Press Release:

NEW YORK, June 4 /PRNewswire/ — Conceive Magazine has again named Verizon among the 50 Best Companies in the country for offering superior family-building benefits such as financial assistance for adoptions and health insurance coverage for fertility diagnosis and treatment. This is the magazine’s third annual Best Companies list and the third consecutive year that Verizon has earned a spot.

The 50 Best Companies list, which is featured in the May/June 2009 issue of Conceive, focuses on employers that offer the best benefits for women and men hoping to be parents. The magazine surveyed more than 200 employers to develop the list.

Kim Hahn, founder of Conceive, said: “Fertility treatments and adoptions can be costly. In the current economic climate, we applaud those companies who recognize how important it is to help employees build their families.”

Verizon’s family- and adoption-friendly benefits include $10,000 per fulltime employee per adoption, with no lifetime cap, and fertility drug coverage under the company’s prescription plans.

“We want to remain an employer of choice,” said Magda Yrizarry, vice president for workplace culture, diversity and compliance at Verizon, “so we are focused on providing meaningful benefits to our employees. It’s the right thing to do and it helps us retain top talent at Verizon, which ultimately helps deliver greater value to our customers and shareholders.”

Verizon has numerous programs that benefit employees and their families. For example, in 2008, the company provided employees with 37,500 hours in emergency backup care for employees’ children — time that employees would have otherwise had to use as vacation or personal time. The company also offers employees child care and adult care locater services as well as a Geriatric Care Management program.

Verizon is equally committed to creating personal and professional opportunities for its employees, and the company’s employee development, education and training budget has totaled approximately $1 billion over the past few years. Last year alone, more than 29,000 employees benefited from $118 million in tuition assistance, which prepays 100 percent of approved tuition and fees at accredited institutions, up to $8,000 per year, per employee. The company’s commitment to training and investing in the education and professional development of its employees again placed the company on Training Magazine’s Training Top 125 list of companies that have the best training programs for their employees.

Earlier this year, the Dave Thomas Foundation named Verizon an industry leader for its adoption benefits. Verizon was also named to Working Mother magazine’s list of Best Companies for Multicultural Women; and the National Association for Female Executives named Verizon to its list of 2009 NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women, which spotlights corporations with practices and employment records that benefit women and encourage their advancement to top management positions.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council named Verizon to the council’s annual list of America’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprise. Verizon has also consistently been named to DiversityInc magazine’s list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity, earning the No. 1 ranking in 2006 and 2008.

For more information about Verizon’s commitment to employees and customers, visit www.verizon.com/about.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving more than 86 million customers nationwide. Verizon’s Wireline operations provide converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network. Wireline also includes Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 237,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON’S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon’s News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Tags : adoption, Conception, infertility

Research by board-certified reproductive endocrinologist Richard Sherbahn, MD, at the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago reveals that the age of a woman receiving donated eggs significantly affects her chances of implantation and successful pregnancy.

Gurnee, Ill. (PRWEB) June 4, 2009 — Infertility specialist Richard Sherbahn, MD, recently presented research to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine regarding the effect of a woman recipient’s age on the outcome of egg donation.

Dr. Sherbahn studied 452 egg donation cycles using donors under age 31 between 1998 and 2007. He separated the recipients into two groups according to age, with women under 45 in one group and women ages 45-50 in the other group.

The study compared the two groups’ recipient and donor ages, as well as the number of embryos transferred and the rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy, miscarriage and live birth.

Dr. Sherbahn found no differences between the two groups’ average donor ages or the average number of embryos transferred. However, the study showed that recipients ages 45-50 had lower rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy and live birth, and a higher rate of miscarriage than women under age 45.

“The differences between the recipient age groups’ rates of implantation and miscarriage were statistically significant, although the differences in their rates of clinical pregnancy and live birth were not,” says Dr. Sherbahn.

“There is a significant reduction in implantation rates — and a notable increase in miscarriage rates — in egg donation recipients ages 45-50,” Dr. Sherbahn concludes.

“A woman’s uterine receptivity might decline with advancing age due to unknown biochemical and/or molecular changes in the uterine lining,” he says. “This decline could also be the result of a higher incidence of other pathological conditions in the uterus, such as fibroid tumors, polyps, or scarring and adhesions known as Asherman’s syndrome.”

“High blood pressure and other systemic disorders are more common in older women; these could also contribute to the reduced potential for implantation and a successful pregnancy,” Dr. Sherbahn explains.

For some women, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with donated eggs has succeeded after multiple IVF cycles using their own eggs have failed. Forty-year-old Gail and her husband are now expecting twins, thanks to IVF with donor eggs.

“This has been a seven-year journey for me and my husband,” Gail explains. “I got married at 33, so we attempted to start a family right away. Within a year, I got pregnant naturally and miscarried. Then I got pregnant immediately again and miscarried a second time.”

