A Growing Number of Brits Cross the Atlantic for Donor Egg IVF Treatment at Shady...

A Growing Number of Brits Cross the Atlantic for Donor Egg IVF Treatment at
Shady Grove Fertility Center

Reverse medical tourism driven by donor egg availability and lower cost,
innovative IVF financing options

ROCKVILLE, Md., June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More and more couples from
the United Kingdom are crossing the ocean for donor egg treatment at Shady
Grove Fertility Center (www.shadygrovefertility.com), the Washington/Baltimore
area's largest in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fertility clinic. More than
five dozen British patients received IVF treatment there last year, which was
a 350-percent increase over 2007; most were donor egg recipients.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090203/DC66439LOGO)

In a reversal of the medical tourism flow of Americans overseas in search of
less costly elective medical procedures, many British fertility patients who
need to use donor eggs rather than their own are flocking to Shady Grove
Fertility Center (SGFC). In the UK, where egg donors are neither paid nor
guaranteed anonymity, donor eggs are scarce, wait times can be as long as
three years and choice of donor is limited. In contrast, Shady Grove
Fertility not only pays donors, but also offers an innovative way to reduce
waiting time and cost for donor eggs. In addition to the traditional donor
egg method of matching each donor with a single recipient, Shady Grove
Fertility Center patients also have the option of enrolling in what's called
"Shared Donor Egg," a unique program through which one donor's eggs may be
shared by two or three recipients,
http://www.shadygrovefertility.com/shared-donor-egg). Whichever option a
patient selects, pregnancy rates are comparable.

In the past 18 months, Shady Grove Fertility Center has established innovative
partnerships with three UK fertility clinics -- the third just launched
earlier this year. Since late March, when Dr. Levy and three of his donor egg
team staff hosted an informational seminar in the United Kingdom for several
dozen potential donor egg patients there, more than 20 have scheduled
appointments and/or been seen by an SGFC doctor. On that same trip, Dr. Levy
and his staff visited the three UK partner clinics to better coordinate the
bi-country donor egg treatment process.

The collaborative treatment process involves only two visits to SGFC per cycle
of donor egg treatment. On the first visit to SGFC, the male partner's sperm
is frozen and an egg donor is selected. The couple then returns to the UK,
where an SGFC partner clinic provides additional treatment and support -- such
as hormone injections to prepare the woman's uterus for pregnancy -- while
SGFC harvests the donor's eggs and fertilizes them in vitro with the thawed
sperm. Only then does the couple return to Maryland for embryo transfer.
This streamlined, trans-Atlantic system results in pregnancy success rates
comparable to those of couples using fresh sperm.

"In some countries, infertility treatments are very limited or restricted and
may even be illegal," said Michael J. Levy, M.D., Shady Grove Fertility
Center's founder, who in late 2007 began establishing relationships with
doctors and fertility clinics in the UK. "We at Shady Grove Fertility are
proud that word has reached the other side of the Atlantic about our
innovative financing programs, our strong emphasis on quality patient care,
and our outstanding IVF success rates."

Using the UK program as a model, SGFC has a late June trip planned to Ireland
to explore setting up a similar set of relationships with potential partner
clinics, as well as interested patients.

About Shady Grove Fertility Center
Shady Grove Fertility Center is America's largest private fertility center,
performing more than 3,500 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles annually --
more than all other Baltimore/Washington area fertility clinics combined.
Twenty-one reproductive endocrinologists, Ph.D. scientists and geneticists, as
well as 350 specialized staff care for patients in 11 full-service offices
throughout the Washington, DC, and Baltimore areas. Shady Grove Fertility
offers a comprehensive range of fertility treatment options including IVF,
donor egg and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and integrative
holistic care, as well as resources to address all patients' needs -- medical,
emotional, and financial. Shady Grove Fertility conducts clinical research in
collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and is part of their
subspecialty training Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology. Since Shady
Grove Fertility's inception in 1992, more than 15,000 IVF babies have born.
Shady Grove Fertility physicians have been featured as experts for comment on
media outlets such as NBC's The Today Show, The New York Times, NPR's Diane
Rehm Show (WAMU-FM 88.5, Washington, DC), and Parent Magazine. Washingtonian
magazine listed Shady Grove Fertility among the area's Best Places to Work in
2007. Visit www.ShadyGroveFertility.com.

SOURCE Shady Grove Fertility Center

Ali Williams of Shady Grove Fertility Center, +1-202-545-1350,
ali.williams@integramed.com