This month's newsletter
includes the announcement of a new initiative at
CHR.
This is only the second time in the history of CHR
that our institution has taken such a step. The first time, about 15 years ago,
was the initiative
that made us
concentrate on the
"older" ovary
at the Center, in both
research, as well as clinical care. 15 years ago,
when we made this decision
we were motivated by the
hypothesis, by the thought, by the idea that
older women
were increasing in our patient population in general.
That women above age 40
represent now, in the United States for a good number of years, the age group
that
the quickest
increases in size and having children. In other words, women above age 40 are
today
practically the only age group
where
pregnancies and deliveries are still rising. You know, at all other ages
deliveries in the United States have been declining and a similar pattern can be seen
throughout
developed countries around the globe.
Recognizing then
that older women
will become
more
prevalent in infertility centers, we felt that
it was time to
concentrate our
efforts on this subject and
the announcement of
that initiative
15 years ago, led to CHR concentrating a big part of its financial resources,
when it came to research, but also
to clinical care
on
the older ovary.
We have been
exceptionally successful
in this effort. It was
well-timed and
we believe very
logical
because if anything,
they increase in age of
women
needing fertility care
proceeded even at a quicker pace than than we had anticipated.
CHR is probably at the extreme.
CHR has by far the oldest
patient population,
reporting to CDC and ASRM
but
we see no end to this trend as our patient population
Year by year
is quite significantly aging in 2016 indeed.
Our
patients mean
age for the first time past 42. So
we have been extremely successful
by being able in parallel, over those 15 years,
to advance our
pregnancy rates in these older patients.
Best documented
elsewhere
reported in this month's newsletter
by the recent birth of what is likely the oldest woman ever giving birth
to a child with use of her own eggs after IVF
at age
practically 48. She was only two months short of 48
at the time we transferred her embryos.
We now
are announcing a similar initiative in the field of reproductive
immunology.
Like 15 years ago, when we decided
to concentrate our efforts on the older ovaries. We feel that the time now is ripe
for this initiative.
Reproductive immunology has gotten somewhat of a bad name
over the last 20 to 25 years
because a lot of
people entered the field and made
pronouncement and promises that were really
not based on solid data.
CHR has
had a prominent position in
the field of reproductive
immunology for many years, though we have
remained relatively quiet. I personally
was
involved in the formation of the American Society for Reproductive
Immunology, Indeed I was
the society's first elected vice president. I was also the
founding editor in chief of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, which was foundedin parallel with the
creation of the
society and in the early days there was a lot of enthusiasm about the field of reproductive immunology, and then unfortunately,
interests in general in medicine
dissipated about immunology.
But particularly in the reproductive immunology,
some exaggerated statements
from colleagues
rightly
made many other colleagues in the specialty question
the seriousness
of some of the published
reports and especially of some of the clinical practices that started entering the field.
We now feel that
considering the advances that have been made in immunology and other areas of medicine, particularly
in oncology,
in the organ transplantation and to a large degree in basic biology and genetics.
This is the time
to get back into reproductive
immunology. After all,
pregnancy is a transplant situation. The fetus is
50% a foreign body that is tolerated by the maternal immune system.
What this means is that without
the immune system
reprogramming itself to tolerate that
parasite called a fetus,
there would be no pregnancies. That
describes how important reproductive immunology is to reproductive success.
Like 15 years ago with the aging ovary,
we now believe that the time is right
to start an initiative in reproductive immunology. New tools, new knowledge
have made this the time to aggressively to re-enter the field and we therefore are
extremely pleased to announce
the new reproductive immunology initiative at CHR, which will
be concentrating both on basic research.
As well as,
clinical care of patients with reproductive
immunology problems in a very similar fashion
to how we developed our knowledge and our expertise
about the aging ovary. We're looking forward to seeing you if you have reproductive
immunology problems, just call us. We learn every day from our patients.
You
