NEW YORK, April 11, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In his native South Korea, Dr. Jin-Ho Lim is a giant among fertility doctors, founder of a network of nine in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics responsible for more than 50,000 births in a nation with one-sixth the population of the U.S. Now, after years of intensive preparation, he has his sights set on two of the world's most influential societies, hoping to bring a new, drug-free fertilization process to thousands of infertile American and Chinese women.
The new process is in vitro maturation (IVM), a treatment that requires little to no fertility drugs but demands unusual physician and laboratory skill. The advantages of limiting the amount of hormone injections, which are typically used in traditional IVF to stimulate egg production in patients, are especially attractive to women prone to a dangerous – even potentially lethal – side effect known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).
"The practice of IVM is scarce in the U.S., because there are very few of us trained in extracting the immature eggs from patients. The level of difficulty is great and there is no room for error with this method," said Dr. Lim who has spent the past ten years training current Neway lab directors and the last nine months with his protégé, Dr. Jesse Hade, in IVM. "With this technology, we can give hope to women who didn't think they could conceive even with the assistance of IVF."
In contrast to standard IVF, which has created more than 5 million babies worldwide, Dr. Lim believes nearly 4,000 babies have been born globally from IVM. Approximately one-third of those births were from patients of his clinics, he says. In the U.S., he estimates the number of births at less than 50.
The New York clinic will be able to take on the very challenging infertility cases that many of the larger clinics will not approach, said Dr. Hade, who serves as medical director at Neway Fertility. "For many women, we are their last best hope to have a child."
McGill University Reproductive Centre accomplished the first successful birth by IVM in North America in 1999.
Neway Fertility was born from the vision of Dr. Jin-Ho Lim, the founder of one of the largest fertility centers in the world, the Maria Fertility Hospital Network. In 2010, the Maria Network celebrated the birth of 50,000 babies born as result of IVF performed within its hospitals.
The mission of Neway Fertility is to help couples achieve their dream of having a baby. We aim to use the least invasive, more natural, and economical approach possible.