Next year is the 40th anniversary for the world’s first IVF baby…and we have been performing IVF for 33 years.

Next year is the 40th anniversary for the world’s first IVF baby, or test tube baby, produced in 1978 in England.

We are quite excited about that. I have been performing in vitro fertilization for 33 years. In the United States, the first IVF baby occurred in 1982, and I began practicing IVF in 1984. Dominion Fertility has stayed on the ultra-cutting edge throughout this time, with their IVF program. In the early days, the pregnancy rates were extremely low, often single digit pregnancy rates.

Now, at Dominion Fertility, we expect that our patients will become pregnant in over 50% of the transfers we perform transferring a single genetically-normal embryo. In other words, most of our patients at Dominion Fertility are successful after only one or two embryo transfers of a single embryo – and that’s great news! We have come so far! In the early days, IVF was a surgical procedure. It involved taking fertility medications and drugs for several weeks. Now, the procedure is performed entirely within the medical office at Dominion Fertility, in a very simple nonsurgical procedure. It takes about 5-10 minutes to perform. We obtain the eggs, fertilize the eggs, and then take the embryos and do an embryo biopsy, testing the embryos using preimplantation genetic screening, which allows us to see if they are genetically normal prior to putting the embryo back into the patient’s uterus. This increases the chances for pregnancy, decreases the miscarriage rate, and with 99% certainty, we avoid a genetically abnormal pregnancy, such as a Down syndrome pregnancy.

At Dominion Fertility, we expect that our patients will become pregnant in over 50% of the transfers we perform transferring a single genetically-normal embryo. In other words, most of our patients at Dominion Fertility are successful after only one or two embryo transfers of a single embryo – and that’s great news!

Dominion Fertility has stayed on the cutting edge or beyond throughout this time. A recent paper just came out that validated this approach that we have used at Dominion Fertility for the past three years. We are quite excited. We believe that the treatments we perform are very cutting edge. Most of our pregnancies occur after only one or two embryo transfers. If the patient is not pregnant after her second transfer, we begin to wonder if perhaps there’s something wrong with the uterus, or if there are other factors involved. So, it’s been an exciting journey for me, personally. We love what we do. We take a lot of pride in our work and our patients seem to appreciate our methods and technologies and our partnering with them throughout these procedures. IVF is here to stay. It should only get better in the future. I can assure you Dominion Fertility will continue to be on the ultra-cutting edge of reproductive medicine.

Dr. Michael DiMattina, Reproductive Physician, Dominion Fertility

​Arlington, Virginia

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