Patients Comments - 26

Dear Dr. Silber,

We wanted to send you a picture of the baby that you helped us conceive. I had the vasectomy reversal procedure done on September 25, 2008. Evan Michael was born on May 3, 2010. He is a very happy and healthy boy. Thanks you for all that you have done to assist us in making our dreams come true. We couldn't be happier.

With much thanks,
Mark & Alyssa
Chatham, IL

Patients Comments - 25

Dr. Silber,

On October 6th, Sophia Grace Manganelli was born. She weighed 8lbs. 11oz. and was 20 1/2 in. and is perfectly healthy. This would not have been possible without the great fortune we had in finding you. We just wanted to thank you for helping us bring Sophia into our lives. Thank you again to you and your staff.

Sincerely,
Chuck & Tori Manganelli
St. Peter's, MO

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2009

Simon Fishel and his group from CARE Fertility, Nottingham, reported about a Live birth after polar body array comparative genomic hybridization. (Fishel S, Gordon A, Lynch C, Dowell K, Ndukwe G, Kelada E, Thornton S, Jenner L, Cater E, Brown A, Garcia-Bernardo J. Live birth after polar body array comparative genomic hybridization prediction of embryo ploidy-the future of IVF? Fertil Steril.

Prof. Laufer at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem reported on a viable pregnancy achieved in a woman who carries the defective BRCA2 genes after In-Vitro Fertilized Embryos were tested and implanted. (Sagi M, Weinberg N, Eilat A, Aizenman E, Werner M, Girsh E, Siminovsky Y, Abeliovich D, Peretz T, Simon A, Laufer N. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis for BRCA1/2--a novel clinical experience. Prenat Diagn.

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2008

The first report of DNA fingerprinting to identify the blastocyst of origin for live-births and that gene expression profiles of biopsied trophectoderm can discriminate between viable and non-viable blastocysts. (Gayle M. Jones, David S. Cram, Bi Song, Georgia Kokkali, Kostas Pantos, and Alan O. Trounson. Novel strategy with potential to identify developmentally competent IVF blastocysts. Hum. Reprod. 2008; 23: 1748-1759).

Cryopreserved oocytes in cancer patients: first ever birth of healthy twins after oocyte cryopreservation and bilateral ovariectomy. (Porcu E, Venturoli S, Damiano G, Ciotti PM, Notarangelo L, Paradisi R, Moscarini M, Ambrosini G. Healthy twins delivered after oocyte cryopreservation and bilateral ovariectomy for ovarian cancer.  Reprod Biomed Online.

Patients Comments - 24

Dr. Silber and Staff,

We are excited to send you the announcement of our daughter, Thea Rose. She was born October 20, 2009 and perfect in every way.

Our vasectomy reversal was done October 7, 2008. This was our second reversal attempt. It proved to be a difficult surgery requiring double VE connection. We found out we were pregnant only three months after the surgery. We were thrilled and a bit shocked to find out we were pregnant so soon after surgery.

Thank you so much for helping us complete our family. It would never have been possible without your talent and skill. We are grateful to you for making our dream a reality.

Our deepest gratitude,
Jim and Ami Lis
Lockport, NY

Patients Comments - 23

Our Story

We struggled with infertility for eight years, with countless tests, procedures, and doctors. At a time when we'd just about given up, Dr. Silber and the Infertility Center of St. Louis gave us more than hope — they gave us a family. We knew we were working with the right team from the beginning. Dr. Silber and his staff are fully committed to achieving the best possible outcome for every patient, and that is evident in even the little things. Dr. Silber and Dr. DeRosa worked so well together during procedures and consultations, and made us feel both comfortable and confident… no small feat after our previous disappointments.

Augusten (AJ) was born October 9th, 2008, to two very thankful parents. Eighteen quick months later, we look back at our journey and know that every hurdle was worthwhile. AJ is a gift, a miracle of modern science, and a joy every single day! He wouldn't be here without Dr. Silber's expertise, and we can never fully articulate how much we appreciate his work for families dealing with infertility. We will be forever grateful for the dedication, innovation, and integrity of Dr. Silber, Dr. DeRosa, and the staff at the Infertility Center of St. Louis.