Gail and her husband sought fertility treatment at another clinic, undergoing six intra-uterine inseminations, also called artificial insemination, before trying IVF. “The first IVF we did worked — I got pregnant again — and miscarried,” Gail recalls. “It was devastating.” Three more IVF attempts at that clinic were unsuccessful, including one with donor eggs.

Then Gail and her husband came to the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago. “We chose egg donation because that was going to give us the best chance of success,” she explains. “We went through one IVF cycle. They implanted two embryos — and I’m 11 weeks pregnant! I’ve never made it this far before. We’re thrilled! And the best news is that I’m pregnant with twins. It’s the biggest blessing that we could ever have imagined.”

“Because we have high success rates, flexible pricing options (including money-back guarantees) and immediate availability of numerous egg donors, we see a lot of interest in our donor program from local couples — as well as from people in other states and countries,” says Dr. Sherbahn.

The Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, with offices in Gurnee and Crystal Lake, Ill., offers advanced reproductive technology services such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection and egg donation.

The Center specializes in individualized care, and has IVF success rates and egg donation success rates above the national averages. Advanced Fertility has egg donors available immediately, with no third-party egg donor agency needed.

The Center’s web site, www.advancedfertility.com, offers more than 200 articles on fertility issues and IVF. To schedule an appointment at the Gurnee office, call 847.662.1818. For an appointment at the Crystal Lake office, call 815.356.1818.

Article was a press release.

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Tags : Conception, infertility, ivf

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 9:41 AM

Low antioxidant intake is associated with low reproductive capacity in semen. This is the finding of a new study carried out in two infertility centres in Alicante and Murcia, and which has been published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

“Our previous research study, published in March, showed that men who eat large amounts of meat and full fat dairy products have lower seminal quality than those who eat more fruit, vegetables and reduced fat dairy products. In this study, we have found that people who consume more fruits and vegetables are ingesting more antioxidants, and this is the important point”, Jaime Mendiola, lead author of the article and a researcher at the University of Murcia, tells SINC.

The experts have spent the past four years analysing the link between dietary habits or workplace exposure to contaminants and the quality of semen among men attending fertility clinics.

The objective was to find out whether a higher or lower intake of vitamins, which act as antioxidants, could affect semen quality. These molecules, which are present in foods such as citrus fruits, peppers and spinach, work by lowering the level of oxidative stress that can affect semen quality, and improve sperm concentration parameters as well as sperm mobility and morphology.

The study was carried out among 61 men, 30 of whom had reproductive problems, while the remaining 31 acted as controls. “We saw that, among the couples with fertility problems coming to the clinic, the men with good semen quality ate more vegetables and fruit (more vitamins, folic acid and fibre and less proteins and fats) than those men with low seminal quality”, explains Mendiola.

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Tags : Conception, infertility, male

by Monica Derevjanikand Mary Squillace
May 13, 2009

Twelve thousand women participated in an online study on fertility facts, and only one woman answered all 15 questions correctly. Now one woman has launched a campaign using “martinis” and manicures to change that statistic.

“It’s a mind blow to me that women don’t understand and have not been given that good of information about the biological clock,” said Corey Whelan, the program director for the New York City-based American Fertility Association. “Most infertility can be avoided if women simply know the truth about when their body is no longer willing to cooperate.”

That’s why Whelan, 53, created the Manicures and Martinis Infertility Prevention Program—a national series of events where women can gather to sip non-alcoholic “fertiltinis,” get their nails done and ask fertility experts about how to prevent infertility. Fifty women attended the Chicago event Tuesday night at River North’s Allyu salon.

One of those women was 28-year-old physical therapist Janna Miller, who attended the event after hearing that her friend was using holistic methods to boost her fertility.

“I learned that my husband’s supplements that he’s taking could affect his fertility in the future,” she said.

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Tags : Conception, female, fertility, infertility

The couple, of Cambridge Road, Silksworth, had been trying for a family for three years when Abigail was born on their fourth attempt at IUI.

Deborah, 34, said: “We are eternally grateful to the unit. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have Abigail. They have been absolutely brilliant.”

Deborah, a display manager at Joplings, and Peter, 34, an electrician for Sunderland Council, have been together for eight years after meeting through friends.

They married in 2005 and started trying for a family the same year.

Deborah said: “I come from a big family. I’ve always wanted a baby. We’d been trying and trying and it wasn’t happening.”

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Tags : Conception, fertility, infertility

March 9 (Bloomberg) — Children of older fathers have lower intelligence scores than those born to younger men, perhaps because of cumulative damage to men’s sperm during their lives, Australian and U.S. researchers found.

Children born to fathers who were age 20 scored an average of 2 points higher on an IQ test than children born to 50-year- old fathers, according to the study of data collected on 33,437 children from 1959 through 1965. Average IQ among children dropped steadily on a number of tests as their fathers’ ages rose, according to the research published today in Public Library of Science, Medicine, an online journal.

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Tags : Conception, fertility, male