New Article: Gianna Center

I like to search Google news for infertility topics to see what is new. I was surprised today when I saw a photo of Dr. Beiter and his nurse Jamey in an article about the Gianna Center in NJ.
Here is the link, Pass it on.
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The Gianna Center for Women’s Health is named after Italian pediatrician St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who sacrificed her life for her unborn child in 1962, and embodies the saint’s devotion to Catholic morals. The FertilityCare certified center offers women natural ways to overcome infertility, a condition that affects about 7.3 million women of childbearing age.

Affiliated with St. Peter’s University Hospital and located on Easton Avenue in New Brunswick, the center officially opened its doors to patients in November 2010 and is steadily increasing in popularity.
The original Gianna center, located in Manhattan, opened in 2009 with funding by the former St. Vincent’s Hospital and is now privately owned.
St. Peter’s University Hospital lacked sufficient fertility care resources in 2010 and reached out to Beiter and Anne Meilnik, M.D. who is the director of the New York office.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the therapies used by other practitioners are destructive to early human life,” center director, obstetrician, and gynecologist Kyle Beiter, M.D., said. “We aim to respect human life at all ages, from the embryo to the old adult. This is not always easy or convenient to do but we believe that it is the right thing to do.”

Aside from general ob/gyn consultations and treatment, the center promotes NaProTECHNOLOGY and the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, two natural fertility treatment methods based on patient education and pattern observation. The hospital is the first in the state to offer these methods, Beiter said.
Beiter studied NaProTECHNOLOGY under a selective fellowship at Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha with Thomas Hilgers, M.D., the chief researcher of NaPro.

The Gianna Center is part of a network of 200 to 300 centers across the country that provide NaProTECHNOLOGY, most of which are run by family practitioners who refer to gynecologists like Beiter for procedures on a weekly, if not daily basis.Referrals are received from a wide range of areas, including but not limited to Massachusetts, Connecticut, the Tri-State area, and Florida.

“There are many women who don’t want contraception or birth control forced on them, and don’t want abortion as an option,” Beiter said in a press release. “For those reasons, we have found, many of them hadn’t gone to a gynecologist in years.”
Patients can choose to use the care-based procedures as alternatives to control-based methods such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) for treating infertility, or to avoid pregnancy by identifying detailed patterns in her menstrual cycle.

In avoiding pregnancy, the system is 96 percent effective; Birth control pills have a 92 percent effectiveness rate, according to Beiter.  “With fertility, our goal is to help conception through active intercourse between husband and wife, the most natural way,” Beiter said. “[Patients] respond in favor to it though we don’t force it on anyone.”

The center provides patients with additional testing to determine whether IVF can be avoided and if the couple can proceed with a natural pregnancy after treatment at the center. Because the center does not use IVF, an important goal is removing all disease.
Dr. Hilgers made significant developments in adhesion to reduce scar tissue build up, which is a common problem after surgery, according to Beiter.

“Our philosophy is that you can equal results by putting out far less cash out of your pocket,” Phillip Hartman, Director of Public Relations for St. Peter’s University Hospital said of the treatment, which is much less expensive for patients than IVF.
The center appeals to Catholic patients who hold ethical concerns as well as those who seek a more natural treatment.