It’s now official. Disney withdrew WABC, channel 7 from Cablevision affecting 3 million viewers in the New York Metropolitan area. My wife is distraught. Her favorite television shows; Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Lost and others are no longer viewable on our TV sets. The Oscars is not available. She like so many others is frustrated and depressed at the prospect that she will be denied those pleasures that we have grown accustomed to expect.

My wife and I never truly experienced infertility. We had a workup for recurrent miscarriages and it took us over a year to conceive a healthy pregnancy in between our two boys and two girls. We were quite fortunate that we were not denied the joy of building our family that we had learned to expect while growing up, observing our own as well as our friends’ and neighbors’ families. It is a way of life that we understand as well as anything else that we experience throughout our lives.

When a couple experiences infertility, this expected right to the pursuit of happiness by creating one’s own family is denied. It is not deserved; the affected are innocent bystanders of a tragedy not of their own making. Someone afflicted with infertility might have just as randomly caught a cold or some other disease or condition. The difference is that if you unfortunately have any other condition or disease requiring medical treatment, the odds are excellent that you have insurance coverage for it. Infertility is not covered by most providers not because of ethical or religious reasons or even lack of sympathy, but instead because it costs money to the providers.

Cablevision and Disney are battling over a 40 million dollar increase to Disney. How I wish they would use the argument that they have increased costs to cover safe, cost effective fertility care like IVF; that they wish to provide for the right for their employees to have a family like they grew up seeing in Disney movies and on Cablevision. Senator Kerry, former presidential candidate interceded to try to negotiate a settlement so that my wife and others would not be denied their TV shows. Why can’t we get a similar hero to negotiate a settlement for coverage so that the infertile couple can get the treatment they need so they are not denied their families?

IVF is now cost effective and safe when used conservatively especially with our single embryo transfer program. We have a greater than 60% live birth rate per retrieval in women under 35. We can avoid multiple pregnancies by transferring one embryo at a time rather than expose a woman to a 35% multiple rate with ovulation induction and intercourse or insemination. Minimal stimulation IVF is a low cost alternative, $3900 at ECF that avoids hyperstimulation and allows for single embryo transfer. Why do politicians ignore the millions of infertile individuals and couples in this country and deny them the right to have their family that they grew up expecting as naturally as tuning into ABC and watching a favorite TV show?

According to the Center for Disease Control, reported in the same NY Times issue, thousands of premature deliveries would be prevented resulting in a $1.1 Billion savings if elective single embryo transfer was performed on good prognosis patients. That brings us to regulating how many embryos to transfer as Octomom went through IVF with transfer of six embryos. At East Coat Fertility, we make it cost neutral to transfer only one embryo at a time by offering free cryopreservation, free embryo storage and free embryo transfers until a patient achieves a live birth, all for the cost of a single IVF cycle. Patients are encouraged by this program not to put all their eggs in one basket. Success rates with an elective fresh single embryo transfer with IVF at our program, is 50% and with subsequent frozen embryo transfers it is over 64%. It is possible that East Coast Fertility is the only center in the country doing this. That is the shame of it.

Fertility treatment without IVF is even more hazardous since as many eggs that are developed with treatment may implant and lead to a hazardous multiple pregnancy. In a perfect world, where a patient’s welfare was put before insurance companies, IVF would be a covered service for all people, and the use of fertility medications in an uncontrolled IUI cycle would not be used anymore. In this perfect world, we would also regulate how many embryos are transferred. It is time to put our professional recommendations of the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) into law. There is flexibility built into the recommendations taking into account critical factors such as patient age, embryo quality and past experience.

It is not until we discourage the use of gonadotropins without IVF by offering IVF as a regulated covered alternative will we eliminate risky multiple pregnancies. Until then, all of us including society, the government, insurance companies and employers are to blame for letting these dangerous multiple pregnancies occur.

East Coast Fertility is offering a free seminar: What You Need to Know Now If You Are Trying to Have a Baby: Innovations in the Treatment and Financing of Infertility. There is no charge for attendees, and all are eligible to receive a free fertility consultation with Dr. Kreiner and a discount coupon for some fertility medications. Don’t miss this chance to learn from these renowned fertility experts.

Plainview, NY (PRWEB) September 14, 2009 — East Coast Fertility is offering a free seminar: What You Need to Know Now If You Are Trying to Have a Baby: Innovations in the Treatment and Financing of Infertility. Attend this special night of hope and information and get answers to all of your questions. The seminar is hosted by fertility pioneer Dr. David Kreiner, founder of East Coast Fertility, and Pamela Madsen, founder of The American Fertility Association. They will be discussing topics such as Micro IVF, Single Embryo Transfer, Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), and Grant Programs to help finance treatment. There is no charge for attendees, and all are eligible to receive a free fertility consultation with Dr. Kreiner and a discount coupon for some fertility medications. Don’t miss this chance to learn from these renowned fertility experts.

There are two opportunities to attend the event: Thursday, September 17th at 6:30pm at the Marriott Long Island Hotel & Conference Center in Uniondale, NY and Monday, September 21st at 6:30pm at Danford’s Inn Marina Conference Center in Port Jefferson, NY. Questions about the seminars can be directed to Karen Malamud at (516) 939-BABY.

Dr. Kreiner and Ms. Madsen are offering these seminars to highlight Micro IVF as a more successful alternative to IUI and a more economical choice to IVF. Micro-IVF lowers the cost of in vitro treatment by more than half, and Dr. Kreiner believes that its success rate is much higher than the 10% chance of achieving pregnancy through a single IUI treatment. It is also more favorable for patients, as the procedure usually requires less fertility medications to be administered. Join them for this seminar to learn about what options are best for you. For more information on Dr. Kreiner and fertility treatments, visit East Coast Fertility.

ABOUT East Coast Fertility: East Coast Fertility is the premier center for infertility care on Long Island. Conceived by Dr. David Kreiner, a pioneer of IVF, their program utilizes the most recent developments in reproductive technology and has evolved to become a leader for highly successful and personalized infertility and IVF care. The center prides itself on combining the best technology and expertise with compassion for its patients. They offer many convenient locations throughout Long Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.