Happening @ ALPHA IVF

What is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)? Affecting some 10 percent of women of reproductive age, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal imbalance that causes ovulation dysfunction in the ovaries. Abnormal hormone levels prevent follicles in the ovaries from growing and maturing to release egg cells. As a result, women with PCOS have an overabundance of egg follicles, which accumulate in the ovaries. PCOS can cause irregular or missed menstrual periods. This, in turn, can lead to an inability to get pregnant. Left untreated, the condition is among the most common causes of infertility in women. Who can get PCOS? PCOS can happen at any age after puberty. Women of all races are at risk of it, though no established prevalence among distinct ethnic groups has been shown. Your risk of PCOS may be higher if you have obesity, or if you have a mother, sister or aunt with PCOS.

What are the symptoms of PCOS? The most common PCOS symptoms are: Irregular period Lack of ovulation, known as anovulation, and hormonal imbalance prevent the uterine lining from shedding every month. Some women with PCOS get fewer than eight periods a year. Infrequent bleeding Bleeding can be heavier or lighter than normal as a consequence of anovulation. Hair growth Up to 70 percent of women with PCOS have unwanted hair growth on the face and body, including on the back, belly, or chest. Acne Excessive male hormones can make the skin oilier than usual and cause breakouts in areas such as the face, chest, and upper back. Weight gain More than half of women with PCOS are overweight or obese.

How to diagnose PCOS? Women with PCOS can have a wide range of symptoms. For formal diagnosis, a patient must have at least two of the following: Irregular menstruation High level of male hormones shown through a blood test Ovaries with multiple follicles detected by ultrasound

  PCOS and infertility (more…)

(more…)

Mosaic Embryos, to transfer or not to transfer?  Advances in the field of fertility treatment or Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has gone through many leaps and bounds. Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) or now better known as Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A) has been used to improve the IVF outcome for couples with infertility. The test screens through the 23 pairs chromosomes of the embryos and identifies both normal and abnormal chromosomes in the embryos. Embryos that are tested to be normal are those that will be transferred due to its potential to establish into a successful pregnancy. (more…)

• Connect with our fertility specialists to address your queries about fertility / pregnancy related issues from the comfort of your own home via online consultation.

• A portion of each sessions' proceeds will go towards Covid-19 fund (Tabung Covid-19).

While you stay at home, we want to support you and partner's hopes in building a family.

Schedule a virtual consultation with us, where you can also seek out a second opinion from our specialists. At RM 60.00 per session, RM 20.00 will be donated to Tabung Covid-19 (Covid-19 Fund).

   

Register here by entering : AlphaVC, followed by your full name as per IC : http://www.wasap.my/60125686290 (Office Hours Only)

NOTE : ONLY AVAILABLE FOR OUR EXISTING PATIENTS.

Petaling Jaya – 9 April 2020. ALPHA IVF is now certified in compliance with the standards of RTAC International Code of Practice.

The RTAC certification is an accreditation issued to assisted reproductive technology units or fertility centres that meet the code of practice developed by the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC) of the Fertility Society of Australia (FSA).

In order to get this accreditation, a fertility centre needs to go through an audit conducted by an independent Certification Body (CB) that is approved by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ).

     

This code of practice governs the standard of care that a fertility centre implements in maintaining its quality management system including :

• Compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements
• Competency of key personnel
• Risk Management
• Process controls
• Service requirements
• Continuous professional development,
• Presentation of data including publishing IVF pregnancy rates that are transparent and not misleading

It is imperative that couple that receives fertility treatment be treated with respect and be recognised with their cultural and individual values and beliefs and be uphold of their dignity and privacy.

The main value for Alpha in getting this RTAC certification is to highlight out competence and credibility through a good framework set by RTAC. RTAC has also helped ALPHA IVF to maintain our core values of Excellence, Innovation, Integrity and Quality.

Putting all these into the patient’s perspective, choosing ALPHA IVF as a fertility centre that is RTAC accredited translates into protection of their welfare and ensures that they receive the best quality of care by a centre that have met the highest level of assessment and professionalism in the industry.

Recurrent Implantation Failure (RIF) is a major issue of infertility that is still not fully understood, even after transferring good quality embryos. In order for the uterus to receive an embryo, the interior of the uterus known as endometrium must be ready in the right timing, calculated in coordination with the body's menstrual cycle. This is known as window of implantation. For some women, this timing can be different and this altered timing of the window of implantation could be one of the reasons where embryos fail to implant despite transferring the best embryo.

Recently, a Spanish team has developed a test called Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (ERA) that is able to detect a receptive endometrium with the use of specific transcriptomic signature. It identifies endometrial receptivity, the optimal time for embryo transfer that is specific for each woman, known as personalised embryo transfer. 

ERA was then made available in Alpha IVF in early 2018 and recently, Alpha IVF conducted an initial experience study with the ERA on a group of IVF patients with a history of recurrent implantation failure and their clinical outcome after personalised frozen embryo transfer.

You can click here to read more from the abstract.

How does it benefit a patient?

From the study, Alpha IVF showed that patients with recurrent implantation failure achieved good clinical pregnancy (CPR) and implantation rates (IR) when they had their embryo(s) transferred following the correct window of implantation.

Endometrial receptivity analysis (ERA) reveals the true timing of window of implantation and enables our fertility consultant to alter the embryo transfer time based on individual optimum window of implantation .

This study was accepted for the 10th Congress of the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE) that will happen on 4th-7th August 2020, in Manila, Philippines.

Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) or now better known as Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy (PGT-A) is a genetic study technique to identify abnormalities in embryos created through IVF before transferring them to the womb. The goal of doing PGS is to help you have a successful pregnancy, reduce pregnancy miscarriages and births with genetic defects due to abnormal chromosomes.

There are few types of Preimplantation Genetic Testing that can be performed alongside with IVF treatment, however, PGS is the most commonly used forms of preimplantation genetic testing. (more…)