Dr. Sawin is a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Medical Director of South Jersey Fertility. He recently sat down with us to share this insight on embryo genetic testing, the most common misconceptions about IVF and why he became a reproductive endocrinologist.
Q: Why did you become a reproductive endocrinologist?
A: The thing that I love about infertility is the ability to impact the lives of the patients. When I was deciding what field to go into, I saw that a lot of medicine was dealing with how the body was failing. With reproductive medicine you get the opportunity to assist the body in working its greatest miracle, which is creating a life.
Q: What does “Let our family help build your family” mean to you?
A: We wanted our mission statement to convey the warmth of our center and how we help our patients. In our practice, we really do feel like a family. Since our goal is to help people create their own families, it felt like a natural fit. We embody this in all of our interactions with our patients and with one another.
Q: What is PGT-A or embryo genetic testing? Why is this important?
A: One of the tests that we can do for embryos is called pre-implantation genetic testing, where we’re counting the number of chromosomes in the embryo to make sure that it’s the right number. If an embryo has the wrong number of chromosomes several different things can happen: The most common would be that the embryo would fail to implant at all, the second most common scenario would be a miscarriage and the last scenario that could happen, and the least likely, would be actually a pregnancy with abnormalities.
Q: What do you think are the most common misconceptions about IVF?
A: There are several things that patients commonly misunderstand about IVF. One of them is that it is unreachable because of expense. The insurance mandate in the state of New Jersey allows many patients the access to this technology at minimal out of pocket expense. The other great misunderstanding is that IVF contributes to multiples in pregnancy. It truly is a thing of the past because now we are transferring single embryos in majority of our patients.