Understanding The CRM Lab

The Driving Force in Infertility Treatment

If you’re a potential patient looking for the right information to help you choose a practice, we suggest starting here. For many new to infertility, the lab can be an intimidating place behind closed doors where science simply happens. Wanting our existing and future patients to not only understand the science and technological advantages we offer, we want you to be excited about them, too.

It is important that all our patients and potential patients understand the unique critical advantages we offer, and that CRM’s lab and lab team are a driving force behind our infertility treatment success rates.

Because CRM is independently owned and operated by its caring physicians, having our own on-site lab enables us to outfit it with the absolute best and most advanced technologies regardless of what they cost. Not beholden to shareholders, we can put patients before profits and provide every critical advantage to our patients.

This is essential to know as the scientific and technological developments in the IVF field constantly advance and evolve. Each development, no matter how small, means a better chance of our patients reaching their ultimate goal — a baby. And when it comes to this goal, the CRM team always chooses its patients’ best path to success over profits.

Our lab technologies and science cannot be matched elsewhere in the region and the CRM lab team and physicians are extremely proud of the lab’s LifeAire filtration system. CRM is the only fertility center in Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle to offer this incomparable medical grade air purity system backed with proven results. Essential to our success, the LifeAire system delivers medical grade air purity to the most sensitive and demanding environments where it’s needed most.

It’s important to know that of all the variables that affect the outcome of an IVF cycle, none is as prevalent as air. And while it is accepted that clean air can help the viability of a fragile human embryo, it took LifeAire two decades of research and testing to prove that fluctuations in IVF success can be attributed to events occurring outside the laboratory. So just Imagine that road resurfacing, construction, car exhaust, insecticides, and even cleaning products can slip through traditional air purification systems and be a senseless detriment to the successful formation and development of an embryo.

A team of chemists, engineers, and physicists developed the LifeAire system to remediate and neutralize airborne pathogens at multiple levels. Its multi-staged, patented technology comprehensively addresses airborne chemical and biological pathogens. It is, quite simply, the most powerful defense a laboratory can employ, and the fastest path to a significant improvement in outcomes. And the numbers speak for themselves:

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Average improvement in ongoing pregnancy rates in participating IVF programs

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Increase in implantation rate

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Increase in blastocyst conversion rate

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Decrease in loss rate

In addition to the LifeAire system, CRM Lab Director, Dr. Degelos is extremely proud of our lab’s time-lapse incubators, embryo culture incubators, and more. Since her role involves the management of genetic materials, she and her team work tirelessly to ensure the embryology laboratory is an ideal environment for embryo growth and storage.

These cutting-edge tools result in higher success rates for our patients. For her, if they didn’t have the best lab possible, they wouldn’t be able to help as many patients build families. “In this field, your clinic revolves around the lab and what it is capable of doing. If everything isn’t functioning properly or embryos aren’t developing properly because you can’t afford the absolute top of the line equipment, then your patients are going to suffer in the long run.”

As CRM’s lead Embryologist, Dr. Degelos has over 27 years of experience and plays a vital role overseeing our scientific staff. She’s and her staff understand how precious the embryos are and how important it is to connect with CRM patients during the development of their embryos. She is driven by the relationships she builds with her patients and ensuring the healthy development of their embryos.

As the link to the lab, she is in regular direct communication with CRM patients. Whether that be at the first information session, during egg retrieval or embryo transfer, or to update patients on their embryo’s progression, Dr. Degelos is known and adored for her caring interactions with patients. Additionally, Dr. Degelos founded CRM’s exclusive Embryology Class to ensure patients are educated and able to ask questions about this complex science.

Another extremely important aspect to know is that Dr. Degelos is also an Andrologist, another unique advantage for CRM patients. An Andrologist is a scientist who specializes in male reproductive issues, specifically sperm. Considering 1 in 10 men will experience fertility issues, her proficiency in this arena has had a profound impact on CRM success rates.

Often surprising to most, male reproductive issues are increasing due to a variety of factors such as varicocele, hormonal issues, infections, environmental issues, immune issues and genetic. With her deep understanding of male infertility and the impact of sperm quality on embryo development, the importance of this expertise cannot be overstated.

CRM is the only center in South Alabama, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Florida panhandle that offers a full range of medical treatments for men’s reproductive issues including sperm cryopreservation and storage for cancer and pre-vasectomy patients, Hyaluronan Binding Assay (HBA), Physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection (PICSI), and sperm-mapping procedures, and in-office epididymal aspiration.

Furthering every patient’s opportunity for success, the CRM lab’s Mr. Hickman is our leading expert in cryopreservation, the freezing of human embryos and eggs. Impressively, he has perfected his vitrification technique to produce a 97% survival rate on embryos with a 60% pregnancy rate. Interestingly, vitrification makes it possible to cool and warm human eggs and embryos incredibly fast with far less cryo-damage than past methods. This has resulted in higher survival rates and a complete transformation of how we manage treatment for in vitro fertilization patients.

Besides Mr. Hickman’s proficiency in vitrification and all other facets of IVF, his background in Medical Technology and over 30 years of experience, has proven to be invaluable to CRM’s Endocrinology and Andrology laboratories.

Between Dr. Degelos, Mr. Hickman, and the rest of CRM’s highly qualified lab team, patients and their loved ones should not only understand the CRM difference but feel secure in their decision to choose CRM.