(The Atlantic via MSN) – Rejoice offers conventional IVF, but it more routinely performs mini-IVF, in which a patient receives oral fertility medications and only a few days of low-dose hormone shots. The clinic also offers natural-cycle IVF, which uses the single egg that a woman ovulates each month for fertilization and transfer. At least 85 percent of the clinic’s patients are there for mini-IVF and natural-cycle IVF, according to John David Gordon, the clinic’s medical director.

Natural-cycle and minimal-stimulation IVF date back to the 1970s, when the procedure was first introduced. Fertility clinics in Europe and Japan have been using a lower-dose form of IVF for years. Because it involves fewer hormones, it’s thought to lower the negative side effects for patients, including the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which causes the ovaries to swell and can be life-threatening in rare cases. Most clinics in the United States prefer to use conventional IVF because it has a higher success rate, Sean Tipton, the chief advocacy and policy officer for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, told me. (Monitoring and newer injection protocols have also limited the risk of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.) (Read More)