New AUGMENT(SM) Fertility Treatment Now Available in Canada

TCART Fertility Partners becomes first fertility clinic in North America to offer improved method of conception

TORONTO, Dec. 18, 2014 /CNW/ - One in six Canadian couples face fertility challenges,¹ and every year thousands of women in Canada undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try and conceive.² Now, women have access to the AUGMENT^SM treatment, a fertility option specifically designed to improve egg health and enhance IVF outcomes.³ Egg health is a key factor in fertility and IVF success rates.

The Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Technology (TCART) is the only clinic in Canada that offers the AUGMENT treatment, and is one of the first AUGMENT Centers of Excellence (ACE) clinics in the world. TCART Fertility Partners has been an industry innovator in the past 20 years with a history of "firsts" in Canada including: Pioneered mitochondrial injections into mouse oocytes as research, the first use of Letrozole for ovulation induction, and the first worldwide use of robotic technology for automated intracytoplasmic sperm injection pregnancy. 

"We are pleased to be at the forefront as one of the few clinics to be able to offer the AUGMENT treatment to patients," said Robert F. Casper, Founder and Medical Director of TCART Fertility Partners. "This is a promising approach to enhancing IVF that is designed for patients who want to use their own eggs during IVF but previously wouldn't be able to. The AUGMENT treatment is an innovative approach to potentially enhancing IVF, that is designed to improve egg health."

For more information about TCART Fertility Partners or the AUGMENT treatment, please visit  http://www.tcartonline.com/ or  www.augmenttreatment.com.

About the AUGMENT^SM
The AUGMENT treatment is specifically designed to improve a patient's egg health and thereby may increase IVF success. Launched in 2014 in certain IVF clinics in select international regions, this is a new approach intended to enhance IVF that is designed for patients who want to use their eggs during IVF, but have compromised egg health due to poor egg quality, age or other reasons. With the AUGMENT treatment, energy-producing mitochondria from a patient's own egg precursor (EggPC^SM) cells, immature egg cells found in the protective ovarian lining, are added to the patient's mature eggs to supplement the existing mitochondria. The AUGMENT treatment was developed by OvaScience, Inc., a global fertility company.

About the Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Technology
The Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Medicine (TCART) was founded in 1993 and is based in Toronto, ON. It is one of Canada's leading, full-service, fertility clinics. Each year, TCART Fertility Partners sees several thousand patients and treats over 500 with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI ) including preimplantation genetic screening (PGS). Patients also include those seeking fertility preservation as: a precaution prior to cancer treatment; for fertility assessment; treatment of endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome; general infertility including male factor; Intrauterine insemination (IUI); and gynecologic imaging. The clinic also offers acupuncture and naturopathic medical services.

References
_____________________________
¹ Government of Canada. (2014). Fertility. Retrieved from: http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/healthy-living-vie-saine/pregnancy-grossesse/fert-eng.php. Assessed November 10, 2014.

² Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. (2013). Human Assisted Reproduction 2013 Live Birth Rates for Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.cfas.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1205%3Alive-birth-rates-2013&catid=929%3Apress-releases&Itemid=460 Accessed December 15, 2014.

³ Studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals, including Molecular Human Reproduction (1998), Human Cell (2004), Electronic Journal of Biology (2005), Reproduction Research (2006), Human Reproduction (2001) and Reproductive Biomedicine (2011), involved a number of species, including humans, in which third-party scientists demonstrated that the addition of mitochondria to eggs increased cellular energy levels, egg quality and the likelihood of fertilization and healthy live births.

SOURCE: Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Technology

Media Inquiries: Jennifer Wardrop, TCART Fertility Partners, T: 416-972-0110, E: [email protected]; Caroline De Silva, Argyle Communications, T: 416-968-7311 ext. 231, E: [email protected]