Center for Human Reproduction Receives Two New Patent Approvals on Androgen Supplementation for Women with Diminished Ovarian Reserve (DOR) Attempting to Conceive

A New York fertility center CHR receives two new patents that could improve pregnancy chances for women with diminished ovarian reserve.

By increasing the patients’ androgen levels with DHEA, we are restoring the ovary’s androgen levels to where they should be at young ages.

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 14, 2013

Center for Human Reproduction (CHR), a leading fertility research and treatment center in New York City, announced approval of two patent applications regarding the therapeutic benefits and mechanisms of androgen supplementation for pregnancy chances of women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR).

Combined, the two newly awarded patents (#8,501,718 and #8,501,719) describe the use of supplementation with androgens, such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), to restore ovarian environments deteriorated due to advanced female age (over 38 years) or premature ovarian aging (indicated by abnormally high FSH or abnormally low AMH levels for age).

The new patents follow the two previously awarded patents (#7,615,544 and #8,067,400), which describe DHEA supplementation as a means to improve various quality parameters of eggs and embryos, to shorten time to pregnancy and to improve pregnancy rates. Improving pregnancy chances for women with DOR has been a long-standing research focus at CHR, and CHR’s introduction of DHEA supplementation, almost a decade ago, truly revolutionized fertility treatments for women with DOR.

Having now discovered the mechanisms by which supplementation with DHEA or other androgens achieves all of these effects, one of the new patents (#8,501,719) describes these improvements as stemming from restoration of the ovarian environment to its youthful state with healthy androgen levels. The other (#8,501,718) identifies improvements in anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels after androgen supplementation as a positive prognostic sign in the context of female fertility.

“These two new patents reflect research findings made at CHR already a few years ago,” explains Norbert Gleicher, MD, Medical Director and Chief Scientist at CHR, who is one of the inventors listed on the two patents. Dr. Gleicher continues: “We, indeed, have been clinically applying the knowledge described in these two patents for quite some time in our patients at CHR, as we no longer believe that eggs ‘age’ as women age. What ages is the ovarian environment in which the eggs mature. Low androgen levels are one manifestation of that ovarian aging. By increasing the patients’ androgen levels with DHEA, we are restoring the ovary’s androgen levels to where they should be at young ages. This is quite a departure from the long-held dogma that older women’s eggs are irreparably damaged, and their fertility prospects cannot be improved with medical intervention.”

About the Center for Human Reproduction (CHR)
Center for Human Reproduction, or CHR (http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com/), is a leading fertility research and treatment center in the United States with a worldwide reputation as a "fertility center of last resort," specializing in treatment of infertility in women with diminished ovarian reserve, including younger women with premature ovarian aging (POA) and older women with physiological ovarian aging. Dr. Gleicher is available for additional comments.