund Program. So, there you have it, small can be extraordinary!

Dr. Kevin Johnson
Medical Director

What sets us apart?

New medical technology and “best” practices are emerging all the time. Clinicians must spend a significant amount of time to stay current with the latest advancements in their field of medicine. Infertility medicine tends to change more rapidly than most.

At ORH, we are devoted to providing the best and most current fertility treatments to our patients. Important breakthroughs are carefully evaluated and are incorporated into our practice whenever it is reasonable to do so.

A New Standard in IVF

We have adopted a new standard in IVF: Routine day 5-7 Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A), a Freeze-all vitrification protocol, and Single embryo transfer (SET). Adopting these practices into our routine care have resulted in dramatic increases in the success rates at our practice. According to Genesis Genetics and a recent abstract^(2,3), there are only a small number of U.S. clinics that are currently doing this routinely. A recent study reported a 97% increase in live birth rates using this protocol, without SET, vs the older practice of day 3 or day 5 fresh transfers. Although SET was not used throughout this study, the chance of pregnancy per embryo transferred was more than double with PGT-A and freeze-all compared with cycles without PGT-A⁽⁴⁾.

Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A). PGT-A involves the selection of only genetically normal embryos for transfer, increasing implantation rates and markedly reducing miscarriage rates. It also allows for family balancing for eligible patients (patients with one child desiring another child of the opposite gender).
Freeze all cycles. This refers to the practice in IVF of freezing (vitrifying, or cryopreserving) all appropriate blastocysts (embryos) on Day 5-7 and transferring them in a subsequent frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycle.
Single embryo transfer (SET). SET has been an option for years, and while the benefits of it (safer, reduced chance of multiples) are real, its use most often would result in a decreased pregnancy rates and, as such, patients would still elect to transfer more than one embryo in order to increase their chances of a successful cycle. The advent of PGT-A has changed that. Now we can offer SET, and achieve very high pregnancy rates and a much safer, healthier pregnancy and outcome.

Why do it?

The reasons are compelling. With this approach, we can transfer a single normal embryo and expect pregnancy rates that are better than most clinics can achieve with transfer of 2 or even 3 embryos. The miscarriage rate is markedly lower, and the chances of a healthy full-term pregnancy are higher. The proof is in the numbers. From 2016 through September 2017 our implantation rate per embryo, for all age and treatment groups, is 81%! (click for the details))

The Benefits are Clear

Why aren’t all IVF clinics doing this?

We don’t know, you’d have to ask them.

See the difference. Look at our rates.

Radio Frequency ID (RFID) Tagging of all patient Samples

The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking system in our practice creates an extra layer of security to ensure sample integrity is maintained at all times in the laboratory. Here at ORH, we use RFID technology to track all the eggs, embryos, and/or sperm samples that go through our lab. We recognize the huge level of trust that patients place in a reproductive clinic and have gone above and beyond standard recommended practices such as double witnessing, and strict isolation of individual samples. The use of RFID tagging has enabled us to give our patients the most peace of mind possible with current technology.

We were the first clinic in the USA to use RFID technology to track eggs, embryos, and sperm during reproductive procedures. We remain the only clinic in the PNW to incorporate it, despite it being recommended in the UK for many years.

example of a sample cup with an RFID tag

RFID tags are attached to all patient samples

Read more about how we use of RFID tagging in the IVF laboratory to give our patients peace of mind.

Next Generation PGT-A Technology

The use of PGT-A in IVF has skyrocketed in the last 10 years. PGT-A is used to analyze the genetic material of the embryo before they would be transferred back into the uterus. This prevents the transfer of genetically abnormal embryos that cannot lead to a healthy birth. The use of PGT-A during IVF has numerous benefits. These include:

Increased implantation rates
Reduced miscarriage rates
Increased live birth rates
Reduced time to pregnancy
Allows more effective single embryo transfers (SET)

While the benefits speak for themselves, not all PGT-A testing is the same. There have been some tremendous advancements in gene-screening technology in recent years. These advancements have led to newer, more accurate techniques. In order to maximize the benefits of PGT-A, it is important that a modern technology is used. You can see an overview of current technologies below.

PGT-A Technology Comparison

	Frequency	aCGH	qPCR	Low Resolution NGS	NGS	High Resolution NGS (hr-NGS)
Misdiagnosis Aneuploidy	–	2%¹	1%^2,3	3%⁴	0%⁵	0%⁶
Minimal Resolution (Mb)	–	6	>20	>10	6	2-5
Detects Unbalanced Translocations	2%	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Detects Segmental Aneuploidy⁷	5%	Yes	No	Large Ones	Yes	Yes
Detects & Reports Mosaicism^8,9	21%	Yes (4%)	No	No	No	Yes (21%)
ICSI Required	–	No	No	Yes	No	No
Miscarriage Rate^10,11	–	13%	20%	Unknown	Unknown	6%
Abnormalities missed when compared to hr-NGS	–	17%	28%	25%	21%	0%

Table recreated with permission from Genesis Genetics

Table key
aCGH – Comparative genomic hybridization wiki
qPCR – Quantitative polymerase chain reaction wiki
NGS – Next-generation Sequencing; now referred to as High-throughput methods wiki

Complimentary Translation Services

We are the only clinic in Seattle to offer complimentary translation services to our patients. If you need a translator please let us know at least 2 days before your appointment so we can make the proper arrangements.

More reasons to choose ORH

We have built our practice from the ground up on the concept of providing Peace of Mind^® to all of our patients.

What does Peace of Mind mean?

Good Question!

To us, peace of mind means knowing the entire team of care givers and receiving boutique-like care with individualized and enhanced attention. Knowing that we have set the standard since 1997 with:

World class success rates
First program in Washington State with donor embryos
First in the region with state of the art hysteroscopic surgery technology
Now one of 6 teaching centers in the U.S. for advanced hysteroscopic surgery techniques
One of the first 30 clinics in the nation to use laser assisted hatching/biopsy.
Concierge Medicine – A new standard in medical customer service excellence
State of the Art IVF laboratory – We rebuilt our IVF lab in 2012 to be state of the art, incorporating all the latest advancements, and independently certified to the highest standards.

First in the region with: