“Wanted: Pioneer IVF Babies: Are you One?” RSC celebrates 25th anniversary by re-uniting up to 280 of America’s oldest “test-tube babies” in June

SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA, (February 12, 2009) – To celebrate its 25th anniversary as of the one of the nation’s first private IVF clinics, the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area (RSC) announced today the launch of “Wanted: Pioneer IVF Babies. Are You One?” – a nationwide six-month campaign to attempt to reconnect with nearly 300 of their first success stories, conceived in the years 1984 through 1986.

Established in 1983, just two years after the first successful birth through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States, RSC was also responsible for the nation’s second successful birth of a baby from a frozen embryo.

RSC’s first baby born through IVF was born March 18, 1985, although the practice no longer has information on the family’s whereabouts. (Patient privacy standards prohibit the practice from disclosing the family’s names publicly, but RSC has begun a search for the baby and her parents.) RSC estimates that about 30 “IVF babies” were born through their practice that same year; about 100 others were born in 1985, and another 150 were born in 1986. All are now in their 20s, and the practice’s six physicians hope to meet as many as possible as adults at a special RSC Family Day reunion, June 14, 2009, from noon to 4 p.m. at Little Hills Ranch in San Ramon.

“Our first babies have grown up and no doubt scattered far and wide,” said Dr. Donald Galen, one of the founding physicians of the practice and a fertility expert still active at RSC. “We also wish to reconnect with them for further study of the impact of IVF on their lives and to continue to collect long term data to help future generations.”

RSC is using a variety of means to try to locate these first IVF babies, especially through the Internet. The oldest baby found will have his/her travel expenses paid to attend the June reunion. RSC’s Facebook page features more information on its 25th Anniversary and nationwide search for its original IVF babies. A subgroup has been added to the page exclusively reserved for families of RSC’s original babies to exchange comments and share stories of their “miracle babies” then and now.