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CNN Live Today
Which Comes First, the Briefcase or the Bottle?
Aired April 25, 2002 - 11:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Which comes first, the briefcase or the bottle? That's a question facing many of today's modern women. And for those who wait to have kids, they might find their biological clocks are ticking, find themselves having a hard time getting pregnant. And today we are paging Dr. Gupta on the fertility factor, bringing back Sanjay Gupta. The issue of babies versus career is on the cover of "Time" magazine to "People" magazine. The last hour, Dr. Gupta gave us a little background on the issue and he is here to help answer your e-mail questions. Also joining us, Dr. Joe Massey, a fertility specialist with Reproductive Biology Associates right here in Atlanta.
And Dr. Massey is the one that you interviewed in your piece.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. He's got a lot of good information, Paula.
KAGAN: Now we have you live. Welcome doctor, Massey. Good to have you with us.
DR. JOE MASSEY, FERTILITY SPECIALIST: Thank you very much.
KAGAN: I'm going it step in front of the e-mail just for a second.
I have a couple questions of my own, since Leon announced I was barren Daryn on television.
But one thing I hear people say, oh, well, just go freeze your eggs. Is that a realistic option, Dr. Massey, or is that something you needed to do at 22.
MASSEY: Well, if you were going to do it, you needed to do it when you were under 30. The people who think they want it do it now, electively, typically are over 35. We've had experience in those patients who needing their eggs frozen for cancer treatment, or precancer treatment. And the number of eggs available for freezing after age 35 is very low. It's very experimental. It's not something that people should be thinking about for stopping the biological clock.
KAGAN: don't count on that.
MASSEY: No. KAGAN: Then for couples who are out there who are trying, how long should you wait before seeing someone like yourself.
MASSEY: If a woman doesn't conceive within a year, in just over a year, see needs to somebody and start testing.
KAGAN: Depending on what age you are, should you go even sooner.
MASSEY: Yes, a 37, 38 year old needs to start sooner, get that sperm count done, get some simple tests done very quickly.
KAGAN: All right, let's go the e-mail right now. First one is coming from Catherine in Dallas, Texas, and she writes in, she's so glad the media is addressing this issue. She's 44. She has a masters a career in health care. "I recently had my first child seven weeks ago using an unknown egg donor, an IVF" -- that's in vitro right?
MASSEY: Right.
KAGAN: OK, "after six years of trying everything else to have a baby. We have four frozen embryos in tow test tubes. What are our chances for a second child using the frozen embryos? We are hoping to this early next year."
Katherine brings up a lot of issues.
First of all, donor eggs. A lot of women who are having babies well into their 40s, one thing you don't hear about, they're not doing it with their own eggs.
MASSEY: Right. And that's personal. Even if you're a celebrity, that's not something you want everybody to know about. But many of the women who are having babies in their mid 40s are using that as an option. It is highly successful. This is a good example, someone who's tried in vitro probably before with their own eggs, didn't succeed. An anonymous donor could be 25-year-old and solves the problem.
KAGAN: That's expensive. What does it cost to buy an egg?
MASSEY: Well, it's not exactly buying an egg, but getting the procedures all done can cost $20,000, so it's not something that's available for everyone.
KAGAN: And then quickly, she wants to know, she has four frozen embryos in two test tubes. What's her chances? Once you get the embryo, is that the hard part, or?
MASSEY: Well, no, it's not, because trying it even with fresh eggs is about let's just 40, 50 percent successful. With frozens, it's about 15-20 percent successful.
KAGAN: Those are low numbers. Let's move on Sanjay. This one is going to be for you.
This is from Kathy -- can we put up the one from Kathy in Roanoke, Virginia. I have that one as our question four, if you can put that one up. Anyone, I will just read it. This is from Kathy from Roanoke, Virginia. There we go.
She says, "I've been through many tests, including laparoscopy, endometrial biopsy. My husband has performed a semen analysis test, and all our tests are normal. I am 30. He is 28. We do not smoke and drink an excessive amount of alcohol, but have been trying to conceive for over a year. What would you recommend next?"
GUPTA: Well, it sounds like, first of all, she has a lot of tests done, and a lot of the concerns about biological clock or it sounds like she is raising here, and her husband as well. But you know, talking to fertility experts, like Dr. Massey, after a year of continuously trying to get -- to become pregnant, she certainly probably needs to see a fertility expert at that point, start getting some of the tests that we are hearing about, the semen count. Forty percent of the time it is something on the male side, and then after that, look at options such as intrauterine insemination, and possibly even in intro fertilization, if the need arises.
MASSEY: Right. The simpler procedure is intrauterine insemination. And a young woman like this, the success rate would be very good. So over, say, three to six months with the insemination of her husband's sperm and drug treatment, her success rate would be very good, and the failures would wind up having in vitro fertilization.
GUPTA: Right, and something you said as well, you can take someone and make them an older person who is seemingly infertile, with the best techniques we have now. Take their fertility and actually approximate what someone at the age of 20 or 22 might be, increase their fertility likelihood up to 40 percent per month or so.
MASSEY: Right. You can. With in vitro, you get very good success rates, and under 37-year-old group. Over 37, it gets harder. I always say, under 37, our results for high-tech procedures are good. Over 37, you cut your results in half.
KAGAN: And what happens? I mean, why do we just fall apart at 37?
MASSEY: Well, because the eggs are going bad. The eggs are making genetic errors as they are being produced. You know about down syndrome in older women. Well, the other thing that's happening is those eggs just don't fertilize, they don't make babies, they make miscarriages. So miscarriages, infertility and down syndrome are all part of the same spectrum of aging eggs.
KAGAN: All right, let's go to yet another e-mail. Put this one up.
All right, this one. All right, "My girlfriend continually harasses me about getting married. She says her biological clock is ticking. She is 27. I am nearly 30, and I continuously see individuals in our age group having children later in life -- between 33 and 40. Are my assumptions about the advances of medical technology and pregnancy and birth true? Is this guy in denial? Does he need to go shopping for the ring, Dr. Massey.
MASSEY: I don't think he needs to shop this month. But it's not safe for him to depend on us to bail him out. They need to get on with this. I think a good cut off year. If you had to say, OK, when am I really beginning to take a risk of putting my career first, I think that age 32 is a good year, if you pin me down and said, when can I quit worrying about this? When do I need to start worrying about this? Because at age 32, you really are taking a big risk. You start when you are 32. You realize you are not pregnant when you are 33. You go to a doctor, and you're 34 when you start into all these intensive treatments. And your age is beginning to add to -- you already might have a problem.
You might have an enmetriosis (ph), your husband's sperm count might not be so good, and then age is sort of piling on. So don't wait. Figure out a way, talk to your manager, and figure out a way to get a baby in there somewhere.
KAGAN: OK, and then go see Dr. Massey.
All right, Dr. Joe Massey, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much, now that you two gentlemen have thoroughly depressed me.
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