ARIZONA CENTER FOR FERTILITY STUDIES

		About ACFS
				Treating Infertility The game has changed, and the odds of winning are greatly improved.
			In our parents day, a woman who was unable to conceive either adopted or simply moved on with life. Today, advances in reproductive medicine have changed the game, according to Jay S. Nemiro, M.D., reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with the Arizona Center for Fertility Studies, and the odds of winning are greatly increased. For him, the triumph is manifested in the happy homes of the more than 5,500 babies which have been born as a result of treatment through the north Scottsdale center, founded in 1981. Nemiro, who is highly regarded among his peers, was voted the number one infertility specialist by Phoenix physicians in a 1999 poll of Top Docs by Phoenix Magazine. But for him the joy is in the births. "What I do makes a difference for people at a very trying time in their lives, and it's very satisfying," he says. "I have four kids and two step-kids. I know the joys of having children." When women think infertility treatment, often they think of one-plan-fits all scenario. But the truth is, according to Nemiro, a physician should work with a woman to consider which among the many options are best for her. "When women come to me, I like to discuss all their options with them, from the very conservative to the very aggressive," explains the doctor. "I listen to the patient. Whether she wants to be aggressive, or is not ready to move to the next level, I will support her all the way." Among the most successful treatments and technologies available today is ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where sperm is literally injected into an egg. "The process basically eliminates male infertility," says Nemiro. "And reversals for vasectomies are not necessary with ICSI because the sperm can be retrieved without it." The center also offers low tubal transfer (GIFT), which represents the highest success rates of any of the treatments (invitro fertilization). Together, with his partner Dr. McGaughey, Dr. Nemiro has performed over 4,000 of these procedures. "Where there's a will there's almost always a way," encourages Nemiro. "What's new is that we're better, and getting better results, at everything that was new. There are always options, though they may not be the options a woman might have previously pictured for herself." For Nemiro, treating infertility is not about blind hope. "I like the word possibility better than the word hope," he says. "Hope suggests a state that is out of our control. Infertility is not necessarily a permanent state, and it is not necessarily beyond out of control. If a woman becomes an active player, the possibility exists that she can get pregnant. On our brochure, we have written 'Possibilities that you can conceive.' We expect to explore all of those possibilities." Working with Nemiro is a staff he praises as tops. They are leaders in the field of reproductive medicine, and each is an experienced professional in his or her individual area of expertise. Their commitment to the patients, says Nemiro, is 150 percent and needs to be. "What patients trust us with is huge," he says. "I want us to treat everybody who walks in the door as if they were my best friend or my best friend's wife. Women deserve nothing less.