Scott and Elizabeth
St. Louis, MO

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2007

Report from McGill Reproductive Center, Canada and Maria Infertility Hospital Seoul, Korea on deliveries after transfer of human blastocysts derived from oocytes matured by In Vitro Maturation (IVM) (Son WY, Lee SY, Yoon SH, Lim JH. Pregnancies and deliveries after transfer of human blastocysts derived from in vitro matured oocytes in in vitro maturation cycles. Fertil Steril.

Introducing the concept of Mild Treatment Strategy for IVF (Heijnen EM, Eijkemans MJ, De Klerk C, Polinder S, Beckers NG, Klinkert ER, Broekmans FJ, Passchier J, Te Velde ER, Macklon NS, Fauser BC. A mild treatment strategy for in-vitro fertilisation: a randomised non-inferiority trial. Lancet. 2007;369(9563):743-9) .

A novel multi-gradient freezing technique for the cryopreswervation of the whole ovary. Thawing the ovary resulted in normal ovarian architecture and no damage to the vascular wall or intima. (Arav and Pasquale 2007 Yale Practice 12:2)

First IVM egg donation pregnancy in North America achieved by McGill Repro­ductive Centre (Holzer H, Scharf E, Chian RC, Demirtas E, Buckett W, Tan SL. In vitro maturation of oocytes collected from unstimulated ovaries for oocyte donation. Fertil Steril.

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2006

First successful pregnancy after preimplantation genetic diagnosis for aneuploidy screening in embryos generated from natural-cycle IVF combined with IVM, achieved at the McGill Reproductive Centre. (Ao A, Jin S, Rao D, Son WY, Chian RC, Tan SL. First successful pregnancy outcome after preimplantation genetic diagnosis for aneuploidy screening in embryos generated from natural-cycle in vitro fertilization combined with an in vitro maturation procedure. Fertil Steril.

Cryopreservation of intact human ovary with its vascular pedicle. (Mohamed A. Bedaiwy, Mahmoud R. Hussein, Charles Biscotti, and Tommaso Falcone. Cryopreservation of intact human ovary with its vascular pedicle.  Hum. Reprod.

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2005

Pregnancies and live births after trophectoderm biopsy and preimplantation genetic testing of human blastocysts. (McArthur SJ, Leigh D, Marshall JT, de Boer KA, Jansen RP. Pregnancies and live births after trophectoderm biopsy and preimplantation genetic testing of human blastocysts. Fertil Steril.

First birth in Israel from thawed ovarian cortex retransplants, (Meirow D, Levron J, Eldar-Geva T, Hardan I, Fridman E, Zalel Y, Schiff E, Dor J. Pregnancy after transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue in a patient with ovarian failure after chemotherapy. N Engl J Med. 2005;353(3):318-21).

The first live-birth after trophectoderm biopsy and preimplantation genetic testing of human blastocysts for beta-Thalassaemia (Kokkali G, Vrettou C, Traeger-Synodinos J, Jones GM, Cram DS, Stavrou D, Trounson AO, Kanavakis E, Pantos K. Birth of a healthy infant following trophectoderm biopsy from blastocysts for PGD of beta-thalassaemia major. Hum Reprod.

Patients comments - 22

Here's our personal story…

Jason and I started trying to have a baby just few months after we were married in 2004. As the months went by and we weren't having any luck, I got sick. I developed a tumor on my left ovary and had to have surgery. Due to the nature of my tumor, surgeons removed my left ovary and my left fallopian tube. During the surgery, it was discovered that I had tumors growing on my right ovary. Luckily, the doctors only had to remove half of this ovary.

Once I healed, Jason and I started looking into our options for conceiving a child. I had only one half of one ovary. Jason had given a sperm sample to make sure everything was working on his end. Turns out, it wasn't. We saw countless urology specialists and it looked like there weren't any options for us that didn't involve getting extra help. After getting Dr. Silber's name from my gynecologist, we made the appointment to meet with him. He listened to our situation and recommended that we think about IVF. We took home the packet of information, read through it all, and watched the DVD to help us better understand the process. Since this was a huge financial endeavor, we weighed our options to go through with IVF or try adopting. We knew that we had to give it a try if it was possible to have our own child. I had few eggs and my husband had few sperm.

We began the process with a sense of excitement and the worry that it might not work. As part of Dr. Silber's requirements, Jason had to have a blood test for Dr. Silber to learn more about his make up. We were dealt another blow when we learned that Jason was a carrier for a genetic defect that could end my pregnancy if I did get pregnant. At this point, we didn't know what to do.

