If you're unable to conceive, you're not alone. One in every six couples has infertility issues. Causes can include ovulation disorders, endometriosis, sexually transmitted infections, genetic conditions or diseases, smoking, drinking or drug use, low sperm count, obesity or aging.

At Florida Hospital Celebration Health, we encourage anyone under 30 who has been trying to get pregnant for at least a year to speak with a doctor about having an infertility evaluation. This includes the man and the woman. In some cases,  you may want to speak with the doctor sooner. For example if you're a woman in your 30s and you've been trying to get pregnant for six months, you want to keep in mind that the chances of having a baby decreases rapidly every year after the age of 30.

No matter how old you are, you should always talk to a doctor before you start trying to get pregnant. The doctor can help you prepare for the pregnancy and answer any questions you have about fertility and conceiving.

Fertility Preservation

More people than ever are surviving cancer. For breast cancer patients, the survival rate is approaching 90% while other cancer survival rates are over 60%. This means that nearly 1 million people have survived cancer.

Unfortunately, a side effect of this modern miracle is that many of these survivors have not yet started or completed their families and cancer therapies may make this difficult or even impossible.

At Florida Hospital Celebration Health we understand this problem well and have created a fertility preservation program to help you make informed decisions about preserving your fertility. Here, our expert team of physicians, nurses and embryologists will provide consultation, education, awareness and support before and after cancer therapy.

Available options may include vitro fertilization, embryo freezing, mature egg cryopreservation, in vitro maturation, fertility sparing surgery and medical suppression of the ovaries. We are also leading a multidisciplinary research initiative to evaluate markers that predict ovarian and sperm production failure and working to improve other methods that will increase preservation and fertilization rates.

Tubal Reversal

One of the first hospital systems in the southeast to offer this new technique, Florida Hospital Celebration Health is highly experienced in a robotically-assisted procedure that reverses tubal sterilization in women.

Using the da Vinci® S surgical system, surgeons can reverse the tubal sterilization through small incisions instead of the large C-section type incision that used to be required. This can cut recovery time greatly and result in less pain, blood loss and scarring.  Typically, recovery time is several days instead of four to six weeks for the old procedure.

Tubal reversal is ideal for women who have had their "tubes tied" (a more common definition of tubal sterilization) and wish to have more children, either because they remarried or simply want a larger family than they initially planned to have.

Egg Donor

If a woman doesn't have viable eggs, donor eggs may be used to assist in reproduction. Carefully screened and matched, donor eggs are harvested and preserved until needed.

The most common reasons for using donor eggs is premature ovarian failure or a low number of ovarian eggs. However, some women who do not wish to pass on a severe genetic disease to their child will turn to donor eggs.

At Florida Hospital Celebration Health, our reproductive and fertility specialists will discuss egg donor options and answer any questions you may have. The reproductive team here is very experienced in donor egg procedures and has a solid track record of successful implantations and resulting pregnancies using this method.

In Vitro Fertilization

In vitro fertilization differs from other methods in that fertilization occurs outside of the woman's body. The man's sperm and woman's egg are combined in a laboratory, where fertilization occurs. After fertilization the resulting embryo is transferred to the woman's uterus where it will develop naturally.

In vitro can have a high rate of success, often as high as 50% since the embryo is already developing at the time it is transferred to the womb. Of course, many factors can influence the success of any infertility treatment and in vitro is no exception.

The fertility specialists at Florida Hospital Celebration Health will be happy to discuss all your options with you, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Highly experienced in helping couples finally achieve their dream of having a child, the doctors and support staff here believe that miracles happen every day and with the right protocol and an informed patient, new children can come into this world in ways that are nothing short of a miracle.

Sejal D. Patel, MD 

Board Certified: Obstetrics, Gynecology, Reproductive Endocrinology

Medical Director for Reproductive International and Domestic Robotic Strategy

Dary DeVane, MD

Randall Loy, MD

Sharon Jaffe, MD