Dr. Potter, Huntington Reproductive Center

Dr. Daniel A. Potter, MD, FACOG, is a Reproductive Endocrinologist at Huntington Reproductive Center in Laguna Hills, California. HRC offers gender selection with MicroSort and PGD, and is a world-renowned infertility research center.

Background and Response to ACOG position

Hello everyone, I am Dr. Daniel Potter.  I practice at the Huntington Reproductive Center and MicroSort facility in Laguna Hills, CA.  Our goal at HRC/MS is to provide personalized, compassionate and state of the art care to couples seeking gender selection as well as other fertility issues.  Being at one of only two facilities in the world with both MicroSort and PGD, I have particular expertise that I hope will be of interest to the users. I want to thank Maureen for allowing me to share my experience with you.   Here is a little background about me.  I am 42 years old.  I am married with two daughters (5 and 8) both conceived through IVF.  I am lobbying my wife for a third child using gender selection for male but she is not ready for a third at this time.  I grew up here in southern California, attending La Canada High School and USC for both undergraduate and medical school.  I completed my residency in OB/Gyn at Women's Hospital (USC) in Los Angeles and my fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at University of Texas Health Sciences Center with Dr. Robert Schenken.  I joined HRC in 1998 and have been fortunate to be associated with great doctors and staff here.

 

I am going to be posting to my blog as time permits.  The purpose of this blog is to help the users of the board obtain accurate information about gender selection, MicroSort and PGD.  I am particularly interested in helping couples determine their true prognosis when attempting gender selection using advanced technology.  I welcome your comments and will attempt to respond to any questions you may have. 

 

Gender selection is an area of particular importance to me.  I view gender selection as a reproductive choice that should be made by informed couples.  I was, therefore, very disappointed with the recent ACOG release stating that gender selection of any sort is tantamount to gender discrimination.  This is unfortunate change in position for ACOG.  Their previous position was that pre-conception methods, such as MicroSort, were fine if they could be proven safe and efficacious.  ACOG was previously only opposed to PGD for gender selection.  It is interesting that gender selection opponents have abandoned their previous arguments that somehow bestowed rights on the embryos.  They are also no longer saying that it is unethical to put someone through fertility treatments for the purpose of gender selection because it is too risky.  These positions were too hard for them to defend.  They have now switched to the position that gender selection is wrong because it may be used to perpetuate gender decimation.  This position completely disregards the fact that very little gender selection is actually done in the context that they are concerned about.  I have a hard time seeing gender discrimination in the case of the married couple with 2 boys that wants a girl.  This is 80% or more of the cases that we perform.  I am interested to hear your thoughts.  I will post more at a later time.  Dr. Potter

Comments

 

WantWarriorPrincess said:

Dr. Potter, again, welcome! Thank you for speaking out about the recent ACOG press release I have been reading about.

Could please explain this statement: "I am particularly interested in helping couples determine their true prognosis" Do you mean why they keep conceiving the same gender without outside help, or just in helping people find out what gender they're having sooner, or something else?

BTW, I, too, am a Trojan. Fight On!

WWP

February 9, 2007 1:03 PM
 

Dr. Potter said:

Hi WantsWarriorPrincess,

I was really speaking to patients knowing their true chances for success with IVF, PGD, MicroSort or any of the other methods out there.  By success, I mean the probability that the patient becomes pregnant during a single treatment cycle with a child of the desired gender.  The truth is what allows patients to make informed decisions.  Informed decisions are not cause for regret.  

The truly probability of having a given gender is always 50/50 without help.  I know that this is hard to believe but it is true.  The problem that many patients have in understanding it is that they feel that the probability of them having the desired gender for a given pregnancy is affected by the outcome of prior pregnancies.  This is not the case.  In preparing for the MicroSort clinical trial, gender ratios had to be determined on the sperm before and after MicroSort to prove that the MicroSort device really was causing a change in gender ratio.  Once this was done, the data were looked at for men that had 1, 2, 3 and 4 or more of the same gender.  The ratio of male to female sperm was always 1:1 or 50:50

Glad to find another Trojan out there!

Dr. P

February 26, 2007 11:14 PM
 

Blessed3X said:

Hi,

I'd like to ask how exactly you go about determining a person or couple's probability of success?  My husband and I are 27, almost 28.  I have irregular cycles, and conceived my last son on my 2nd cycle of Clomid.  We would very much like a girl, but after reading how the success rates for Microsort IUI/cycle are only about 20-22%, I was discouraged.  With including travel expenses, I could easily spend 15K on 3 cycles of just IUI, and I don't want to pursue IVF.  If I knew I had an increased chance due to our age, or other factors, I might be more willing to make the investment!

Thanks,

"Momof2boys"

ajoub@comcast.net

March 1, 2007 2:19 PM

About Dr. Potter

Hi and thank you for your interest. I am Dr. Daniel Potter. I am a board certified in both Reproductive Endocrinology/Infertility and Obstetrics and Gynecology. I am currently the Medical Director and a principal at the Huntington Reproductive Center (HRC). HRC is one the larger fertility programs in the USA and has 6 offices in southern California. I perform all of my clinical work in the Fullerton and Laguna Hills offices. I am also the Medical Director of MicroSort West. The MicroSort West facility is located at my Laguna Hills office and is one of only two MicroSort facilities in the world. My third and final job is Laboratory Director of the Gene Security Network (www.genesecurity.net), a company looking to revolutionize PGD. As some of you know, I have written a book for infertile couples. Here is the link if anyone would like to see it: ; One of my passions in life is to help couples achieve the dream of parenthood that they have, including those that dream of a balanced family. Gender selection through fresh MicroSort and/or PGD has always played a huge role in my practice. It would be my pleasure to be your personal physician for this issue. To obtain a rapid appointment, please contact Cindy Anderson directly (cynthiaa@havingbabies.com) and state that you are from in-gender. Outside of medicine and science, live with my wife and two daughters (born through IVF) in Laguna Beach, California. I am currently trying to improve at beach volleyball, tennis and surfing. I enjoy coaching my girls teams, music, traveling and wine.