We decided to keep going. Dr. Silber recommended that we could have a special test done on the embryos to determine which ones would have the genetic defect.

On the day we were scheduled to have our transfer, we got all of the results from the genetic testing. Four of my eggs were no good. Seven of the embryos carried the genetic defect. That only left us with four embryos. Not as many as we had hoped, but it was something.

Dr. Silber came in and showed us the pictures of our four embryos. He even told us the gender of each one, three boys and one girl. We were still waiting on the results of one of the embryos, so Dr. Silber thought it would be best to put in two of the three boy ones.

Jason and I were so excited! We thought for sure that this was going to work. Later, we went back for my blood test to find out the good news. Jason and I were driving in the car, so we pulled off and listened to our results on speaker phone. "I'm so sorry. You're not pregnant." We were shocked. I immediately burst into tears.

We decided to try one more time over the summer. We only had one embryo left. So came the time for the blood test. This time we prepared ourselves for what was to be. I had my blood drawn and we went straight home. It was harder this time to keep busy. I made Jason call to find out our results this time. He had a huge smile on his face. He kept saying, "It worked? Are you sure?"

I couldn't stop smiling. I was so convinced I wasn't pregnant and to find out I really was realize my prayers had been answered.

Our son, Lachlan, was born March 13, 2008. We just celebrated his 2nd birthday. Every day Jason and I look at him and are so grateful that he is here with us. He is truly a miracle. We owe thanks to God, Dr. Silber, and his staff for all that has been given us.

Lachlan is especially a miracle to us because I had to undergo a hysterectomy in June of 2009. He is our joy and our blessing.

Jason, Beth, and Lachlan K.
Ballwin, Missouri

Patients comments - 21

Our Story

Infertility used to be a word that was very unfamiliar to me. However, after months of trying to conceive with no success, I was told that my husband and I were considered “infertile.” Little did I know we were about to embark on the longest and most emotional roller coaster of our lives. That is the best way I know how to describe the years of infertility treatment we went through.

Each and every day brought a new high hoping your prayers are finally going to be answered or a devastating low when your dreams are crushed. There were so many days I wanted to give up. I cried all the time, but I had to believe that one day it would all be worth it.

After years of medications, doctors appointments, shots, procedures, and surgeries, my wish finally came true I was pregnant thanks to the help of Dr. Silber. Then after a very complicated pregnancy full of more shots, medications, doctors visits, and hospitalizations our son was born. I couldn’t believe he was finally here.

Our son is a miracle who would not be here without the help of Dr. Silber and the work that he does. At the time, I resented having to go through everything I did, but I realize now that it made me a better person and better parent. Each and every day is a gift and I do no take anything for granted.

Cathie and Roger
Imperial, MO

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2004

Successful pregnancy and delivery following combined treatment of In Vitro Maturation (IVM) and Testicular Sperm Extraction (TESE). (Fuchinoue K, Nakajo Y, Yagi A, Takeda M, Kyono K. Successful pregnancy and delivery following combined treatment of in vitro maturation (IVM) and testicular sperm extraction (TESE): a case report. J Assist Reprod Genet.

Jaques Donnez reporting on the first Live birth after orthotopic transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue (Donnez J, Dolmans MM, Demylle D, Jadoul P, Pirard C, Squifflet J, Martinez-Madrid B, van Langendonckt A. vebirth after orthotopic transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue. Lancet.

Gardner and colleagues performed the world’s first prospective single blastocyst trial, which showed the feasibility of SBT and in keeping high pregnancy rates (Gardner DK, Surrey E, Minjarez D, Leitz A, Stevens J, Schoolcraft WB. Single blastocyst transfer: a prospective randomized trial. Fertil Steril.

The first preimplantation HLA matching for stem-cell transplantation to an affected sibling (Verlinsky Y, Rechitsky S, Sharapova T, Morris R, Taranissi M, Kuliev A. Preimplantation HLA testing. JAMA.

First report of fertility preservation for cancer patients using IVM and oocyte vitrifica­tion (Rao GD, Chian RC, Son WS, Gilbert L, Tan SL. Fertility preservation in women undergoing cancer treatment.

