MARGATE, Fla., April 26 While Hollywood portrayals of parenting may be far from realistic, south Florida fertility doctors say that a new Jennifer Lopez movie does indeed parallel a major social trend in single Florida women choosing to give birth as single parents, including those who do not have a male partner, same sex couples, and others.
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In "The Back Up Plan," Lopez plays a single woman who begins her family through intrauterine insemination (IUI) with anonymous sperm from a sperm bank, due to lack of commitment from previous partners. She feels she has a choice of parenting alone and the very day of her insemination, she meets Mr. Right.
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"More women are less willing to let the time run out on their biological clocks, even if it means starting a family before they have found a suitable spouse," said Dr. Marcelo J. Barrionuevo, a reproductive endocrinologist at IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates. About one in ten of his patients today are single women, compared to a handful a decade ago, he said.
Childbearing by unmarried women has increased to historic levels, according to the most recent preliminary data (2008) from the Centers for Disease Control. Nearly four in 10 babies born in the United States were born to single mothers.
When a long relationship ended, IVF FLORIDA patient Holly, a 33-year-old from Indian River County, did not want her biological clock to prevent her from motherhood. After four years of treatment and reproductive surgery, she gave birth to a daughter in July of 2008.
IVF is increasingly attractive to single women, through higher IVF success rates, higher implantation rates with single embryo transfer, improvements in freezing embryos and eggs, and more options for financing treatment, says Dr. Barrionuevo.
About IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates
With seven reproductive specialists operating in Wellington, Margate, Pembroke Pines and Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens, IVF FLORIDA is the state's largest infertility and reproductive medicine practice. Collectively, IVF FLORIDA's seven physicians have over a century of treating infertility, 26 years of which include academic posts. IVF FLORIDA is a member of IntegraMed, the leading operator of fertility centers in the nation. For additional information, visit www.ivfflorida.com or search for "IVF FLORIDA" on Facebook.
SOURCE IVF FLORIDA Reproductive Associates
