Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Success Story from Annette

Annette Machulsky, MA, OI Coordinator

Someone once asked me, “What is an OI coordinator?” After thinking it over I realized that a lot of people may not know what OI stands for. That part is easy, OI stands for ovulation induction. We coordinate ovulation induction cycles, help the physicians educate patients on how their cycles work and help the patients better understand the series of events that need to take place for achieving conception.

There are two OI coordinators currently in our office, myself and Dee Bish. I have been working with Drs. Kubik and Albert for 13 years. I love being able to work closely with the physicians and help patients through the stress and anxiety of undergoing fertility treatments.

Our other OI coordinator, Delinda Bish, LPN has been in the medical field for 14 years and has a lot of experience in women’s healthcare. She recently joined the practice because of her interest in helping women achieve their goal of conception. Dee loves working with our team because she enjoys being involved in the success of making patient’s dreams coming true.

There are many reasons that Dee and I like working with fertility patients. I once had a patient who had a history of pregnancy loss. After coordinating 10 cycles with her, she had 3 chemical pregnancies and another loss. Finally, on her 12th cycle she conceived and successfully had a baby boy! She brought her son in to meet me, and told me that she would never forget hearing my voice the day I told her she had a positive pregnancy test. That is always a truly amazing feeling!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Why We're Here

Dr. Carolyn Kubik, Medical Director

Thanks for checking back for the first installment of Seedlings! Dr. Albert and I started RHS back in July 2000 with the dream of providing individualized, personal fertility care. We hope that this blog will give you the opportunity to understand a little more about the types of conditions that we treat and the holistic approach to fertility that we’re so passionate about. Along the way, we’ll be asking other members of the RHS team to write about what they do and what happens in their departments to give you a glimpse into how the whole team works together towards a single purpose – helping every patient to have a baby.

So a little bit of history about RHS: Dr. Albert and I both completed residencies at Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. I completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Magee and Dr. Albert completed her fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. After fellowship, we both worked in the academic departments of our training institutions. I opened a private fertility practice in a suburb of Pittsburgh in 1991 and Dr. Albert joined me in 1992. We have been working together since that time. In 1995, we were asked to join the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, but decided to try private practice again and RHS was born on July 1, 2000.

One of the most exciting aspects for me about infertility treatment has been the opportunity to be involved with IVF since close to the very beginning. The first IVF baby was born in 1978, the year I started my residency at Magee. At that time, the human IVF pregnancy rate was only 1.2%. Since that time, pregnancy rates have improved dramatically so that now the chance of pregnancy with IVF is as high as 50% per treatment cycle! IVF has also lead to an improvement in our understanding of human conception – resulting in new and better treatments that are not as involved as IVF.

I rejoice with the successes of our patients and I try to provide consolation to those couples whom I am not able to help. I really enjoy what I do and I feel privileged to work in such a rewarding field of medicine.