First report on oocyte cryopreservation to save fertility in cancer patients.
Porcu E, Fabbri R, Damiano G, Fratto R, Giunchi S, Venturoli S. Oocyte cryopreservation in oncological patients.  Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 

The first reported live born following preimplantation genetic diagnosis for Retinoblastoma (Xu K, Rosenwaks Z, Beaverson K, Cholst I, Veeck L, Abramson DH. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis for retinoblastoma: the first reported liveborn.

First report on a natural cycle in IVF combined with IVM as a potential approach to infertility treatment (Chian RC, Buckett WM, Abdul Jalil AK, Son WY, Sylvestre C, Rao D, Tan SL. Natural-cycle in vitro fertilization combined with in vitro maturation of immature oocytes is a potential approach in infertility treatment. Fertil Steril.

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2003

Live births after vitrification of oocytes in a stimulated in vitro fertilization–embryo transfer program (Yoon TK, Kim TJ, Park SE, Hong SW, Ko JJ, Chung HM, Cha KY. Live births after vitrification of oocytes in a stimulated in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer program. Fertil Steril. 2003;79(6):1323-6) .

First live birth after ovarian stimulation using a chimeric long-acting human recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) agonist (recFSH-CTP) for in vitro fertilization (Beckers NG, Macklon NS, Devroey P, Platteau P, Boerrigter PJ, Fauser BC. First live birth after ovarian stimulation using a chimeric long-acting human recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) agonist (recFSH-CTP) for in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril.

Implantation of the human embryo is the limiting factor in the success of IVF. Dr. Barash and Prof. Dekel showed an Increasing implantation rate following endometrial injury, performed by Pipelle curettage as a simple outpatient procedure. (Barash A, Dekel N, Fieldust S, Segal I, Schechtman E, Granot I. Local injury to the endometrium doubles the incidence of successful pregnancies in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril.

Normal birth after microsurgical enucleation of tripronuclear human zygotes (Kattera S, Chen C. Normal birth after microsurgical enucleation of tripronuclear human zygotes: Case report.

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2002

First live birth following blastocyst biopsy and PGD analysis. (De Boer K, McArthur S, Murray C and Jansen R. First live birth following blastocyst biopsy and PGD analysis. Reprod Biomed Online 2002;4,35).

First clinical application of comparative genomic hybridization and polar body testing for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of aneuploidy. (Wells D, Escudero T, Levy B, Hirschhorn K, Delhanty JD, Munné S. First clinical application of comparative genomic hybridization and polar body testing for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of aneuploidy. Fertil Sterile.

Patient Comments - 20

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

In our 20s and early 30s, the last thought on our minds was infertility. Most doctors just told us to keep trying and be patient. After 2 years and a recommendation from family friends, we went to see Dr. Silber and his team. We could hardly believe that such a world renowned infertility doctor was right in our area! After sitting down with Dr. Silber, we finally felt like we had some answers. Although IVF was not our dream, he gave us hope. His team was so patient in explaining each aspect of the process.

In May of 2009 we gave birth to our first child, a son. He is more than we could have ever imagined. Our little family of 3 couldn’t be happier. We cannot say thank you enough to Dr. Silber, Dr. DeRosa, and all of the staff. When we are ready for a bigger family, we will definitely be back to see you!

If you have to go through IVF, Dr. Silber is the doctor that you want to go to. He is world renowned. People come from all over to seek out his expertise. I can't thank him enough for all that he has done for my family.

Michael, Sarah, & Tyler Brokering
Granite City, Illinois

Patient Comments - 19

Our Personal Story

Our family cannot say enough wonderful things about Dr. Silber and his entire team. We had struggled with infertility for several years before we saw Dr. Silber on the Discovery Channel television show "Baby Lab". We made the trip to St. Louis from Kansas to meet with Dr. Silber and discuss our options. We left our meeting feeling encouraged and hopeful. We quickly scheduled our IVF procedure. We couldn't wait to see if this would be the end of our journey with infertility.

We will never forget the JOY of that first positive pregnancy test! It seemed as if our family was now going to be complete and we couldn't imagine being any happier. Little did we know that three months into our pregnancy we would receive a phone call from an adoption agency asking if we would like to adopt a baby girl. After the shock subsided, we happily said "YES"! I was six months pregnant when our daughter Elizabeth Joy was born. Four months later, I delivered a healthy and beautiful baby girl we named Annie Joy.

We are blessed beyond measure to have TWO beautiful daughters. Thank you to Dr. Silber and his team for helping make our dreams come true!

