Dear ELITE IVF Clients, With recent events in Ukraine, our hearts go out to those affected by these tragic circumstances. Please know that ELITE IVF has traditionally refrained from operations in the Ukraine due its unstable geo-political climate, as well as for regulatory reasons, always putting the safety and interests of our patients above cost or any other considerations. As such, we do not operate in the Ukraine and are unaffected by it. ELITE IVF’s other global services are continuing as usual.
With the recent COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic receding and restrictions lifting across the globe, the health and safety of our global team members and patients continues to be top of mind. Our mitigation strategies have worked well and we continue to operate as usual. With that in mind, we are diligently monitoring the progression of the global situation and have taken important steps to prioritize safety, while maintaining our high standards of care and exceptional customer service. These steps include:
- ELITE IVF continues to operate with 100% of our global team force.
- Patient consultations, donor and surrogate matching, and medical reviews are continuing as usual, allowing intended parents to continue their fertility journey without interruption.
- ELITE IVF is operating as normal to ensure that you are ready to quickly proceed with your egg donation or surrogacy treatment. Maintaining your continuity of care is a top priority for us.
- Cryo transport of semen, eggs and embryos has resumed and is operating without interruption including our signature hand carry personal courier cryo transport service.
Many of ELITE IVF’s global network of clinics are continuing operations as usual and are not impacted by COVID-19 or the war in Europe. We will continue monitoring the situation closely while keeping you updated on any changes if such occur. We appreciate your understanding and support during the past couple of years and for entrusting us with your fertility needs. Our workload has grown tremendously in spite and during COVID and we are proud to have been of service to so many of you.
We extend our sympathies to all those who have been affected by the pandemic and those affected by the war in the Ukraine.
Sincerely,
David Sher,
ELITE IVF President & CEO
FAQs about COVID-19 And Your Fertility Treatment with ELITE IVF
Q: How does the COVID-19 pandemic and border changes impact the transportation of biomaterials (such as embryos, sperm, and eggs)?
A: There can be intermittent delays in the transport of frozen gametes (embryos, sperm, eggs), due to rolling border closures where spikes of COVID arise. Our personal hand-carry (flying in the cabin of an airplane with our courier) service is temporarily reduced in countries where complete border closures are in effect. In other countries with open borders, we continue to offer hand-carry personal service.
As a temporary solution to reduce delays in countries where our couriers cannot travel personally door to door, we are offering a “to cargo and from cargo service.” That means intended parents have the option to have our couriers bring the samples to the plane and deposit them personally in cargo. The samples would then be retrieved from cargo by another personal courier upon landing.
Q: What happens if we chose a donor and our embryos are ready for us, but due to fertility clinic closures, we cannot receive them? What happens to the precious materials?
A. ELITE IVF has state of the art bio-storage facilities where your biological samples are stored safely until you are ready to proceed. Or alternatively, if your samples are in one of ELITE IVF’s network of clinics, those clinics can continue to maintain cryo storage until further notice.
Q: What measures are in place to ensure the safety of our egg donor, as well as our donor eggs?
A: The health and safety of our medical team, donors, patients, staff and precious materials are paramount. As always, we employ industry leading practices and procedures that follow the highest standards of health protection and sanitization of any country. While our egg donors are young, in the age range of 20-30 and none have been affected by COVID, our medical team is ensuring that an egg donor undergoing a donation cycle, is examined continuously and only egg donors in good health proceed with treatment.
Q: How does the current situation impact our donor selection? Are some donors unavailable until further notice?
A: ELITE IVF is continuing service operations as normal. There is currently no impact to the donor selection process. Patient consultations, donor and surrogate matching, and medical reviews are continuing as usual, allowing intended parents to continue their fertility journey without interruption.
Q: I’ve heard that some fertility clinics have paused their IVF treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. If this is the case, how will it impact my transfer and IVF treatment?
A: if you are our patient, then you will be able to receive treatment and we would know in advance if any clinic closure is in effect. Since the pandemic started, all of our clinics remain in service and we expect them to be open moving forward. You can proceed with confidence when using ELITE IVF for your fertility treatment requirements.
Q: What is ELITE IVF doing to keep patients and staff safe?
A: We are diligently monitoring the progression of the global situation and have taken important steps to prioritize safety, while maintaining our high standards of care and exceptional patient service. ELITE IVF continues to operate with 100% of our global team force, working remotely from the safety of their homes. We are working very closely and continuously with the medical community around the world to stay informed of any new changes or directives and are ready to make any changes on a daily basis.
