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HOWARD JONES, JR., MD: The breakthrough in Norfolk, which allowed us to have the first IVF baby in the United States, and indeed, in the New World was the use of gonadotropins, extra gonadotropins at exactly the right time in the menstrual cycle to recruit more than the single egg, which characterizes the normal menstrual cycle.

You have to understand that the gonadotropins, which are secreted by the little pituitary gland at the base of the brain, normally is secreted in an ebb and flow manner, which controls the normal cyclicity of the menstrual cycle. But by using extra gonadotropins, we were able to harvest extra eggs, which was the key to our success.

This success required us to enlarge our staff because the demand for this new service was very great. We were very pleased and happy to be able to have Dr. Suheil very early on. I had known Suheil when we were both in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins. This was where Suheil received his residency training.

The use of the gonadotropins caused certain changes in the menstrual cycle that we had to understand to make the system work. One of these had to do with the correlation of the maturation of the lining of the uterus with the development of the fertilized egg in-vitro. We wanted to be sure that the synchrony was just the same and we created a taskforce to look at this problem. Suheil was the leader of that taskforce, solved that problem, and enabled us to understand exactly, in the menstrual cycle, when to transfer the developing egg. Let me give you another example.

The use of the gonadotropins surprisingly turned out to result in a different response to the same doses from patient to patient. This sometimes required the expenditure of a cycle to know exactly which dose to use for a patient. We needed a test to use before we used the drug in order to know what the dosage would be. And Mr. Muasher led this taskforce for us and developed a test which is widely used throughout the world today to ascertain which dose of gonadotropin to give to the patient. In other words, Suheil is a problem-solver.

Patients with infertility have a problem and need a problem solver. And therefore it is lucky to be able to be under the care of somebody who approaches each patient as a special problem.

Now, in addition to having a problem solved, it is necessary and desirable to do this in a compassionate atmosphere. Suheil has surrounded himself with a group that provides this and this group is led by his administrative partner, Bassam Kawwass. I’ve known Bassam for awhile too. At one time, he was the administrator of the program in Norfolk and an excellent administrator he was until he went on to bigger and greater things including the administration of the program near Washington.

I think it’s wonderful that you will have the opportunity to go to an experienced, compassionate program. And I wish you good luck in achieving a pregnancy to have a happy family, which is the goal of all married couples. Thank you.