Martin, Allison, Elizabeth, and Annie White
Wichita, Kansas

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2001

Birth of an infant from cryopreserved embryos (zygotes) produced by IVM oocytes derived from an unstimulated patient with PCOS (Chian RC, Gülekli B, Buckett WM, Tan SL. Pregnancy and delivery after cryopreservation of zygotes produced by in-vitro matured oocytes retrieved from a woman with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Hum Reprod. 2001;16(8):1700-2).

Ongoing twin pregnancy after ICSI of PESA-retrieved spermatozoa into in-vitro matured oocytes reported by the McGill group. (Ahmad Kamal Abdul-Jalil, Tim J. Child, Simon Phillips, Nicola Dean, Serge Carrier, and Seang Lin Tan. Ongoing twin pregnancy after ICSI of PESA-retrieved spermatozoa into in-vitro matured oocytes: Case report, Hum. Reprod. 2001 16: 1424-1426).

Live birth after sperm retrieval from a moribund man (Belker AM, Swanson ML, Cook CL, Carrillo AJ, Yoffe SC. Live birth after sperm retrieval from a moribund man. Fertil Steril. 2001;76(4):841-3).

The History of IVF -The Milestones

2000

Oktay and Karlikaya were the first to report on ovarian tissue transplants after frozen storage. (Oktay K, Karlikaya G. Ovarian function after transplantation of frozen, banked autologous ovarian tissue. N Engl J Med. 2000 Jun 22;342(25):1919).


The development of a completely chemically defined protein-free embryo culture medium and the births of the first batch of babies generated from the fertilization of eggs collected and inseminated in the said protein-free medium using spermatozoa also prepared in the same protein-free medium in both conventional IVF and ICSI. (Ali, Shahata MAM., Al-Natsha SD. Formulation of a protein-free medium for human assisted reproduction. Hum. Reprod. 2000 15: 145-156).

Cryopreserved oocytes and frozen sperm: first ever birth. (Porcu E, Fabbri R, Damiano G, Giunchi S, Fratto R, Ciotti PM, Venturoli S, Flamigni C. Clinical experience and applications of oocyte cryopreservation. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2000:27;169(1-2):33-7).

The History of IVF -The Milestones

1999

First unaffected pregnancy using preimplantation genetic diagnosis for sickle cell anemia. (Xu K, Shi ZM, Veeck LL, Hughes MR, Rosenwaks Z. First unaffected pregnancy using preimplantation genetic diagnosis for sickle cell anemia. JAMA. 1999, 12;281(18):1701-6).

Birth following vitrification of human oocyte (Lilia Kuleshova, Luca Gianaroli, Cristina Magli, Anna Ferraretti, and Alan Trounson. Birth following vitrification of a small number of human oocytes: Case Report. Hum. Reprod. 1999 14: 3077-3079).

Chian et al. demonstrated that hCG priming prior to immature oocyte retrieval in women with PCO increases the maturation rate and produces high pregnancy rates of 40% per IVM started cycle (Chian, R.C., Gülekli, B., Buckett, W.M. and Tan, S.L. Priming with human chorionic gonadotrophin before retrieval of immature oocytes in women with infertility due to the polycystic ovary syndrome. N. Eng. J. Med., 1999;341, 1624–1626).

World’s first IVF/ICSI pregnancy and live-birth after successful air transport of oocytes reported by the McGill Reproductive Centre, enabling the creation of an air-transport IVF program in large countries with scattered populations or in areas remote from infertility centers (Buckett WM, Fisch P, Dean NL, Biljan MM, Tan SL. In vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection pregnancies after successful transport of oocytes by airplane. Fertil Steril. 1999;71(4):753-5).


Cryopreserved oocytes and testicular sperm: first ever birth. (Porcu E, Fabbri R, Petracchi S, Ciotti PM, Flamigni C. Ongoing pregnancy after intracytoplasmic injection of testicular spermatozoa into cryopreserved human oocytes. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1999;180:1044-5).

Cryopreserved oocytes and epididimal sperm: first ever birth. (Porcu E, Fabbri R, Ciotti PM, Petracchi S, Seracchioli R, Flamigni C. Ongoing pregnancy after intracytoplasmic sperm injection of epididymal spermatozoa into cryopreserved human oocytes. J Assist Reprod Genet. 1999;16(5):283-5).